Accelerated Reader Student Software Program Review

Accelerated Reader Student Software Program Review Accelerated Reader is one of the world’s most popular reading programs. The software program, commonly referred to as AR, is designed to motivate students to read and to assess their overall understanding of the books that they are reading. The program was developed by Renaissance Learning Inc., which has several other programs closely related to the Accelerated Reader program. Although the program is designed for student’s grades 1-12, Accelerated Reader is especially popular in elementary schools across the country. The programs main purpose is to determine whether or not the student has actually read the book. The program is designed to build and encourage students to become lifelong readers and learners. In addition, teachers can use the program to motivate their students by providing rewards that correspond to the number of AR points earned by the student. Accelerated Reader is essentially a three-step program. Students first read a book (fiction or nonfiction), magazine, textbook, etc. Students may read individually, as a whole group, or in small group settings. Students then individually take the quiz that corresponds to what they just read. AR quizzes are assigned a point value based on the overall level of the book. Teachers often set weekly, monthly, or yearly goals for the number of points they require their students to earn. Students who score below 60% on the quiz do not earn any points. Students who score 60% - 99% receive partial points. Students who score 100% receive full points. Teachers then use the data generated by these quizzes to motivate students, monitor progress, and target instruction. Internet-Based Accelerated Reader is Internet-based meaning that it can be accessed easily on any computer that has Internet access. Being Internet based allows Renaissance Learning to automatically update the program and to store key data on their servers. This makes it much easier on a school’s IT team. Individualized One of the best things about Accelerated Reader is that it allows the teacher to dictate how the program is used including the ability to limit students to a reading range that is on their level. This keeps students from reading books that are too easy or too difficult. Accelerated Reader allows students to read on their own levels and to read at their own pace. It does not dictate which book a student reads. There are currently over 145,000 quizzes available to students. In addition, teachers may make their own quizzes for books that currently are not in the system or they may request that a quiz is made for a particular book. Quizzes are added continuously for new books as they come out. Easy to Set Up Students and teachers can be quickly added to the system either through large batch enrollment or individualized addition. Accelerated Reader allows teachers to customize individual reading levels. Teachers can get these reading levels from a STAR Reading Assessment, standardized assessment, or individual teacher assessment. Classes can be quickly set up to allow the teacher to monitor whole class reading progress and to compare individual students within that class. Motivates Students Every quiz in the Accelerated Reader program is worth points. Points are determined by a combination of the difficulty of the book and the length of the book. Teachers often set goals for the number of points each student must earn. The teacher then rewards their students by giving things such as prizes, parties, etc as motivation to meet their goals. Assesses Student Understanding Accelerated Reader is designed to determine whether or not a student has read a particular book and the level at which they understand the book. A student cannot pass the quiz (60% or higher) if they have not read the book. Students who pass the quizzes demonstrate that they not only read the book, but they have a proficient level of understanding of what the book was about. Uses the ATOS Level The ATOS book level is a readability formula used by the Accelerated Reader program to represent the difficulty of a book. Each book in the program is assigned an ATOS number. A book with a level of 7.5 should be read by a student whose reading level is somewhere around the 7th grade and fifth month of the school year. Encourages Using the Zone of Proximal Development Accelerated Reader encourages the use of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The Zone of Proximal Development is defined as the range of difficulty that will challenge a student without causing the student to become frustrated or lose motivation. The ZPD can be determined by the STAR Reading assessment or the teacher’s best professional judgment. Allows Parents to Monitor Progress The program allows parents to do the following: Monitor a student’s progress towards reading goals.Conduct book searches.Review results, view the number of books read, words read, and quizzes passed. Provides Teachers With Tons of Reports Accelerate Reader has about a dozen fully customizable reports. These include diagnostic reports, history reports; quiz usage reports, student point reports, and many more. Provides Schools With Technical Support Accelerated Reader allows you to receive automatic software updates and upgrades. It provides live chat support to answer questions and provide immediate resolution to any issues or problems you have with the program. Accelerated Reader also provides software and data hosting. Cost Accelerated Reader does not publish their overall cost for the program. However, each subscription is sold for a one-time school fee plus an annual subscription cost per student. There are several other factors that will determine the final cost of the programming including the length of the subscription and how many other Renaissance Learning programs your school has. Research To date, there have been 168 research studies that support the overall effectiveness of the Accelerated Reader program. The consensus of these studies is that Accelerated Reader is fully supported by scientifically based research. In addition, these studies concur that the Accelerated Reader program is an effective tool for boosting students’ reading achievement. Overall Assessment Accelerated Reader can be an effective technological tool for motivating and monitoring a student’s individual reading progress. One fact that can’t be ignored is the program’s immense popularity. Observations show that this program benefits many students, but the overuse of this program can also burn many students out. This speaks more to how the teacher is using the program than it does to the overall program itself. The fact that the program allows teachers to quickly and easily assess whether a student has read a book and the level of understanding they have from the book is a valuable tool. Overall, the program is worth four out of five stars. Accelerated Reader can have immense benefits for younger students but can lack in maintaining its overall benefits as students get older.

