Accelerated Reader Student Software Program Review

Accelerated Reader is one of the world’s most popular reading programs. The software program, commonly referred to as AR, is designed to motivate students to read and to assess their overall understanding of the books that they are reading. The program was developed by Renaissance Learning Inc., which has several other programs closely related to the Accelerated Reader program. Although the program is designed for student’s grades 1-12, Accelerated Reader is especially popular in elementary schools across the country. The programs main purpose is to determine whether or not the student has actually read the book. The program is designed to build and encourage students to become lifelong readers and learners. In addition, teachers can use the program to motivate their students by providing rewards that correspond to the number of AR points earned by the student. Accelerated Reader is essentially a three-step program. Students first read a book (fiction or nonfiction), magazine, textbook, etc. Students may read individually, as a whole group, or in small group settings. Students then individually take the quiz that corresponds to what they just read. AR quizzes are assigned a point value based on the overall level of the book. Teachers often set weekly, monthly, or yearly goals for the number of points they require their students to earn. Students who score below 60% on the quiz do not earn any points. Students who score 60% - 99% receive partial points. Students who score 100% receive full points. Teachers then use the data generated by these quizzes to motivate students, monitor progress, and target instruction. Internet-Based Accelerated Reader is Internet-based meaning that it can be accessed easily on any computer that has Internet access. Being Internet based allows Renaissance Learning to automatically update the program and to store key data on their servers. This makes it much easier on a school’s IT team. Individualized One of the best things about Accelerated Reader is that it allows the teacher to dictate how the program is used including the ability to limit students to a reading range that is on their level. This keeps students from reading books that are too easy or too difficult. Accelerated Reader allows students to read on their own levels and to read at their own pace. It does not dictate which book a student reads. There are currently over 145,000 quizzes available to students. In addition, teachers may make their own quizzes for books that currently are not in the system or they may request that a quiz is made for a particular book. Quizzes are added continuously for new books as they come out. Easy to Set Up Students and teachers can be quickly added to the system either through large batch enrollment or individualized addition. Accelerated Reader allows teachers to customize individual reading levels. Teachers can get these reading levels from a STAR Reading Assessment, standardized assessment, or individual teacher assessment. Classes can be quickly set up to allow the teacher to monitor whole class reading progress and to compare individual students within that class. Motivates Students Every quiz in the Accelerated Reader program is worth points. Points are determined by a combination of the difficulty of the book and the length of the book. Teachers often set goals for the number of points each student must earn. The teacher then rewards their students by giving things such as prizes, parties, etc as motivation to meet their goals. Assesses Student Understanding Accelerated Reader is designed to determine whether or not a student has read a particular book and the level at which they understand the book. A student cannot pass the quiz (60% or higher) if they have not read the book. Students who pass the quizzes demonstrate that they not only read the book, but they have a proficient level of understanding of what the book was about. Uses the ATOS Level The ATOS book level is a readability formula used by the Accelerated Reader program to represent the difficulty of a book. Each book in the program is assigned an ATOS number. A book with a level of 7.5 should be read by a student whose reading level is somewhere around the 7th grade and fifth month of the school year. Encourages Using the Zone of Proximal Development Accelerated Reader encourages the use of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The Zone of Proximal Development is defined as the range of difficulty that will challenge a student without causing the student to become frustrated or lose motivation. The ZPD can be determined by the STAR Reading assessment or the teacher’s best professional judgment. Allows Parents to Monitor Progress The program allows parents to do the following: Monitor a student’s progress towards reading goals.Conduct book searches.Review results, view the number of books read, words read, and quizzes passed. Provides Teachers With Tons of Reports Accelerate Reader has about a dozen fully customizable reports. These include diagnostic reports, history reports; quiz usage reports, student point reports, and many more. Provides Schools With Technical Support Accelerated Reader allows you to receive automatic software updates and upgrades. It provides live chat support to answer questions and provide immediate resolution to any issues or problems you have with the program. Accelerated Reader also provides software and data hosting. Cost Accelerated Reader does not publish their overall cost for the program. However, each subscription is sold for a one-time school fee plus an annual subscription cost per student. There are several other factors that will determine the final cost of the programming including the length of the subscription and how many other Renaissance Learning programs your school has. Research To date, there have been 168 research studies that support the overall effectiveness of the Accelerated Reader program. The consensus of these studies is that Accelerated Reader is fully supported by scientifically based research. In addition, these studies concur that the Accelerated Reader program is an effective tool for boosting students’ reading achievement. Overall Assessment Accelerated Reader can be an effective technological tool for motivating and monitoring a student’s individual reading progress. One fact that can’t be ignored is the program’s immense popularity. Observations show that this program benefits many students, but the overuse of this program can also burn many students out. This speaks more to how the teacher is using the program than it does to the overall program itself. The fact that the program allows teachers to quickly and easily assess whether a student has read a book and the level of understanding they have from the book is a valuable tool. Overall, the program is worth four out of five stars. Accelerated Reader can have immense benefits for younger students but can lack in maintaining its overall benefits as students get older.

