Conversations with the creators of the best in science fiction and fantasy. If you love SF literature, are an author or aspire to become one, you'll enjoy this podcast.
Middle-school teachers talking about ideas and challenges in real-world classroom environments. Discussions on education, ideas for both parents and teachers, interviews with top young adult literature authors.
Show Notes:
Lorrie and Sheila discuss the Accelerated Reader (AR) program.
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how the program works
how kids respond to AR
variations to the system
points vs projects
monitoring of reading
visual goals
reading logs
Interview with Jane Yolen, author of Pay the Piper: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fairy Tale. We also discuss:
- author of 300 books 1st contract on 22nd birthday family background advice for young writers “Writing is like a muscle that must be excersized everyday!” What is a gerund? ideas upcoming book “Troll Bridge” working with son electronic writings awards
Thank you for discussing AR from the teachers’ point of view. I have four kids in public school and AR is now required and a big part of their language arts grade. Although AR seems like a great idea in theory, it isn’t working very well for my kids. Two of my kids are running into problems finding books they want to read that are on their level AND that are within the AR system. My 7th grade daughter scored well beyond her grade level on the STAR test so her teacher said that all her book choices have to be at least 11.0 but the school doesn’t have AR tests for any books above 10.5. Also, with the points goals that the schools have set for the kids there isn’t any time for them to read books that I think they should read. On the other hand, my youngest child was a reluctant reader last year but this year he has been spurred on by the challenge of meeting his AR goals. I guess what I’m saying is that if you already have a kid who is a good reader, the AR goals can get in the way.
BTW, Sheila, I like your idea about dividing the pages left to read and marking them with sticky notes. This will be a great help to me because my daughters always ask, “How many more pages do I have to read tonight?” I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before!
I have one other comment. It would be nice if you could give a little intro before you go into the interview and give us some information on the author. I haven’t heard of any of these authors, so it would be helpful if you could mention the title of their most well-known book or what genre they write. Thanks!
Dani -
As a parent, I ran into the same issue with my son. He read at a higher level than most of the kids and he had read most of the books in the library within his range. Try talking with the teacher about a different system for your daughter – maybe she can read the books which are not in the AR system but maybe every couple chapters the teacher can look over the chapters and quiz her on it. The end goal should be kids reading and comprehending what they are reading. I try to stock my library in class with a wide variety of levels and genres to help all kids. I do think for those higher readers AR does hinder their reading at times.
Lorrie and I will try to give some background info on our authors. Great tip!
Oh wow, I’ve just discovered the podcast (which I guess isn’t that surprising, since you’re on episode #2). I’m contemplating applying to grad school in the next few years for Library Science with a certificate in middle-level school libraries, and this was great. Jane Yolen was one of my favorite authors growing up (and is still one of my favorite YA sci-fi and fantasy authors), and it was a wonderful surprise while I was listening at work today to hear what she has to say.
Anyway, I’m excited about the podcast and look forward to hearing more. Nice job!