Friday, November 12, 2010

Accelerated Reader - is it helpful for older students?

Lately, I have been blogging about the Accelerated Reader reading management program.  My Grade 7 daughter has been utilizing the AR program for the past three years and it continues to motivate her to read. In contrast to this, the same AR program did not motivate my older son when he was first acclimated to it in middle school, a few years ago.  Since I have witnessed first-hand two different reactions/responses to AR, I have wondered if AR is really geared to younger students and what do middle and high school students really think about AR. Does AR motivate older students and keep them excited about reading?  

I found out there are not that many studies available regarding AR use with high school students and there are some contradictory findings in most studies that focus on AR at the elementary level.  Nevertheless, I did locate one research study about students at an underperforming high school in Southern California where the AR program was recently implemented.  The authors reviewed 268 questionnaires from students and 144 of these students volunteered to be in one of eight focus-group discussions.  A majority of the students in the focus groups did not like the AR program.  According to the authors, “the main reasons most commonly cited: 1) the amount of reading required was unrealistic and too time consuming, 2) students did not like being forced to read, 3) students did not enjoy the book selections, 4) students resented their course grade being tied to earning points for reading and 5) students disliked having to pass tests to earn points” (p. 554). 

One of the primary goals of AR is to increase reading motivation.  However, in this high school research study, the students were not motivated; they did not like having their AR points tied to their English grades.  A second message is that high school students, in general, take many tests for their courses, state mandated tests and college placement exams and multiple tests for AR is an additional burden to many of them.  A third point is the AR book selections were too limited and lacked cultural diversity.  In today’s ethnically diverse society, that is very disheartening to hear.

The AR implementation phrase at the high school in this study was poorly done on a teaching level and an administrative level and it did not have the buy-in of its students.
The bottom line is AR is not for everyone; especially older students if “their unique needs, circumstances and views are ignored” (page 558).  Despite limitations in the size of the student body that participated in relation to total school population, a number of important factors were highlighted in the study and should be taken into consideration by teachers, administrators and researchers when evaluating AR for use with older readers in middle school and high school.

Source:

Thompson, G., Madhuri, M., & Taylor, D. (2008). How the Accelerated Reader program can become counterproductive for high school students. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(7), 550-560.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Accelerated Reader - is it really effective for middle school students?

After reading the Nov. 3 article on reading management programs by Hansen, Collins, & Warschauer, I responded to Toni’s blog on this article about the positive experience my daughter had with Accelerated Reader (AR) at her elementary school over the past three years from Grades 4 through 6.  The AR program has been successful, overall, due to high quality implementation by her teachers, the school librarian and the administration.  The rationale for investing in the A/R program at my daughter’s school was to increase reading achievement and increase test scores and it happened as evidenced by increased reading test scores on Terra Nova tests, Grades 3-8 in 2008, and 2009.  I also believe the chances of future success appear likely as long as the school keeps implementing the A/R program in an effective manner with 100% buy-in at both the classroom and school level and continued parent involvement, as well. 
Despite my daughter’s success story with A/R, I decided to revisit the Hansen, Collins & Warschauer article for this blog because I wasn’t too clear on the article’s findings for gains in reading achievement with older students in middle school, particularly Grades 7 and 8. The article said “Despite gains in reading achievement across schools, it appears that the use of reading management programs benefit children in lower grades more than in higher grade levels” (page 66).  The authors also included a research finding by Pavonetti, Brimmer, Cipielewski, 2002 that stated “Similarly, the use of Accelerated Reader does not necessarily lead to long-term increases in reading in older children despite short-term gains in book reading experienced in the lower grades”.  The finding went on to say “In particular, seventh grade students who had been exposed to Accelerated Reader in fifth grade did not have a greater breadth of knowledge of book titles (as a proxy for print exposure) than children who had not used a reading management program in fifth grade” (Hansen, Collins & Warschauer, pages 66-67).
Very interesting!   I was not surprised since I also have a son who seems to fit into this research finding.   My son is three years older than my daughter.  When he was in Grade 7, my daughter was in Grade 4, the year that A/R was implemented at their school.    Initially he seems okay with the A/R idea.  His teacher was encouraging too with instructional scaffolding and teacher/student conferences.  However, by Grade 8 he began to rebel (his English teacher left the school) and he said he did not like the fact that someone (the school librarian)  and the A/R computer program  was assessing his reading ability, and making him take tests to prove he read certain approved books and received a passing score.
Over time, he was not motivated to read the AR books assigned to his reading level. He would goof off in the library.   When he took the comprehension tests he purposely put down wrong answers.  I wondered if peer pressure had something to do with it, especially in Grade 8.    At that time, I was just hoping he would graduate from middle school and get to high school so I did not really evaluate the A/R program and his reading abilities in great detail since he was maintaining his grades between A and Bs. 
Now I wonder if maybe middle school students need something else besides A/R to keep them interested in reading and making strides in reading achievement and comprehension.  I still view A/R as  a supplement to the reading curriculum and in my son’s case, there was a teaching void in  his Grade 8 class without the same English teacher he had in Grade 7.  Has anyone had similar experiences like this with middle school students who are turned off by reading all of a sudden, or have been pushed through the system and still need to become better readers?  What is out there besides A/R for these students?

Source:
Hansen, L.E., Collins & Warschauer (2009). Reading Management Programs: A Review of the Research.  Journal of Literacy and Technology, Volume 10, Number 3, 54-76