Interview/Survey

Today I finally was able to complete the last student survey with Ben. He has been absent so much and I keep forgetting to complete it on the few days he has been here. As I was talking with him, I kept thinking that this was more like a student interview because I am the one asking him the questions out loud and writing down what he says. The "survey" has open ended questions so it allows him to give his true ideas and opinions about sight word instruction in the classroom and at home. As I was giving the interview I wrote down exactly what Ben said. I did not make notes on the survey sheet, rather made notes on another piece of paper. I observed how he was sitting, behaving, and how many times he needed to be reminded to focus and listen to what I was asking him. Even though my interview/survey is short, much shorter than this week's examples, I wanted to transcribe them the best I could. I am going to do all five other surveys the same way. I took notes separately on all of them, so I should be able to transcribe them easily.

Here is what I found:
Ben is fidgeting in his seat and sitting on his legs. I remind him to sit down correctly and focus on me as I am asking the questions. I ask Ben the first question, "What do you like about learning sight words?" Ben says "I like learning t-o spells to." He looked at me excitedly and jumps up to show me on the word wall. I note his enthusiasm because this does not always happen. Next, I ask Ben "When do you practice sight words?" Ben at first shrugs his shoulders and looks at the ground then at me. He responds, "At the end of the day with Mrs. Gray and at home with my mom." I made note that he said the end of the day, even though we practice each morning together because he is usually the first student in my room. He is now fidgeting again and sliding out of his seat. I give him another reminder and he sits back down. the next questions asks, "How do you feel when you are practicing sight words at home? At school?" He quickly replies, "Happy because I like doing it!" I then ask a little more into the question. I wanted to know if he felt happy and school and at home when he practiced sight words because I knew his mom had responded differently on her parent survey. He looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. I asked one more time, and he gave me the same response. I moved on to the last question which was, "Why do you think it is important to learn sight words?" Ben said, "So you can be smart when you are in the first grade." I then asked if he thought it was important to know sight words in Kindergarten and he shrugged his shoulders. The shrugging of the shoulders made me wonder if he understood what I was asking when I extended the question, or if he didn't want to answer anymore questions. As I stated in an earlier post I was surprised to see the discrepancy between the parent surveys and the student surveys/interviews. Ben's mom answered very differently from Ben. I wondered why the students answered the way they did. Was it because I was asking them the questions. After a suggestion from my group to send home the survey and see how they answered the survey with their parents, I decided to try this. So, today I sent home another student survey for their parents to do with them. I am anxious to compare the results! I do have one question...is this a survey or should I consider it an interview and change it in my final write-up?

Here is a picture of Ben's survey: