Accelerated Reader facts for kids

Accelerated Reader (AR) is a computer program that helps students practice reading and improve their reading comprehension. It's used in schools to keep track of how much students read and how well they understand what they're reading. The program gives students points for reading books and passing quizzes, helping them reach their reading goals. It's available for reading in both English and Spanish.

How Accelerated Reader Works

ATOS Reading Levels

ATOS stands for "Accelerated Reader Optimized Scale." It's a special way that Renaissance Learning (the company that made AR) measures how hard a book is to read.

• Every book with an AR quiz has an ATOS reading level.
• This level helps AR figure out how many points a book is worth. Longer, harder books usually give more points.
• Students can use the ATOS level to pick books that are just right for their reading ability. This helps them challenge themselves without getting too frustrated.

Fun Quizzes

Accelerated Reader has quizzes for all sorts of books, including fiction, non-fiction, textbooks, and even magazines. Most quizzes check your understanding of the book you just read.

• Some quizzes are designed for younger readers. They have a voice option that reads the questions and answers aloud. This helps students who are still learning to read English or Spanish.
• The program also has quizzes to help you learn new words. These quizzes use words from the books you read. You can even print bookmarks with vocabulary words on them to help you remember them as you read.

Helpful Reports

AR creates reports that show how you're doing with your reading. These reports can be seen by students, teachers, and parents. They help everyone see your progress and find ways to help you improve.

• The TOPS Report (The Opportunity to Praise Students) shows your quiz results right after you finish a quiz.
• Diagnostic Reports can show if you need extra help in certain areas of reading.
• The Student Record Report is a complete list of all the books you've read and quizzed on.

Does Accelerated Reader Help?

Many studies have looked at whether Accelerated Reader helps students read better. Here's what some of them found:

• In one study, students using Accelerated Reader showed good progress in their reading skills. Teachers who used the program also felt it was helpful.
• Another study found that students in classrooms using Accelerated Reader did better in reading than students who didn't use it. This was true even for students with learning disabilities in classrooms where AR was used a lot.
• Researchers also found that schools using the program saw students get higher scores on reading, language, and math tests compared to schools that didn't use it as much.
• One study showed that students who used Accelerated Reader for six months improved their reading comprehension twice as much as students who didn't. This suggests that getting immediate feedback from AR quizzes is more helpful than waiting for feedback from things like book reports.

Overall, many studies suggest that Accelerated Reader can be a useful tool to help students improve their reading skills and understanding.