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Interest Inventory Hyperlink

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The interest inventory is a tool designed to guide readers to literature based on their interests and prior background knowledge. Every child, regardless of age/ability, is able to fill out a google form to inform the teacher of their interests. 

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The picture on the right, provided by Dr. Devery Ward at Appalachian State University, shows the 'behind the scenes logistics of how an interest inventory works. As you can see by the picture provided, students are given a category such as 'animals' which can lead students to two choices: answering more questions about animals or moves students to the next category. There are several different categories that a teacher can choose from, but my colleagues and I chose the following categories: Hobbies, Movies, Animals, and Curiosities; students would be able to provide more information based on their interests for at least one category. That is why the categories should be broad. As mentioned, after the students answer 'yes' to liking a specific category, they begin to answer more detailed questions about the overarching category. Based on the picture below, students were asked their favorite type of animal and then what specific pet they liked from those types. 

Interest Inventories Should: 

1. Work for Students who find reading difficult

2. Avoid Questions like "What is Your Favorite Book"​

   1. You will guide students to finding out books that hook
      their interest​

3.  Identify multiple areas specific to interest as well as
   genre preference

   1. Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Folktales
      , etc. 

   2. You may also want to consider different literary
      modalities such as magazines, online articles,
      videos with subtitles, 
      and more​​

4. Be specific to target a group of students 

5. Identify topics about which students are authentically 
   interested

6. Allow teachers to see the student as more than a 
   striving reader. 
   
    

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Group Work

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The following is a list of books that my colleagues and I created to grab the interest of students within the various categories. The following overarching categories that were chosen are Hobbies, Movies, Animals, and Curiosities.

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