Thread: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Sorry Kim I haven't read it, my grandma used to love the t.v. series though.

I wanted to ask you what your opinion is of AR. I guessed from your subtle comment that you aren't a big fan?

I had never even heard of it until I moved to a new district 3 years ago. I don't have my students involved in it but it is very big in this district. I don't know a lot about it but am not impressed with how I have seen it used at some schools. My eldest daughter is now in grade 4 and a big part of her reading grade is based on meeting her AR goals for the month. She has to read so many two point books by the end of each month. Now understand these are not individualized goals. Each student in the class has the same goals. Needless to say my daughter who is ADHD and possibly FAS doesn't do very well with this program. She loves to read but has difficulty reading long chapter books. She losses interest after a few chapters. I also find many of the AR books available are very old and she has difficulty with a lot of the language. I have gotten so frustrated with this I have begun reading the books to her but I worryI am encouraging her to cheat. She is reading at grade level and has good reading comprehension but recieved a C- in reading on her last report card because she hadn't read enough AR books!! Go figure she got an A in social studies?!

My other beef with AR is that prizes are given out for getting so many points (don't get me started on intrinsic vs. extrinsic rewards again!). I also have heard kids say that it is possible to take the tests without even bothering to read the books I've never actually looked at the tests since I don't participate in it. Maybe I should before I criticize it anymore.

I would be interested to hear other people's opinions.

Catherine

I remember reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when I was in high school. Unfortunately, your zest was not a duplication of mine. I don't really remember the book that well, so I imagine it didn't strike me quite so profoundly as it did you.

It seems that this thread has two themes--the original...Hitchhiker--and A.R. I have heard of the reward system with A.R. as part of the Reading Renaissance, but our school (which does use A.R.) doesn't have that portion. We just have the tests. I remember when they introduced A.R. to us, and yes, it is even controversial within our building. For some of my kids, they are motivated by the opportunity to be on the computer not necessarily to show how well they have comprehended the story. Our entire reading series, McGraw Hill, has put all the books in their anthology on A.R. I think when our district went to a new reading series they also wanted to put us on A.R. So, we are. My feelings are mixed as well. My brighter kids use the program to acquire as many points as possible. Sometimes, when I ask them about their book, I do realize getting the points was more important than enjoying the story. I find myself choosing A.R. books to read aloud to help the strugglers and to model questioning and comprehending. Currently, my third graders are reading Hatchet. We love talking about it. They'll meet their objective now, but hopefully they will also enjoy the story along the way.

I heard somewhere that AR was created by a home school mom who wanted to test the comprehension of her own kids. From that idea AR took off. I would hate to think schools are using AR as a replacement for human interactions and communication with and about literature. That would be a very sad thing.

As for Hitchhiker, Kim, I hope your child enjoys the book as you did--with or without A.R.

Kim, I read "Hitchhiker's Guide" many years ago; I remember that I enjoyed it, but don't remember anything about the story. I didn't seek out a sequel and I passed on my paperback to my mother's used book store. That means the book fell into my personal, "kinda interesting, but not enough to spend any more time on" category. Or, that last summer's concussion is at work again; in the beginning of recovery, I reread books on my shelf that had been there for 20 years, loved, read and reread, and I still didn't remember them. Give me a couple of clues, and it could be interesting to see what my memory will dredge up.

About AR....interestingly enough, I was responsible for the first purchase of AR in my district eons ago; at that time, the district hadn't reviewed it or recommended it, and our computer system was "Wasatch only" due to a special deal with IBM. When I left that school we both remember, I had just purchased it with "intersession" dollars I earned for doing before school library programs. The administration sent me several messages, "what do we do with this???" and I kept replying that they could get the district to allow them to load it in the computer lab, or dump it, 'cause it would be useless otherwise. They never did use it, and many years later, all of a sudden the district "discovered" that there was something called "Accelerated Reader" out there which now they say we should all be using!

If I had known to what use it would be put to, I never would have wasted those intersession $$$. Those were my days of innocent enthusiasm. I really, honestly, believed that everyone could clearly see that the way to developing life long readers was to foster a love of reading itself. The assistant principal at that school has a permanent place in my memory, trying to point out to me the error of my ways. I had asked another innocent question about a constructive way to deal with a totally different issue. In a meeting, in front of a room full of teachers, etc., he looked me in the eye and said, loudly, clearly, and sarcastically, "You're such an idealist " , making it clear that that was a bad thing to be.

Needless to say, I don't use AR. My kids take that STAR test provided with it at the beginning of every year because it is required. I have some parents who ask for it; I let them know that their child is free to choose an AR book when we go to the library, and use their library time to take tests if necessary. I do not keep track of anything or recognize test results in any way. I'm sure you can imagine my disgruntlement at seeing the library books divided up by "level" and kids choosing books because of a number, or boasting about a number, or afraid to choose the book they want because it has a lower number than their friends. Reading isn't a competition. It is its own reward in itself. It isn't about levels, points, or "what you're going to get" for it. Reading is an adventure, a cozy, homely comfort, an investigation into something that interests you, an enjoyment of words and ideas. I don't think we develop people who realize that if we don't model it, expect it, and promote those values in the classroom. I think the bribe/reward system develops people who wouldn't choose to read "unless they get something out of it," and who leave books behind as soon as there is no outside recognition/reward. We know that many of the parents of our students already view books this way. That's why encouraging home reading sometimes backfires; parents model it as a chore to get out of the way so you can move on to the really important stuff, like T.V. & electronic games.

