Day in the Life of an Idiot

Accelerated Reader is so much a part of the problem here. Gifted/talented/Bored/ Normal - AR can suck the fun and life out of any book.

All three of my daughters struggled with AR - one because there were not enough AR books at a significantly interesting level for her to read in the library, and they had to read AR books to make their "goal."
And two that hated the strictures of AR - one likes non-fiction and the school hadn't purchased those tests and the other struggled with the Baatan Death March of forced reading.

I teach 7th grade, and there are books that kids read when they are too young for them. A student can read all the words and understand what happens but miss a lot of the subtext. I'd put the Philip Pullman books in this category. Great stories, fabulous action - hey, did you catch that whole indictment of organized religion thing going on? Now, I'm SO okay with not getting all the subtext and inference the first time through EXCEPT when a student thinks that they have "read" it already and won't think to reread it when they can get all that other stuff. What a shame to read "Sense and Sensibility" and not think it is funny. So, a student should read anything that they can. And yes, his teacher is short sighted. Besides, the AR levels are mostly based on vocabulary, which is why a book like Holes (easy vocab) is a 4th grade level book when it has that odd palindromic, time shifting timeline. Easy vocab. Complex narrative. Who is the book for?

Some people just LOVE AR. I, as a reader and teacher, hate it.