Questions to Ask Older Students About Their Reading

        In this Reading Research Quarterly article, Gay Ivey (University of Wisconsin) and Peter Johnston (SUNY Albany) write about the advantages of adolescents reading self-selected young-adult literature at their own pace (as opposed to reading the same novel together as a class). The interview questions they used with students at the end of the school year are particularly helpful:
Have teachers this year done anything that made you interested in reading a certain book? What was it?
Have you read something this year that was so memorable you keep thinking about it or you told someone else about it?
Have other people this year helped you decide to read certain books? Who? What did they do or say that made you want to read?
Do you talk with anyone about the books you read? Who do you talk to, and what kinds of things do you talk about?
Have you started to read a book in school that you found confusing? What happened with that?
Tell me something about your reading in classes other than English (social studies, science, math, etc.). What has been interesting or challenging about those experiences?
How has your reading at home changed this year?
What will happen with your reading this summer?
What did you learn as a reader this year?
Is there anything else you’d like to tell me about your reading?

“Engagement with Young Adult Literature: Outcomes and Processes” by Gay Ivey and Peter Johnston in Reading Research Quarterly, July/August/September 2013 (Vol. 48, #3, p. 255-275), http://bit.ly/1b7SWt5; Ivey can be reached at mgivey@wisc.edu.


Stephen Anderson
Principal, Central High School