AR

AR is a reading program used in our school.  AR stands for Accelerated Reading, a program created by the Renaissance Learning Company.  For more information about this group, ask the library media specialist, or go to http://www.renlearn.com/.  With this program students make their own choices of reading materials and take a test on what they have chosen.  To enable this to happen the school has purchased suitable books, books-on-tape, and tests for appropriate titles.  We have also purchased tests for those titles at the Hamilton Public Library to allow students to have more access to reading materials outside of the school grounds.

At Hamilton Central School students in the seventh and eighth grades use AR to improve their reading.  Ms. Getman, Mr. Rose and Ms. White plan weekly time for students to pick up books from the Library Media Center.  They are also given time to read during class.  AR allows students to set their own individual goals and to work towards those goals.  For this program to have the optimal benefit to students we try to purchase titles in all areas to allow students to read in their interest area.  Because of this we own tests and books in the areas of sports, biographies, history, science, poetry, and, of course, fiction.  We also try to allow for different reading levels by purchasing books-on-tape for those who benefit from the audio experience.  Those who want to push their reading will also find titles by Jane Austen, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, and Kurt Vonnegut or more modern authors such as Tom Clancy and John Grisham.  We are also working to team up with the social studies teachers in the seventh and eighth grades and have the readers choose historical fiction books based on the time periods being studied in class. 

Students in Mrs. Sabino's nineth grade Global History are also reading fiction titles relating to their countries of study.  This is a new endeavor begun in the 2004-2005 school year.  To enable this to be possible we have had to strengthen our fiction section in that area and also purchase the corresponding AR titles.  We hope that this will increase the student's knowledge of the country of study.

We purchase new AR tests one or two times during the school year, and will try to keep all of our school community informed by listing some of the more popular titles that were picked up in the order. 

Please feel free to call the Library Media Center and talk to Mrs. Jerome with any questions that you may have.

Printable Version