Dear Accelerated Reader,
It’s not fair that you assign fewer points to nonfiction than fiction. For example, students who read The Hunger Games (GL 5.3) get a whopping 15 points, but students who read Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Hopkinson (GL 7.4) receive a measly 7 points. Yes, Titanic is only 289 pages compared to The Hunger Games at 384 pages, BUT Titanic is a multi-layered, cognitively demanding text with intertwined narratives about multiple passengers, the sinking of the ship and the rescue as well as many many non-narrative sidebars including explanations of the engineering of the ship, comparisons to other ships, descriptions of the lifeboats, etc. and, on top of all of that, dozens of primary sources to interpret. It is also written at a higher Lexile level probably due to a lot of domain specific, challening vocabulary. And yet – you award Titanic LESS THAN HALF the points that students get for reading The Hunger Games.
Grrrr….
More examples? Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don’t You Grow Weary by Partridge (GL 6.6), winner of numerous awards, tells the story of the children who marched for voting rights in the 1960’s in Selma, Alabama. It has 62 pages of text, but it has a large format so each page of text equals about two pages in a typical fiction chapter book format. It’s a complex text in that the reader has to follow multiple narratives and grapple with complex issues like racism, social activism, and perseverance. The reader also has to understand the motives and work of organizations like the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). And yet – you award it only 3 points!
On the science end of the reading spectrum, check out The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe (GL 7.5). Only 59 pages but again with a large page format with twice the text on each page of what is in a typical chapter book. The author chronicles, describes, and explains colony collapse disorder. This is not a book for spring chicken readers. It’s difficult and demanding and yet amazingly rewarding as the reader walks away with knowledge critical to understanding an important issue in our world. Again-at a higher Lexile than The Hunger Games. And yet – you award it only 2 points!!!
UGH!!! Do you hear me moaning???
AR, I will give you a small, very small, bit of credit. Picture books geared towards the primary grades typically get .5 AR points regardless of whether the book is fiction or nonfiction. Just a little bit of credit.
Back to my point. I don’t know how you, Accelerated Reader, are assigning points, but I’m begging you to rejudge books like these and GIVE MORE POINTS!!! After all, we do want our students to read more nonfiction, correct? And IF we have to assign points (which I’m not a big fan of anyway), then let’s use this as an incentive to read more nonfiction, too? RIGHT?????
Teachers. AR may continue to fail us. In that case, would you double the points offered for a nonfiction book? Or maybe require so many books read in a particular genre versus assigning points? And if you already do, HOORAY!!! Thank you!!!!
Hope this helps.
Sunday
