R RESPONSES:

Does anyone have their students refer to lists to locate AR books?

      AR Book Finder:  www.arbookfind.com  Has a complete list of books that are AR.

Does anyone have all their AR books grouped together in specific areas of their library?

      Our books are with everything else according to classification.  They are tag with AR stickers.

Does anyone use AR reading level labels on the spine of the book?

    I would highly recommend reading levels on your books.  If you use Follet you can order labels through Alliance Plus.

If you get AR Enterprise there is a feature that will allow you to print out a label with points, reading level, quiz number, and interest level.  We use those on the inside of the front cover of the book.  On the outside, we simply put a colored protector over the call number if the book has AR points.  The students know if there is no label on the outside, there is no reason to open to look for the point sticker.

We have the AR system in place in my middle school.

We label the books with labels we buy from Library Store, Inc.  Then we write the reading level and number of points on the verso of the title page of each book.

We also add a "contents note" to the book's cataloging to indicate it is Accelerated Reader.  That way kids can use the word "Accelerated" as a keyword when searching for a book.

Unfortunately the teachers have taken the whole AR thing a little too far, in my opinion, in the sense that they often insist the students read ONLY AR books.  (This makes it easier for the teachers to assess their progress, because they don't have to read and grade book reports.)  So it has meant that if I have a book I want the kids to read, I have to get an AR test for it (or write one myself, in some cases).  That's just my two cents for what it is worth.

1.  We used to use lists but they are expensive to print.  Students can log on to see the quizzes owned by the library.  We have the older version of AR, not the new one that is online.

2.  We do not group AR books because we have so many; they are interfiled with all other books.  Also, I believe students should have a general understanding of how books are arranged in the library, so shelving AR books separately defeats that purpose.

3.  In the high school I have the blue labels that AR sells on the spines of the AR books, above the call number.  These labels merely identify the books as AR; they do not indicate a level.  I also have the book label that shows title, author, AR level and points, placed on the bottom right side of the first page of the book.  In the elementary school I have book level labels (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc) on the spines of the books.  Each level is a different color.  I also have the book label placed on the bottom right side of the first page of the book.  I sometimes am concerned that older students who have poorer reading abilities might feel embarassed that they are taking a lower level book and that others might be aware of the level of book they are taking (because of the colorful spine labels.)  I had only one teacher mention this to me.  However I have had many tell me that their students would not be able to locate books appropriately without the labels (that is, if I put the blue AR labels on the spines).  I have yet to come up with a better idea that will please everyone.

Does anyone have their students refer to lists to locate AR books? - We did when we had the desktop version.  Now that we have Renaissance Place there are too many titles for lists.

Does anyone have all their AR books grouped together in specific areas of their library? No - there are too many AR books to group like this.  They would be too difficult to find.  The AR books are shelved with the regular collection with AR spine labels for identification.

Students can also see if a book is AR by looking at the catalog record or by searching Renaissance Place.

Does anyone use AR reading level labels on the spine of the book? Yes, yellow AR stickers from library supply vendors (The Library Store, Demco....)

When I worked at Punxsutawney they used Demco's AR lables.  The labels are color coded and also have the level on them.  In the middle school when they added books they also included the level and point value of the books on the call number and the online catolog. 

Does anyone have their students refer to lists to locate AR books?

We have colored dots on spine labels in our easy fiction and fiction

book sections.  We have charts all over the library with colored dots

and reading levels. 

> Does anyone have all their AR books grouped together in specific areas

> of their library?

Right now, we mixed the fiction and nonfiction books.   As for easy

fiction books, we separate them and are in the process of buying more AR

quizzes.  In few years, we will mix them together. 

> Does anyone use AR reading level labels on the spine of the book?

Yes, I use from the bottom - spine label, AR Logo, colored dot. 

>  Also, if you label the books what type of labeling system are you

> using (i.e. Demco labels, colored dots etc.) ?

I use colored dots from Demco

Port Allegany Jr. Sr. High School labels books this way for AR:

--the blue label on the spine

--a red dot for a middle grade book (MG) or greed dot for an upper grade

book (UG)

--label on the back cover near the date due slip that states the title of

the book, author, AR point value, reading level, UG or MG, and quiz number

At the circulation desk I have the AR quiz list printed. This list shows

the books in ABC order by title, author, MG/UG,  book level, point value,

fiction/nonfiction.

