Community reviews for Accelerated Reader

There's books that are missing like for example Pocket Peaches my littles sister tried to take an AR test for it and it didn't show up when she searched it up she also searched up the author's name and Dora books showed up.

This will probably get taken down, although i am speaking the complete truth and explaining why I think AR isn’t good for children. From experience, the school i went to used AR from grades 3-8. It might not seem as bad, but let me fill you in on some information about this “way to get children to understand their books”. The way my school would use it when i was still in school was that you had an ar goal. For each semester the goal would be like 12 points, or maybe for semester 2 it would be something a little harder like 15. I have to say, while it may help children get a slight more information about their book and see if they understand what they’re reading, it’s completely useless. I find that AR is something that should be optional upon schools and not required. AR might be helpful and a good source for children who like reading, but what about the children who don’t? The website makes kids who don’t enjoy reading never want to pick up another book again. I was one of those kids who had a hard time finding a book that i liked. The amount of stress AR put me under as i could never find a book i liked was unbearable. Each semester i struggled with reaching my AR goal and i find that the website made me hate books even more than i did and i find because of this website I hated books more than i ever did. I used to be so stressed out to the point where i would want to cry and i would feel like i was trapped in a reoccurring nightmare every semester of school until the summer. This website has no purpose whatsoever and doesn’t even make children want to read. It’s just another thing to make children even more stressed out than the fact that they have to spend 9 months and 8 hours a day in school while on top of all of that being doused with piles and piles of schoolwork and at the end of the day when they finally feel like all the stress is over, they still have to worry about reading maybe not even one, but several books to complete their AR goal due to the site TAKING OFF POINTS if a child misses a question. If i had to be completely honest, i find it ridiculous and something i would never have at a school or maybe even make it optional for the kids who like it. Overall, i Just find it as only another way to drown a child with stress and worry. Oh and what about the children who aren’t good readers? They still have to do it which makes my heart break from the amount of stress they probably have trying to complete their goal when they are a slow reader and only get 9 weeks per semester to complete their goal. I am not saying to end the website as people may have better experiences than mine, but i just wish there was a way it could be easier or be optional in schools, only for the sake of the children’s stress level as they are constantly being pressured to do other school work.

Unless a teacher is willing to incorporate this into their daily routine and give it ongoing energy, it probably will not amount to great results for you. Also you need to be sensitive to the kind of reader your students are. Not all kids will remember the details of stories, even if they understood and liked the book, so not all students will succeed on the quizzes.

The breadth of the online catalog of AR book quizzes is impressive. This online resource is far superior to AR's early days when schools had to purchase book quizzes individually. Another plus is AR Book Find, a free online resource that shows the AR levels of books. The biggest downside to AR was the cost. The hosting fee was high and the components (AR and STAR) had to be purchased together. Also, students had to use AR from school; home use was not allowed by the contract. As the school year got busy, less time was available during class for students to do the AR book quizzes. As curriculums changed, fewer teachers in our school used AR and our PTA decided the program was too costly to continue funding. A lesser known part of the AR book quizzes were the Literacy quizzes, which offered questioning at a deeper level. Unfortunately, these Literacy quizzes were far few in number.

Great app for immediate feedback. like the independence of the login per student but the safe guard of only using in the classroom because of the monitor password. One caution...passwords for students carryover from year to year if in the same school. Be careful to stress privacy and/or change passwords each year. Also, this product lends itself to great discussions about taking a quiz and keeping the questions private, as most students are reading different books independently and quizzing on them. I often use this as a companion to an additional classroom assessment on a book.

For most of my students, Accelerated Reader was a useful program that helped shape reading instruction in my classroom. However, the quizzes and point goals that are central to the program do not motivate and engage all students; the program would benefit from more variation in quiz format and child-friendly gamification.

When Renaissance Learning bought Subtext and renamed it Accelerated Reader 360, it seems that they forgot to learn how to use and support the app. While Subtext had its share of glitches, Renaissance Learning was unable to provide even basic support when we had issues downloading books to use in the app. Maybe someday Renaissance Learning will figure out how to use the app. When they do, I might be able to recommend it again. For now, it is a frustrating mess.

I am a proponent of the the Accelerated Reading program. I have used it in my classroom for 17 years and have found that it is an effective way to assess student levels in reading and math, gain useable data that can be used to drive instruction, and motivate students to reach individual goals.

I wish that the were articles about the same subject written at different levels, like on Newsela, but it does have the STAR test connection so that the setup and management is easy. Also, the tools need to be expanded to more resemble the PARCC.

Overall, this is a good peripheral way of getting students to read on a daily basis. Students can track their reading level throughout the year and parents have a numerical way of demonstrating achievement and needed remediation on an ongoing basis. But for students who do not like to read, it lacks personality. I also felt the quiz questions were more literal and less inferential. Overall, this is a great tool for students to track their own reading successes. I would highly recommend this software.