Free Essays on Changing America

A Changing America The 1920’s, one of the most important era’s in American history. It carried high prestige because of the fact that the 1920’s changed everything, from the way people thought about themselves to the way people had fun and kept themselves entertained. It was an era that had drastic changes in political attitude, economic attitude, and cultural values. The topics addressed in chapter 12 reflect a changing America in that American values and attitudes all changed due to the new wave thinking brought on by the 1920’s. The first major change in American society was the change that occurred in America’s political attitude. The most major change in political attitude was due to Americans newfound hatred of immigrants. Because the 1920’s instilled a sense of national pride and nationalism many Americans were against immigrants. People did not like immigrants because of the fact that they felt they were un-American and gave America a bad name. Since the 1920’s made people feel important because of new found income and entertainment, it made people believe that any time there was a problem in America it was not because of an American. Therefore a lot of the blame was placed on immigrants. So in order to keep America â€Å"American† the government put heavy restrictions on immigrants. One of these restrictions was the Act of 1921, which limited the amount of immigrants entering the United States from Europe. Then in 1924 the American government decided to lower the amount of European immigrants and exclude all Asian immigrants. Another occurrence in the 1920’s that explains the changing political attitude was Prohibition. Prohibition was a law that was passed through a new Amendment that outlawed the consumption and sale of alcohol. This was yet another attempt by the American government to eliminate all things that they felt brought America down. Even though Prohibition decreased domestic abuse and death it... Free Essays on Changing America Free Essays on Changing America A Changing America The 1920’s, one of the most important era’s in American history. It carried high prestige because of the fact that the 1920’s changed everything, from the way people thought about themselves to the way people had fun and kept themselves entertained. It was an era that had drastic changes in political attitude, economic attitude, and cultural values. The topics addressed in chapter 12 reflect a changing America in that American values and attitudes all changed due to the new wave thinking brought on by the 1920’s. The first major change in American society was the change that occurred in America’s political attitude. The most major change in political attitude was due to Americans newfound hatred of immigrants. Because the 1920’s instilled a sense of national pride and nationalism many Americans were against immigrants. People did not like immigrants because of the fact that they felt they were un-American and gave America a bad name. Since the 1920’s made people feel important because of new found income and entertainment, it made people believe that any time there was a problem in America it was not because of an American. Therefore a lot of the blame was placed on immigrants. So in order to keep America â€Å"American† the government put heavy restrictions on immigrants. One of these restrictions was the Act of 1921, which limited the amount of immigrants entering the United States from Europe. Then in 1924 the American government decided to lower the amount of European immigrants and exclude all Asian immigrants. Another occurrence in the 1920’s that explains the changing political attitude was Prohibition. Prohibition was a law that was passed through a new Amendment that outlawed the consumption and sale of alcohol. This was yet another attempt by the American government to eliminate all things that they felt brought America down. Even though Prohibition decreased domestic abuse and death it...

Concept for Nursing Theories course (End-of-life care) Term Paper

Concept for Nursing Theories course (End-of-life care) - Term Paper Example A sixty-year old man has decided to stop treatment for lung cancer and just wait for his death. The patient already received chemotherapy, but his conditions continued to worsen. His kidneys are failing too. The patient, relatives, and health care staff have acknowledged the imminence of death. Specifically, the patient and his/her relatives understand that they will no longer prolong life and they will only wait for their patient’s natural course of death. Second, the doctors and nurses have consulted the patient and kin for the advance end-of-life care plan, where the symptoms’ relief is outlined. The plan also integrates psychological, social, practical, and spiritual aspects of patient care in planning for end-of-life care. Since the patient is Catholic, he already listens to Bible readings every day and receives visits from a priest. Third, the plan includes providing a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and their own bereave ment. This includes counseling for the family and preparing them for the patient’s death. Finally, there should be a clear system of transparency and accountability in the decision-making process. If the patient signs a do-not-resuscitate order, the relatives should respect this decision, no matter how hard it is for them to let go.

