North Park Elementary

Reading Counts Quiz Site

Reading Counts: A Knight's Quest 

North Park's Extra-Curricular Reading Incentive Program 

What is Reading Counts Program? 

Reading Counts (RC) is a “flexible, literature-based reading motivation and management program designed to get students to read, and to help teachers manage and monitor their students’ independent reading.” 

Three times each year (fall, winter, spring) North Park students take a computer-adaptive reading comprehension test, the Reading Inventory (RI), which assesses a student’s reading levels. The assessment reports a “Lexile” score for each child and can serve as a guide for selecting appropriate books for independent reading. The books in the school library are coded with colored labels which correspond with Lexile measures and can be used to help parents and teachers identify books that are at the appropriate reading level for each child. Some books in the library may not yet be labeled for Lexile or to indicate that a quiz is available. Students are encouraged to talk with the librarian or their teacher for more information about selecting appropriate books that meet student interests. 

How Can My Student Participate? 

Reading Counts works best when teachers and parents work together to set individual reading goals with each child and use the points to recognize student growth in reading. As students read books, they have an opportunity to take quizzes online to show evidence of their comprehension of the books they read. Quizzes should be taken independently, typically during natural breaks such as before school, after school with parent permission, or during other breaks in the day. A new feature this year also allows students to take quizzes independently at home. We anticipate that this new feature will allow parents to be more closely involved in setting reading goals with their students and monitoring growth in reading. 

To log in to Reading Counts, students navigate to the web address https://apps.ccsdut.net/ and log in with their unique username and password. Parents can talk with their child’s teacher to obtain login credentials. For Reading Counts to work properly as a reading motivation and monitoring tool, students should always log in with their own personalized account. 

Participation in Reading Counts for North Park students begins in 2nd grade and continues through 6th grade. Because our primary goal for students in kindergarten and 1st 

grade is building foundational early literacy skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding fluency and accuracy, Reading Counts is generally not developmentally appropriate or encouraged. However, goal setting for K-1 student reading growth between teachers and parents is recommended, and daily reading is highly encouraged. Although not expected or required, on occasion a parents may choose to use Reading Counts independently at home with their kinder or 1st grade children who are early readers, or able to read and comprehend connected text and take and pass quizzes without parent support. If you have questions about whether or not your kindergarten or 1st grade student may benefit, please talk with your child’s teacher. 

Monthly Reading Counts Recognition Assemblies 

As students take quizzes they accumulate points which are used by teachers to celebrate reading achievement with students. As students collect points, they will move steadily toward their quest of becoming a “Dragon Master.” When students achieve these various levels they will be given certificates of achievement during one of North Park’s monthly reading assemblies. Points earned reset with each new school year, providing students with an opportunity each year to set new goals and read more challenging and exciting text. 

Page 25 points Knight 250 points Squire 50 points Dragon Master 500 points Apprentice 100 points Excalibur 1000 points 

Knight of the Roundtable 2000 points 

How Can Parents Help? 

Encourage your child to read each night. Reading more books and developing a lifelong love for reading are important to your child’s success. Just 15 minutes of independent reading a day exposes students to over a million words per year. Here are a few helpful tips: 

• Make an effort to help your child read for 20 minutes every day 
• Ask your children questions about their reading 
• Consider setting up an area conducive to reading in the home 
• Explain unfamiliar words to your child 
• Ask teachers or the school library media specialist for help identifying books that might interest your child 
• Select books that are on your independent reading Lexile (Books that are too easy won’t help students develop their reading skills, while books that are too difficult will only frustrate them.) 

Quiz-Taking Guidelines 

• Quizzes are to be taken independently to show personal growth in reading. Parents and classmates should not assist students with quizzes. 
• Quizzes may be taken if a child has listened to the unabridged audio version of a book or had a parent read the book aloud. Watching movies without reading the book and taking quizzes is not allowed.  Students should take quizzes on current books they are reading, and avoid attempting quizzes from a previous school year. 
• Students should take quizzes on books without referring to the book. 
• The purpose of Reading Counts is to encourage reading. We recognize that there are many excellent books for children to read that may not have an associated quiz. While we hope to recognize student achievement in reading with certificates for reaching certain benchmarks for quiz points, students are ultimately encouraged to read a variety of books that meet their interests. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q:  How can I find books that are on the right level for my child?

A: Contact your child’s classroom teacher or school librarian. He or she can direct you to a list of books that are appropriate for your child's reading level. 

Q:  Will my child’s reading Lexile change during the year?

