A Parent’s Guide to Accelerated Reader

What is Renaissance Accelerated Reader (AR)?  

AR is a reading program that helps teachers support and monitor children’s reading practice and progress. Your child picks a book at their own level and reads it at their own pace. When finished, your child takes a short online quiz to measure how much of the book they understood. It is very much like a coloured book band system, but with many more benefits.  

How will I know what books my child should be reading?

Every term, the children are given a ZPD range. The Zone of Proximal Development is the range of books that will challenge a child without causing frustration or loss of motivation.  

Each book has a book level, so children will know if a book is within their range. For example:  Child A has a ZPD range of 2.3-4.1, so they can choose to read any book with a book level 2.3-4.1. 

Books with a lower book level, will be less challenging, however it is often not as simple as this as it relies on a child’s engagement and interest. It is important that children read a range of books, whether that be level of challenge or genre.  For example:  Child A might find that the book which is a book level of 2.5 is less challenging than a book at 3.9, but they are more interested in the first book and enjoy reading it more.  

What does the ZPD mean?

How does the school determine my child’s reading level?

Every term, the children will take a Star Reading test. Star Reading is an online test used to measure your child’s reading level. The test uses multiple-choice questions and takes around 20 minutes. Children will take part in these tests at the start of each half-term in school and will be told their new ZPD range.

How do pupils select books?  

AR includes over 30,000 books. These can be found in the school as well as public libraries, books shops and at home. Each book is assigned three scores to help your child make a suitable choice:  

Book Level  

Book Levels represent the difficulty of the text. The Star Reading test tells your child what range of book levels to read within. This is called the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Our book level chart is shown above.

Points 

Books are assigned points based on their word count. Points are earned by passing quizzes. The more correct questions answered, the more points children will earn.  

Interest Level 

The Interest Level indicates which age group a book is suitable for. It does this based on the content and themes.

LY - Lower Years 5-8  

MY – Middle Years 9-13  

The books in school are labelled with their book level, but you can check the information of any book, providing it is registered with AR, at: https://www.arbookfind.co.uk   

We ask that children read books in school within their ZPD, however we knowledge that there are times where they may read outside of it at home, with an adult for example.  

What does my child do after they have finished reading a book?

Ideally, within the next day or as soon as possible, children will need to log onto our Caldecote Primary School AR website to take a quiz.

The purpose of these quizzes is to determine whether your child has read a book, to measure literal comprehension of the book, and to provide immediate feedback. Each Reading Practice Quiz consists of 3, 5, 10, or 20 multiple-choice questions depending on book level and length. At the end of the quiz, children and parents will see their performance.

What does the score mean?

Teachers will be able to monitor their progress over time and continue to support them with their love of reading. Children can then choose another book to enjoy reading.  

How does my child access the quizzes?

Every child has a username and password which is shared at the start of the academic year. They will need to log on to this website, search for the book they were reading and then complete the quiz. Children will be given daily opportunities to take part in quizzes in school.