Reading Interest Survey

Reading Interest Survey

            I am currently teaching first grade and work with students that range on many different reading levels. Students in first grade are beginning readers. According to chapter two, “Books for beginning readers should connect to children’s interests, experiences, and reading abilities to support them in their initial reading experiences” (Lynch Brown et al., 2014, p. 17). My district requires us to use the Scholastic Reading Program during guided reading. This gives the students a reading interest survey to fill out before they begin reading in my classroom. It allows me to learn about my students’ interests.

            In the beginning of the school year, I like to quickly survey my class by having students who like to read stand on one side of the room, and students that do not like to read stand on the other side of the room. It is surprising to me that students who do not even know how to read yet already have a predetermined idea that they don’t like to read. This year, I have a lot of students who like to read and only a handful that do not. I noticed that many of the students who do not like to read are boys.

            For this assignment, I chose to work with my student Johnny.* Johnny filled out the survey from blackboard, “My Feelings About Reading.” Based on his answers, he does not like to read, he does not read at home, he doesn’t think that reading is fun, reading is hard for him, he does not like to read long stories, and he thinks that reading is boring. On a positive note, Johnny likes picture books, he likes someone to read to him, and he has enjoyed the books we read in school. I have also gathered additional information from the reading interest survey from Scholastic. Based on this survey, Johnny likes to read about bugs, reptiles, football, famous people, transportation, and volcanoes. I know that Johnny plays football for the recreation center and loves the New York Giants. He gets excited about football and is very interested to learn more about it.

            The books that I have chosen for Johnny are mostly read alouds because he tested on a level A, which means that he is a struggling reader. Johnny also expressed that he likes someone to read to him. Considering that Johnny does not read at home, I have added a book that his parents can read to him before he goes to sleep.  I have also found a book that Johnny will be able to independently read because it is a repetitive and predictable book with familiar words that is on his reading level. Chapter two states, “easy-to-read books and predictable books make use of familiar words, word and sentence patterns, illustration clues, and rhyme to make the text easier to read” (Lynch Brown et al., 2014, p. 17). If Johnny reads books that are on his reading level, he won’t think that reading is too hard for him.

            Here are some books that I recommend for Johnny to read based on the reading interest surveys he has completed:    

Arnold, T. (2008). Hooray for fly guy! New York: Scholastic. 

Barton, B. (2001). My car. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Cronin, D., & Bliss, H. (2003). Diary of a worm. New York: Joanna Cotler Books.

Dahl, M., & Forshay, C. (2004). Goodnight football: Capstone Young Readers.

Manning, P., & Manning, E. (2009). Family huddle. New York: Scholastic Press.

Orloff, K., & Catrow, D. (2004). I wanna iguana. New York: Putnam.

Schreiber, A. (2008). Volcanoes! Washington, D.C.: National Geographic.

Lynch-Brown, C., Short, K., & Tomlinson, C. (2014). Essentials of children's literature. Upper      

     Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.