Dear Google, You Should Have Talked to Me First

Well, Google, you have just joined the list of edu-twits who think they know it all but forget one main thing:

ASK THE EXPERTS – THE TEACHERS.

Any reading programme that tells children they must read this or that and puts them off reading for pleasure is no reading programme I want to be part of.  Extrinsic motivation does not work.  This scheme looks ridiculous.

“Dear Google,

I wish you’d talked to teachers like me before you made that $40 million investment in Renaissance Learning.

I’ve seen the damage Accelerated Reader can do.

I witnessed it for the first time when I tutored a struggling 5th grader…eighteen years ago.

He hated to read.

He hated being locked into a level.

He hated the points associated with the books.

But more importantly, he was humiliated when he didn’t earn enough points to join in the monthly party or get to ‘buy’ things with those points at a school store full of junky prizes.

I’ve seen kids run their fingers along the binding of a book, a book they REALLY wanted read, but then hear them say, “But it’s not an AR book,” or “It’s not my level.” “

Read the rest here: Dear Google, You Should Have Talked to Me First.

via Dear Google, You Should Have Talked to Me First.