Do a “Reading Survey” With Your Child

There is a strategy that teachers use in classrooms to identify various interests in student reading. It’s a concept that parents can easily incorporate at home called a “Reading Survey.”

Teachers use a Reading Survey to discover what really interests a student. We want to obtain this kind of information to plan instruction, reading centers, and classroom libraries. We know from experience that subjects of great interest are likely to keep students engaged in a task.

A Reading Survey is easy to do at home, and it can be helpful for parents, grandparents, caregivers, and other to know what kind of books to get from the library or purchase as gifts. It helps an adult understand a child better.

Following is a step-by-step Reading Survey that is particularly successful and easy for young students in grades K-2.

Here’s what to do:

• Take a piece of plain, unlined 8.5-inch-by-11-inch white paper.
• Fold it in half vertically to make one line down the middle, from top to bottom.
• Then fold down from the top and up from the bottom into thirds, to make two lines across.
• When you open up the paper, you should have six equal-sizes boxes.
• Have your child write his name in the top left corner. Add the date in the top right corner.
• Then, in each of the six boxes on one side of the paper, have your child draw or write in detail about things that interest him, one interest per box. For example, dinosaurs, dancing, trucks, cooking, baseball, music, soccer, etc.
• As new interests develop, turn over the paper over and add them one at a time.
• Keep this page in a notebook or on a bulletin board for easy reference. Consult the list when going to the library, buying birthday gifts, or planning trips to museums or aquariums, for instance.

Completing a Reading Survey validates things that are important to your child, and it often turns that reluctant reader into a “can’t get enough” reader!