A: The RI will be given several times each year to determine the reading level of each student.  As these Lexiles change , so will the books they read. 

Q: My student did not pass the book quiz. What do we do now?

A: Students are able to take each quiz up to 3 times if needed. Students must wait 24 hours before attempting the quiz again. We encourage students to review the book and try again!

Q: When can my Kindergartener or First Grader start taking quizzes?

A:Participation in Reading Counts for North Park students begins in 2nd grade and continues through 6th grade. However, goal setting for K-1 student reading growth between teachers and parents is recommended, and daily reading is highly encouraged. Although not expected or required, on occasion a parents may choose to use Reading Counts independently at home with their kinder of 1st grade children who are early readers, or able to read and comprehend connected text and take and pass quizzes without parent support. If you have questions about whether or not your kindergarten or 1st grade student may benefit, please talk with your child’s teacher.

Q: I am familiar with Accelerated Reading from another school. In what ways is Reading Counts similar or different to AR?

A: Reading Counts is very similar in that the purpose of the program is to assist parents and teachers in monitoring progress and encouraging student reading. Reading Counts differs from Accelerated Reading in its use of the Lexile score to measure student reading comprehension and the reading level of a text.

Q: What are some “best practice” tips to help students succeed with Reading Counts?

A: Reading Counts works best when teachers and parents work together to set individual reading goals for each student. Parents and teachers can monitor student reading by helping them select appropriate books to read. Students should complete quizzes independently to help show how they are growing personally as a reader.

Q: What is the RI?

A:Reading Inventory (RI) is a computer-adaptive reading comprehension test that assesses students’ reading levels. The RI has a test item bank of over 3000 questions and is based exclusively on passages from authentic children’s literature, both fiction and non-fiction. Upon completion, students receive Lexile measures (reading levels), which are used to find the range of texts with which they are most likely to succeed. These tests are typically given 3 times each year (fall, winter, spring).

Q: What is a Lexile?

A: The Lexile Framework for ReadingTM is an educational tool that links text and readers. 

The Lexile Framework for Reading characterizes a reader with a measure (a Lexile) and characterizes text with a measure (also a Lexile), allowing educators to forecast the level of comprehension a reader will experience with a particular text. The Lexile Framework for Reading is geared toward the needs of the readers at all levels. Selecting books targeted to students’ current skill levels reduces the risk of frustrating readers and turning them off to reading. The Lexile Framework also provides teachers with an effective tool for evaluating and monitoring students’ reading achievements. Parents can join students and teachers as active participants in the reading development process. They can be aware of the student’s current abilities and what is appropriate for them to be reading at that level. Additionally, parents can help determine the path the students should follow to continue developing their reading comprehension skills. 

What is a Lexile? 

A Lexile reading score reflects a student’s ability to read and comprehend text. All Cache County School district students get his or her Lexile score measured by taking the Reading Inventory (RI). Students take this test three times per year (Fall, Winter and Spring). 

A book has a Lexile text measure based on text difficulty. A Lexile level can be helpful in choosing books that a student can be successful reading. The letter on the back shows your student’s SRI test results. You can visit https://lexile.com/fab/ to find specific books that might be a good match for your student to read. Other factors need to be considered besides the Lexile level when choosing a book including content, age, and interests of the reader. In other words, students shouldn’t be limited to books within their Lexile range. Just be aware that students reading above their range will need more support, and that students reading below their range will find the text less challenging (which means less progress if reading consistently below-level books). 

Our goal is to help all students improve their reading abilities no matter what score they start with. We are looking forward to seeing how much your student’s Lexile score improves over the course of the year. Students who attend school, participate, and read at home daily will show the most improvement with Lexile scores. 

As far as expectations and goals for students in each grade level, please refer to the chart below: 

Grade Below Basic Basic Proficient Advanced 

1 BR (Beginning Reader) 0-189 190-530 531 and Above 

2 BR to 219 220-419 420-650 651 and Above 

3 BR to 329 330-519 520-820 821 and Above 

4 BR to 539 540-739 740-940 941 and Above 

5 BR to 619 620-829 830-1010 1011 and Above 

6 BR to 729 730-924 925-1070 1071 and Above 

For more information about what a Lexile Measure is, visit Lexile.com. You may also contact the school’s Literacy Facilitator for questions or concerns about your child’s reading skills and reading tests. 

The North Park Media Center uses the following color coding of each book in the library. You can check to see what lexile level books they are bringing home by looking at the dot on the spine of the book.