Accelerated Reading :: Teaching Education

Accelerated Reading A.R. reading is the new choice of torture among teachers across the Issaquah School District (411). A.R. stands for Accelerated Reading. This is the process in which a student will take a vocabulary test at the beginning of the school year which will be graded. On this grading scale, students receive a reading range in which they are aloud to read books according to their difficulty level. As well as having to read according to what your reading level is, you have to also gain points by taking a test on the book you previously read. The number of points a book is worth has to do with its difficulty. For example; a book with a reading level of 10.5 with 390 pages and a character sizing of 10 point, might be worth 45 points. But a book with a reading level of 2.0 with 15 pages and a character size of 35, might be worth 1 point. In Ms. Hardy’s 4th period class, all students had to earn 60 points, 30 A.R., and 30 not A.R. this counts as 20 percent of your grade. When asked, "What is the point of A.R.?" Mr. Brown, a 7th and 8th grade woodshop and cooking teacher answered, "We love to see you suffer!" Honestly, A.R. really is pointless. Instead of forcing reading onto kids, teachers should make it fun. And teachers might even make it so it doesn’t make or break your grade. If you take the time to think about it, the average reading level is about 8.5. The average point level for a book is about the same, 8.5. The average person reads about two pages per minute, and the average number of pages for an 8 point book is about 300 to 350. Therefor, the average person would have to read about an hour a day, on top of the average amount of homework for each class which is about a half hour per class per day, so this adds up to about 3 to 4 hours of homework a day, not counting projects and studying for tests.