Reading
Matters
National Education Association (NEA) Poll on the Reading Habits of
Adolescents
This poll was conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates
from February 9 to 15, 2001, among a national cross section of
509 young Americans, ages 12 to 18. The margin of error for the
poll is (+/- 4.4%)
1. Young
people recognize and identify reading as a critical skill that they
need to master in order to be successful in life. In fact, when
presented with a list of topics that young people learn in school,
reading tops the list of important skills. Young Americans age 12
to 18 give reading an average rating of 8.7 on a 10-point scale,
higher than other important topics such as math, writing, computers,
science, and history. (Q5a)
Importance
of Selected Topics
To Future Success
Average Rating
Reading 8.7
Math 8.6
Writing 8.3
Computers 7.9
Science 7.2
History 7.0
2. Overwhelmingly,
young people both enjoy reading and are comfortable with and confident
in their reading abilities. Even with the wide array of activities
that compete for the time of young Americans, half (50%) of 12-
to 18-year-olds rate the enjoyment that they get from reading as
a "4" or a "5" on a five-point scale. This sentiment
is shared by young Americans of all races, and, in fact, minority
youth are among the most enthusiastic about reading: whereas 47%
of white youth rate reading as a "4" or "5,"
56% of Hispanic and 51% of African-American youth say the same.
(Q6a)
In addition,
the overwhelming majority of young people describe their feelings
about reading in positive terms, such as "stimulating and interesting"
(79% agree), "relaxing" (87% agree), and "rewarding
and satisfying" (85% agree). By contrast, young people decisively
reject negative stereotypes about reading, including the notion
that reading is "boring and dull" (68% disagree) or "old-fashioned"
(68% disagree). (Q7a)
Beyond the enjoyment
and positive feelings that young people have about reading, America's
youth also express confidence in their own reading ability; in fact,
85% rate their reading ability as a "4" or "5"
on a five-point scale. (Q6c)
3. Young
people do a healthy amount of reading: a solid majority (56%) say
that they read more than 10 books a year, including 41% who report
reading more than 15 each year. In particular, middle-school
students are doing more reading than their older peers: 70% of sixth
to eighth graders report that they read more than 10 books a year,
but 49% of high school students say the same.
African-American
youth report doing the most reading (63%), whereas 55% of white
and 52% of Hispanic youth say the same. (Q8a)
4. Young
people are divided in their motives for reading: 42% affirm that
they read primarily for "fun and pleasure," whereas 35%
say they read mostly to get "facts and information."
This division reflects a split in the type of reading that young
people do, as 42% say that most of the books they've read in the
past year have been for their own enjoyment, and 46% say that most
of their reading has been for school or homework. (Q7b, Q8b)
5. Minority
students report not only more encouragement from their parents to
read than their white peers, but also say they spend more time reading
to others than do white youth. More than half (52%) of African-American
students and 47% of Hispanic students say their parents encourage
reading, compared to 43% of white youth. (Q9b) And nearly one-half
(49%) of African-American youth and 40% of Hispanic students read
to others (a younger child, elderly person, or parent) at least
a few times a week. A third of white teens (33%) do the same. (Q2)
6. While
reading is important to teens, they do value other forms of leisure.
In fact, most say that giving up music would be more difficult than
giving up reading. Close to one-half of those polled (48%) said
"listening to music" would be the hardest to do without
for a week. Watching television would be the most difficult for
27% of the young people to give up. (Q4a) Reading was the choice
of 39% of the students to give up for a week, followed by 28% who
selected television to go without for seven days. (Q4b)
7. Consistently,
young women express greater interest in and commitment to reading
than do young men. For example, when asked how important reading
is to them personally, 40% of young women, but just 31% of young
men, rate reading as an "8" or higher on a 10-point scale.
The sexes also differ in their motives for reading and in the amount
of reading that they do. Young women overwhelmingly say that they
read for "fun and pleasure" (48%), while young men overwhelmingly
identify "getting facts and information" (44%) as the
reason they read. Young women also are more likely to say that they
spend time every day reading books that aren't assigned as homework
(30% young women; 19% young men). (Q3a, 7b, Q2)
8. Although
young people enjoy reading and feel comfortable with their reading
abilities, they face a variety of challenges in mastering this critical
skill. For example, young people overwhelmingly identify libraries
(49%) as the most common source for books that they read, ahead
of bookstores or Internet sites (23%), friends or family members
(21%), or gifts (5%). More than one in four (27%), however, say
that when they go to their own school library they cannot find a
good selection of up-to-date books and magazines that interest them.
(Q8c, Q11)
9. Parents
have a great deal of influence over their children's reading habits.
More than half (51%) of young people say that their parents
do not encourage them to read other than for schoolwork. These findings
provide evidence that this type of parental involvement is important--children
who report that their parents encourage them to read are more likely
to read a higher volume of books (63% read more than 10 books a
year) than those who say that their parents leave it up to them
(51% read more than 10 books a year). (Q8a)
When asked to
compare the amount of time that they spend reading with the amount
of time their parents spend reading, more than a third (36%) of
young people, including 42% of young women and 30% of young men,
report that they read more in their spare time than their parents.
(Q9c)
10. When
it comes to specific reading interests, young people's preferences
reflect a rich and diverse set of topics. The majority prefer
reading fiction books (66%), such as novels and stories, over nonfiction
books (26%), such as biographies and history books. Furthermore,
young people are interested in reading books about a wide variety
of topics: 64% select stories about people their age as either a
favorite or pretty interesting topic, with other appealing topics
including mysteries and detective stories (53%), their culture and
heritage (49%), and sports and athletes (47%). (10a, 10b)
Favorite
Reading Topics
One of Favorite Topics/Pretty Interesting
Stories about people your age- 64%
Mysteries and detective stories- 53%
Your culture or heritage- 49%
Sports and athletes- 47%
History and people from the past- 41%
Other countries and the people who live there- 39%
Science and science fiction- 39%
http://www.nea.org/readingmatters/readpoll.html
NEA
1201 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
|
Lapel
buttons, "Celebrate Your Freedom To Read", were made
for
faculty, staff and students. Censorship was discussed in many
classrooms.
A
display of books written by black authors was utilized by the history
and literature classes at LHS.
