Engagement And AR

An interesting article in the New York Times focused on Accelerated Reader, Reading by the Numbers, caused me to reflect on our school division's strategic plan regarding literacy. If engagement involves the dimensions are competence, relevance, belonging, and potency. we must reflect upon our targeted actions and evidence of progress within these dimensions to ensure that we are actually engendering literacy and not promoting "readicide" (Gallager). The proliferation of book contests and reliance on circulation statistics as measures of success are not indicators of a culture of literacy - students who are not proficient readers will not regard these as worthwhile activities and quickly disengage. In agreement with Keene (2008) , we need to students to be Renaissance learners - to stimulate the curiousity and wonder, engage more deeply with texts, and to discover a passion for reading and learning.