The Motivatin to Read Profile (MRP) was developed to aid elementary teacher in assessing the motivation of their students. The MRP has two parts a reading survey and a conversational interview. To aid the teachers of adolescnt students the Adolescent Motivation to Read Profile (AMRP) was developed. It is based on the MRP with questions revised for older students and the number of questions increased.
Of the 384 student who took part in the AMRP 54% were female and 46% were male. 22% were African American, 37% were Causasian, 30% were stuents Afro/Indo-Trini (from Trinidad and Tobago), 10% were clasdsified as other, 1%Hispanic. 43,8% were in graded 6-8, 35.2% were in grades 9-10, and 21% were in grades 11-12.
Females scored higher than males and this increased with age. Males scored higher in their early teens and decreased with age. Females said they valued reading more than males.The students from Trinidad and Tobago valued reading more than Causasians.
The discrepanies between what students said on the reading survey and the interview answers is important to those of us who teach this age group. Especially those of us who teach boys in this age group. Boys often said they did not like to read and did not read, yet when interviewed they spoke of reading magazines about hunting and fishing or other hobbies. They like to read stories written by friends, the Internet, emails. They even read novels that appealed to them. They just don't seem to want to read the textbooks and other "shool reading we try to push down their collect throats. This is an important message to those of us who teach these guys reading, if we don't give reading materials to them that appeals to their interests we are never going to be able to help them to become better reader. The blame and the shame will be on us.