Economic Geography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Economic Geography - Essay Example These include corruption of state officials, poor management of resources, and over dependence on foreign aid, poor government policies, lack of proper education, and lack of good infrastructure. These factors, summed up with the global epidemics of global warming and climate change, lead to underdevelopment in a country. Corruption among state officials is a common phenomenon in many underdeveloped and poor countries. This was the case in Kenya’s Goldenberg Saga in which tax payers’ money was squandered in the name of trading gold and other precious stones. The power that these masterminds possess is derived from their money. These corrupt officials never got any legal punishment. The corrupt officials also fail to deploy development funds to the regions that require them, and instead pocket the biggest portions of it. The result of this greed is the lack of development in the deprived regions and the eventual poverty of the people living in these areas. Another cause of poverty and underdevelopment is the poor management of natural resources and their under-utilization. These resources include earth minerals, water bodies, agricultural land, and sources of energy. There is no much effort in tapping natural resources and using them for development. A case in check is solar power. It was hardly tapped in large amounts to power massive utilities. Instead, underdeveloped countries depended on imported petroleum products for fuel. Oil is expensive and one cannot renew it once it is used up, unlike the natural and cheap solar energy and wind energy. Agricultural land is also not utilized to its fullest. Instead, people are abandoning it and going to look for jobs in the cities, and yet these countries have no food security. Poor government policies are also another reason for underdevelopment. These poor policies fail to address the issues affecting underdeveloped countries. They include misplaced financial

