Book Levels and Points

It helps you match books to a student's reading level.

The ATOS readability formula measures only the readability of the text. It does not take into account

• literary merit

• sophistication of ideas

• developmental appropriateness

• maturity of theme or language

We recommend that you know and use three measurements when helping your students choose books:

• readability (the difficulty of a book's text)

• Reading Level (the student's tested reading level)

• Interest Level (the content level of a book)

An ATOS level is often a good indication that a student can read a book, but may not mean that he or she should read the book.

The Interest Level can help you decide whether the student should read the book. 

Every Reading Practice Quiz has a point value assigned to it based on the:

• Book Level

• word count of the book (the book's difficulty and length)

If you add or edit Teacher-Made Quizzes, the program calculates the possible points based on the:

• Book Level

• word count you enter for the quiz

Students earn points by passing Reading Practice Quizzes, including the Teacher-Made Quizzes. The points that a student earns on a quiz are based on:

• the total point value of the quiz and

• the score the student received on it

Points are one of the criteria used by the program for determining when students have achieved the different reader certification levels.

If your school chooses to award points outside of Accelerated Reader or allows your students to use or "spend" their points, Accelerated Reader lets you monitor that activity in the software.