From all who have shared on this topic, I believe I have experienced at least most of your experiences. AR was ifirst ntroduced in our library the year I worked as an assistant to the librarian. It was a lot of work to find and label the books appropriately. We did have parents come and help us with the process. I won't say we have all of them labeled as I keep finding some as students check them out. I'm not sure I agree with their choices in terms of where they place books. Some books are written at an easier level, but discuss content I'm not sure is appropriate to that grade level. I also find older books ( which I have many in the library) are not part of the system and so often students will ignore those books because they don't have a colored dot.
Having said that, our school has invested money in this system and as I continue to work within it, I'm learning how to make it work for our library. Teachers, at least ours, still have a learning curve in my estimation. As mentioned previously by others, to keep a child in one level can both give them a place to look, but can be a crutch to not stretch beyond that. With some I have struggled because I didn't have what they were interested in at their level. I do see it as a tool to use, but don't want them to see that as the only tool. Your conversations have made me think again about this issue.
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