Getting Students Excited about Reading

I’ve been having problems getting one particular grade 4 class excited about reading when they come to the library. I tried book trailers and book talks but got a mediocre response. Either the books were too hard or I was way off on books I thought they liked. I decided to find out their reading interests.  Students filled out a reading survey that I found in the Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller. I put the survey on Google docs and shared it with the teacher.  Students filled out the survey in one 45 minute library session. I found out that I was off on their interests. Most wanted Geronimo Stilton or books on World War II. For their next library visit, I pulled 3-5 books based on their interests in the survey and handed them out. I had just received four boxes of new books so each student got a brand new book. They were excited and sharing books like I had hoped to do earlier with the book talks! Yahoo!