After a little break last month the Quiz Writers have started off with a small 130-odd quizzes released this month.
I had a quick look down the list and noticed a couple of Christmas type books.
2011 – October Release
6 December 2011 By Leave a Comment
Due to holidays and a change of systems we didn’t release any quizzes into the Australian market in October this year.
The normal production schedule will resume in November
2011 – September Release
6 October 2011 By Leave a Comment
This month sees us release 139 quizzes into the Australian market.
As I was looking down the list of quizzes released these things just popped into my head:
- Even more quizzes on Daisy Meadows books – how can there be any more of these fairy books to quiz
- Even more quizzes on Adam Blade books – this has to be getting to the end of this Beast Quest series
A series that stood out for me in the list was the Oliver Moon series.
You can download the list here –
2011 – August Release
9 September 2011 By Leave a Comment
The month of August sees more than 400 quizzes released.
You can download the PDF of the list here
Teachers as Theory Builders
2 August 2011 By Leave a Comment
Back in 2003 Dr Lyn Wilkinson from Flinders University presented a keynote address at an education conference in South Australia. Her keynote, Teachers as Theory Builders, appeared to me an academic storytelling exercise. The story was underpinned by the things we expect from academics; research, interviews and conclusions. The end result was a great description of how Accelerated Reader is simply a tool that teachers can use with great effect once they have applied the theory that they inherently possess.
This article makes for great reading. Since that keynote the article has appear in a few academic journals, but this is the version that I personally prefer.
2011 – June and July Release
2 August 2011 By Leave a Comment
The releases for June and July reflect our move from filling gaps in the collections to a focus on recent books. I hope to keep this focus going over the remainder of 2011 and into 2012. The latest quiz releases have been updated on the AR Advantage sites and into the Desktop Quiz Store.
The combined June and July releases included 700+ new quizzes in the Australian AR system now.
You can download the PDF’s here:
2011 – May Release
14 June 2011 By Leave a Comment
The Quiz Writers have been very busy throughout May this year, this month sees more than 400 quizzes released.
The biggest news, for me anyway, is that Diary of a Whimpy Kid – The Ugly Truth has finally been released as a quiz. Can you let all those students who have been emailing me each month that this quiz is now available. It is always exciting to hear from students, and even more exciting when I can deliver on the requests.
The other big highlights are the additions to the Artemis Fowl, Young Samurai and Alex Rider Series…
Expression of Interest – Term 3 AR Reading Challenge
4 May 2011 By Leave a Comment
In late 2010, Alex Rayner from Lord Lawson of Beamish school in the UK contacted me with the general idea of setting up a collaboration between his school and one in Australia. By absolute chance that very day the Australian cricket team was announced for the upcoming Ashes series between England and Australia.
So I got to thinking, here we have an English school wanting to collaborate with an Australian school, the Ashes are about to be played in the upcoming Australian summer… So the AR Ashes were born!
The next step was to find an Australian school that wanted to play in the AR Ashes. Seeing this was the very first time we had constructed such a competition I needed to keep the competition pretty small and decided to invite only a few schools to play so that it didn’t become too big!
I sent off a few invites hoping that I might find one school to play. Well, every school that I contacted decided that it was a great idea and we ended up with 6 schools playing in the AR Ashes.
The competition was very simple:
- Each school created as many teams of students they liked – some used classes some used smaller groupings
- Each student completed a STAR Reading test to determine their current Reading Age
- Each student was assigned an AR Points Target based on 20 minutes of daily reading over 6 weeks from the standard AR Points Target Chart
- All the individual AR Points Targets were added together to form a team s
- The AR Points each team accumulated were then used to calculate a percentage of target
- The team with the highest percentage of target was the winner
We awarded prizes for the following categories:
- All members of the winning team received a $15 iTunes voucher
- The individual student with the highest personal percentage of target received a $100 iTunes voucher
You can view all the details here – www.ARReadingChallenge.com.au
Here is some feedback from the schools that played:
“Gave our normal program a different focus and added interest and motivation”
“The classes involved were highly motivated and excited about reading which was great to see”
“Our students were very disappointed when the competition ended.”
