Accelerated Reader

Accelerated Reader (A.R.) is our independent reading program at Salem. It is a computer generated program created by Renaissance that matches students to popular literature at their independent reading level. Each book has a comprehension quiz that tracks reading success.

The third graders are given silent reading time in class each day and are assigned reading time for homework each night to allow them to finish books. It is not against the rules to read on the weekends, rather it will only benefit.

Each Monday, a Student Reading Report will come home to be signed by the parent or guardian. Please review the report with your child, sign it and return it by Tuesday. This is a homework requirement so that you are kept in the loop of your child’s reading habits. (For those of you learning at home, a report will be emailed.)

Reading comprehension is essential to the success of fourth grade and beyond, so much of third grade requires practice in reading comprehension improvement. It is imperative that your child utilize the homework time to practice reading comprehension by reading. We are asking that the students read only one book at a time, however they should always have two books with them (carry in their backpacks) so they know exactly which book they will read next. Once a book is finished, they will take the quiz on that book, return it and choose another book right away to be their "second" book. The longer it takes to read a book, the less chance a reader has of passing the quiz.

This is a hard concept for some third graders to understand. Please reiterate this requirement at home and monitor your child’s reading comprehension. Talk about what they are reading as often as possible and let your child see you reading and hear you talking about what you are reading. These are invaluable practices for your child’s comprehension growth.

Our goal in third grade is one book a week. Longer books count for two weeks. We will conference one-on-one as often as possible to challenge and encourage them.

This type of program is invaluable to the reading skills of Salem’s learners and would be happy to answer any questions you have about A.R .