Scholastic Reading Counts is a comprehensive program that motivates students to read and helps teachers, school librarians, and administrators manage, monitor, and assess student performance.

Reading Counts is designed to provide:

Motivation

Reading goals give students something to strive for.

Students make their own reading choices from a variety of popular books.

Certificates and rewards encourage them to keep reading

Accountability

Self-administered quizzes ensure that students have completed a book.

A 15-30 question database per quiz allows students to retake quizzes and receive different questions each time.

Automatically generated reports help teachers monitor every student's performance

Students will follow these steps in the Reading Counts Program

1. Take the Scholastic Reading Inventor (SRI) test. A reading level or a Lexile level is assigned. This is not the sole determinant for reading materials for students. Their interests and experiences, as well as the teachers' knowledge of the student's abilities will help make reading suggestions.

2. Select boos from age-appropriate literature that appeals to their interests.

3. Read the book at their own pace.

4. Take a short quiz of 10 questions on the computer to verify comprehension of the book they read.

Students can earn points based on the length and complexity of each book they read. These points can earn students rewards at the reading counts store.

Frequently Asked Questions about Scholastic Reading Counts.

1. What is SRI (Scholastic Reading Inventory)?

Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) is a reading comprehension test for grades 1-6 that assesses students' reading levels and helps teachers adjust instruction according to students' needs, track students' reading growth over time and match readers to text. Test scores are determined by an absolute, invariant standard based on the Lexile Framework and are converted into Lexile reader measures.

2. How many quizzes and books are available?

Currently at the Pleasant Vale library we have almost 4,000 test available for the students. Most of our fiction books have tests available and are marked with a red label. If you need a list of these books or would like to know which books are in your child's reading range, please contact the office and they will be able to provide this information.

3. Why are students getting points for taking Reading Counts quizzes?

This is an incentive for the students to read more books. The more they read the more points they get and they can redeem the points at our Reading Counts Store.

4. Is my child required to read only books of a designated lexile?

Students can read any book they would like... however, if they are choosing books that are too easy, they may be encouraged to read more challenging books in order to improve their reading skills. And consequently, if they are reading books that are too hard for them, it will show up in their tests, and they will be encouraged to read at a lower level. Our goal is to have students read what they enjoy reading, and at a level that they are comfortable with. As the saying goes, "The more you read the better you read!"

5. How many quizzes may a student take in one day?

Individual teachers will make this determination.

6. How do children that are not yet reading participate in the Reading Counts program?

The Transitional First grade students can participate in the program with home involvement. The T-1 student will bring a Reading Counts book home for the parent to read to the child. When the student returns to school, the classroom teacher will read the test questions to the child. The student will receive points for each test passed.