I have a plan to run an Australia and New Zealand competition in Term 3 this year. If you want to play or more details complete the form below:
2011 – April Quiz Release
4 May 2011 By Leave a Comment
Our quiz writers have focused on filling some gaps in collections, this might be a series or an author’s collection, so these 280+ Reading Practice quizzes might be a little older than we normally release. But I think filling in the gaps is a really useful idea – I hope you do too.
We also continued our release of Vocabulary Practice Quizzes this month, with another 200+ VP quizzes released into the Australian market. This latest Vocabulary Practice quiz release takes us over the 800 quizzes in this exciting new category.
Just a reminder that all the VP quizzes already have an RP quiz on the system
2011 – March Release
21 March 2011 By Leave a Comment
This month our quiz writers have split their efforts between the standard Reading Practice Quizzes and the new Vocabulary Practice Quizzes. We released in total 500+ quizzes this month. Now before I get 100+ emails, the latest book in the Diary of a Whimpy Kid series is coming in April.
This is the Reading Practice Quiz list:
The Vocabulary Practice Quizzes are here:
Just a reminder that all the VP quizzes already have an RP quiz on the system
Meet Cosmo, an AR Champion
12 February 2011 By Leave a Comment
This little guy is meant to help you explain Accelerated Reader to your students.
You see Cosmo was a little worried about selecting a book in the library, but realised that he had just completed his STAR Reading test. So he selected a book within his reading range and ended up getting fantastic results on his latest AR Quiz.
The bookmark and the poster are basically the same, just different size of course.
The bookmark is 250mm x 55mm, whilst the post is A2 size. Both are full colour and a nice glossy finish.
This is the bookmark
Click through to complete the order form
2011 Support Plan
12 February 2011 By Leave a Comment
All of our training and support services are provided to customers with an Annual Support Plan.
For $250 + GST per annum schools are covered for all technical and support services. This fee allows a school to access the following benefits:
- Unlimited telephone based support, via a Freecall telephone number, staffed 8:30am through 5:00pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week, excluding Victorian Public Holidays
- One (1) Free 1-on-1 Implementation Assessment and Consulting with an EdAlliance Consultant that has implemented the software in a classroom
- Three (3) free web-based tutorials on the implementation of AR, thus ensuring that all your staff can stay up to date on how to use the software in a classroom
- Free replacement CD’s for any product purchased from EdAlliance
The order form is here:
2011 – February Release
12 February 2011 By Leave a Comment
This month we have 350+ quizzes added to the Reading Practice list for Australia.
2011 – January Release
12 February 2011 By Leave a Comment
The quiz writing and release team have been busy over the summer with another 750 quizzes released this month
2010 – December Release
12 February 2011 By Leave a Comment
We added 750 Reading Practice Quizzes this month
2010 – November Release
2 December 2010 By Leave a Comment
This month we have added another 112 Vocabulary Practice Quizzes.
If you missed the information on the release of Vocabulary Practice Quizzes and how to use them, the article can be read here.
Explicitly Develop Students’ Vocabulary
3 November 2010 By 1 Comment
Accelerated Reader Advantage now includes Vocabulary Practice Quizzes to explicitly develop and assess students’ vocabulary from the books they read. Students regularly using Accelerated Reader complete lots of reading practice which can now be extended to explicitly teach new vocabulary.
Over the coming months we will release more than 1000 Vocabulary Practice quizzes. The first 216 Vocabulary Practice Quizzes are active now, you can download the list here
The Basic Facts that you need to know
- There will 1000 Vocabulary Practice Quizzes released over the coming 6 months
- 216 VP Quizzes in this batch
- If a student passes a Reading Practice Quiz on a book with a VP Quiz they will be prompted by the software to do the VP Quiz
- Teachers can also setup routines to use VP Quizzes which explicitly develop vocabulary in their students
I have put together these details instructions on using VP Quizzes. You can download and email to your teaching staff.
This presentation will also explain the details on the VP Quiz structure and how to use them.
Explicitly Develop Student Vocabulary
View more presentations from David Linke.
Save Money On Quiz Purchases
20 October 2010 By 2 Comments
Buy Quizzes from as Low as $4.00 Each
For the next few weeks we are running a special on quiz purchases. We know that budgets are getting a bit low and you need to extract as much as you can. So we are offering Accelerated Reader Reading Practice Quizzes at a discount.
