Accelerated Reader

AR Resources for Teachers

Getting Started with Accelerated Reader
This guide by Ms. Kelley used in trainings.
 
The Accelerated Reader guide from Renaissance. It is excellent!  This is the AR spiral-bound guide we rave about.
 
Renaissance Place offers good, short videos on a variety of AR topics.
 
Ms. Kelley's screencast with step by step information on setting AR goals.
 
 
STATUS OF THE CLASS
SOTC refers to the activities the teacher should be doing during AR time to monitor students' reading progress and provide necessary intervention to keep kids on track towards their goals.  This is vital to the success of AR in your classroom.
Status of the Class Video  What does the role of the teacher look like during AR reading time?  How can a teacher manage reading, quizzing, and intervention?  This video helps provide an idea of how to monitor and make AR effective.
More Status of the Class Videos:  http://vimeo.com/105241017
Status of the Class SlideShare from Susan Grigsby.
 

AR Logs

Thanks to the teachers who have generously shared these with us!  If you have an AR log that is working well and would like to share with our colleagues, just let me know, and I'll include it here.
 
Renaissance Place Official Logs - Login to Renaissance Place and visit Accelerated Reader -> Resources -> Forms and Charts for their great reading logs.
 
This is an editable Word document.  Feel free to modify.  You might consider adding a row for parents to initial to acknowledge they've seen the student's progress to date.
 
This was shared with me by Sheila Penman.  She has her students fold this in half and use it as a bookmark to record their daily reading progress during AR reading time.
 
A full-page log that would work well in a reading folder.  The log asks students to record their ZPD, book title, book level, and daily reading progress.
 
This was shared with me by Johnica Love.  She creates a manilla folder for each student.  On the folder itself, she has their name, ZPD, and all the AR color dots in their ZPD.  As kids earn higher ZPDs, they get to add more dots.  She also starts with a single copy of this sheet stapled to the folder.  As they complete one sheet, she staples a new one on top.
 
Great for keeping in an AR folder, students record important information on every AR quiz they take including date, Book Level, Title, and % Correct.  I'd recommend you also have students record their ZPD at the top for easy reference when reviewing the log.
 
To make sure students are well-prepared to quiz and to aide in managing the flow of quiz takers, Neal Dow 2nd grade classrooms utilize these.  They keep these in a plastic sleeve on which the kids use dry-erase markers to record their responses (saves paper!).  The teacher must check these before they are allowed to quiz.   Students also use a double-sided red/green card (also kept in the sleeve) to signal when they need help or are ready to quiz.
 
 
This was shared by Anne McClean.  A great log to quickly record short summaries.  It requires the student to stop and the end of the chapter and reflect before reading on. It also acts as a quick review source before they take their quiz.
 
Teachers use these two question boards as activities to check understanding during the book and as a review resource before taking the quiz.
 
This is a good resource to allow teachers to review students' reading progress before giving them the ok to quiz.
 
A pre-reading activity with the goal of helping students think about their book selection.
 
Keep kids informed and accountable for their progress toward AR Reading goals.  A suggested use is to have them start their log at the beginning of the trimester and revisit their goal progress ever two weeks or so.
 
This goals progress form was developed by Beth Geise and is used to keep kids and parents informed of their child's AR progress every week.
 

Labeling Classroom Libraries for AR

Color Dots Order Information for dots used by CUSD for AR Labeling

Accelerated Reader for Your Classroom Libraries

If you would like to identify the books in your classroom for AR, you’ll first want to add AR Label information on the inside of the book and then possibly add a color dot on the spine to identify the level of the book.

For AR quiz information, you can either just write the information down OR generate your own pre-printed labels.

-To hand-write AR information:  Visit http://www.arbookfind.com/.  Look up your book (watch out for multiple versions/abridged classics, etc.).  Write down the Quiz Number, Book Level, and Points

-To generate AR printed labels:  Login to Renaissance Place and go to Accelerated Reader -> Reports -> School Management -> Labels-Book.  Click on Select Quizzes and add the quizzes you want to print labels for.  When done click Save.  You can customize your labels if you want, but if you’re not sure, just leave the preset selections as is.  Click View Report.  Print your label report onto Avery 5160 labels as mentioned above.  

If you want to add color dots to your classroom books to match the color levels we use in the library, I’m attaching a document which includes ordering information for the dots.    Keep in mind there are 200 dots in each pack.   In some of our libraries, we cut our dots in half, so we can label twice as many books.  Only order the colors that you need for your classroom library. 

 

Labeling your Treasures Leveled Readers for AR

Teachers are encouraged to label their leveled readers with AR information.  This information can be hand-written inside the cover of the reader or you can use the labels we have prepared.  I have organized the quiz information labels for the Treasures leveled readers onto ready-to-print pdfs.    See the AR Labels for Treasures document.

To print your labels, you will need Avery 5160 labels with 30 labels per sheet.  These are available at Staples, Walmart, Office Depot, etc.   Stores like Office Depot offer their own brand-name equivalent, often at a lesser price.    

Please be sure that when you have students take Treasures Leveled Readers for AR quizzes that you have them search for the quiz by Quiz #.  Since Treasures provides readers with the same title at the various reading levels (Approaching, On Level, etc.), it’s important that they pick the right quiz for the level of the book they read.

Treasures Leveled Readers AR Labels