Does Accelerated Reader Make Johnny Want to Read?

The purpose of the evaluation study was to identify the factors that motivate local middle school students to read and to determine if students and teachers believed that the Accelerated Reader reading management program (AR) provided these reading motivators. This evaluation included student surveys, student interviews, and teacher surveys. Eighty-nine students were randomly surveyed, and fifteen teachers were surveyed. In addition, fifteen students were randomly selected to be interviewed form among those who had been completed the student surveys. Factors identified in the research literature that seem to motivate middle school students to read include having free reading time and having choice in the selection of reading materials. Middle school student have definite reading preference, and top preferences are scary stories, comics, cartoons, sports books, popular magazines, and drawing books. Other factors that motivate middle school students to read are finding good and interesting materials to read, having a wide variety of interesting reading materials to select from, providing material that students want to read, and providing access to these materials. Students at the local school appear to be motivated to read by the same factors identified in the research literature including similar favorite classroom reading activities and reading preferences. Students were motivated by finding good and interesting materials to read and by having opportunities to obtain reading materials. Many of these motivational factors seemed to be supported by AR. Students enjoyed participating in the program and believed it helped to improve their reading skills. Even so, a majority of the students failed to mention AR as a reading motivator. Further study is needed to ascertain what would motivate more students to participate in the AR program and to improve student and teacher attitudes toward the program.Zahner, JaneBrovey, Andrew J.Leader, Lars F.Ed. S.Instructional Technolog