Year 9 Reading Survey Results

 Yesterday I gave my Year 9 Humanities class (22/29 students were present) a survey about their reading, the results of which were interesting. 

Only 9% of students said they really like reading at school. Unfortunately his didn't surprise me as over the last few years a very low percentage of my junior students said they enjoyed reading at school. The results were equally as dire (9%) for students saying they really like reading at home. Even worse was that no students said they really like reading any digital texts at home.

On the bright side, 55% of students said they are currently reading a book for enjoyment. This seems quite a high percentage given the previously mentioned results so I am assuming most of the students are referring to the silent reading they are doing in class (I'll need to check with them about this).

Only 9% of the students think that reading can make them smarter or more relaxed! I'll make sure I have more discussions with them about this so that they can see the value in reading.

41% of students said that fiction was their main choice for reading in their own time with novels/graphic novels being the favoured type of fiction (31%). I was happy with this result as assumed that students would prefer shorter texts.

Disturbingly, 41% of students said that in the last year, no teachers had suggested further reading for them.

80% of students thought they were good or very good at reading but only 47% of students thought their teacher thought they were good at reading, and only 47% thought their whānau thought they were good at reading. It was interesting to see the results for teachers/whānau were the same. 

Some heartening responses to the question. 'Why is it important to be a good reader' were: 

• To be smart
• Because it can help with your education in life and in your future
• So I can read manuels (sic) and read and read important stuff and get work done
• Reading makes us better thinkers by improving our critical thinking and problem solving
• So when you get a job you can read well
• For my later studies

and the comment that made me laugh, 'So your mum doesn't tell you off because you're still at level 4'.

My main 'takeaways' from the survey were to reinforce with the students what the benefits of reading are and to strongly encourage the students to read at home/in their spare time.