Middle School AR Test Recommendations

[RUDisney]

I am president of our PTSA this year and we had our first meeting last night. Everyone resoundingly supported a dress down day for a dollar throughout the district that will be used to purchase AR tests for middle school aged children.

Each year, the Elementary Center's PTA gives the district money to purchase tests and most of this money is used to purchase tests for the younger children. Our MS-level tests are lacking.

So, since we have approval from the district and the PTSA to conduct this drive, we are polling the students for ideas for books.

Since most students will only know of a couple of books that they want to read, I'm looking for young adult book suggestions from the DIS.

So far, I've recommended The Blue Blood series by Melissa DeLaCruz, The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead and all of Suzanne Collins' books, Catching Fire, Hunger Games, and the Underland series. We, of course, already own the Twilight series and the Harry Potter series.

So, you all wise DISers, please help me.

 

[dawson5]

Eragon series (3 books, soon to be a 4th), there are books by Rick Riordan,I've seen kids from 4/5th grades into middle school reading them. Mike Lupica several books, all sports related, seen 5th graders on reading them.

Our problems aren't the grade school more than middle, but that they are more geared towards girls.

Possibly go in and volunteer in the library to see what the kids are reading, talk with the librarians (both middle and grade) the younger kids will be moving up and the librarians will know what the kids are interested in. I think speaking with the kids is key. I volunteered last year at our grade school library, got to know some of the kids and saw what they read. When we earned money from the book sales, I remembered what a lot of these kids were interested in and helped the librarian pick new books, things that she didn't remember. It did seem like when she first selected the books they were all girl or younger (K-3) related material. Also talking with the librarian, you might be able to work with them on new books that they have and need AR tests for.

 

[4forMe]

Our school includes all of the Rebecca Caudill winners as well as some nominees for the AR books. Here is a link to the past winners:

http://www.rebeccacaudill.org/winners/index.htm

Our school also seems to have more books geared towards girls. My oldest DS is an avid reader. Here are series that he recommends:

The Hobbit and Lord of the Ring series by J.R.R. Tolkien

Eragon series by Christopher Paolini

The Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan

Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Coffer

Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke

Percy Jackson and the Olympian series by Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief is book 1 of this series)

The Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart

Mike Lupica sports novels (Heat is one of his most popular books)

 

[Rora]

The ever classic, Nancy Drew books. These might be a little young for YA but they're still great!

 

[clutter]

Fairfax County (VA) has an 11 page list of middle school books recommended on it's website. (Somewhere. It's too long to copy here, and I got it off our school's website.) This is a really varied list with something for everyone. My dd read one of the novels that was a contemporary setting and loved it.

 

[Duchie]

What is an "AR" test? Is this for the Accelerated Reading program?

Our elementary school has this and it's not that popular with parents or students. I think my kids' elementary school is one of only 2 in our entire district that uses it, and both schools are elementary only. In fact, I think the district is going to phase it out entirely soon. So it's intersting to know that other schools are still using (and loving) it.

 

[horseshowmom]

I am president of our PTSA this year and we had our first meeting last night. Everyone resoundingly supported a dress down day for a dollar throughout the district that will be used to purchase AR tests for middle school aged children.

Each year, the Elementary Center's PTA gives the district money to purchase tests and most of this money is used to purchase tests for the younger children. Our MS-level tests are lacking.

I don't know your situation, but I know that we used to buy the quizzes too. Last year, we got AR Enterprise - web based rather than computer based (http://www.renlearn.com/ar/getstarted/whatsincluded.aspx). Through it, you no longer buy quizzes - you have access to every quiz they have.

I don't know what it costs, but you can check with AR to find out. If it's too much money for the PTA, you might talk to the powers that be to see whether there is any possible way the funds could be found (Title VI money could probably be used to fund it). It sure makes things easier and opens up lots of options!

 

[dawson5]

What is an "AR" test? Is this for the Accelerated Reading program?