You just need to buy either a 100 quiz or 200 quiz voucher to get the saving.
The fine print:
1. You are ordering a pre-paid voucher to be added to your online Quiz Account – we will email you back the code
2. The pre-paid voucher allows you to download any reading practice quiz, bypassing the order minimum
3. The voucher never expires
4. The reduced price is only for quiz vouchers ordered using this form
5. We must receive your order by 15 November 2010
The order from is here –
2010 – September
12 October 2010 By Leave a Comment
I think this is the last of the Gap-Filling project that began this year, meaning this is a strange group of quiz releases. Look out for the latest Conspiracy 365 books, even the September one was released this month.
AR Desktop Life Cycle FAQ’s
8 October 2010 By Leave a Comment
AR Desktop FAQ’s
Now that AR Advantage is really taking off in our region I have been receiving lots of questions about my plans for the old desktop products. So I thought this short post might answer the common questions and help you plan what to do in your school.
When you say, Desktop Product, what do you mean?
The term desktop basically means the software you have installed on your computers and local area network across the school. AR Advantage the new version of the product is a fully hosted internet accessed tool.
The desktop versions are:
Accelerated Reader – v5.1 or v6.3x
STAR Reading – v2.2.1 – no other version is applicable to Australia or New Zealand and is not supported in this region
Can I continue to use the desktop products?
Yes, you own the software and the quizzes associated with that license.
Will the desktop products continue to work?
Yes, but as computer operating systems develop over the coming years these old pieces of software will become harder and more expensive for you to maintain. If you are in a Western Australian school on the 100 schools project (or whatever the new name of this project is) or in Queensland on the MOE you will know that AR v5.1 has created you lots and lots of headaches. This is basically because AR v5.1 was written in 1999, long before managed operating systems were even thought about.
If you have Windows 7 or MAC OS X computers you will know that AR v5.1 is really clumsy on those computers.
Will there be new desktop versions of AR and SR for Australia and New Zealand?
No, the current versions are the LAST versions that are being created for the desktop market in Australia. There is no further development occurring on the desktop version for this market, new features released for the AR Advantage system will not be included in the desktop versions.
Will I be able to buy quizzes in the future?
Yes, the AR Quiz store is still operating and I have no plans to shut it down. All the Reading Practice Quizzes and Literacy Skills Quizzes released in Australia will continue to be released into this system.
In the next week or so I am announcing the release of Vocabulary Practice Quizzes, more to come soon. These types of quizzes will NOT be available to AR Desktop customers. Your software will not run them and as such they will not be added to the AR Quiz store.
If you want more information on the AR Advantage upgrade you can view this site – www.ARUpgrade.com.au
I am more than happy to answer any question you have to help with the decision to upgrade or remain with the old desktop product. You can email me at david.linke@edalliance.com.au or call me.
Reading Log Book
9 September 2010 By Leave a Comment
A few years ago the fabulous Ms Del Merrick the Support Teacher at Rangeville State School in Queensland designed a reading log book for Accelerated Reader. You can download these PDF’s and print your own Reading Log in a small booklet format. They look fabulous and have a small set of great reminders for students when they read.
This is the outside cover –
This is the inside cover, print on the back of the outside cover –
This is the first page of the inside pages, print one –
This is the actual log book pages that students print out, print one on the back of the First Inside Page from the previous step –
Now I suggest that you print 2 more double sided pages of the the Inside Pages so that you can make a nice booklet.
2010 – June July and August Releases
8 September 2010 By Leave a Comment
I have been really slow in getting these PDF’s put up on the website, sorry for the delay.
The really big Gap-Filling process started this year has been hugely successful. We have over 17,000+ quizzes in the Australian store now. We have released so many quizzes each month that I have had to separate them into Lower Years (LY – for K through Year 4), Middle Years (MY – for Year 5 through Year 8 ) and Upper Years (UY – for Year 9+).
