Search Results for: 2024
Q&A with children’s book author Beverly Sanford on writing hi-lo books
At Renaissance, we love hi-lo books, titles that have low reading levels but have themes that engage older readers. We invited hi-lo author and AR quiz writer Beverly Sanford to share her experiences writing this type of book. This October celebrates the 10th anniversary of the publishing of Bev’s first… Read More
An Interview with Lee Burkwood about the Neurodiverse Content Review
As the summer comes to a close and students head back to school, the Content Team would like to highlight an exciting project led by one of our own. Senior Content Assistant Lee Burkwood has organised a company-wide group of employees to review all the Accelerated Reader and myON titles… Read More
Celebrating Black Joy in Children’s Fiction
In a world filled with challenges and hardships, it is essential to recognise and celebrate moments of joy and growth. This month the Content team are celebrating Black Joy in particular by highlighting some of our favourite children’s books about positive Black experiences. Through these titles, readers can enjoy connecting… Read More
Children lose half a day of class time every week because of weak reading skills, teachers say
PRESS RELEASE (24/04/2024) A third of children in every class can’t keep up with lessons because of reading ability Teachers believe 2.5 hours of curriculum time each week is lost helping students to read 9 in 10 teachers (87%) feel personally responsible that they should help weak readers improve 84% of teachers… Read More
Girls’ results negatively impacted by the pandemic, new report finds
PRESS RELEASE (18/03/2024) Outcomes for girls in reading and maths were affected more than outcomes for boys during the pandemic. While girls are still ahead in primary reading, boys have narrowed the gap, and they’ve pulled further ahead in maths. Regional differences also persist: the gap between the highest and… Read More
Favourite LGBTQ+ romances for older readers
Love was in the air this past February during Valentine’s Day. Throughout the month of March, the Content team will continue to celebrate love in all its forms. Members of the team were asked to talk about their favourite LGBTQ+ romance novels for older readers. From the beauty in contemporary… Read More
What Makes a Book “Non-Quizzable” for AR?
Reading Practice quizzes are at the heart of Accelerated Reader. It is important to us that they are fun to take, and that students are motivated by seeing their success when they pass a quiz. It is vital to the integrity of the product that we produce high-quality quizzes that… Read More
Some of the Content Team’s Favourite Fiction of 2023
With this first blog of 2024, we want to look back at some of our quiz writers’ favourite fiction titles of 2023. We added 1,300 new titles to Accelerated Reader last year, and below you can read up on some of our top picks. The titles… Read More
What Kids Are Reading
The ‘What Kids Are Reading Report 2024’, exclusively from Renaissance, features Renaissance Star Reading and Accelerated Reader data from almost 6,500 schools and 1,300,000 students. The UK-wide study from Renaissance reveals a 4.4% decrease in the number of books read by pupils year-on-year. A decline in reading hits Year 9s, with secondary school pupils reading… Read More
Focus Skills
About Renaissance Focus Skills Available exclusively from Renaissance, Focus Skills™ are simply put the building blocks of student learning. Based on extensive research into how learning progresses in reading and maths from Reception to Year 11, Focus Skills provide a roadmap for closing learning gaps for all students. Critical Focus Skills are… Read More