Reading
'We've Read All the Books!'

Two Delaware paraprofessionals document their considerable success with Accelerated Reader.

It sounds like a fairy tale. Last year alone, the 400 students at Booker T. Washington Elementary in Dover, Delaware, read more than 20,000 books. Students have actually complained about having nothing to read--because "We've read all the books!"

Title I paraprofessionals Patty Carney and Joy Ferguson have conjured this love of books not with a magic potion, but with Accelerated Reader, a computer-based reading program that encourages reading through self-tests.

The program gives students "instant feedback," says Ferguson, a fourth grade reading and math paraprofessional who first implemented the program at the school. "And its reward system really got the children excited about reading."

With Accelerated Reader, a student reads a book or is read one. The student then logs onto an individual account, selects the appropriate title, and answers 10 multiple choice content questions. The test is then scored.

A failing grade prompts the student to read the book again and take a retest. A passing grade adds points to an account that can be later traded in for reading incentives.

Educators collect valuable information about each student from a printout that details the book read, its reading level, percentage of correct answers, and points assigned.

A cumulative report lists all books read and calculates an average reading level for the student. Educators can generate progress reports for parents to show the reading strengths and weaknesses of each child, indicate which areas need more help, and track each child's progress.

"At first, students would want to read the book real fast, and then they'd fail," says Carney, a second grade paraprofessional. "We tell them to take their time. Unless it's a test the teacher is using for a class grade, they are allowed to go back into the book and find the answer."

The standard program includes up to 1,000 titles and tests, and educators can easily write their own tests for any book used in any classroom.

Washington Elementary, a school where some 93 percent of the student body is economically disadvantaged, still needed more books to feed its ravenous readers. So Ferguson and Carney applied for a grant from the MBNA Education Foundation.

"We knew teachers wrote grants," recalls Carney. "But we had no idea that Title I paras could write grants."

Referencing a copy of a grant submitted by another teacher, the two met after school to craft their request.

They bolstered their proposal with a wealth of data derived from Accelerated Reader statistical reports.

"We were able to document reading scores that jumped one and two grade levels," says Ferguson.

Last year, MBNA awarded the paras a grant large enough to buy 1,275 books, computer equipment, and reading incentives for a district-wide Accelerated Reading competition.

Boosting the reading program "was something that both Patty and I believed in," says Ferguson. "It required a lot of work. But our school needed more resources, so we decided to go for it."

-- Michelle Y. Green

For more:

• Contact Patty Carney and Joy Ferguson at Booker T. Washington Elementary, 901 Forest St., Dover, DE 19904, 302/672-1900.
• For info on Accelerated Reader, contact Advantage Learning Systems, P.O. Box 8036, Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54495; 888/656-2931. E-mail answers@advlearn.com or log on to www.acceleratedreader.com.

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Reading Resources

• "America's Kindergartners"--a landmark national study on kindergartners, their classrooms, and their families--reports that most children enter kindergarten with beginning reading skills, and nearly all know numbers and shapes. Some key findings:

  • 82 percent of kindergarten kids have print familiarity skills, such as knowing that print is read from left to right.

  • 66 percent recognize letters.

  • 94 percent know their numbers and basic shapes.

  • 4 percent can add or subtract.

  The study will continue to follow the same sample of children through the 5th grade, gathering data on their reading and math achievement, social skills, and school experiences.

  One question the study will address is whether differences among children entering school persist or change over time.

  For a copy of this report, just released by the National Center for Education Statistics, call 877/4ed-pubs. Or visit the Center's Web site at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/index.asp.

• Need help setting up a summer reading program? You'll find help in the America Reads Challenge Resource Kit, free from the U.S. Department of Education at www.ed.gov/americareads/resourcekit/.

• Check out the NEA reading Web page at www.nea.org/readingmatters. It offers classroom ideas, home activities, reading news, advice based on research, and resources for parents and teachers.