Reading Program Update Part 4: Data of Student Preference

This is part 4 of a 5 part series on the recent advances in my free choice reading program.

• Part 1: Photo Essay
• Part 2: Reading Data-How and Why to Gather It
• Part 3: Data of Differentiation
• Part 4: Data of Student Preferences
• Part 5: Data of Book Popularity and Circulation

In this post, I explore how reading data can reveal student preferences, which the teacher can use to ignite future reading interest. Here’s the spreadsheet for one of my classes. Open it to check out in detail what I’m talking about.

Book Analysis

It is super interesting to sort the spreadsheet by student and then by rating. In each and every case, conclusions can be made.

Take Rachel for example:

Rachel	Tumba	53	8
Rachel	Billy Y Las Botas	49	7
Rachel	Soy Lorenzo	50	7
Rachel	Pobre Ana Moderna	57	6
Rachel	Problemas in Paraíso	72	6
Rachel	Robo en la Noche	74	6
Rachel	La Clase de Confesiones	61	5
Rachel	La Familia de Federico Rico	92	5
Rachel	La Maldición de la Cabeza Reducida	58	5
Rachel	Los Baker van a Perú	50	5
Rachel	Patricia Va a California	45	5
Rachel	La Chica Nueva	49	4
Rachel	El Capibara Con Botas	37	3
Rachel	El Escape Cubano	35	3
Rachel	El Nuevo Houdini	62	3
Rachel	El Ratón Pablito	109	3
Rachel	El Silbón de Venezuela	42	3
Rachel	La Bella Mentira	62	3
Rachel	La Casa de la Dentista	114	3
Rachel	Brandon Brown Versus Yucatán	57	2
Rachel	Daniel el Detective	45	2
Rachel	Don Quijote el último caballero	52	2
Rachel	Edi El Elefante	98	2
Rachel	Brandon Brown Dice la Verdad	81	1
Rachel	Brandon Brown Quiere Un Perro	69	1

Rachel clearly needs some help with browsing strategies. She has read 19 books that she hasn’t liked (rating of 5 or below). I’m kicking myself right now for not having collected data sooner, which I will be sure to do from the start of the reading program in the future (one step at a time, though, right people?). It’s not a perfect trend, but the tendency is that she prefers more advanced books. Yes, she’s highly ranked Tumba and Billy y las Botas, but other than those two, the 4 books she’s ranked 6 or higher are more advanced in text type and more mature in intended audience. And ALL the books she ranked below 5 are toward the basic end of text level and/or are thematically intended for younger audiences.

I’m thinking that perhaps more advanced texts and/or mature themes will bring higher ratings for her. On Monday, you can be sure I’m going to give her a stack of books to peruse containint the likes of the following: Esperanza, Sobrevivientes, Casa Dividida, Todo Lo Que Brilla, La Hija Del Sastre, La Guerra Sucia, Vector, and Hasta La Sepultura. Among those titles, there are books of war, revolution, the triumph of the human spirit, mystery, tragedy, the suffering under dictatorships, corruption scandals, the fierce fight for the moral right, exploitation of the poor, etc. There are a number of formats from historical fiction, to fiction, to mystery. I’ll also throw in Bryce Hedstrom’s Conexiones, which is a more basic text than those others I’m going to suggest, but is unique in that it is the only expository texts. Perhaps she’ll love that. We will see.

Nearly every student’s data reveals valuable information on preferences.

Take Amanda, yet another interesting case study:

Amanda	Cuentos de Chonko	50	10
Amanda	Cuentos de Chonko	50	10
Amanda	Cuentos de Chonko	50	10
Amanda	Fiesta Fatal	74	10
Amanda	Piratas Del Caribe Y El Mapa Secreto	53	10
Amanda	Piratas Del Caribe Y El Mapa Secreto	53	10
Amanda	Billy Y Las Botas	49	8
Amanda	La Casa de la Dentista	114	8
Amanda	Quíen fue George Washington	101	8
Amanda	Billy Y Las Botas	49	7
Amanda	El Silbón de Venezuela	42	7
Amanda	Los Piratas Del Caribe Y El Triángulo De Las Bermudas	88	7
Amanda	El Capibara Con Botas	37	6
Amanda	La Vampirata	71	6

I can read between the lines here and infer that not only does she have a broad reading interest, but she is also drawn to books with an element of adventure or sci-fi themes. The three books with Pirates are all buccaneering sort of adventures. Additionally La Vampirata and  El Silbón de Venezuela have Latin American legends or mythology as part of their plot underpinning. With this in mind, I might pull a few titles for her to check out: La Calaca Alegre for its afterlife or supernatural themes, La Llorona for its take on the widely-known Latin American ghost legend of the same name, El Ekeko Boliviano for its inclusion of the supernatural ekeko legend and for its similarities to El Silbón de Venezuela in intended age audience, and maybe I’ll slip in the biography Santana as a stretch in a new direction, since she seemed to like the bio of George Washington (rank of 8) and I know she loves her band class and is an avid violin player.

I could go on and on. And I will over the next couple of weeks in class as I have individual conversations with students about possible future books to select. Collecting data on reading has definitely given me a glimpse into each students’ reading style, a glimpse that will aid in making suggestions for future reading choices and hopefully, in the long run, the development of a full-blooded reading habit.

Disclaimer: I haven’t analyzed anything other than two sections of Spanish 3 Honors. My gut tells me that it will be much harder to infer reading preferences with level 1 and 2 kids because the breadth of possible reading options is drastically limited by their more novice vocabularies. They all start out with Edi El Elefante, the Brandon Brown‘s, etc… I still think over time, even at lower levels, collecting data will be really helpful in working with students to find great books for them.

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The research is unequivocal: reading for fun is an extremely efficient technique for language development, in any language. Collecting this data will definitely help me take my free choice program to the next level! Maybe, just maybe, my suggestions will help students identify as a reader and develop an intrinsically motivated reading habit! That’s the goal at least!