The first homework assignment of each school year for each student in each of my high school math classes included a 9-question “interest inventory.” This particular interest inventory is a self-assessment tool that invites students to reflect on their past experiences.
My students agreed that answering the 9 interest inventory questions was a nice change from the typical “What’s your favorite this/that?” survey, and I certainly had fun reading my students’ responses! Right away, at the beginning of the school year, it’s a great way to get a bigger picture (even a slightly bigger picture) of each student.
For teachers, the interest inventory can provide good initial information about students’ strengths and weaknesses. In fact, I think this quiz invited some students to talk to me in person about their strengths and interests, giving me even more insight into learning styles.
Here is the inventory of 9 questions. I always asked students to answer all parts of each question and to carefully write their answers in complete sentences.
1. What is your favorite activity or subject in school? Why? What is your least favourite? Why?
two. What subjects are difficult for you? What makes them more difficult?
3. If you could learn about anything you wanted, what would you choose to learn? Please be specific. (For example: meteorology, science fiction writing, architecture, cooking, carpentry, film, etc.)
Four. If people came to you for information on something you know a lot about, what would the topic be?
5. If you could plan an excursion, where would you go? Why?
6. Fill in the blank and rate EACH option 1 = best, 2 = acceptable, 3 = worst
I learn ____ alone.
I learn ____ with another person.
I learn ____ in a small group.
I learn ____ in a large group.
7. What helps you learn? (For example: hands-on experience, reading quietly, taking notes, reading aloud, etc.)
8. What projects, be it past school assignments or out of school, are you most proud of? Why?
9. Think of a great teacher you have had. Describe what made this teacher so wonderful.
One student knew a lot about horses, and throughout the year she gave me unsolicited information (such as defining riding styles and mounts), occasionally updating me on her training and competitions. Getting to know her a little more outside of the math classroom helped her get involved inside the math classroom.
Another student was proud to have trained her hamster, named El Noche, to win the local Petco Hamster Derby! I had to ask her about it because she had never heard of Petco Hamster Derby shoes. She happily described how she executed her training regimen in one of the hallways of her house.
The student who answered “I want to learn how to draw faces” is now a student at LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts. Without asking her at the beginning of the school year, I wonder how long it would have taken me to realize this very, very quiet student’s penchant for art…maybe in the spring of that year when we were studying geometry and she told me that she like how I used different colors to help highlight specific angles, sides, etc.
Questions 3, 4, 5 and 8 always gave me the answers that made me smile the most. I used the 9 questions above for 6th graders, but in general all the questions are great reflection questions, requiring answers with much more relevant information than favorite colors/food/sports/etc.
