![]() ![]() Then students are told to pick books that have AR quizzes so that they receive credit for reading and are eligible for prizes or rewards. School librarians, especially those in the elementary and middle school level, are often pushed either by administrators or classroom teachers to label all of their books with Accelerated Reader (AR) levels. Reading levels can be a useful tool to assist in guiding a child to the right book for them, but when those numbers become the only determining factor of what is acceptable to read, we have a problem. How do educators create a society of readers? It’s not by restricting reading to an accepted range of Lexile levels or only books that have a quiz attached to them. Reading recommendations shouldn’t be based solely on reading levels, they should also be based on reader interest and what is appropriate for a 12-year-old! ![]() For example, a 7 th grader was sent a list that included Plato’s Republic, Dickens’ Great Expectations, War and Peace and Romantic Love and Sexual Behavior. I don’t know who came up with the recommendations, but it appears they were solely based on Lexile levels. Texas recently sent out recommended reading lists to students based on their STAAR scores (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness). Do you want to turn off a student from reading? Tell them they have to read 19 th century American fiction for fun. What were her choices? Anything from the Leatherstocking Tales by James Fenimore Cooper. When she told her librarian her Lexile level (1350), they checked the catalog. When my niece was in 6 th grade, she was informed by her teacher that she had to choose a book on her Lexile level for her next checkout from the library. ![]()
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