I also have a list of only the UG books because a lot of the teachers

require only UG level books.

Can you please share your information/responses?  My middle school principal wants to institute AR next year – and I will need to be AR ready by August 2010.

Our Elementary does AR, they place a blue AR label on the spine and an AR white sticker on the back (this includes the test number, Book level, and point value) for each AR book.

I’m not sure where to even start here in the middle school. When I import MARC records off of Access PA, sometimes it has the AR info in, but I’m not sure how to get my catalog all up to date with AR.

We have AR in all of our schools.  I’m not sure how they work it in the other buildings, but we have students locate the AR book from the Destiny.  We have that feature from Follett.  In fact, we have some students in the library today getting AR books.  It seems to work well.

We label all our AR books with a colored dot on the spine.  Then we also label them with the reading level.  You can buy them but we make our own.  Just write the # and tape it on.  We also then label the point value on the cover so kids know many points it's worth.

  We started out with an AR section, grouping them by reading level and fiction vs. nonfiction.  We also purchased the Enterprise system which gives us access to all AR quizzes.  Kids love it!  Hope this helps!

We use AR in our building, grades 6-8.   All of my AR books are listed in Athena.  I do have a list students can refer to on my EDLINE page and also at the Prospect Public Library.  I do not have my AR book grouped together nor do I have the colored coded AR spine levels indicating the level.  I don't think it is appropriate in the middle school.  The only spine label I use is from Demco and it has a red book on it and it says Accelerated Reader.

I hope this helps!

My students do not have a list to look at for AR books.  I have the AR books separated by putting all the AR books at the end of the section.  For instance, I have Easy fiction books and then Easy fiction AR books.  We have blue AR labels on the spines of the books to label them.  I’m not sure how we got them, but my tech person made it up and we print them on address labels and cut them.  We do have AR levels on spines or on the back of the book.  I have heard it is to be inside, but that takes a lot of work to put the labels on and to have the children find the information.  Also, some of the book companies place them there if you get the books already processed.  Hope this helps.

We use AR at Canon-McMillan.  At the elementary level, we color code

the books with dots on the spine.  Light green is k level, red is

first grade reading level etc.  We write the reading level and points

inside the front cover.  Books are shelved where the would be

normally.  I don't recommend creating a special section for ar's.  We

started off that way and found that students weren't learning to use

the library.

Follett can spit out a list that matches your books with what is AR.  That will help you.but if you get it you can go to their site to their site and look it up. Don’t group them together, you’ll never find anything. We started to buy it processed with the label on but I’m debating at the higher level because I’ll have to go back and relabel everything. 

Are you looking at going with the Renaissance Place or the AR program?  There is an AR bookfinder online that the students can access the total list of books with AR tests.

I have been doing AR since 1995 and just this year went to doing it online (Renaissance Place).   

I did all three ways of  marking the books.  I marked with green dots (first), placed reading levels on the spine (started this later), and  I also cataloged them in the opac.  This way a student can find them anyway they search.  This initially was time consuming but worth the effort.  Are you starting this year?   

I did not felt it was advisable to place them in a separate section of the library because this detracts from their skill of using the card catalog.  Finding a book is an essential part of the library curriculum and a life long learning tool they will need to use in their school career.  So this method I did not use. 

We’ve been using AR for about 15 years now. I color code my books and put the actual reading level on the outside of the books. This way the students don’t have to open the book to find the reading level. I just use colored dots. I just get the mixed color packages. For the beginning readers I use a plain dot for the lower half of the reading level (0.5-1.4) and add a smiley face to the dot for the upper half (1.4-1.9).

The only change I would have done is using yellow for the  books in the middle range. The reason is that is where the largest bulk of the books fall, in my case, I’m elementary so its the 4th grade books. The yellow dot is found in all the mixed color packages so I end up with a surplus of that color and run short on the color I actually picked for 4th grade, which is pink.

I don’t have lists because we subscribe to Renaissance Place and have access to all the quizzes. I do have AR tagged on my marc records. I have Follett Destiny and it allows you to search for AR books by reading level and points. I have taught the students how to do that search and they use it frequently. Ar also has a free online program which you can use to search any title and find the reading level and point value. Students can access that from home from Edline.

I have them shelved with the rest of the collection. Because we have Renaissance Place and have been involved with it for some many years, the majority of my books have quizzes attached to them.