The Iliad And The Odyssey Essay - 1270 Words

Ancient Greece, as found in the books of the Iliad and the Odyssey, is a place entranced in mystical beings, powerful gods and goddess, and heroic men. The role of women in society is greatly concentrated on their body with little regard to their soul and mind. However, in the Odyssey, it is Penelope’s soul and mind that are vital to the success of her husband’s nostos and the imperishable fame she will receive. Due to her husband’s long absence, Penelope is placed in a predicament in which she must maintain a household and raise a son all on her own. It is Penelope’s loyalty to her husband, and strength and cunningness of her mind that allow her to survive. Without anyone one of these traits found in few woman at the time, Odysseus could have returned to a dismantled home or even worse, death like that of Clytemnestra’s husband. Clytemnestra is a quintessential woman of her time who falls for another man and plots her own husband’s demise. P enelope is a woman unlike many in Greek times such as Clytemnestra, whose faith, strength, and wit similar to Circe and Athena uphold the nostos of Agamemnon and gain her lasting fame. Penelope is contrary to Clytemnestra as she remains steadfast in her fidelity to her husband. Odysseus is gone for twenty years and despite the hopelessness she feels at times, she remains faithful. Moreover, she never submits to the numerous suitors surrounding her and vying for her hand in marriage while her husband enjoys the company of Calypso andShow MoreRelatedThe Iliad And The Odyssey1060 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.† (The Iliad pg.405) The quote is relevant to the stories Homer created during the period of the Trojan War. Homer orally performed two of his best works The Iliad and The Odyssey. Homer’s stories are old and probably translated differently than their original telling. Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey still show the basic human emotions and are an inspiration to other authors, poets, and oral presentersRead MoreThe Iliad and the Odyssey1510 Words   |  7 Pages The Iliad and the Odyssey are two classic stories told by Homer. Within these two stories the roles of the gods are very important to the story line and how they affect the characters throughout. In the Iliad, more gods are involved with the characters whereas in the Odyssey there are only two major gods that affect two major characters. The roles of the gods in the Iliad are through two different stances of immortal versus immortal and mortal versus immortal. The roles of the gods in the OdysseyRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1317 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout The Iliad and The Odyssey, both Achilles and Odysseus go through intense acts of heroism, internal and external hardships, and fluctuations in confidence. During the epic, The Odyssey, the main character, Odysseus, has to endure many hardships which show. He has to show tremendous amounts of heroism and confidence just to keep his crew and himself alive. He has to rival and face many gods that despise him along with many humans. This theme can also be reflected from Homer’s The Iliad, where theRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1297 Words   |  6 Pages2. The Iliad and the Odyssey were written by a poet or poets known as Homer. They were stories written about heroes in Mycenaeans times. Homer focused on one important event to base the stories after, the Trojan War. The story was about Paris Prince of Troy, taking Helen of Sparta from her husband. A war started to get Helen back to her husband because her husbands honor was hurt. The story told in the Odyssey is one of the king of Ithaca trying to return to his wife and son after being gone forRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey977 Words   |  4 Pagesplot or storyline, or the theme of the myth. Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey ar e two prime examples of this. Within both epics, the gods constantly intervene in the lives and situations of the characters, molding them to the desired outcome. Without the influence of the gods in either of the epics, however, the ending might have been very different. There was a great deal more divine intervention in The Iliad in comparison to The Odyssey, however, as there were more godly characters in that textRead MoreThe Odyssey And The Iliad1060 Words   |  5 PagesHomer was one of the first great authors in Western culture. He was known for creating the two Greek epics The Odyssey and The Iliad, which. The Odyssey tells of the ten-year journey by Odysseus to Ithica from Troy to be reunited with his beloved wife. The Odyssey was written in a with illustrative language. The Iliad was written in a. It depicted the end of the Trojan War and the siege of Troy. This event occurred centuries before Homer was assumed to have been born. Although