Comments On Redesigning the Introductory Survey

The most basic, consistent and unexciting change I made throughout the survey was, of course, to swap the word ‘teacher’ for ‘student’ or ‘learner’. Even though it is a simple change, and one which practically everyone in this course made, I think that it’s interesting because it draws attention to something important. I.E. the fact that teaching and learning are inextricably intertwined concepts. It’s no wonder, then, that it was so easy to produce a whole set of new questions by doing a simple swap.


Towards the end of the survey, for the question on literacy, I sort of split the question in two directions. First off, I ask students what literacy means to them. I changed the question this way because I feel that it is more casual and applicable to students in grade nine through twelve, at the applied or academic level. By phrasing my question in such a way as to highlight the fact that I want their opinion, I also think it renders the question (potentially) more inviting and personal. Secondly (as mentioned above) I ask the original question again only swapping the word learner for teacher. I think that it is important to give students a chance to voice what they think a modern teacher should know.


Instead of simply asking what the last book they read was, I also invite them to tell me what the last movie they watched was if they prefer. The main reason I made this change is because even if students choose to share information about their taste in movies, it still reveals something about their taste in narrative and personality as a whole. The other reason is because I figured that any students who are willing to tell me what they last read when given the choice to tell me what they last watched are probably those who read on a regular basis anyway ...and this is also valuable information when getting to know your students. So it is a win-win situation.


For the question “What are some of the things you read on a regular basis? ” I changed it to “What are the types of the things you enjoy reading (whether or not you always get around to it)?” As a forthcoming English teacher, one of my goals is to get students to increase, if not maintain, their reading frequency. By inserting “enjoy,” my intent is clear: I want to know what will engage them. I want to know what kind of text I need to turn to in order to get my students engaged when all else fails. When you have a classroom filled with students at the applied level whose reading preferences are non-existent or (if you’re lucky) difficult to “read”, this kind of information is priceless. Trust me. I learned the hard way. The last thing you want to do, therefore, is scare them off by making “on a regular basis” a mandatory criteria to answer a question about reading.