Here are some of the best questions for an elementary school student survey about reading time, plus tips on how to create them. If you want, you can use Specific to instantly build your own survey and start collecting feedback with just a few clicks.
The best open-ended questions for elementary school student survey about reading time
Open-ended questions invite students to share thoughts and experiences in their own words, which leads to richer, more genuine responses compared to choosing from a list. In fact, open-ended survey questions result in more complete and nuanced feedback, offer a chance to uncover surprises, and create opportunities for students to explain their answers in full. When you want to go beyond surface-level data—to understand context, motivations, or ideas you didn’t think to ask about—open-ended questions are the way to go. That’s why 76% of people add comments when given the option, a sign of high engagement with open-ended questions. [1]
What do you enjoy most about your reading time at school?
Can you describe a recent book or story you enjoyed and why you liked it?
What would you change to make reading time more fun for you?
How do you feel when you start a new book during reading time?
Are there any books you wish you could read at school? Which ones?
Can you tell us about a time when reading was difficult for you? What helped you get through it?
What do you usually do if you don’t understand something you read?
Who do you like reading with the most, and why?
What types of stories or books do you wish there were more of during reading time?
If you could ask your teacher for one thing to improve reading time, what would it be?
Including open-ended questions helps you gather deeper, less biased, and more complete insights, which makes your survey truly valuable. [1] [2]
The best single-select multiple-choice questions for elementary school student survey about reading time
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect for when you want to quantify feedback or get quick overviews. They’re easy for students to answer, which is great if you want to kick-start the conversation—sometimes it’s much less intimidating for a student to pick from a few options, and you can always dig deeper with follow-up questions. When you need numbers or want to spot patterns fast, these are your go-to.
Examples:
Question: How much time do you usually spend reading during school each day?
Less than 10 minutes
10–20 minutes
21–30 minutes
More than 30 minutes
Question: What kind of books do you like most during reading time?
Adventure stories
Comics or graphic novels
Non-fiction books
Other
Question: How do you feel about reading by yourself versus with others?
I prefer reading alone
I prefer reading with classmates
I like both equally
When to follow up with "why?" A “why?” follow-up is powerful after a student gives a simple or surprising answer. For example, if a student selects “Less than 10 minutes” as reading time, you might ask, “Why do you spend less time reading? Is there something else you’d rather do, or is reading hard for you?” This gives context and can open up a conversation that helps you better understand each student’s needs. It’s a proven way to capture the reasoning behind choices, which often validates or challenges what the numbers suggest. [2]
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Including an “Other” option lets students express preferences you might not have anticipated. The key is to always follow up—ask “What would you choose instead?” if a student picks “Other.” These responses often reveal new trends, interests, or challenges you hadn’t considered, making your survey more useful and genuinely student-centered. [3]
Should you use an NPS question for elementary school student survey about reading time?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a method used to measure overall satisfaction by asking how likely someone is to recommend something—in this case, reading time at school—to others. For elementary students, it’s easy to adapt: “How likely are you to tell a friend that reading time is your favorite part of school?” NPS gives you a handy single number to track over time (and to compare between groups or schools). Even for younger students, this single question—paired with a gentle follow-up—can quickly gauge overall sentiment, and you can generate a tailored NPS survey for this group here.
The power of follow-up questions
The real magic happens with follow-up questions. Instead of stopping at the first answer, Specific uses AI to ask in-the-moment follow-ups based on each student’s previous reply and their context, similar to a skilled interviewer. (You can see more details in our automated followup questions guide.) This gets you deeper insights, richer stories, and less guesswork later, all while saving you the time of following up via email or in person.
Let’s illustrate how this plays out:
Student: I don’t like reading time.
AI follow-up: Can you share what makes reading time less enjoyable for you? Is it the types of books, the setting, or something else?
Student: I like adventure stories.
AI follow-up: What do you enjoy most about adventure stories? Is there a favorite book or character?
How many followups to ask? Usually, 2–3 follow-up questions are plenty—you want to keep students engaged and avoid fatigue, but still capture the full context. In Specific, you can set it to automatically skip to the next question once you have the key information you wanted.
This makes it a conversational survey: This whole approach flips surveys into real conversations, which keeps students interested and invested in sharing.
AI-powered analysis: Even with all this open-ended feedback, it’s easy to analyze responses with AI. Check out our guide to analyzing survey responses using AI tools—sorting through lots of text is simple now thanks to these advancements.
If you haven’t tried it yet, go generate a survey with automated followup questions and see how much more you can uncover with just a few thoughtful follow-ups.
How to write prompts for ChatGPT and other AIs to generate great survey questions
If you want to use ChatGPT or other generative AI tools to brainstorm survey questions, prompts make all the difference. Keep it simple first, like:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for elementary school student survey about reading time.
You’ll get better results if you give a little more background. For example, add details about your audience, your goal, or why you’re running the survey:
Our school is trying to make reading time more enjoyable for everyone. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a conversational survey for elementary students about their reading experiences, favorite books, and any challenges they face.
Once you get a list, you can organize them:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, if you want to focus on a specific theme, you can deepen the conversation:
Generate 10 questions for the “preferences and interests” category, which focuses on what types of stories or formats students enjoy most during reading time.
Working like this lets you fine-tune and expand your survey, matching exactly what you need for your elementary school students.
What is a conversational survey? Manual vs. AI-generated surveys
A conversational survey feels like a chat rather than a form. Instead of presenting a block of questions all at once, the survey “talks” with each respondent, asking one question at a time, offering encouragement, clarifying answers when needed, and digging deeper with smart follow-ups. This approach is especially effective for younger students, who often feel more comfortable in a friendly, chat-like interaction.
Let’s compare the workflows:
Manual Survey Creation | AI Survey Generator (like Specific) |
|---|---|
Spend hours building questions, logic, and flow | Generate a polished, conversational survey with a simple prompt |
Manually build followup question logic | AI automatically asks relevant, contextual follow-ups to each answer |
Hard to personalize | Personalized, adaptive survey conversations |
Analysis often takes days—or manual coding | AI instantly summarizes, segments, and explores all responses with you |
Why use AI for elementary school student surveys? AI-driven survey generators are a game changer. Attention spans are short, and students engage best in chat-like formats. AI-powered surveys like Specific make the process natural and conversation-like, resulting in richer, more honest feedback. Plus, teachers and admins save time by letting AI handle survey design, follow-ups, and analysis.
If you want more step-by-step instructions, check the how-to guide for creating an elementary student reading time survey. Specific gives you the smoothest, most engaging way to craft conversational surveys, making feedback collection easy for you and enjoyable for students—try out an AI survey example and rediscover what surveys can do.
See this reading time survey example now
Build engaging, context-rich surveys for students in seconds—see the difference when you capture feedback through a genuinely conversational experience powered by Specific. Get started and discover deeper insights right away.