• Accelerated Reader Program

    The Accelerated Reading Program (AR, for short) is a software program that helps teachers to assess students’ reading comprehension and information retention skills. 

    Students take computer quizzes in their classroom or in the school computer lab after they have read an AR book.  The quizzes are only a few questions long, and most of students like taking the quizzes and trying to earn AR points.  Each AR book is assigned a reading level and an AR point value.  The reading level is based mainly on the difficulty of the vocabulary used in the book, and the points are based mainly on the  length of the book (how many words), with short books such as picture books worth 0.5 points, whereas a long chapter book, like one of the Harry Potter books, for example, may be worth 30 points or more.  Students read the book, take the quiz, and are awarded a percentage of points the book is worth, based on the percentage of questions they answered correctly. 

    The points are just an incentive, to make it fun for the kids, but the real point of the program is that the teachers accumulate data for each individual student, that can help them recognize which students are struggling, which are reading way below or way above grade level, and other information which would be difficult to pinpoint otherwise.

    AR books in our library are designated with a green sticker at the bottom of the book’s spine, which shows the reading level of the book, and the reading level, point value, and quiz number are listed on the inside front cover.
     
    To check if a personal book, or public library book has an AR quiz available, you can click here to check AR Bookfinder.