Accelerated Reader Article

This article really spoke to me because I have experienced in my life and have also observed in classrooms the delicate use of competition to aid in learning. Before this article I had not really been aware of a way to bring competition into reading. Although this was not one of the objectives of the Accelerate Reader program, it seems that this is one of the main outcomes of program. I think sometimes teachers and parents are unaware of how observant children can be. Children measure themselves according to their peers constantly and AR just helps make this comparison even easier. It was also really disturbing to me that children were deeming books as unimportant or irrelevant just because they weren't AR books. It teaches children that books lower or higher than their tested reading level are not worth their time. I personally think that any book a child chooses to pick up is useful to their future success with reading, no matter what level the book is. It saddens me that children are loosing the enjoyment of reading for a more systematic and rushed technique.