Accelerated Reader - an overview for parents and carers.
We have been using Accelerated Reader in school for about four years and continue to be impressed with how it supports us in tracking pupil progress with reading. It analyses reading habits and sets individual targets that the children can own and work towards, knowing what they must do to improve. We also love how the scheme promotes real books.
The current climate may present it's learning challenges but we know that children can still access all that Accelerated Reader has to offer from home, especially when their 1:1 iPad is already in their rucksack! It also makes it easy for the children to continue reading even without the school library.
KS2 Parents and Carers can see everything they need to know about their child’s reading habits and progress on their school iPads. Our children already know their way around this site really well. They will have taken a Star Reader test, which is highly individual and which will give them a personalised points target and a ZPD, or Zone of Proximal Development. This is a number range which encourages your child to choose and read books which will interest and challenge them whilst improving the many skills they need as readers.
There are three screens to see once you are logged into Accelerated Reader.
The first one is a search tool. You can search by book title, author, or quiz number if you know it to find the book you have read. It’s also good to identify if a book is part of the Accelerated Reader programme before you read it. If it isn’t, you won’t be able to quiz on it, although you could still read it just for fun! This page will take you straight to the book’s quiz.
The second page is the progress page, (see image below). This is where you will find your child’s individual and personal targets, and the progress they have made towards them. The date line at the top of the page shows how far into the half term we are and how long is left to reach those targets.
The first target is the accuracy target. We ask for 85% accuracy when quizzing (as shown by the blue marker). The orange line displays your child’s actual accuracy. A full orange line is 100% across all quizzes!!
The second orange line shows the points your child has received by quizzing on the books they have read. Each book has an allocated number of points which our readers can earn. Again, they have a target (shown by the blue marker) and the orange line maps their progress towards that target.
The third orange line shows how many of the books they have read have been within their ZPD. You will find the ZPD number range underneath this bar. This changes as children take the Star Reader test and acquire new targets.
At the bottom of the page you can see the number of books read so far this school year, and the number of words read. Everybody wants to be a Millionaire so this is one to keep an eye on.
