geeky
This chart is the answer to the question, would you read more if you received help in finding good books to read. Note that almost 3/4 of boys and girls agreed with this statement (although I would love to see the breakdown along the Likert Scale). Helping our colleagues and our students's parents learn how to recommend the "next good book" is something we can do. I often talk about readers' advisory as a reference interview about books. What have you already read? What is one of our favorite books? Authors? Forms or formats or genres of books? If an author could write the perfect book for you, what would it be like? Kids are often astonished when I can make recommendations after asking some preliminary questions. Of course, classroom teachers and school librarians do this on a regular basis. Let's talk to parents about how to do this as well. If you remember from earlier in the week, one grandmother talked about the books her grandkids wanted and she would not get them because she did not think they were suitable. We need to move as far away from this model as we can.
This chart lists some of the resources used to locate books. In order of preferences, students use the library, book clubs and book fairs, bookstores, reading lists, web sites, and social media. Again I would have loved to see more detail here as well as the other answers beyond these 6 (yes, I am a nerd; I love data). I am pleased to see libraries as a resource for more than 60% of respondents.
I will discuss some of the other conclusions of this study in the days to come. However, I do want to take one issue with the wording of some of the questions. As I wrote on the blog earlier this week, I really am growing to despise the term "fun" when applied to reading. I wonder how the phrase "reading for fun" might have skewed some of the responses to the survey. After years working with middle school kids, I have no problem with them thinking "reading for fun" is something they do not do. I think the term independent reading is better. So, for those of you who think of using the survey questions in your own classroom and/or school, consider using a term other than "fun."
There is much to digest in this report. I plan to continue to comb through the data and charts and narrative. I thank Scholastic for spending the time and effort and funds to ask some important questions.