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Dear
Parents,
The
most important gift you can
give your child is the gift
of reading. The child who
loves to read will not only
do well in English and
language arts classes, but
will, in fact, excel in
every area of schoolwork and
of life. This is why
Immaculate Heart of Mary
School puts such an emphasis
on reading in all its
classes.
Research tells us that high
scores on Accelerated Reader
(AR) Reading Practice
Quizzes are associated with
large gains in reading
achievement. That’s why
here at IHM we have
encouraged students to take
AR tests. Children from
Kindergarten through 8th
grade participated in the
program last year and we
once again posted a record
year with quizzes taken.
For new
parents, the AR Program is a
computer-based reading
motivation program. The
program is simple: The child
either reads, or has read to
him or her, a book that has
an Accelerated Reader quiz.
(These books have a small
orange dot on the spine
label.) The child then
takes a computerized quiz on
the book, answering simple
multiple-choice questions
that check their recall of
basic facts and events in
the book. After finishing
the quiz, the child gets a
point score based on the
difficulty level of the book
and the number of questions
they answered correctly.
The program keeps track of
every student’s points. The
purpose of the point system
is to recognize the student
for his or her reading
achievement. Students are
rewarded in several ways.
Small prizes are given to
students in Kindergarten
through 3rd)
grade for each quiz taken
and weekly AR winners are
drawn in which the winner
selects a prize from the
library. Certificates are
also awarded to top point
earners from each class
monthly. At the end of each
quarter a party is given for
students who have earned the
status of being in either
the 50 point club
(Kindergarten through 3rd)
or the 100 point club (4th
through 8th).
Regardless of how points are
used, the key is that the
students are recognized for
their achievements.
We are
proud to announce that we
have upgraded to the
Accelerated Reader
Enterprise new online
program (Renaissance Place)
which includes both
Accelerated Reader and Star
Reading. When a child comes
to school to take an AR
quiz, they will have access
to over 110,000 quizzes
(with new quizzes being
constantly added). With
Accelerated Reader
Enterprise, students can
read books from our school
library, public library,
from home, from their
friends and with a simple
click of a mouse, they can
activate these quizzes in
our library. This past
summer several of our
pre-school children and
rising Kindergarten students
enjoyed using the voice
activated quizzes and older
students were surprised at
the quizzes that could now
be found on AR. Students
also enjoyed taking the
Vocabulary tests which are
now available for certain
tests.
One of
the new features of
Renaissance Place is parents
now have access to Home
Connect through Renaissance
Place. Simply go to the IHM
website
www.ihmschool.org and
under the Frequently Used
Links is a link called
Accelerated Reader – Home
Connect. This does not mean
children can take
Accelerated Reader quizzes
from home, but parents can
view which quizzes their
children have taken and what
their quiz results were. To
view your student’s record
you will need their user
name and password. This
information will be handed
out on Curriculum Night.
We
believe the Accelerated
Reader Program will continue
to be a catalyst in
motivating our students to
read more books. In doing
so, we hope they will
experience the joy of
reading. With the
encouragement of parents and
teachers, we firmly believe
this program will continue
to be a huge success.
If you
should have any questions,
please feel free to stop by
the library, call or e-mail
me.
Sandy
Wilson
Librarian
Accelerated Reader - Home
Connect
Accelerated Reader - Book
Finder
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