COL Inquiry #4B: Collecting student voice and focus groups

Today I conducted a survey with my year 9's and asked them a few questions about reading.

The 1st question I asked was 'Do you like reading'.  Here are the results for the 18 students who completed the survey.

When asked why, the answers varied slightly so I categorised them into similar areas before graphing them

• A: Enjoyment: Students find reading relaxing or enjoyable.
• B: Learning/Improvement: Students talk about reading for learning, getting better at reading, or improving vocabulary.
• C:  Interest in Topics: Students only like reading specific topics or subjects.
• D:  Good for You/Important: Students think reading is beneficial or important.
• E:  Mixed Feelings: Students show a mixed response (e.g., liking reading sometimes but not always)
• F:  They Dislike reading: Students express a dislike for reading or mention negative aspects (e.g., reading is boring, gives them a headache).

The rest of the results are on this powerpoint.  It will help me design appropriate strategies to hopefully support my learners to be better readers.

Aside from collecting student voice data from the class, I also sat with a select group of students (2 boys and 2 girls) and to help elaborate further some of answers they provided.

The 3 main questions I asked were:

• Do you like to read? If yes why, if no why not?
• What are the positives and negatives of reading?
• What are some things you did at your old school to help you read?

There response were what I'd expected and I will use what they have said when planning my hypothesis.