[MOSAIC] AR

[Mholley112 at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/28/2007 9:59:14 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
mrshannan6th at gmail.com writes:

AR is  the only way they will allow kids
to read real books in their classrooms  during the school day.  Yes, they use
it as part of the curriculum,  BUT it gets real books into kids' hands.  The
tests are the  accountability. 


My school implemented AR about 10 years ago. I am about to start my 8th  year 
there. Every year, school wide, we have devoted an hour a day to AR. The  
library is open to everyone during that hour. While this isn't "real" research,  
the teachers who were there before me say that the students' reading scores  
improved over what they were before AR. Why? Because we had a whole hour 
devoted  to independent, self-selected reading each day. Now kids were reading where 
they  used to go to the library once a week to check out a book they may or 
may not  have read by the next week.  The AR tests held them accountable: the  
teacher could see if students were misusing that time. It is not a way to 
teach  reading by any means, but as Kim said, it gets real books into kids' hands. 
It  has given hesitant teachers "permission" to allow a big chunk of time for 
just  fun reading. I used to think it was a great program, and am still 
grateful for  the time it gives us for library use. Though my readings and 
experience, I know  it doesn't "teach" anything, but my plan is to incorporate my 
reading workshop  into that time so that my students have the opportunity to find 
books they like  for independent reading time.
 
We are going to be doing a book talk this fall with all of our teachers  
using MOT1. Hopefully all of us will learn how to work with our students  teaching 
them the strategies.
 
Cheryle/Hobbs, NM



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