Profit Maximisation And Business Behavioural Patterns

Profit Maximisation And Business Behavioural Patterns 1) Every business holds profit maximisation in high regards but profit maximisation does not always influence a businesss behavioural patterns. Profit maximisation is the process in which a company aims to have the best output and price levels, so that the business can receive the highest rate of return. Through this method one cannot explain business behaviour or managerial priorities, but there are a few managerial theories that can. One is the agency theory and the second is the organisation theory. The agency theory is a theory showing the relationship between agents of a company and the company managers. It is used to solve the conflicts between the two, and to unite their interests for the company. Agency theory argues that when there is uncertainty or lack of confidence amongst agents or restriction of information in a company then two agency problems occur. One is called moral hazard and the other is named adverse selection. Moral Hazard is where the company manager does not believe that the agent has fully put 100% effort into their work. Adverse selection is where the company manager does not believe that the agent fully has the ability to perform their work to the highest level. The difficulties and complications of moral hazard and adverse selection mean that fixed wage contracts are not the best way to set up good relationships between company managers and agents. An agent may not like the fixed wage and may use it to be lazy in his work because his compensation will be no different, no matter his standard of work. The provision of ownership rights reduces the incentive for agents adverse selection and moral hazard since it makes their compensation dependent on their performance (Jensen, 1983). The other managerial theory is the organisation theory. This theory refers to those who want to get the best value out of a company. These people need to know how to achieve this goal and also they will need to monitor and control performance to understand how to achieve results by structuring activities and planning. In using this theory people view a company as a firm trying to attain maximizing profits. It does not take notice of the possibility of negative relationships between owners, managers and employees. Organization theory sort of came into being due to competition being so focused on that there was a lack of recognition of other goals in organisation and organisation theory became prominent due to its reaction against such ideas. It was necessary to understand behaviour which seemed to be irrational. The idea that profit maximization is the only goal of the firm and that it explains business behaviour is not accurate at all. Agency theory has shown us that firms may not take part in profit maximizing behaviours due to negative relations between owners and managers. As such it is unlikely that we will ever see profit maximisation even if there were unanimous views amongst owner, managers and employees. If we compare the business behaviour of owner-managed and professionally managed companies we can see that, against the agency theory, professionally managed firms are more likely than not to engage in profit-maximisation. In conclusion, the validity of the statement that since ownership no longer implies control, business behaviour and managerial priorities cannot be explained on the assumption of profit maximisation is valid. Due to several different theories, firms/companies behaviour in business can depend on inter-business relationships, profit maximisation, performance control, activity structuring, etc and profit maximisation alone cannot show this. 2) It is not hard to see that if consumers start to go to smaller and cheaper chains of good producers that it will have a negative impact on larger chains. But using oligopoly pricing theories I will discuss the impact of consumers change of choice and set out the long and short run reactions of the larger chains. An oligopoly is a market dominated by a few large suppliers. The degree of market concentration is very high. Firms within an oligopoly produce branded products, such as nestle, Kelloggs etc and there are also barriers to entry. Also within an oligopolistic market is interdependence between firms, i.e. each firm takes into account the lreactions of competing firms when they are making pricing decisions. As consumers have decreased income due to the recession the popularity of chains such as Aldi and Lidl increased dramatically. As such Tesco and Sainsburys have made efforts to outclass Aldi and Lidl. MICROECONOMICS ESSAY 2 ANTHONY STADDON 000457496 PAGE 3 Due to their small size, Aldi and Lidl are not seen up at the top with companies such as Tesco Sainsburys and Asda and their foreign status means that within the UK they are not monitored nearly as much as if they were local domestic companies. They are increasing popularity due to their cheap goods.. The way in which places such as Aldi and Lidl differ from larger chains is that instead of selling masses of different items that the larger supermarkets like Tesco sell, they sell a limited range. Also instead producing different brands of one item they offer just one. The large volumes that they should shift by selling just one brand means that they can sell them at very low prices. In the short term, companies such as Tesco and Sainsbury would most likely drop their prices on their goods to compete with the smaller stores. However this might have a negative effect on them because they could lose money in doing this and still not regain the customers that have changed to Aldi or Lidl. Though in the short term, they could make vast profit in small time spaces even if it doesnt last. For example, if Tesco, made offers on turkey around Christmas to battle that of Lidls pricing and they were able to sell turkeys at lower prices, then for a short period of time, ( the Christmas period), consumers would go to Tescos. Alas though, as soon as it is no longer Christmas, then the consumers would return to Lidl to continue on their cheap grocery shopping. Aside from festive occasions, Tesco could make little offers to compete with Lidl and Aldi throughout the year, and still make a little profit over the smaller chains. To compete in the long-term, the larger chains reactions are going to have to be a lot more inventive and cunning. They will have to invent systems that allow them to sell goods all year round at low enough prices to beat the smaller chains. For example, Tesco brought about cash savers to compete with Lidl and Aldi in their prices. This system has resulted in the price slashing of thousands of goods and it is not a short term thing. Tesco intent to keep it and use it to muscle the smaller chains out. 3) Pareto efficiency is the concept of when one person cannot not be made better off or has a better position without making someone else worse off. A big problem that economics has to deal with is allocation of resources. Allocation of resources is when resources are distributed among producers and consumers. But to efficiently allocate them one must take into account the cost to attain the resources, to process them and how much of the resource there is to use. Pareto efficiency may provide a weak method for comparing economic outcomes, but it is an important method. Its a weak method due to the fact that there may be several efficient situations in an economy and this method does not help us choose between them. An example would be that two people are walking along a street when they see on the ground a ten pound note. If one of them picked it up and kept it, or the other person picked it up and kept it, or if one of them picked it up and gave it to the other person, then these would all be efficient outcomes. The fact that neither of them gains from finding the bill is not the point but they avoid the inefficient outcome of not picking up the tenner and keeping it.

Free Essay on Whartons Ethan Frome: Symbols and Symbolism :: Ethan Frome Essays

Symbolism in Ethan Frome Ethan Frome, the classic novel written by Edith Wharton contains a great amount of symbolism.   The symbolism allows the characters to express themselves more clearly to the reader.   It brings incidents and personalities together in meaning.   The story’s symbolic events is what pulls characters together in time of need.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Starkfield Massachusetts is a boring cold farm town.   People become very ill there from the terribly harsh winters.   Winter greatly affects the actions and behaviors of the characters.   No quote better describes the harsh winters of Starkfield, and the effect that it had on the townspeople, than the following: When I had been there a little longer, and had seen this phase of crystal clearness followed buy long stretches of sunless cold; when the storms of February had pitched their white tents about the devoted village and the wild cavalry of March winds had charged down o their support; I began to understand why Starkfield emerged from its six months’ siege like a starved garrison capitulating without quarter (7).   Another truly symbolic point of the story is the Elm tree.   The Elm tree symbolizes the end and the escape of two lives.   Even though Mattie an Ethan were not killed by the sled crash, that was their purpose.   The Elm tree also symbolizes strength and courage.   After the crash, the Elm tree was still standing, while Ethan and Mattie were terribly injured.   If Ethan was a stronger person he would not have crashed into the tree with Mattie.   He would have had the strength to say â€Å"no† in the first place.   Zeena who was once a hypochondriac, recovered, and now she takes care of Mattie and Ethan. â€Å"It was a miracle, considering how sick she was-but she seemed to be raised right up just when the call came to her.† (131)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The incident with the red dish is the most symbolic event in the story.   The red dish was a wedding present given to Zeena by one of her relatives.   When the red dish broke, it symbolized the breaking of Ethan’s heart when he found out that Zeena wanted Mattie to leave.   Zeena never used the dish, she kept it in the closet.   One day when Zeena went to get her medicine, she discovered that dish was broken, and that someone attempted to glue it back together.