both epics were writtenRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1657 Words   |  7 Pagesduring the Greek Dark Ages was Homer, who I believe was the most influential writer of his time, and a writer w ho had truly made an impact on the evolution of Greek Culture following the Dark Ages. Two of Homer’s most famous poems were the Iliad and the Odyssey, which were Ancient Greek epic poems which covered a couple of weeks during the Trojan War. Although there were plenty of influential authors inspired by the Trojan war, Homer was by far the most influential; Nevertheless, This paper arguesRead MoreIliad and Odyssey1825 Words   |  8 Pagesand cinema of a certain era. The epic poems, The Iliad and Odyssey, give scholars and historians an idea how the Ancient Greek lived their everyday lives. By reading the two novels, the reader is able to experience the three thousand years old society of Homer. The various similarities between our society and the societies depicted in the Iliad and the Odyssey are surprising profuse. To name a few: the superfluous violence in Iliad and Odyssey, the characterization of Odysseus, the obscureRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1730 Words à ‚  |  7 Pagesonce said â€Å"In youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare!† a very relatable quote to the story of the Iliad. But who exactly is Homer? For starters, Homer was a poet who lived from 800 B.C.E and died in 701 B.C.E. He was from Greece, and to be specific he had lived somewhere along the coast of Asia Minor according to biography.com. Also, he is most famous for his epic poems which were The Iliad and The Odyssey. Now as for whether he truly existed or not is still quite a mystery. Some scholars â€Å"believe himRead MoreThe Iliad And The Odyssey1498 Words   |  6 PagesAn Influential Poem The Iliad is a poem that provides important stories with insight into early human society. It was an ancient story written centuries ago about two civilizations that battled against each other. â€Å"The Iliad tells the story of the clash of two great civilizations, and the effects of war on both the winners and losers† (Homer 222). In addition to its influence on Greek poetry, the Iliad is a great Homeric epic that has long helped shape critical schools of thought. It is not

Impact of Social Influence Pressure †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Impact of Social Influence Pressure. Answer: Introduction: This case emphasises on the role of an auditor Alex Yeung of auditing firm Burt and Old. The current case is regarding the opinion of the auditor in the audit engagement report for the company Fancy Furniture Manufacturing. Fancy Furniture Manufacturing is a client of Burt Old since the past 12 year. Public listed med-size corporation primarily manufactures fine wooden furniture that consists of chair, table, benches, etc. Eucawood Lumber Supply is the major supplier of Fancy Furniture that supplies the company with best quality eucawood. Burt Old whose largest customer is Fancy Furniture Manufacturing also audit Eucawood Lumber Supply. On the other hand, the largest customer of Fancy Furniture Manufacturing is the Norbert Harvey to whom Fancy Furniture sells majority of its product on wholesale basis. On the other hand, it can be seen that the same audit firm that is Burt Old is also auditing Norbert Harvey who is the largest customer of Fancy Furniture. In other words, the different branches of the same audit firms audit all the three firms i.e. Fancy Furniture Manufacturing, Eucawood Lumber Supply and Norbert Harvey. Over the last 5 years Norbert Harvey is experiencing decent growth in terms of furniture that are manufactured by Fancy Furniture and the company wants to multiply the number of stores into Queensland by the coming year. From the beginning, the audit firm has issued unqualified audit report for Fancy Furniture. However, in the 4th quarter of the year 2017, some significant increase in the production cost for the company have been noticed. Firstly, the company suffered from substantial damage of its custom manufacturing equipment that were not insured and secondly, the company failed to favourably negotiate with its union which resulted in increase of employees superannuation expenditures. This was a substantial increase in expenditure from the companys viewpoint. Thus by considering the above mention two facts it is deemed by the engagement team that Fancy Furniture might not able to continue to carry on its business. The fact that Fancy Furniture might fail to continue as a going concern was discussed with the management of the company. However, despite knowing all the fact the management of Fancy Furniture is not willing to disclose the same in its audit report. Now, as per Accounting Professional Ethical Standard Board (APESB) 110, which describes about the integrity in carrying out audit programme states that section 110 of APES levied