The June Releases:
Lower Years (K- Year 4) –
Middle Years – (Year 5-8) –
Upper Years – (Year 9+) –
The July Releases:
Lower Years (K- Year 4) –
Middle Years – (Year 5-8) –
Upper Years – (Year 9+) –
The August Releases:
Lower Years (K- Year 4) –
Middle and Upper Years –
AR Advantage Upgrade Website
28 August 2010 By Leave a Comment
Many of you will know that EdAlliance bought the online version of Accelerated Reader to Australia in 2009. AR Advantage is the name of this online, fully hosted and integrated package of software.
We have developed a new website that will explain the new version if you are interested in upgrading.
You can visit the site at www.ARUpgrade.com.au
2010 – May and June Release
23 June 2010 By Leave a Comment
The massive “gap-filling” task that we embarked on at the beginning of this 2010 is now really taking off. We have release more than 2,000 quizzes in the past 6 weeks. These quizzes are all gaps in series that were started over the years and not completed. There are also lots of new titles in amongst this all to.
Considering the number of pages this release has stretched to, I contemplated the different ways I can make it more readable. So the end result is splitting it into the various sections based on Interest Level of the quizzes.
So here are the quiz release PDF’s for this month:
The Lower Years (K-4) –
The Middle Years (5-8) –
The Upper Years (9+) –
Free Quiz Matching Service
5 May 2010 By 1 Comment
There have been more than 2,000 quizzes released into the Australian AR quiz store this year. I feel like we are really accelerating the filling of the gaps and I hope that you see this too. There have been a few little hiccups like the odd duplicate or the wrong jacket image appearing on www.ARBookFind.com.au, but all of these are been fixed right now.
With all these new quizzes I have been thinking about how a school matches their library collection to the available quizzes. AR Advantage customers can access AR Bookguide as part of their annual subscription. AR Desktop customers can access the AR Quiz Manager tool developed, sold and supported by Libcode Library Systems. But what about a simple service to help schools just do a one off match of their libraries to the AR Quiz list…
I am not sure that anyone really wants this service, but it might make things very much easier to find quizzes in these new big releases.
So I am offering you a one off free quiz match!
All you need to do is send me an export from your library management system. If you send me a US MARC or MARC21 format file of your library collection, and your reading resources if you want, I will match that to the current quiz list and email you back a spreadsheet detailing the books in your school that matches a current AR Quiz.
You can email me at david.linke@edalliance.com.au
2010 – April Release #2
3 May 2010 By Leave a Comment
April has seen us release 1000+ quizzes into the Australian market. I had originally added the release, then heard that we had one more batch to publish, so here is the 2nd release for the month.
I am getting very excited about this release process, we are really moving ahead in filling the gaps created over the years.
Managing the AR Classroom
30 April 2010 By
EdAlliance has developed a simple, straight forward no fuss method of implementing Accelerated Reader in your classroom. This two hour seminar introduces you to the basic concepts of Accelerated Reader and together we develop an Action Plan for immediate implementation in your classroom.
The concepts we address are:
- The basic definitions used in AR – Book Level, Points, Interest Level, Reading Range
- STAR Reading Tests – How to administer, how to interpret the data generated
- Developing an Effective Classroom Monitoring System
- Using the TOPS Report Effectively
- Reviewing the Diagnostic Report Data
- Intervening for Student Success
Extending the AR Classroom
30 April 2010 By Leave a Comment
Once a school has the basics in place with their Accelerated Reader Implementation it is time to think about the use of the data to truly motivate your readers.
This two hour seminar extends the basic concepts of Accelerated Reader from simple reading books, taking quizzes and reviewing TOPS reports into a core part of your reading management system.
The concepts we address are:
- Using the AR Diagnostic Data
- Setting Individual Goals
- Using Certifications to recognise student progress
- Reviewing the school-wide data
- Focusing the AR Implementation on the
- Quality of Reading Practice
- Quantity of Reading Practice
- Level of Reading Practice
At the end of this session teachers across the school will have a detailed action plan on how to extend AR into a reading motivation system. They will have the necessary data to support their professional judgement about students’ reading.
2010 – April Release
22 April 2010 By Leave a Comment
This process of filling in the gaps is series that I flagged a few months ago is really producing some great material.
This month we have released 700+ quizzes. There are such great series represented here:
- We start the Conspiracy 365 Series, January and February out now, then the others should come out each month from here
- All the Mystery Mob series
- The Oxford Reading Tree series sees some 100+ titles added
- All the Lionboy series have been finished and relased
- All the Max Axiom books have been quizzed and released
- A series of classic books abridged and targetted for the middle years
Lots of good things happening with quizzes this month and over the next few months to.
