practices - Gallaudet University

16
accelerated
reading
students use computers and
books to advance skills
“I like it,” said Sarah Martin, age 14, lowering her book
for a moment. “It helps me read!”
Sarah, a student on the 6/7/8 team at Kendall
Demonstration Elementary School (KDES), was talking
about her participation in the Accelerated Reading
Program, what her teachers call simply “AR.”
AR, a nationally marketed reading program developed
by Renaissance Learning, Inc., allows students to progress
at their own pace as they select, read, and take quizzes on a
variety of books designated at their reading level. AR has
been adopted at KDES as part of its multifaceted literacy
program.
Like Sarah, most KDES students begin their day by
reading. Every morning at 8:30 some students gather
around their teachers. The teachers read to them or help
them negotiate text. Others students go to corners of quiet
classrooms to read independently. Still others congregate at
the computers to take digital quizzes that will show them
how much they understood and remember about their
most recent book.
Sarah was seated alone with her book. “It’s okay,” she
said. But her favorite book was a story about a young girl
and an Indian.
Sarah’s book, like all books in the AR program, bore a
cheerful colored sticker indicating the reading level of the
text. A green swatch marks the beginning books. A white
sticker marks the twelfth grade books. In between, yellow,
blue, pink, orange, and other colors mark levels of reading
skills that correspond to grade levels.
ODYSSEY
Photography by John Consoli
Cierra Cotton, on
KDES’s Team 4/5,
works with
teacher/researcher
Leslie Brewer in
the Accelerated
Reading Program.