Creating Reading Snapshots

Follow the steps below to create images or website counters that you can post on a website for your school or school network. Reading Snapshots are a great way to share your students' reading achievements with parents and the community.

1. First, do one of the following:
• On the Home page, select Reading Snapshots under "Share Progress."
  
• In the Record Book, select Reading Snapshots.
  
2. Then, on the Reading Snapshots page, select Create a Snapshot.
3. Next, choose the students that you want to include.
• School Network: School network-level administrators and school network staff can select School Network to share achievements for all students in the school network.
  
• School: School network-level and school-level administrators and staff can select School to share achievements for all students in a specific school. Then, use the drop-down list to select the school.
  
• Year: Select Year to share achievements for all students in a specific year at a specific school. Then, use the drop-down lists to choose the school and year.
  
• Class: Select Class to share achievements for all students in a specific class at a specific school. Then, use the drop-down lists to choose the school and class.
  

The preview to the right will reflect what you have chosen (but will not show actual data yet). After you choose the students to include, select Next.

4. On the next page (Achievements), choose the type of achievement to include in the reading snapshot:
• Student reading totals include the number of books and words students have read and how many minutes students are estimated to have read per day. (Average minutes read per day is an estimate based on Star Reading/Star Early Literacy scores and points earned in Accelerated Reader. It is not shown if Star data is not available for enough of the selected students.)
• Targets met show you the percentage of students who have met their current reading targets.
5. After choosing the type of achievement, choose the settings.

Student Reading Totals

If you chose "Student reading totals," the reading snapshot will show how many books and words your students have read during the time period based on the Reading Practice Quizzes and Article Quizzes students have passed. Next, choose whether to create a website counter or an image:

• Website counter: This option is available only to school network and school level administrators. A website counter displays total books read, words read, and estimated minutes of reading per day. After you create a website counter, you will go back to the Reading Snapshots page, where you can copy HTML for the website counter. Your website administrator can use the HTML to include the counter on the school website. Once you include the counter on your website, it updates the totals every day as long as you are in the time period that you selected for the Reading Snapshot.
  
  After you choose a website counter, you can choose whether to count for the current month or the current school year.
  
• Image: An image is a picture that includes the total books read, words read, and estimated minutes read per day for a specific month in the school year. The image is not updated once you have created it. You can download the images that you create as .png files on the Reading Snapshots page.
  
  After you choose the Image option, use the drop-down list to choose the month for which you want to display student achievements. (You cannot choose a month that hasn't started yet.)
  

Targets Met

If you chose "Targets met," tick the Accelerated Reader targets that you want to include. The reading snapshot will show the percentage of students who met those targets (the number of students who met all ticked targets divided by the total number of students). This only applies to students using the two target models for older students; badge targets for young students are not included.

• Average percentage correct on quizzes: The average percentage correct target reflects students' overall average scores on Reading Practice Quizzes and Article Quizzes.
• Points earned: The points target represents the number of points that students earn by passing Reading Practice Quizzes and Article Quizzes. For more information about points, see Points in Accelerated Reader.
  

After selecting the target types to include, select the marking period for which the targets were set. Only targets set for that marking period will be reflected in the reading snapshot. For more about setting targets, see Accelerated Reader Targets (Record Book).

The preview to the right will reflect what you have chosen. If you see 0s for minutes read, a message will tell you that there is not enough Star data to display the minutes read per day. To go on to the next step, select Next.

6. On the next page (Appearance Options), enter a title for the reading snapshot (up to 85 characters). The title will appear at the top as shown in the preview on the right side of the page.
   
7. Next, choose the layout (shape and orientation) of the reading snapshot.
   
8. Next, select the picture to use as a background.
   
9. When you have finished and the preview reflects the changes you want, select Next.
   
10. On the last page (Review), you will see a list of the choices you have made and a preview of your image or web promotion.
    
    If you want to change the students who will be included or the achievement that you want to share, select Edit next to the appropriate item. You can also select Back to go back to previous steps.
    
    If you decide not to create the reading snapshot or to save your changes, select Cancel.
    
    If you do want to save the reading snapshot so that you can use it, select Save in the top right corner of the page. First you will see a message while the reading snapshot is being created; if you do not want to wait while that happens, select Go to the Home page in the message. Otherwise, wait while the reading snapshot is created; when it is ready, you will return to the list of reading snapshots that you have created.