Our elementary school has this and it's not that popular with parents or students. I think my kids' elementary school is one of only 2 in our entire district that uses it, and both schools are elementary only. In fact, I think the district is going to phase it out entirely soon. So it's intersting to know that other schools are still using (and loving) it.

Our schools using it is entirely voluntary. They offer an AR shop 3 times a year (definitely 2, think it's 3 though) where the kids can take their points and use them to buy things in the shop. I have worked it several times, I've seen kids walk out with basketballs, footballs, scooters, cd players, etc. They offer items for every level and actually have two tiers, one K-3 and one for 4-5. The difference is that a book that a K-3 can read is half points for the older kids. In MS, some, not all, teachers offer AR points as extra credit. It was always great seeing the little ones excited about using their points towards items in the shop, older ones were just as excited. Reading those HP books definitely earned some kids some great rewards.

PP I forgot that they did that (web based tests). Our schools are doing that now also. It definitely saved time on helping the kids look if their book was on the list or not. Also lessened the log-jam at the counter during check out.

 

[kristilew]

DD11 is obessively working her way through all of Eva Ibbotson's books. Also, the Firebringer series.

I'll be subbing to this thread to find some more ideas for her. So hard to find a challenging read at this level that is not too sexy and not dealing with issues that are too old.

OP, I would have said Suzanne Collins if you hadn't. Those have been a big hit too, though DD read the Gregor (Underland) books in 1st and 2nd grade, so may be a little young for MS?

Has someone said the Maximum Ride and Daniel X books yet? Also, Neil Gaiman's YA books - the Graveyard Book, Coraline. And The Book Thief, can't remember the author.

 

[kaoden39]

Tamora Pierce has written some wonderful series. The Percy Jackson ones are some of my 13 year old sons favorites. He also loves the Maximum Ride series, he is not quite as fond of the Daniel X series. My daughter has loved the City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. That is also part of a series. Another good book is The Graceling by Kristin Cashore. There are so many great writers in that genre I tend to prefer it to the "grown up" ones. Oh one last book Eon Dragoneye Reborn is a great book too. One last one The Forest of Hands and Teeth, is a great one too, my 13 year old son read it in a few hours.

 

[RUDisney]

Thank you for your recommendations! I didn't know that AR had a complete package deal for online use. I'm going to ask the reading coordinator about the price for that. It seems more agreeable than hand-picking tests.

As for liking/not liking the tests... our district forces our kids to get so many AR points each quarter from 2nd grade through 8th grade. If you don't get enough points, you get points taken away from your final grade. During the 3rd quarter last year, my DS didn't read anything and lost 5 points. He thought it was a joke. He learned that it wasn't.

The kids hate it. Primarily because you can't just read any book for fun, you have to read a preselected book. Sometimes it's hard to pick from the list when they know that something new came out and they can't take a test on it for points if they read it.

In the elementary center, the top 3 point earners get prizes. My DD had 528 points at the end of 6th grade. She got a $25 Borders GC, the entire Lemony Snicket series, and some other odds and ends. She loves to read. At least her brother hasn't figured out that the tests are always the same and she could give him the questions if she wanted to do that.

 

[DisneyTeacher]

Thank you for your recommendations! I didn't know that AR had a complete package deal for online use. I'm going to ask the reading coordinator about the price for that. It seems more agreeable than hand-picking tests.

As for liking/not liking the tests... our district forces our kids to get so many AR points each quarter from 2nd grade through 8th grade. If you don't get enough points, you get points taken away from your final grade. During the 3rd quarter last year, my DS didn't read anything and lost 5 points. He thought it was a joke. He learned that it wasn't.

The kids hate it. Primarily because you can't just read any book for fun, you have to read a preselected book. Sometimes it's hard to pick from the list when they know that something new came out and they can't take a test on it for points if they read it.

I love the web based AR because I can finally buy my son a book at the book store and know there will be a test on it. We used to be limited to a reading list to get his AR points and it was a real pain but with the web based AR there are so many more books to choose from.