1.  Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) (McKenna and Kear, 1990)

·        Assessment can be duplicated and includes directions for administering, scoring, and interpreting.

·        Percentile ranks of how students compare to national sample of more than 17,000 children is available.

·        Simple to administer and score – can be administered to whole group in about 10 minutes.

·        Differentiates attitudes about recreational AND academic reading.

·        Lighthearted and playful appearance – would be especially useful for students who may have test-taking anxiety.

·        Should include a picture of a straight face to depict neither happy nor upset.

·        No opportunity for students to elaborate on their answers.

·        Only evaluates attitudes toward reading, not actual performance.

Use with elementary students at the beginning of the year to get a quick indication of students’ attitudes toward reading.  Provides the teacher with a sense of how students feel about reading for fun versus reading for school.

 

2.  Motivation to Read Profile—Revised (McKenna and Stahl, 2015)

·        Assessment can be duplicated and includes directions for administering, scoring, and interpreting.

·        Easy to administer and score – whole group.

·        Differentiates value of reading AND reading self-concept.

·        Includes a conversational interview to dig deeper into individual student’s thinking about value and self-concept.

·        Interview has nothing to score, so follow-up prompts and additional questions could be explored.

·        Part two is a conversational interview that must be given individually.

·        Only evaluates attitudes toward reading, not actual performance.

Use with students grades 2-6 at the beginning of the year to learn about students’ thinking of the value of reading and whether reading is becoming part of their identities.  It would be interesting to administer again at the end of the year to see if their attitudes have changed.

*Brief survey 

*Can be used with a large group

*Scoring is easy and straightforward with the spreadsheet provided

*Questions demonstrate that literacy comes in many forms

*Objective way to analyze students’ literacy interests

*Would be understandable and applicable to a wide age range, especially intermediate and secondary students. 

*Allows a teacher to see if a student has outliers or extremes in a few areas, or if their scores are fairly steady across categories.

*Can see if a certain literacy form or purpose is preferred. 

*Small age range for which it has been normed (grades 6-8)

*Can only compare against the national norms if used in grades 6-8.
*Assumes digital media access

I can see this tool being used at the beginning of the year as teachers begin to get to know their students. It would provide helpful information on where students’ interests lie within the myriad of literacy avenues in their lives. It may start a springboard discussion about some of these atypical literacies, and can provide teachers with information that can help them plan lessons that build on student strengths. It may also provide students with a new way of thinking about their literacy strengths, and help them form a positive identity around their strengths and interests. 

*Brief survey

*Can be used with a large group

*Scoring is fairly simple

*Allows students to evaluate their feelings about themselves as readers

*Four dimensions of self-perception are explored: Progress, Observational Comparison, Social Feedback, and Physiological State. This is an interesting, comprehensive breakdown that can help teachers see specific areas that are impacting their identities as readers. 

*Information can help identify areas that need to be supported.

*The goal of the survey is to gain information that will help increase motivation and self-esteem in reading. 

*5-point scale has an undecided as the middle option. This could skew the interpretation as it does not necessarily indicate positive or negative feelings.

*Scoring is not normed for age/grade level.

This tool would be a good assessment to give at the beginning of the year as you are getting to know your students, and you could also use it at the end of the year to see how children’s self-perceptions have changed throughout the year. I have also used this at the beginning and end of a reading intervention with intervention students. The information that the survey provides allows you to get to know your students more personally, and see the nuances of their literacy identities. Teachers can use the information to design lessons and classrooms that help increase motivation to read and positive feelings about reading.  

-Can quickly be administered

-Given to a group of students or individuals 

-Gives data about recreational and academic text use

-Includes information about use of text in digital and print

-Easy to score quickly 

-Students may simply circle numbers and misinterpret the directions

-Social media has a large influence in this survey. If students aren’t allowed to use social media or phones at home, they may not be able to answer some of these questions.

-It does not provide specific information about the types of books that students enjoy reading

-You will need to download a scoring sheet to calculate the subscale scores and find the percentile ranks, which you need to have login access to

-National norms are available for students in grades 6-8, otherwise subscale scores need to be used

I would use this survey at the beginning of the school year with students to determine whether their reading strengths are academic or recreational. I would not only use this survey, but would have an additional assessment available for students to fill in specific information about books or topics that they enjoy reading about to hear their personal voice. This second assessment would be more open-ended to give students an opportunity to express their interests. 

2. Here’s How I Feel About Reading (McKenna & Stahl, 2015) 

-Quick and easy to administer

-Open-ended 

-Gives students an opportunity to be honest about their feelings regarding reading

-Provides insight into peer influences on reading

- Discusses reading habits at home and school

-Students can discuss future reading goals 

-Students can fill in as little or as much as they would like

-Responses can be vague from students

-Does not provide specific details about reading motivation (recreational or academic interests) 

-Assumes that most answers will be positive based on the sentence stems 

Suggested Use: 

I would not necessarily give this assessment to an entire class at the beginning of the school year, rather it would be something that I would complete with individual students during a one-on-one reading conference time.  I would give this assessment at the beginning of the year and the end of the year to see how students’ attitudes have changed over time. Once I have an overall idea of what the student’s reading habits are like through other surveys, like the Survey of Adolescent Reading Attitudes (McKenna & Stahl, 2015), and classroom observations, I would use this assessment to give me a better idea of what specifically they enjoy or do not like about reading.