ACCELERATED READER
 

Top Readers 2007-08

1st Semester

Whole School

Devin Griffee 544.7 pts.
Justin Fitzjurls 280.8 pts.
Vivien Gude 248.3 pts.
Stephen Kinzel 193.4 pts.
Ross Bergsten 190.4 pts.

Seniors

Samantha Holle 155.9 pts.
Justine Walsh 98.2 pts.
Kirk Duensing 84.0 pts.
Lisa Hogan 61.0 pts.
Lindsey Coggins 60.5 pts.
 

Juniors

Natalie Boss 103.8 pts.
Eliza Benteman 101.8 pts.
Justin Arpin 92.6 pts.
Shelby McNary 89.2 pts.
Caitlin Frohberg 82.8 pts.
 

Sophomores

Vivien Gude 248.3 pts.
Heather Brown 118.4 pts.
Jeff Saylor 107.6 pts.
Arissa Virden 87.4 pts.
Chelsea Marquette 78.2 pts.

Freshmen

Ross Bergsten 190.4 pts.
Lucas Heberling 163.2 pts.
Kayla McNary 140.7 pts.
Ellie Musil 126.8 pts.
Chris Winslow 100.1 pts.
 

8th graders

Justin Fitzjurls 280.8 pts.
Arthur Helvie 130.8 pts.
Kaitlyn Wilson 106.7 pts.
Rachel Christie 99.4 pts.
Ali Pishny 80.6 pts.

7th graders

Devin Griffee 544.7 pts.
Stephen Kinzel 193.4 pts.
Katelyn Musil 168.6 pts.
Jesse Medina 103.6 pts.
Tanner Trimble 77.8 pts.

3rd 9-weeks

Whole School

Devin Griffee 427.4 pts.
Jeff Saylor 214.1 pts.
Samantha Holle 135.6 pts.
Arthur Helvie 121.1 pts.
Kayla McNary 109.5 pts.

Seniors

Samantha Holle 135.6 pts.
Quincie Botkin 43.0 pts.
Brittani Whiting 42.0 pts.
Justine Walsh 40.8 pts.
Kirk Duensing 36.0 pts.

Juniors

Shelby McNary 59.5 pts.
Kayla Leonard 57.0 pts.
Charles Crumbley 52.6 pts.
Eliza Benteman 40.0
Sienna Clark 36.8 pts.

Sophomores
Jeff Saylor 214.1 pts.
Kayla Nordquist 85.4 pts.
Vivien Gude 83.0 pts.
Arissa Virden 56.9 pts.
Heather Brown 51.1 pts.

Freshmen

Kayla McNary 109.5 pts.
Chris Winslow 107.7 pts.
Ellie Musil 99.6 pts.
Katie Atkinson 75.3 pts.
Kristen Hays 48.5 pts.

8th grade

Arthur Helvie 121.1 pts.
Justin Fitzjurls 81.2 pts.
Kaitlyn Wilson 80.5 pts.
Ali Pishny 61.2 pts.
Rachel Christie 45.7 pts.

7th grade

Devin Griffee 427.4 pts.
Shelbi Neufeld  90.0 pts.
Katelyn Musil 54.5 pts.
Stephen Kinzel 47.0 pts.
Brenden Dobrovolny 42.9 pts. 


 

Past Top Readers
2006-2007 Ross Bergsten 462.0 pts.
2005-2006 Aaron Boeschling 568.3 pts.
2004-2005 Tanya Rightmire 538.4
2003-04 Tess Heberling 593.6 pts.
2002-03 Kat Chans 920.1 pts.
2001-02 Tess Heberling, 513.3 pts.
2000-01 Dava Whitesell 613.1 pts.
1999-00 Tera Kindle 435.3 pts.
1998-99 Tera Kindle 714.4 pts.
1997-98 Elizabeth Gray 597.8 pts.
1996-97 Shena Wolf  727 pts.
1995-96 Suzie Pralle 520.8
1994-95 Steph Peek 293.6
1993-94 Chris Adkins 189.5
1992-93 Carissa Nester 505.5

Seventh and Eighth Grade Nine Weeks Requirements

10 pts.--C  
15 pts.--B
20 pts.--A

Points cannot be earned for books read previously as a class assignment.

Seventh and Eighth grade students may read from any of the Accelerated Reader lists.

Rewards

Every junior-high student, in good standing in all classes, who accumulates 200 pts. for the entire year by May 24, 2007 will receive a $50.00 savings bond.

All seventh and eighth grade students who accumulate 125 pts. by May 1 will be a guest at a pizza party during seminar in the last weeks of school.  You may collect on both the bond and the pizza party.

High School Nine Weeks' Requirements

10 pts.--C 
20 pts.--B
30 pts.--A

Only one book worth 5 pts. or less may be used each nine weeks to accumulate these points.

Freshman and sophomores must read from either the Freshman-Sophomore list or the Junior-Senior Accelerated reader list.

Juniors and seniors must read from Accelerated Reader Junior-Senior list.

Points cannot be earned for books read previously as a class assignment

Rewards

Every high school student, in good standing in all classes, who accumulates 300 pts. in the entire year by May 24, 2007 will receive a $50.00 savings bond.

All high school students who accumulate 175 pts. by May 1 will be a guest at a pizza party during seminar before school is out.  You may collect on both the bond and the pizza party.

Commentary on Success of Program

Since the 1993-94 school year, The Accelerated Reader program has been used to fuel our independent reading program at Valley Heights Jr-Sr High School, Blue Rapids, Ks.  It makes up one-third of our reading program combining with a whole language approach from the English classrooms and technical reading from all classes.  

During the 1993-94 school year we made the earning of at least 10 points per nine-weeks as mandatory for all students.*  It became an integral part of our School Improvement Plan.  Since that time we have seen a revolution in reading at Valley Heights with test scores on reading comprehension in our ACT scores skyrocketing.   Scores from students who took core subjects went from an average of  23.3 in 1993-94 to 25.9 in 1996-97.  Scores from students who were not taking core subjects went from 18.3 in 1993-94 to 22.3 in 1996-97.   Needless to say, we are elated with the success of the program.

This improvement has validated our involvement in the program.    We have over 7600 tests with 450 of those homemade. We follow basic guidelines learned in Reading Renaissance with the exception that teenagers tend to be harder to motivate with incentives than younger students.  Therefore we require students to earn points with incentives given for more points.  (See requirements and incentives section.)

One major adaptation of the program we have made involves assigning reading interest levels to all books.  We have three levels--7th-8th grade; freshman-sophomore; junior-senior.  The level reflects more who should be reading the book than the reading level of the book.  An example would be a book on teenage pregnancy that is written at the 6th grade reading level.  This book would be placed on the junior-senior list.  The junior-senior list contains the College Bound disks, Bridge to Adult Reading disk, Classics disk,  Pulitzer Prize winners, many of our locally made or traded-for tests, and other ones that  have a more adult theme.  Any student may read up to a higher list, but students cannot read down without permission from an instructor.  This encourages our juniors and seniors to do college bound reading while giving us some latitude in making exceptions.

Our program was highlighted in the November/December, 1997, issue of Advantage: the Journal of Learning Information Systems, in an article entitled "Reading Practice Raises ACT Scores."

 Points were changed on all books in the Jr/Sr high to the new ATOS readability formula  in the 2000-2001 school year.

* (In 2003-04 this was modified to allow students to pass English if their percentage in the class combined with the percentage for AR was a passing grade.  See handbook for details.)