Plan - Extensive Reading Intervention
The design of this extensive independent reading recognizes the fundamental importance of practice in reading. In other words, students should read as much as they can. Research indicates that time spent reading books is the best predictor of overall academic achievement, even more so than socioeconomic status or ethnicity (Kirsch et al., 2002). Reading practice builds vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, writing and higher order thinking skills. It also enhances general abilities such as visual information processing and speech perception. Though beneficial in all forms, reading practice is most effective when guided—that is, when it is coupled with feedback and instructional support tailored to the individual student.
Accelerated Reader (AR)
AR is a technology tool that enables differentiated, data-driven reading practice, making the essential student practice component of any reading curriculum more effective. This is a practice time personalized to each student’s individual level to ensure a high rate of success and is immediately followed by feedback to help educators target instruction.
The AR process involves these basic steps:
- Students read books that match their unique zone of proximal development (ZPD) or achievement levels and interests (identified by STAR reading comprehension test).
- Students take a Reading Practice Quiz after reading each book which gives indication of their comprehension when reading the book.
- AR automatically marks each quiz and gives an average percent correct (APC) which then suggests the next level of book (ZPD) ideal for the student to go on and read. This APC ranges from 1 - 100%, but the ideal % correct is from 85 - 95%. With that a student should go on to more challenging book by 1 or 2 points. The 98 - 100% indicates that the book is a bit too easy for that student to read, and that will not contribute to more effective shift. A below 80% correct indicates that the book was a bit challenging for the reader, so the next book borrowed should going down by i or two points.
Students are expected to self-monitor their reading and of course with basic guide and monitoring from teachers allocated to 'caretaker' their reading.
Best Practices for AR
There are three best practices which must be present in order to maximize the benefits students can have from this extensive reading, in the final analysis to make shifts in their reading.
1) Quality - Comprehension when reading each book
This is indicated by the % correct in the quiz of each book read. This should help monitoring levels of books to be read next.
2) Quantity - Time spent in reading (mileage)
Ideally students should spend time to read daily by at least 20 minutes. The school provides a timetable which allocates each student in our year 9 and 10 to read extensively for a minimum of 20 minutes daily.
3) Zone of Proximal Development - the right level of difficulty in books read
It is ideal for students not to read too difficult or too easy books. Reading the right levels of books guided by the APCs from their quizzes, as well as what they are interested to read, can guarantee gains in their reading.
The school is runs this extensive independent reading programme for our year 9 and 10 school-wide. A STAR test is run every term to guide the running of this reading. The initial STAR test indicates the ZPDs for each student to start reading from. The subsequent tests can indicate some growths in the students' reading.
STAR Test
Star Reading is a customised reading test for students to take on a computer. The test is designed for students in years 2 through 13, lso for students in year 1 who have basic reading skills. Teachers can use reports from Star Reading to determine the reading level of each student and to measure growth.
The STAR Reading reports provide information about students and classes and the results of students' STAR Reading tests. There are variety of STAR reports, but for the purpose of this blog, I'd explain only two, diagostic report and growth report. They are very mportant to the function of Accelerated Reading (AR) reading programme, and extensive reading programme.
Diagonistic report provides an individual skills assessment and other diagnostic information for each of the students selected. This report helps teachers determine how to improve their students' performance. It also supports a discussion with an individual student's parents or guardians. Among the many information given, it gives the reading age, scaled score for the test taken, and the zone of proximal development (ZPD). ZPD has 2 numbers which indicate the lowest and highest levels of books students can read.
The growth report can be used to evaluate students' improvement during the year or over many years. The report includes each student's name, class, teacher, test date, test time, Normed Referenced Standardised Score (NRSS), Percentile Rank (PR) and Percentile Rank Range, Reading Age, Scaled Score (SS) and Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), as well as the mean pretest and posttest scores for the entire group of students. This report is very important because it shows whether a student has made improvement in reading or not, as a result of extensive reading through accelerated reader.
In March this year, students in my inquiry group did their first STAR reading. Their diagonistic reports gave information which I shared in my previous blogs, and more importantly indicated some learning needs which have helped me in designing the reading programmes for these learners. The diagonistic reports also gave the ZPDS of each learner which indicated the levels of books in Accelerated Reader which each learner can begin their reading from. Students were immediately put to start their reading, and they started in March. The ZPDs across the whole inquiry group were pretty low, they ranged from level 1.7 to 3.4.
The individual diagnostic reports of each learner were given to them, teacher went through and explained for students to understand. The ZPDs across the whole inquiry group were pretty low, they ranged from level 1.7 to 3.4. The table below was a summary of information fro students to start off AR with.
The individual diagnostic reports of each learner were given to them, teacher went through and explained for students to understand. The ZPDs across the whole inquiry group were pretty low, they ranged from level 1.7 to 3.4. The table below was a summary of information fro students to start off AR with.
Books to read
Students now knowing their ZPDs can begin to borrow accelerated reader books and begin to read. Each accelerated book is marked with a ZPD number, so students can only borrow books at their ZPD levels.
There are two kinds of AR books students at our school can choose from to read. First, the hard copy books are in the library. Those AR books are already marked with their ZPDs on the spines and on separate shelves. Students can go there and borrow books to read and return through the library process of borrowing books.
There are also AR digital books which students can borrow from MyOn reader in the school digital library. Renaissance myON® Reader is a student-centered, personalized literacy platform that offers unlimited access to thousands of enhanced digital books. It provides unlimited access to a broad collection of authentic digital texts that are available for online reading. MyOn generates a list of just-right titles for each student that matches his or her current interests, grade, and Lexile level. Students can choose titles from their recommended list or from the full myON library available at school.
Students can use the same process of borrowingAR books, go into myON and borrow books at their right ZPDs. They can borrow books, read, and do AR quizes before returning them. One main difference between hard copy and digital books is that students can read and also listen to the content or ideas in the digital books being read to them.
Time to do reading
The school is to grant time for students to read in class during school. Twenty minutes is formally timetabled for AR reading daily, and these are taken from 5 major subjects in year 9 & 10 classes. When it comes to that time, both teachers and students of each class should stop and do AR silent reading. This reading timetable should run up to the last term. Below is the AR timetable for my inquiry group.
The students are also encouraged to take their books home or use MyOn to read.
The slides below have more information on how this AR is implemented school-wide and to also provide specific information for teachers and students.
Time to do reading
The school is to grant time for students to read in class during school. Twenty minutes is formally timetabled for AR reading daily, and these are taken from 5 major subjects in year 9 & 10 classes. When it comes to that time, both teachers and students of each class should stop and do AR silent reading. This reading timetable should run up to the last term. Below is the AR timetable for my inquiry group.
The slides below have more information on how this AR is implemented school-wide and to also provide specific information for teachers and students.
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