Here at McKinley, we decided as a building that we wanted students to take greater ownership of their reading outside the classroom and that teachers needed a way to monitor their students’ growth in reading in a more measurable way than book logs. We had tried Reading Counts from Scholastic, and were generally pleased with the results; kids were reading a wide variety of texts that had a greater complexity, teachers were able to get books into the students’ hands, students generally had no issues navigating the ReadAbout site to take quizzes, and generally there was a sense that Reading Counts was a effective means of getting students in grades 2-5 a way of monitoring student reading.

When DCSD’s contract with Scholastic concluded, we looked for another vehicle much like Reading Counts. We decided to contact the company that did Accelerated Reader; as several teachers (myself included) had had experience with them in the past. Within 3 months, we completed a contract and training, and embarked on having students use AR for the 4th quarter of this year for K-5.

We found that for the most part, that AR is well received by teachers and students; it checked all the boxes we were looking for in a management system; low threshold for technology prowess on the part of students AND staff; increased engagement with personalized goals and students reading authentic books,  and for the teachers insight with a reading dashboard that offers comprehensive data, skill progression, and supportive resources to teach students to use AR in an effective manner.

Mr. Vincent, our principal, Karen Tallman and myself attended some PD for AR and Karen and I developed a how to guide to implement AR. I am indebted to her for her considerable contributions, and it is our hope that other schools that may be considering AR can benefit from this tutorial, which is a work-in-process. If you have any questions, you may contact Karen or myslef at McKinley at 563.723.6800.

Thank you,

Joe Macksey

Teacher Librarian / Technology Integration Model Teacher

McKinley School

Accelerated Reader Tutorial-prd939