Accelerated Reader Program

Dear Parents:

Reading is one of the most important skills children will ever learn. The child who reads well-and loves to read-will excel in school and achieve personal growth.
The most important goal regarding Accelerated Reading (AR) is to encourage a love for reading by developing confidence through practice. Research demonstrates that reading practice is the most important factor in a student’s literacy development. Literature-based reading practice allows students to perfect the reading skills they learn so that they can move beyond the struggle of decoding text and begin reading for learning and pleasure. Accelerated Reading is an individualized reading program for students. It is only one part of the total reading program at Bess Brannen. It allows teachers to set goals, track growth and monitor comprehension. We have 9504 Accelerated Reader quizzes available at Brannen and over 13,000 books. The book levels range from 0.2 to 13.5 so we have a wide variety of books for students to select. We encourage students to choose books within their reading level that are of interest to them. The love of reading will develop when students are not frustrated by the text in the books they select. Accelerated Reading is a wonderful tool for allowing this love of reading to happen.

Accelerated Reading has three main objectives:
1) to dramatically improve student reading performance, as measured by standardized tests,
2) to improve student's critical-thinking skills,
3) to instill in students a lifelong love of reading.

We will be doing many exciting things throughout the year with Accelerated Reading. You may notice very soon, if you haven't already, that your child is reading more books than usual. Many parents, in fact, find their children's new enthusiasm for reading so contagious that they start reading more themselves--a great family activity to do together!

If you have any questions about the Accelerated Reading Program, please do not hesitate to contact the librarian or your child's homeroom teacher.

Sincerely,

Bess Brannen Elementary Staff

Back to the Accelerated Reading Page