As a reading teacher, it’s important that I find ways to engage students in reading. Through a reading interest survey, I can discover more about them as a reader. The information I gain about my students is powerful! 

     I like to give students a reading interest survey at the beginning of the school year during back-to-school time and mid-year.  This helps me to be able to compare each survey given and see if students’ interests have changed.  Reading interest surveys also help me with the question, how do I get students engaged in reading? I discovered that many students enjoy telling others about themselves. A reading interest survey helps give students a voice in their learning.

    Once I have data from the surveys I can use it to help students better. Therefore, I can help students select books to read that are interesting to them. Choose guided reading books based on the student’s interests, and develop creative writing assignments centered around student interests.  In this blog post, I  will talk about how a reading interest survey can help teachers (1) discover students’ interests, (2) discover students’ reading habits and behaviors, and (3) give students a voice in what they learn.

1  Discover Student’s Interest

As adults, we like to learn about things that are interesting to us. The same is true for our students! Unfortunately, many times students have to suffer through learning about topics that are not meaningful to them. Yes, we have standards and a curriculum to teach, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t make it interesting!

 Giving students a reading interest survey that asks them questions like: What is your favorite book? What do you like to read? Can guide us teachers in understanding what types of books or subject matter students find relevant. Questions like: What do you prefer to do when you have free time? What is one of your favorite shows or movies? Can provide us with ideas about what students are interested in outside of school. We can use the answers to these questions as data from the surveys. We can then find ways to incorporate students’ interests into our standards and curriculum.    

As teachers, we need to ask students questions.  We can ask them whether they like to read fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. This can help us understand the genre students may enjoy reading. You could also go deeper and ask more questions about specific genres to better cater to your student’s needs. This information could lead students in doing a genre study, an author study, or a novel study (read my blog post about using reading response journals which are great for novel studies!)

2 Discover Student’s Reading Habits and Behaviors

 Reading interest surveys can also be used to understand students’ reading habits and behaviors. As a teacher, it is helpful to hear directly from students about how they feel they learn best. More questions we can ask students are: (1) Do you like to be read to? or (2) Do you prefer to read independently? This can help teachers understand who prefers read-alouds and who likes reading independently. 

     Use the data to help you determine how much time to spend reading aloud to your class.  Or you can decide if you will incorporate silent reading time.  Think creatively about how to include students who may not favor read-alouds. Help readers who prefer not to read independently stay engaged in their reading during independent silent reading time. 

      Ask students if they like to read at home. This will help you see who reads at home. Use this information to create a reading challenge for students to engage in while reading at home.  You may also choose to set aside specific class time for students to read independently even if it is just 20 minutes! There are benefits to understanding students’ reading behavior and habits. This helps us as teachers to understand students and how they see themselves as a reader.

3 Give Students a Voice in What they Learn

Students typically do better when they feel they belong in the classroom when they have input into what they learn. But how can we get students to tell us their point of view? A reading interest survey is another way to hear students’ voices about what they want to learn. Students will hopefully appreciate that you are asking for their opinion and value their responses. 

     Teachers can understand their students as a reader by using a reading interest survey. It allows students to let you know their likes and dislikes, which gives them a voice. Students will see it’s okay if they don’t like certain subject areas.  This data helps you as the teacher to offer alternatives to students and provide support when it comes to topics they dislike.

Conclusion

Teachers can learn a lot about their students by giving them a reading interest survey. Give one at least twice during the school year. It is most effective if given at the beginning of the school year and mid-year. The results gathered from the surveys can be used in many ways. (1) Help students pick out books to read. (2) Assist teachers in choosing guided reading books based on students’ interests. And (3) serve as a guide when teachers are creating creative writing assignments.

      I have found reading interest surveys to be especially useful: for (1) discovering student interest, (2) discovering students’ reading habits and behaviors, and (3) giving students a voice in what they learn. I have created a reading interest survey for grades K-3 that is both digital and in pdf form. It includes a differentiated reading interest survey for Kindergarten through Third-Grade students and can be purchased here in my TPT store. I have also created a reading and writing interest survey for students in fourth grade through sixth grade that is both in digital and pdf form. It can be purchased here in my TPT store. 

I learned how to blog from Kayse Morris, check out her blog about how to get started blogging here!

Check out these other helpful blogs about ELA!

• Read about first day activities here in the blog (A Better Way To Teach) about first day activities for high school students and here for middle school and high school activities (The Integrated Teacher). 
• Read about writing activities here (Teacher Writer) and writing and poetry activities here (The Problem Solving Teacher).