Accelerated Reader is a program that gives students the opportunity to read for fun and earn points for recognition and rewards in the process. Books in our library are labeled with coloured dots on the spine and "AR" labels on the back. The coloured dots help students narrow their selection by simply walking through the book stacks. Then a glance at the AR label gives the precise book level and point value of the book. This helps students feel confident in their book selections knowing that the book will be challenging but not frustrating. After students have read a book, they can take a quiz on it at any computer in our school. Each student’s reading record is only accessible through a unique password. For most primary books, there are 5 multiple choice questions that follow the book’s content chronologically. Other longer and more challenging books have 10 or 20 questions. Depending on the length and reading level of the book, students must achieve 60% or 70% percent correct to receive points and reading credit. Students only have one chance to pass an AR quiz unless a teacher gives them another opportunity for extenuating circumstances.

Here is a snapshot of how Accelerated Reader works at CAIS:

1) Teachers determine the reading comprehension level of each student at the beginning of each school year. This is known as a student’s ZPD. Each student is assigned a ZPD range represented by colours. These coloured dots are on the spine of every book in our library that has an Accelerated Reader Reading Practice Quiz. Click here to see the Colour zone chart that we have posted throughout the school.

2) The student chooses a book that is appropriate for them to read based on their ZPD (colour).

3) The student reads the book at their own pace.

4) As soon as the student finishes the book, they go and take a Reading Practice Quiz on that book.

5) The teachers set goals with our students based on an estimate of one hour of free reading each day.

That is it in a nutshell!!

You as a parent can get involved in your student’s book selection process by choosing from the lists of Accelerated Reader titles listed here (Please note that when you click this link the list will take some time to load because it is a very long list - so please be patient, it will load). Our book lists are sorted by title, book level, author, and point level. Choose the sorted list that is best suited to your student’s need at this time. For example, a student may really enjoy a certain author. Why not choose the list sorted by author to see if we have AR books by the author and if so, how many? Looking for a specific book title? Click on the list sorted by title in alphabetical order. Want to see all the books available in the library in your student’s ZPD? Click on the list sorted by book level. Finally, if you want to see what books are worth the most points then click on the list sorted by point level. How about Leo Tolstoy’s War and peace worth 118 points? We had to get a second copy because so many students want to be members of our Tolstoy club!

Even though we have an extensive collection of AR books and reading practice quizzes, there remain literally tens of thousands of excellent books not on our AR list. If you would like to see a book on the test list, you can ask the librarian (library@cais.edu.hk) to order a test for a book when funds and AR tests are available from Accelerated Reader. By the way, we will gladly accept donations of tenderly used books and acquire the quiz if we can! Or, a student may discuss the possibility of helping Mrs. Lui create an AR test for our database for a book that we already have. There is a limit on the number of tests that can be entered into the system however so students need to talk to Mrs. Lui before reading a book for that purpose. Once the new test is entered, anyone in the school can take a test on that title. If you have questions about AR, please feel free to ask a teacher or contact the library directly.

Naturally there are guidelines for participating in the AR program. Below are the AR Quiz guidelines we post for students:

**Remember to view your "Record Report" and "Goals and Points" to keep up with your progress.