2010 – March Release
6 April 2010 By 1 Comment
A heap of great authors and some exciting new books released this month.
The highlights of the authors might be:
| Author |
| Abela, Deborah |
| Aiken, Joan |
| Bradman, Tony |
| Brown, Dan |
| Dahl, Roald |
| Deary, Terry |
| Dhami, Narinder |
| d’Lacey, Chris |
| Gaiman, Neil |
| Hawes, Alison |
| Horowitz, Anthony |
| Meadows, Daisy |
| Meyer, Stephenie |
| Muchamore, Robert |
| Powling, Chris |
| Rowling, J.K. |
| Sparkes, Ali |
| Waddell, Martin |
| Zucker, Jonny |
You will see some new books from Anthony Horowitz, the completion of the Twilight Series and the Daisy Meadows books.
AR Motivation Ideas – Vol 1
5 March 2010 By Leave a Comment
A long time ago I wrote this short eBook on using AR to motivate students to read. The eBook is bascially a collection of the celebrations I have seen in schools over the years of training on the use of AR.
The ideas in the book are all based on the use of AR points to motivate students. Remembering that AR points are a unit of measure and nothing more. The higher the points for a book the the longer that book. By setting each student in your class an AR Points Target you can really focus on increasing the Quantity of each student’s Reading Practice. The ideas in the book are focussed on the % of a students target that they achieve, thus allowing all students in the class to compete equally regardless of their reading level or capability.
I hope you can use some of these to motivate the students reading practice in your classroom.
2010 – February Release
5 March 2010 By 2 Comments
The process that I highlighed last month of filling in the gaps that have been created over the years has started. This month we have relase 300+ quizzes, as the first installment of our planned Term 1 2010 relase of thousands of quizzes.
I can’t really pick the highlights in this list. So I will let the release speak for its self.
2010 – January Release
5 February 2010 By Leave a Comment
We have added 260 quizzes to the Australian AR Store this week.
There are so many new quizzes, I am struggling to find the highlights due to there being so many, but let’s go with these as a starter:
- The Diary of a Whimpy Kid Series
- Lots and lots of books by Erin Hunter
- A few more of Colin Thompson’s stuff
2009 – December Release
15 December 2009 By Leave a Comment
The highlights of this month’s release are the following authors
| Pierce, Tamora |
| Pilkey, Dav |
| Pratchett, Terry |
| Simon, Francesca |
| Stine, R.L. |
| Usher, Frances |
| Wilson, Jacqueline |
2010 will see us fill the gaps that have been created over the years. During Term 1 2010 we will release 4,500+ quizzes. Most of them have been written are in the final stages of approval for realse. I hope that we will release all of these quizzes during February, March and April. So by the end of April 2010 we will have 15,000+ quizzes available in the Australian market.
2009 – October and November Release
1 December 2009 By Leave a Comment
Our planned quiz release for October actually slipped over to November, so this month we have a bumper 311 quizzes in the release and cover a huge range of books that many schools have requested.
Some of the authors in this list include:
| Arena, Felice |
| Colfer, Eoin |
| Cresswell, Helen |
| Deary, Terry |
| DiTerlizzi, Tony |
| Fensham, Elizabeth |
| Hartnet, Sonya |
| Horowitz, Anthony |
| Johnson, Pete |
| Jonsberg, Barry |
| Masters, Anthony |
| Mayhew, James |
| Muchamore, Robert |
The Judy Moody series of books were released in this month also.
2009 – September Quiz Release
1 October 2009 By Leave a Comment
Sorry that I have been so late in getting this notification added to the website. I have just been all over the place trying to get a few things in place with the AR Advantage product we have launched this year.
This month we release 170 quizzes with the balance of the Geronimo Stilton released. We really tried to focus on the requests of customers, thank you for sending through to us.
2009 – August Quiz Release
9 September 2009 By
This is the first month using our new quiz writing and release process. We collated all the quiz requests over the past few months and ranked them by the number of requests. Quizzes were written on the highest ranked books whilst trying to ensure that we did all the books in a series. We’ll be refining this process over the coming months.
