A quarter goal of 150 points is insane. That'll sap the life out of even the most voracious reader,
. We use AR, but fortunately our grade goals are somewhat reasonable.
I just got the official OK to rework my son's participation in AR.
His teacher, after looking back at prior year history, decided to start ratcheting up the quarter point goal, bumping it up to "keep it out of reach." [WTH????]
After all this goal line moving, Mr. Teacher had the gall to comment on the fact that DS's AR test scores were dropping below the targeted 85%.
DS has about two weeks left in the quarter, and should finish at 185 points, 1.4million words and >85% correct. This will be more than double the last goal set (when I got the teacher to STOP moving the target). I let DS "run up the score" all on his own just to dispense with all this nonsense about AR once and for all.
Back before this loony AR goal-setting excitement, DS used to average 95% correct and was consistently 2.5-3+ years ahead in grade level. DS read so much more non-AR stuff strictly for pleasure... no strings, tests or grades attached. AND nobody paid any real attention to word count. There were always a couple kids who had higher word counts, and it was nice to have DS not worry about it (like he did this year).
So... as long as the school has been in an accommodating mood, I took the opportunity to remove point and word count goals from the conversation -- and grading -- altogether. Instead, he'll be focusing on NOT burning through books, keeping his accuracy where it was in the past, and advancing his "reading level." This will free him up for all the fun reading he used to do. (And, yes --GROAN-- that includes the occasional Captain Underpants "novel" when he so desires!)
