This is a Newbery Honor Book - but I didn't find it all that great. For one thing, it moves ponderously - a death sentence as far as I'm concerned. There were long passages where legends were told - and I ended up skipping most of them.
The basic story had some merit, but the ending was precipitous - and not even very clear. There is a sequel, but I think I will skip it.We use the Accelerated Reader program at our school - students read books, take quizzes and earn points. Mr. McClure and I decided we wanted to compete, so Mrs. Hoopes gave us user names and passwords, and the race is on.
Mr. McClure got a head start on me - but I plan to catch up - I have 30 points already and I just started Wednesday.
I'll keep you posted!!
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So, what do you think about the AR program? I have mixed feelings about it. I know it gets some kids to read, but I think it also discourages some, by requiring that they read only AR books and only in their reading level. (My kids have had the AR program in their schools since Melissa was in 5th grade.)
It seems like the brighter, better readers are the ones who balk at it. We have every book in the world - no kid ever has a book we don't have a test for.
We require reading logs and that is the part that the better readers don't want to stop and do. But training poor readers to stop and write down what they've just read are helped by the process. One girl really went to town and after 3 years at Clifton had logged 1400 AR points!!
I'm at 192 right now!
Most of our teachers are quite flexible and if you can pass the test at the level that is higher than your tested out level, you can read those books.
Most books are not as high level as people think they are. Many titles surprised me - the rating comes from the vocabulary level in the book, so not surprisingly, lots of popular adult fiction is 5th or 6th grade level.
When the program first started there were quite a few books that didn't have tests. So maybe that is where I got my feelings for that. I know my kids were told they couldn't read some books (I can't remember which ones now) because there wasn't a test.) I didn't like it when a teacher based the majority of the reading grade on the AR points. I don't see that as much now. Melissa was the high scorer for points in 5th grade. I don't remember how many she had.
Of course, my kids have been good readers, so that is probably why I wasn't a big fan at first. I'm ok with it now.
I think it would be fun to do it myself and see what I retain from what I read!
Do any of you know the most AR points anyone has gotten? I'm in seventh greade and i have 960.06 AR points for this year and I would like to find out the record.
Thanks.
Sorry about my last comment, I accidentally deleted it. What I meant to say is:
Hey Kate, I'm in fifth grade with 1,058 points for the year. If you find out the record could you tell me if I beat it?
I'm in 7th grade and for several years now Ive hit over 1,600 AR points. Anybody know the record yet?
I have had 2198 points before.
I'm in sixth grade and I've hit 1140 points so far and it's only been three months.
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