At CSIA we are passionate about ensuring that every child is a reader. To enable this further, we have launched a computer program – called Accelerated Reader (AR). AR helps teachers manage and monitor your children’s independent reading practise. Your child picks a book at his/her own level and reads it at his/her own pace. When finished, your child takes a short quiz on the computer – passing the quiz is an indication that your child has understood what has been read.
Teachers may assist children by:
∙ Guiding them to books appropriate to their ability and interests
∙ Asking probing questions as your child reads and before quizzing
∙ Pairing your child with others, reading with, or reading to your child.
Since they are reading books at their own reading and interest levels, most children are likely to be successful and enjoy the books and quizzes. Best of all they learn and grow at their own pace. As with anything, performance improves with practice and children who read at least 20 minutes a day with a 90% comprehension rate on the AR quizzes see the greatest gain.
All students will be given their own log on details by their English teacher.
At school, we dedicate 20mins per week to independent reading during English lessons. Please encourage your child to also read at home, discuss books, ask questions about what they have read and visit your local library. Together, we can help every child to be a successful reader!
STAR Reading
In school STAR Reading is used to determine your child’s reading level. It is a computer based reading assessment program that uses computer-adaptive technology. Questions continually adjust to your child’s responses, making the difficulty easier or harder where appropriate. The test uses multiple choice questions and takes approximately 20 minutes. Teachers will support your child in taking a STAR Reading assessment every term. Book levels (Zone of Proximal Development) represent the difficulty of the text. The levels range from 0.2 up to 13.5. Books are chosen based on recommendations from the STAR Reading assessment. Each child is given a ZPD range of books (for example 2.5 to 2.9) to challenge them without causing frustration or loss of motivation. It is important for children to read with a high degree of comprehension and within the given range.
Teachers may decide that a child needs to read books beyond the original range suggested by the STAR Reading assessment in order to give them a fresh challenge. Each book on the AR scheme has an interest level which indicates the age group that a book is appropriate for, based on the content and themes. These are recommendations only and teachers and parents are recommended to use their best judgement when guiding children in choosing their books. We have lots of books that the children can choose from in school, however we are also aware that many children like to read their own books from home.
AR quizzes
Search with AR quizzes to see whether the book your child wants to read is on the scheme. If not, then it doesn’t mean your child can not read the book but rather that your child can challenge themselves to write their own quiz.
To incentivise reading further, your child can earn up to 6 Reading Star Badges for their commitment and progress in reading. Each level has a series of creative challenges and number of books to be read and successfully quizzed on.
Successfully earning all 6 badges will mean your child has read an impressive 35 books!
- Bronze Reading Star
- Silver Reading Star
- Gold Reading Star
- Emerald Reading Star
- Sapphire Reading Star
- Ruby Reading Star