From your feed back about the order this release list was presented in, we have now changed it from title to author order. I am working on releasing these quiz lists in series order also once we have a consistent method of generating that data.
So over to the books… This month really is about filling gaps, patching holes and responding to a series of requests. There wasn’t a great deal of science in this list but we tried to respond to AR users who requested these books.
A couple of things I that I think are worth mentioning:
- Cassandra Claire’s – City of … series has been started and the first two released this month
- Francesca Simon’s Horrid Henry series has been started and most released here
- And a few graphic novels that might motivate some reluctant readers
Coming Up Next Month….
The Scott Westerfeld series of books….
About 50 -odd Geronimo Stilton quizzes…
A few series requested specifically for girls, lots about fairies and ponies – sorry if this sounds stereotypical but I am just reporting on the the quiz team’s feedback!
If you have any quiz requests we would love to hear about them. You can send through a list to David.Linke@EdAlliance.com.au or use this form http://www.accreader.com.au/suggest_titles/
Writing Teacher Made Quizzes
7 September 2009 By 6 Comments
There may be times when you just can’t wait for a quiz to be written by us, or the book you want quizzed is specialist to your school needs. You may also want to consider having students write quizzes as an extension exercise. With AR you can write your own quizzes called Teacher made quizzes.
Teacher made quizzes are Reading Practice Quizzes that teachers, librarians or other staff members add to Accelerated Reader. The software allows the creation of 500 teacher made Reading Practice Quizzes per school. The quiz numbers 900–1399 are reserved for these quizzes.
As preparation for creating a quiz, read several books written at the same readability level as the book for which you plan to write a quiz. Then take the matching Accelerated Reader Reading Practice Quizzes.
When writing a quiz think about these points:
- the book’s important events
- ask questions in a sequence that matches the events in the book
- write clear questions and answers
- make sure the incorrect answers are plausible and do not give away the correct answer easily
- use vocabulary that is about the same level of difficulty as the book
- ask other teachers to give the quiz a trial before releasing it for student use
You need to do a bit of research before writing your quiz:
- book level
- word count
To help determine the book level and word count, search for the book details on www.Amazon.com, you might just find the exact ATOS level and the number of words in the book. The AR software will automatically calculate the number of points a quiz is worth based on the word count and book level.
You will need to decide how long your quiz will be. It can be 5, 10 or 20 questions long. Consider book level and length when deciding how many questions to include.
Creating the Actual Quiz:
- Log into your AR Site with an account that has the privileges to Manage Quizzes, this is typically the AR Coordinator, Librarian or Administrator
- Select the Manage Quizzes link from the Accelerated Reader Tab
- Select Reading Practice
- Select View All Teacher Made Quizzes
- Select Add Teacher Made Quiz
- Enter the details of your book
- Write your quiz
- Remember to select the check box at the end that allows students to take the actual quiz
Quizzes for $4.50 Each
10 August 2009 By
Reading Practice Quizzes are on sale for the next few weeks. Simply place an order for 200 Reading Practice Quizzes using this form and you only pay $900 + GST for the lot.
- You are ordering a pre-paid voucher to be added to your online Quiz Account
- The pre-paid voucher allows you to download any reading practice quiz without the need for a minimum number of quizzes in the order
- The voucher never expires
- The reduced price is only for quiz vouchers ordered using this form
- We must receive your order by 15 August 2009 Extended Until 23 August 2009
If you have any questions call EdAlliance on 1800 655 359 0r email at Sales@EdAlliance.com.au
Downloading AR Quizzes – Mac
10 August 2009 By
The attached PDF details the step-by-step instructions for the downloading of AR Quizzes in a MAC environment.
Downloading AR Quizzes – Windows
10 August 2009 By
The attached PDF details the step-by-step instructions for the downloading of AR Quizzes in a Windows environment.
2009 – July
7 August 2009 By
A huge number of customers have requested these quizzes. It has taken a little longer than it should have, but here are some older books that lots of students are reading:
Matthew Rielly
Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
And a few more to round out this month of releases.
2009 – April
15 July 2009 By
This month we release 35 new quizzes, including the first of the Hank Zipper Series of books by Henry Winkler.
