Second, it drives me nuts when teachers cheapen reading with external rewards. I made a conscious effort to undermine this with my kids in order to keep it intrinsically rewarding.
I agree - at DD6's school they make such a big deal out of earning AR points to get all of these silly certificates that it turns a lot of kids off form reading. The only books in the library are books that have AR tests associated with them! Granted, most books now have AR tests with them, but why should a child have to take a test on every library book they read? Why can't they just read because they think it is an interesting book? I know some of DD's friends hate reading already in 1st grade because of the tests and the thought of not getting enough points to get the next reward before everyone else does.
