Self-Selected Reading
 
Reading is perhaps the most important of the basic school skills.  The ability to read and understand is crucial to a child's success in school and life.  Reading is a skill, and like every skill, it requires practice.  Research has found that good readers practice reading much more than less able readers.  It makes sense:  the way to get good at something--whether it's shooting baskets or reading--is to spend lots of time doing it.  Simply put, the more a child reads, the better he/she will become at reading.

This year your child is a student in my language arts class.  I hope that your child will enjoy the class and will improve not only his/her ability to read and understand, but that he/she will learn to think of reading as a pleasurable activity, not a chore.  With these goals in mind, Accelerated Reader, a motivational software program, will become an important part of the fifth grade language arts curriculum.

Here's how it works.  Students begin by choosing a book from a list of more than 4,700 titles on the Accelerated Reader book list.  Then the student reads the book at his or her own pace.  Pages read at school and at home are recorded daily in the student's reading log.  The log is a key component of the reading program.  My expectation is that you, as the parent, will show interest in reviewing your child's reading log and his/her reading selections.

When a book is completed, the student takes a computerized quiz on the book, which tests his/her recall of key characters, incidents, and information.  The multiple-choice quiz is designed to be mastered easily by any student who has read the book with comprehension.

Based on the difficulty of the book, and how well the student does on the quiz, the student is awarded points.  Longer, more difficult books are worth more points, while shorter, less difficult books are worth fewer points.  Earned quiz points are added to the computer's database, and reports are generated for the student and teacher.

In order to accumulate enough points for a desirable grade, a student must read on a regular basis.  Some time will be provided at school.  Each morning fifth graders enjoy DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) Time from 8:15-8:45.  The expectation is that students will read, as this is not a study hall. 

Students will also need to read outside of class.  There will not be frequent "homework" assignments in reading class; students should view reading Accelerated Reader books as assigned homework.  Fifth graders should read for a minimum of 15-20 minutes each evening and record the pages read in their reading logs.

In addition to points earned for independent reading, there will be other opportunities to accumulate points.  Students may take quizzes on books that homeroom teachers have read aloud.  During language arts class there is guided reading and discussion of shared classroom novels.  Students may earn points for these books also.

An Accelerated Reader score for each nine-weeks grading period will be determined using the following point ranges:

GRADE POINT RANGE
A 25-30 AR points
B 21-24 AR points
C 16-20 AR points
D 11-15 AR points
F 0-10 AR points

In addition to this score, your child will also receive a second Accelerated Reader based on the average percentage scored on all quizzes taken during the grading period.  These two scores will combine to form an Accelerated Reader grade which will count as 25% of the overall language arts grade.