3 Tips To Ace AR Tests :: Helping Young Readers
A lot has changed since I was in school, especially in way of technology and testing. I was surprised that my kindergartener was already expected to take an AR test, after all she couldn’t even read. But as with everything these days, even the AR test have kept up with technological advancements. With recorded voice tests and iPads, it’s become easy to check even a kindergartners reading comprehension. The first few tests were a little bit of a struggle. I’m sure part of it was learning how to use the program, but I wanted to know what I could do to help. Especially because tests can only be taken once at our school.
After some trial and error, here are my tips to help your young reader ace those AR tests.
1. Bring the book.
Talk to your teacher about sending the book to school with your child while they take the AR test. Even if your child cannot read yet, sometimes looking at the pictures will help remind them of the story details. At the very least, it becomes an emotional support tool.
2. Read books within a series.
When we began our reading journey, we read a bunch of Pete the Cat books. We didn’t move on from that series until we had taken just about every test we could. We moved onto Little Critters, Clifford, Biscuit, Berenstein Bears. The same holds true even for more advanced readers. Stick to a series like Magic Treehouse. Sticking to a series helps the kids learn the characters and really develop a connection to them. It also helps them learn a general plot line they can expect within the series. For example, in magic treehouse the characters always start at home travel to the treehouse, they visit a land from a book before returning home.
3. Use YouTube for read alouds.
My absolute favorite tip is to use YouTube for read alouds. I swear there is not a book that I have not been able to find on YouTube. It is exactly what it sounds like – a person who has recorded themselves reading the book and uploaded it to YouTube. They still show the book and flip the pages just as they would if you were reading it in person. It eliminates the need to go to a library. We listen to book in the car on the way to school, to soccer practice, or at the bus stop. I love how short the videos are and the feeling of maximizing my time/effort the most. This is also perfect for kids who need to read or listen to the book multiple times.
Honorable Mention: Timing
Originally, I thought reading books over the weekend (multiple times) when we seemingly have more time would let her go into Monday ready to ace that test. However, I started to notice my child never actually took tests Monday. Come to find out, other tech requirements such as Lexia and I-ready units completed per week reset on Mondays as well. There was always an emphasis on Mondays to complete the new week’s tech requirements which meant AR wasn’t done until later in the week. So we actually stopped stressing about AR on the weekend and left that for the second half of the school week instead. My suggestion is to check with your kids teacher about optimizing the timing for AR tests. Perhaps there is more time built into their school day to allow for AR tests over a different day of the week.
On that same note, my child’s school takes a break from tech requirements the last week of the grading period to allow kids to catch up on requirements if any school was missed. This was the perfect time for us to get a bunch of reading in and allowed my kid to focus on solely AR – though I learned they do other for fun tech games during this week so it definitely has to be student lead initiative to use this time to the child’s advantage.