Reading Well, Reading Right
Everyone knows that reading is the crucial skill to success in school. And nearly everyone is interested in ways to help students read better.
For example, a variety of computerized software programs have been developed to supplement basal reading programs. Some of these programs focus on developing a love for leisure reading. Others help the classroom teacher diagnose and remediate weaknesses in literary skills.
One of these reading management programs is Accelerated Reader®. The process is simple: the student selects a book from a list of approved AR titles, and after he reads the book, he takes a computerized quiz on the book. The results of that quiz are available to the classroom teacher to diagnose weak or missing skills and to help the teacher guide the student in future reading choices. AR is not intended to be used in place of a reading curriculum but rather to supplement the curriculum in the area of leisure reading. The program is intended to maximize teacher effectiveness, especially where class size might otherwise prohibit the level of individualized assistance that is most beneficial to each student. The concept is good and the immediate feedback is beneficial to the busy classroom teacher.
In the early years, the approved AR titles recommended by teachers and librarians were limited in scope and included virtually no titles from Christian publishing houses. And so, even though children were reading some fine works of children’s literature, it was clear that some readers were bypassing books that they might choose to read only because there was not an AR quiz available for the title.
While it is important to read, it is equally important to read the right stuff. Several years ago Accelerated Reader® broadened its scope and began to include not only a variety variety of types of reading material including periodicals for young people but also quizzes on titles from Christian publishing houses. The result is that students in Christian schools that use AR can now select books that are written from a Christian worldview. The students benefit from a broader range of materials while the diagnostic benefits remain at the classroom teacher’s disposal.
JourneyForth Books has provided AR with copies of our novels that have appropriate reading levels for the quizzes, and there are currently AR quizzes available for almost eighty JF titles. These titles are marked with a red AR icon in the JF catalog and in the BJU Press Christian School Catalog. Teachers and librarians can also go to the AR web site and find all of the JF titles with an advanced search by entering BJU Press as the publisher.