Accelerated Reader and a Data Wall Freebie

 Does your school do Accelerated Reader? We do. I had not done this program until I moved to my current school. I love that there are so many resources out there for Accelerated Reader! It really is a great motivator for the younger kids. 

So the Common Core has the goal that students will become more independent and take ownership of their learning. An easy way to do this is to make their learning accountable for them. I try to find ways to track data in my classroom and this is a super easy way to do so. 

This is my AR board at the beginning of the year. There is one completed boat to give the kids an idea of what we are working for. If you are not familiar with the AR program the computer gives a diagnostic test to each student. Then I use the range to place the students in a level. From there I can assign goals or allow the computer to manually assign goals based on reading level and amount of minutes read. Each student is given their goal and then works in 25% increment in hopes to achieve their goal by a certain deadline. We work from quarter to quarter.

So here we are just past the halfway point, and I am updating their boats. As they move toward their goal they earn a flag that I have laminated. You can see Wyatt here has met 75% of his goal.

My strong readers have just about completed their goal for the nine weeks. I'll do adjusting to their goals as I learn more about them as readers. You'll notice that some of the boats have no flags. Why? Well everyone has taken an AR test or ten. My students must score 85% or higher to actually have the test count. It's a real bummer in first grade because many books only have three or four questions! If the kids miss one then they are not at the correct proficiency level. I hate it - not my rule! It will take some time but they will get it. 

Onto the freebie. If you would like to create a data wall in your own room click the picture below. It's a simple pattern for the boats and flags. I used a die cut machine to create the life preservers. I just punched out an 'o.' 

 I hope you are able to make use of this freebie in your own classroom.