The Results Are In!

My informal survey is finished, or rather, the data collection is. Let's start with 4th grade. 50 students were surveyed.

90% have read a book and saw its movie.
52% read before falling asleep.
70% have made something by reading directions.
40% have gotten a book as a gift.
84% have parents who like to read.
56% read parts of the newspaper.
46% like nonfiction better than fiction.
80% like to hear stories read aloud.
78% like to read books by the same author.
74% read the cereal box at breakfast time.
50% own at least ten books.
16% prefer mysteries.
20% have read all the Harry Potter books.
42% have magazine subscriptions at home.

I bolded two of the results because they concerned me. While we have RIF books each year, and books are not hard to come by, half our fourth graders claimed they owned fewer than ten books. Less than half are given books as gifts. I suspect one reason is that Bridgeport has no functioning book store, and the nearest book store is at least 20 minutes away. We know that students read better when they are surrounded by books. One solution may be to make parents aware that many online book stores sell even fairly new books used, often at extremely low prices. A better solution would be for a book store, retail or used, to open in the city. Frankly, transportation and disposable income are the biggest obstacles- 93% of 4th graders at Black Rock School said they owned at least 10 books. Black Rock students usually have more access to transport.

Let's see how the 5th graders did. 35 were surveyed.

74% have read a book and saw its movie.

71% read before falling asleep.
100% have made something by reading directions.
69% have gotten a book as a gift.86% have parents who like to read.

57% read parts of the newspaper.

46% like nonfiction better than fiction.

80% like to hear stories read aloud.

83% like to read books by the same author.
80% read the cereal box at breakfast time.

71% own at least ten books.

51% prefer mysteries.

0% have read all the Harry Potter books.

91% have magazine subscriptions at home.

I bolded the numbers that interested me.  I am puzzled that only 74% of 5th graders said they have read a book and watched its movie, compared to 90% of the 4th graders. The demographics are slightly different, which may explain it. I am happy to see that roughly 70% of 5th graders had gotten books as gifts and own at least ten. My guess is they request books as gifts more often. I would like to increase the numbers to be as close to 100% as possible.

Numbers like these, however, really do emphasize the fact that we need programs like RIF and the more programs we have, the more our students benefit.