a compulsion over every professional accountants that they are required to be honest, loyal and candid in their audit approach (APES, 2017). It further states that no professional accountant should provide clean audit opinion intentionally after having knowledge about the fact that the financial statement of the company or firm contains the following: Deceptive statement or material misstatement; Information that are provided irresponsibly or carelessly. The section 120 of APES states that auditor or the accounting professional should maintain objectivity. The section 130 and 150 of the APES requires the professional should perform task with the professional competence and due care (Clayton Staden, 2015). Thus as it is found that in the 4th quarter Fancy Furniture has suffered from increase in production cost. As a result of which the company might wind up or be dissolved. It is important that this information must be specified in the audit report so that the investors, shareholders, supplier and the customer of the company gets to know about the current situation of the company and thus they are not misguided by any means (Zorio et al., 2013). Therefore based on the code of ethics as an auditor, it the duty of Alex Yeung to provide true and fair opinion based on proper facts and information. The auditor should not follow or safeguard the interest of the management of the company. The section 110 of APES imposes an obligation to eve ry accountant to maintain integrity and transparency in the audit report and it must be followed in case of Fancy Furniture Manufacturing as well. Reference (2017). Retrieved 30 September 2017, from https://www.apesb.org.au/uploads/standards/apesb_standards/standardc1.pdf Clayton, B. M., Staden, C. J. (2015). The Impact of Social Influence Pressure on the Ethical Decision Making of Professional Accountants: Australian and New Zealand Evidence.Australian Accounting Review,25(4), 372-388.

Self-Reflection for Business and Organizations - myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theSelf-Reflection for Business Model, Cost and Organizations. Answer: First of all I would like to express deep gratitude for giving me an opportunity to work on a new business model. This helped me gain insight on various issues faced by entrepreneurs by stepping into their shoes. This project also increased by industry knowledge and widened by horizons on the aspect of ecommerce. How do you feel you have performed in this subject? I am certain that the service offered by Deligroce is unique in its own way. Despite the fact that there are various competitors in the ecommerce segment, Deligroce has managed to differentiate itself from competition by giving consumers an option to select the vendor from which they would like to order their products. Also, the local vendors have been given a platform to market their products and target a larger customer segment. I have tried my best to understand and keep in mind detailed intricacies regarding, value proposition, business model, cost and organizations structure of Deligroce. Which has further helped me in enhancing my knowledge on the subject. Are you now more likely or less likely to pursue a career as an entrepreneur? Why? Yes, I am more likely to pursue a career as an entrepreneur because now I feel I have better knowledge about various issues faced by a new business upon its planning. Of course there are many more things that I need to come and various practical experiences to gain. But now I feel I have a better insight on what to look forward to when starting a business venture. What did you discover or learn that surprised you about entrepreneurship? What I loved about this project is the value created by Deligroce. I learnt that any entrepreneur cannot solely focus on their profits but must strive to create value in the industry by consistent innovation and growth. I was able to practically apply most of the theories that I learnt in class like SWOT, PESTLE and competitive advantage. This deepened my industry knowledge which is sure to help me in future. When reflecting on where you are now compared to where you were at the beginning of this trimester, what changes have you observed in yourself? In the beginning, I was only aware about the theory of various strategic tools, today I feel I understand their practical applications. I feel more confident and in touch with the real world scenarios that I might face as an entrepreneur. Also my previous opinion was that it is easy to open a business as long as the owner has deep pockets. But today I understand the immense amount of hard work, research and planning that goes behind starting a business. I have deeper knowledge on the functioning of ecommerce industry. Overall this project has been a great learning experience. Not only did I enhance my knowledge but I really enjoyed working on this project and I will cherish this experience for a long time.