Ok.....I'll get off the soapbox now!

Hmmmmm ... I wish I could travel around the galaxy with nothing more than a cool attitude and a towel ... or was it a blanket? I forget.

As memory serves, the author - Douglas Adams, was - by his own admission - lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria when he came up with the story idea.

The Onion AV club has posted an interview with the author at this site:

[url]http://www.theavclub.com/avclub3303/avfeature3303.html[/url]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy also has an offical web site that can be found at:

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/[/url]

Best wishes,

David

Twisting and turning to face the audience on this little pink and shiny soapbox is such a challenge!

First of all.... I didn't find the book exactly profound but very, very interesting. I wanted more information and I thank you, David, for the websites. I will check them out as soon as I am done with my work here.

Kelley, I remember when you bought A.R.! What is scary is that I didn't make the connection until I read your post. As for our favorite A.P.... hasn't he been kicked upstairs to the highest level of his incompetence, yet? Along with several others in the district who had stewardship over what was once the finest couple of schools in the district? Oh, MEOW! I need to retract my claws.

I am in complete agreement with you all regarding your misgivings about A.R. On the surface, it appears harmless enough: Give children plenty of practice reading books at their fluency level and allow them the opportunity to demonstrate comprehension... albeit superficial comprehension in some cases.

Catherine hit the nail on the head when she wrote that in some cases, the POINTS appear more important than the enjoyment of the book. I also find A.R. very limiting: Readers reading above grade level are forced to choose titles "within their range." Why? Why can't a 4th grader reading at a 6.4 select a 4.0 book for pure enjoyment? It is also limiting because good quality books cost money and if you don't have TEXTS to match your TESTS, you are limited in what you can offer the children to read. You might have the TEXTS but not the TESTS so HECK NO, the kids can't read THAT book yet......

It all goes back to the beef I posted earlier with extrinsic reading rewards. IDEALISTS (and any teacher teaching from the heart) wants to nurture life-long readers. This means reading for pure enjoyment and CHOOSING to do so. I find that the points are well and good in the beginning but eventually the pursuit is more important than the prize.

Parents just love it of course. "Oh, anything that will get them to READ." My principal also says this. They just can't see the forest for all those blasted TREES.

I love HGG! (The ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything...)

There are several books in the series, plus a couple of short stories-all are great. Please be aware that the language gets a little less tame as the series progresses (one of my high school friends really enjoyed pointing out his favorite line in Life, the Universe, and Everything-favorite because it was the one book he had found in the school library which contained a specific four letter word)

If you want a great experience, get the Hitchhiker's radio plays by the BBC-these are absolutely wonderful, and really add to the enjoyment of the book. I also found a copy of the radio scripts a few years back, which explained a lot of behind the scenes things.

There is also a very old, text-only adventure game by Infocom based on HGG-I believe it is now downloadable, if you search for it, which is really neat (I love turning reluctant readers on to text adventure games-because it is all text, and really is about like being inside a novel, but is extremely engaging). You will have to run a DOS window to play it, or run an emulator (the original was on such platforms as the Apple II, Atari, etc.)

Originally Posted by Kim/K/SCal

It all goes back to the beef I posted earlier with extrinsic reading rewards. IDEALISTS (and any teacher teaching from the heart) wants to nurture life-long readers. This means reading for pure enjoyment and CHOOSING to do so. I find that the points are well and good in the beginning but eventually the pursuit is more important than the prize.

Whoo-sha ... whoo-sha

The sound of an Imperial artificial respirator filled the air as a figure wearing black clothes emerged from behind the shelf of Accelerated Reader books.

"Resistance is futile," said the voice of Darth Vader as the sound of an Imperial battle march filled the air. "Feel the power of the dark side. Give in to your anger and soon you will be one of us - a true believer of the Accelerated Reader Program. And then together - we will rule the classrooms of the galaxy!

Whoo-sha ... whoo-sha

Hmm, as a new teacher I'm finding myself having mixed feelings about most topics. AR is one of them. This year I flatly refused to use it in my classroom even though I was told it was department policy. The "index" of books that we had tests for was so useless. You couldn't navigate it because it categorized books by "titles" like Sports, Horror, The College Reader, Young Adult 1, Young Adult 2. How can a student (let alone a teacher) find a book to recommend? And lets say you found a book in the library that you were interested in...no WAY you were going to find it on that poorly organized index!

Well, our school just spent thousands of dollars (I'm still deciding the worthiness of that) on putting AR on a network. So when a 9th grade student changes to a 10th grade class they already have an AR record, they can't re-test on a book they tested on last year. We had a brief in-service from a Reading Renaissance person and it sounds somewhat promising. The biggest thing I learned is that the program is designed for individual student goals, hence Catherine's daughter's teacher is doing it "wrong." If the child is having trouble then the program won't help her. Based on all this, I'll be implementing it in my classroom next year...we'll see...I am viewing it as an experiment.

- Wendy

Seriously though - Accelerated Reader gets kids to read. They may not be reading "the best literature" but they ARE READING.

Do you remember when R.L. Stine became popular?

I HATED HIS BOOKS.

The Goosebump series were badly written. Most of the plots didn't make sense. The characters were superficial. I really hated those books - but the kids loved them. And they read. And some of them expanded their horizons and went on to read other genre.

I am in favor of just about anything that will get kids to read.

Regards,

David