Reader Interest Inventory

One of my favorite start of the year things is my Reader Interest Inventory.  The kids moan and groan having to fill it out, but really love getting personalized feedback from it once I've had time to read and digest their information.

I've pasted the contents of my Reading Interest Inventory form below, as well as my response letter form that I'll be using this year.  Thought it might be helpful for others who are considering doing something like this at their own library.

I put my forms together using some that I found here and there online last year, but culled most of the questions from two wonderful books.  I highly recommend every teacher who has anything to do with literature or library programs get these books and read them -- they have opened my mind up to outside-the-box possibilities and seeing reading fresh through the eyes of my students and not just my own.  They are:

-- The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers

-- The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child

Superb reading on an incredibly important topic. Worth a lot of reading and discussion among all of us, including with parents and lawmakers.

It took a while to tweak my form to get it just right for my particular batch of kids and age groups, but once I did that I had to figure out what to do.  Here's how my Reading Interest Inventory works:

At the very beginning of the school year, I have the kids in grades Third through Sixth fill out a Reading Interest Inventory form.


They fill this out for me on their own, but I'm available for questions if they need me.  I ask them to make their best guess on numbers of books and not to stress out about being exact, and to go with the answers that pop into their minds on the interest questions so that I get a good representative bit of information rather than them trying to figure out what I want them to say.

This year, I walked the Second grade class through each question step-by-step, too, so that I could learn a bit more about where they were in terms of reading.  I learned a lot about what those kids like and don't like -- and that I desperately need an easier version of my form for that age group next year.

Once I collect all the completed forms, I sit down with them and, one by one, write out a personal note with personal book recommendations for each child to have in hand the first day we do book check-out.  I had a huge amount of success last year getting kids who were highly reluctant readers to put a book in their hand and then actually read it.

I didn't get every child to become a reader, but I did coax a number of kids into the reading pool by selectively targeting my recommendations to the things of interest to each, individual child.  The response from the kids -- and their parents -- was amazing and really satisfying from my vantage point to see kids who never wanted to open a book suddenly become kids who couldn't wait to tell me all about what they were reading this week.

Here are the contents of my forms:


Start Of School
Reading Interest Inventory

Name: _______________________________________
Grade: ______________________________________

1. If you had to guess.....
How many books would you say you read over the summer? ______________________
How many did you read for “summer reading?” _________________________________
How many did you read just for fun? __________________________________________
How many books did you read during the school year last year? ___________________
How many of those did you choose for yourself? _______________________________
How often do you read just for fun? Every day/evening? A few times a week? A few times a month? Rarely? ____________________________________________________________

2. What are the best three (3) books you have ever read or had read aloud to you?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What are your favorite genres or types of books? Place a star next to your top two favorites and put a checkmark next to anything you like.
_____ history
_____ sports
_____ magic/fantasy
_____ adventure
_____ love
_____ science/math
_____ people’s lives
_____ animals
_____ comic books/jokes
_____ space
_____ mysteries/detectives
_____ TV shows/movies
_____ travel/other countries
_____ horror/scary
_____ science fiction
_____ myths & legends
_____ folktales/fables
_____ other: ___________________________________

4. Who is/are your favorite author(s)? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. What kinds of characters do you like best? Choose one or two favorites.
_____ kids about my age
_____ superheroes
_____ aliens
_____ real people
_____ animals
_____ TV or movie characters
_____ other: ________________________________________

6. In your ideal book, what would your main character be like?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. What kinds of TV programs, movies, games and sports do you prefer?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. Have you ever liked a book so much that you re-read it? _________
If so, can you tell me which one(s)?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. Do you know the title of the next book you’d like to read? __________
If so, can you tell me?_____________________________________________________________________

10. How do you prefer to enjoy a book?
_____ having someone read it to me
_____ reading silently to myself
_____ reading the same thing as a group so we can talk about it
_____ reading out loud with others
_____ listening to a “book on tape” and following along in the book
_____ other (please describe) _________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time to fill out this survey. My hope is that it will help me to know what you like much better. Then, when we are looking for a book that you will like or if you ask me for a recommendation, we’ll be more likely to find one that is “just right” for you. Also, your opinions guide my new book selections for our library, so I find them very valuable. Thank you very much for your help!

-- Mrs. Smith



________________________________________________



Reader Interest Inventory Response Form


Dear _____________________:


Thank you so much for taking the time to fill out the Reader Interest Inventory. It is very helpful for me in picking out new books for the library to know what students like you want to read.

It is also wonderful to know that you are interested in so many awesome things, including:

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

Based on what you told me on your Reading Inventory form, we have several books in the school library that I think you will really enjoy.

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

Happy reading!


Mrs. Smith

Blogger disclosure:  Links in this post may include links to my Amazon account.  Purchases made through these links - or through the Amazon search engine in the right hand column on this blog - contribute a few pennies to me, which are then used for purchases for the school library.  Thanks so much for all of your support!


(Photo by Christy Hardin Smith.  This is my own little reader enjoying some Roald Dahl over the summer.)