At our school (small, catholic K-8) we have quarterly "battles" with another local catholic school. Whichever school gets the most points at the end of the quarter wins. I know they throw in an ice cream and pizza parties here and there, but the kids enjoy the competition against another school and "winning".
This year our school started something new - PTO gives 10 cents for each AR point. With these points they will select a Scholastic book during a special fair. This fair will only have books - no pencils, trinkets, etc like they usually offer. We contacted Scholastic to send them on a certain date so we can let these kids with enough points pick a book / books.
At our school teachers do it at each grade level at their discretion. My son's third grade class has an economic system where they earn class money (they get to name, like Boom Bucks, Cool Cash). They get $2 for each day they come to school. Additional money can be earned by good deeds (good citizen), great homework papers or projects, class participation, and reading AR books (each point is a $1). They pay rent on their desks and a copy paper fee weekly - $7. If they forget their homework they pay the teacher a dollar and if they miss behave they pay. A great system ! I like the way she includes the AR program with a great learning lesson. Parents donate gifts for a store we do once a month.
To me children will automatically enjoy reading. I'm not sure we can MAKE kids love to read for the joy. Parents play a role in the reading joy also. Why does it seem that SCHOOL is always responsible for our kids growth and development ? That's like prayer in schools .... to me that's my role to pray with my child before I send him to school. Okay I was on a roll, sorry !
Great ideas for AR programs here !
Our computer teacher runs the AR program at our school. We haven't done any reward program lately other than having top readers appear on the live announcements on Friday. The principal feels that children should learn to love reading for its own sake rather than to win prizes. Previously we also did the lunch with the principal thing along with pizza parties, ice cream parties, lunch in a restaurant, a limo ride etc.
Here are two sites that might be useful:
I know our school has celebration for all students involved. But I have also seen some Teachers set goals for their class. My Daughter last year was in a class where The Teacher would set a goal for the whole class to beat. If the class beat the goal His prizes would consist of ordering pizza for lunch, eating lunch in classroom, picnic outside, a piece of candy, a book of their choose,etc. He made it more the class against him.The class besides learning the joy of reading also learned to work together as a team.
We have AR at our school and the PTO used to fund a reward store where the kids could use their points to purchase items, but it just didn't seem that popular so we suspended the store. Some teachers really push the AR books and some don't. All of them do encourage reading and have goals for the students within their classroom but it just appears that AR isn't really being utilized to its full potential. Some of the problem(actually the bulk)is that there are teachers who don't have access to all the tests because of computer issues. Makes it hard to run a program when you don't have the same level of availability for everyone.
From my point of view, children should be rewarded for ANY reading. Every book they pick up can add to their skills and vocabulary. Some kids aren't competitive and some hate taking tests so you have to find a way to encourage reading that appeals to everyone. I adore reading because both my parents always had a book, magazine or newspaper in their hands and because of the pleasure I saw them getting I wanted to read too.(Lead by example)
I guess what I'm trying to say is that AR can be a real success if that's what appeals to your kids and the program is run correctly, but you have to make sure that every child is encouraged to read and some kids may not respond to the AR program.
