Parents and pupils in District 15 are reading more books this semester, thanks to a reading program the district implemented this fall.
The program, which encourages parents to read to young children more often and stresses independent reading for older children, gets the whole family involved.
“We all take turns reading to him,” said Mary Doktor of her 5-year-old son, Travis. Doktor’s older son, Timothy, 9, gets a two-fold benefit from reading to his younger brother. Timothy, who is learning disabled, reads independently at Travis’ level. Reading to Travis helps him build confidence and bond with his younger brother and satisfies both boys’ reading requirements, Doktor said.
Accelerated reader is a computerized reading management system that works on a point system. It allows pupils to earn points for every book they read and understand at their level. Individual reading levels range from 0.5 (the least difficult kindergarten level) to 23 (students who read at the 12th-grade level).
“The children are motivated by the point system alone even without the promise of a prize at the end,” said Jill Weininger, principal of Central Road School in Rolling Meadows. At Central Road, the pupils have been challenged to earn 10,000 reader points by the end of the year. So far they have more than 3,000 points.
Weininger said reading scores at Central Road have improved since they began the program last winter. “Some of the children went up an entire grade level,” Weininger said.
Accelerated reader encourages pupils to read as many books as they can at their reading level and complete a test which assesses the range in which the pupils reads comprehensively.
“When a student consistently receives high scores on the test, the teacher will move that child to the next reading level,” said Clairan Wistar, media center director at Central Road. A child who consistently performs poorly may need to move a step down, Wistar said.
Central Road held an information session to make parents aware of how the program works and how they can participate with their children.
“It was great to get precise information about what my daughter is doing and how I can help,” said Marilee Alsip of Rolling Meadows. Alsip, who teaches math at Schaumburg High School, welcomes the district’s new emphasis on independent reading.
“Reading is where it is at. When a child can read, it carries over into every other aspect of their life,” said Alsip, who reads independently with her high school class for 20 minutes every week.
“The more a child reads, the better he reads and that is reflected in better reading scores,” said Kay Woelfel, assistant superintendent for instruction. Woelfel said reading scores have improved at the schools that participated in the pilot program. Woelfel expects to see even more improvement next year as well.
