Accelerated Reader

Your child will be given a user name and password when they are ready to start on Accelerated Reader. Click the link below to access the Accelerated Reader platform.

https://global-zone61.renaissance-go.com/welcomeportal/2248416

What is Accelerated Reader?

Research-Driven Reading Practice: Student-driven & Teacher-Guided

When your child has completed the phonics reading schemes which they start on when they join the school, and have been assessed at an appropriate level, they will be directed towards the Accelerated Reader programme. When the children start on the scheme, they take the STAR Reading Assessment in school on the Accelerated Reader online platform. This multiple-choice reading comprehension assessment is an intelligent assessment which subtly adapts the difficulty of each question based on the success of the last. On completion of the test, the children’s results can be analysed to help staff with their planning and assessments; particularly though, the algorithms will award each child with a ZPD.

Appropriate challenge

Pupils develop reading skills most effectively when they read appropriately challenging books, difficult enough to keep them engaged but not so difficult that they become frustrated. This is their ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ (ZPD). All our reading books in school are levelled and catalogued on the Accelerated Reader system – an orange sticker on the spine, or just inside the front cover on slimmer books, will indicate which level of challenge the book has been classified under. Accelerated Reader therefore puts children in the driver’s seat. The intention is that children choose books in the range of levels that match their ZPD.  We will guide students in their choice of reading books, while the engaging quizzes help hone students’ reading skills with authentic practice.  This encourages growth.

Mastery

“Just reading” transforms into high-quality reading practice that fuels growth: Reading quizzes monitor comprehension, while also available are literacy skills and vocabulary quizzes which extend children’s learning and build skills mastery.

Children who read more perform better in all their academic studies. Therefore, with all our reading activities in school, we aim to ensure that a lively and positive discourse about reading, book choices and authors pervades every classroom.

Students get to read a book of their choosing. They can read in class, at home, or out and about in the community. They can quiz on books that parents’ or grandparents have read  to them, or they can read with an adult. They can even quiz on audiobooks that are readily downloaded. The Libby library app allows you to ‘borrow’ audio books to listen to online – if you have a ten-minute car journey to school, it’s a great way to spend the time and enjoy a great story with your family.

Recognition

At Norton we recognise great commitment to reading for pleasure through the award of certificates every other week for significant milestones in terms of books read:

Bronze Award: 100,000 words read

Silver Award: 250,000 words read

Gold Award: 500,000 words read

Platinum Award: 1,000,000 words read

To put these huge figures into context, a book such as Roald Dahl’s classic ‘the BFG’ is approximately 38,000 words.

Why read?

Exposure to new words and different ways of using language is crucial to children’s development. It also helps them acquire general information about the world and its people and customs, which makes it easier for them to learn about new subjects. Books also help children build empathy and learn how to handle challenging feelings. This is why we work so hard to ensure all children leave our school at the end of Year 6 as avid readers. The Accelerated Reader platform helps us track children’s progress in reading and provides diagnostic information as well as keeping a record of the books they are enjoying.

Avid Readers

Every academic year, we have managed to increase the amount of words we have read as a school, and once again we are hoping to beat our previous year’s total.

Extensive choice

Accelerated Reader has quizzes on more than 220,000 books, ensuring students never run out of choices. It gives students significantly greater choice in levelled books and quizzes than any comparable reading programme. Over 37,000 reading practice quizzes are available on books from over 300 publishers and imprints. Independent of any publishing interests and suitable for students of primary and secondary age, Accelerated Reader ensures that there are plenty of books to interest every reader available on the programme.

The dedicated online book-searching tool Accelerated Reader BookFinder is publicly available to students, parents, teachers and librarians so they can identify appropriate books that are also of interest.

Best practices

Research-based recommendations underpin the best practices for Accelerated Reader implementation. The importance of daily personalised reading practice cannot be overstated. Recent studies indicate that when children spend 25 minutes a day reading suitably challenging books which they successfully comprehend (demonstrated by achieving 85% or more on the reading practice quiz), then they will achieve optimal reading age growth. This is the power of personalised practice.

The National Literacy Trust’s second independent research report into the reading habits of students using Accelerated Reader has been published.

“Children and young people who use Accelerated Reader tend to enjoy reading more, do it more often and think more positively about reading than their peers who do not use Accelerated Reader. They are also more likely to see a link between reading and their successes.”

Dr Christina Clark, National Literacy Trust