Concluding Comments
When I worked as an elementary school teacher, I was always eager to involve my students in any program that made books available to them. And I explored reading incentive programs (such as Pizza Hut's “Book-It”) in the hopes that they would invite reluctant readers to discover the delights of books. The AR program is no doubt appealing to many educators for similar reasons.
However, the AR program seems to come with some strings attached -- strings that may ultimately have some unintended, negative consequences. The Acclerated Reader is not a computer environment that fosters children's higher order thinking skills, unless its use is supplemented by subsequent teacher intervention. Although Topping's article raises many excellent points, cites a large body of research, asks some significant questions, and reports on some interesting findings, many questions remain about the design, effectiveness, and implications of the program for teachers and students. These questions are worth asking by anyone using or planning to use the AR program.
Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted November 1999
© 1999-2000 International Reading Association, Inc. ISSN 1096-1232