Exteriority and reliable Essay

Emotions are plucked but there is an almost neurotic and compulsive intentionality behind Tristan which seeks out order in some area of spacious mystery and an almost awesome integrity. As juries have long known that beliefs derived from feelings or sentiment do not in many instances align with what is best supported on rational or scientific foundations of consensus. One’s epistemology of truth and falsehood becomes very much confused and ambiguously mixed that a dazed submission often results which is eminently forgetful as it satisfies promptings of a Freudian libido. Instead of being so concerned with exteriority and reliable or even useful reference modern compositions like Wagner’s Tristan advance possibilities of shielding the ego from the sadistic damage it does to itself by acknowledging the strong and permanent tendency of the ego to seek out satisfying ends and products whenever possible. Even if such things may be mere scatterings of imagined delusions and derived fantasies. Wagner is involved very much with refashioning the world through his conceptual and audible art. Instead of adhering to the World he attempts to exert artistic agency in changing such a world. There is a Marxian spirit behind Wagner as it resolves the problem presented by the issue of construction by thoroughly embracing dilemmas of construction and seeking to master it so that a sense of adequacy can be sustained in a way that is far too perfect. As it is far too perfect is far from simply adequate but is at times quite sublimely pristine in its ability to deliver a kind of pleasurable release and warm gratification that exhibits much to be desired. Nature becomes a warm, maternal figure that pleases infinitely and conjures up procedural joys and swift absolutions of intoxication. The unity once ascribed to the natural is exploited by Wagner’s romantic sensibility as his art achieves a kind of sanctioned sacredness so much so that Coleridge thoroughly condemned attempts to betray such art by dividing it. When Robert Morgan writes of Tristan he points out that â€Å"the Prelude is in constant transformation-always evolving, as if reaching after some unattainable goal, striving at every moment to become something other than it is. Conventional formal analysis appears to be of little value. Focused upon thematic and tonal correspondences, its aim to articulate musical events into discrete segments, distinguishing them by content and function (expository, developmental, etc. ) and organizing them into larger, balanced architectonic patterns, seems antithetical to the very nature of the score. †(69) As the score seems to constantly evolving as it is constantly compromising its layered developments with enticements of harmony and resolution, it’s dangerous to classify Tristan as a case of perpetual striving. Although Morgan asserts that â€Å"Tristan,† does little to offer anything â€Å"in the way of confirmation, reconciliation, or balance,† and instead â€Å"appears to chart a unique and seemingly wayward course,† because he does engage formal analysis as an explanatory instrument quite well it is evidently not true that â€Å"Tristan† is really so individuated or idiosyncratic that it resists formalizations or even more modest theorizations. (69) As Morgan notes in his formal analysis, there is a centripetal aspect to Wagner’s â€Å"Tristan† where, retaining â€Å"the circular image, cycle 1 traces the circle’s complete circumference, while cycles 2-7 loop back and retrace continuous portions of it. Especially notable is the highly self-reflexive nature of the process: this is music that feeds upon itself, reusing the same structural units again and again. †(76) Consequently, there are potentially rewarding and influential interpretation possibilities that can be formalized in a sociological sense, on interconnections between yielding and possessing structural units that are spatially bound and engaged only so much as they are formulated in a kind of imposed fixity. What formalism is grounded on it is a firm belief in universals, not in the mechanics that exist as conventions but are so only because people believe enough to follow by them to create a technical and adequate language within a language for the task at hand. Morgan, by insisting on relatively narrow avenues of evaluation and fixing his acceptance or dismissal on the conventional rather than the essential is really being unfair to the very tendency towards taking tradition serious and believing very much in universals that allow for stimulating simultaneous dialogue between time, space, class, and culture.