Bookmark Collection

Accelerated Reader

It's a new year, and it's time to set some new reading goals! I am looking forward to working with students and teachers to set reading goals and measure progress with Accelerated Reader. I want to share a few ideas about the program.

• It's not all about the points, although points are a great way to measure how much a student is reading.
• To be successful, students should be reading independently for at least 30 minutes per day.
• Every student comes to you with different skills and each requires a different goal.
• Percent correct and level are also very important indicators of a student's reading ability.
• Students respond to different types of encouragement. You may want to try several incentives in your classroom to find something for everyone. Some examples of encouragement are:
• Top Ten Readers wall (points)
• Incentives for 90-100% on quizzes
• Set 3 different goals each 6 weeks: points, level, percent
• Look in the certification levels built into AR

I love this video about why we use AR and how you can monitor your reading to become a better reader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7vbD-WhMpo

Since we are using the MAP test this year, you will be needing to convert Lexile levels to AR levels. Here are a few links to charts that might help you.

• http://www.thecurriculumcorner.com/wp-content/pdf/Leveling%20System%20Comparison.pdf
• http://www.theeagerteacher.com/2013/02/technology-tuesday-running-records-ipad.html
• http://lfplibrary.edublogs.org/files/2012/09/RC_books_that_are_NA_conversion_chart-riuvch.pdf

Other helpful links

• Getting Results with Accelerated Reader
• Goal Setting Calculator
• Goal Setting Chart
• My Pinterest Board For Accelerated Reader

Acceptable Use Policy

Welcome to the new school year! With a new year, brings new responsibilities. More homework, more reading, more independence, new technology devices. Let's go over your responsibilities as a student using technology.

The district has an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for all students and staff that use district technology resources. In fact, your parents have already agreed to and signed your AUP when they registered you for class this year. An AUP is a contract between you, your parents, and the district about how and when technology will be used. It outlines appropriate uses and consequences for using technology inappropriately.

Basically, you need to know what is expected of you. It all boils down to this:

General Guidelines

• Do not use a computer to harm other people or their work.
• Do not damage the computer or the network in any way.
• Do not interfere with the operation of the network by installing any 
• software, shareware, or freeware. Students are permitted to save 
• their files on the network in their personal directory.
• Do not violate copyright laws.
• Do not view, send, or display offensive messages or pictures.
• Do not share your password with another person.
• Do not waste limited resources such as disk space or printing 
• capacity.
• Do not trespass in another’s folders, work, or files.
• Do notify an adult immediately, if by accident, you encounter 
• materials that violate the rules of acceptable use.
• BE PREPARED to be held accountable for your actions and for the 
• loss of privileges if the rules of acceptable use are violated. 

Each student should read through these guidelines and discuss them with their homeroom teacher. Here is the link to the parent/student agreement that can be signed after the classroom discussion or you may want to make your own with more specific classroom rules. 

Remember that MacBooks and iPads are school property, and on the Intermediate campus we do not allow students to go into settings and change wallpaper, screen savers, dock positions, etc. Sometimes changes are accidentally made in settings that are hard to detect and cause the computer to not work in the way that it should.