Interview #1: Name: Gender: Male Grade: 3 Age: 7 Reading Level According to teacher: Level T 1.

What is your favorite part about reading? - Trying to find main ideas and connections. 2. What is your favorite school subject? Do you like books that involve that subject? - Math. No because he doesnt like them. He likes to read math books if it is fun. 3. How do you pick a book? What stands out to you when picking a book? - From a level or series. For example, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. 4. What are some of your favorite books? - Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Sports books, specifically books about soccer. 5. What does a good reader look like to you? - They answer questions, read at a good smooth pace, know main idea and topic, make connections, and they add some expression, use syntax and use phrasing. 6. What do you do when you are reading and you get to a word that you dont know? - Go back and look at text clues and look at the word. Try and sound out the word, if you cant sound out the word then the book is too hard. Read ahead and see if that would help and go back to word. 7. How do you remember what you read? - By making connections. 8. Where do you like to read? - In a private place, not in public where people talk, specifically in his bedroom all by himself. 9. What do you like to read? - Mystery and sports books. 10. Do you think you can still read a picture book? Why or why not? - Yes, last year he made a picture book. The books help with connections and help if he gets stuck at a word.

11. Do you talk about reading with friends? If so, what do you talk about? - No because he wants to keep it to himself. He doesnt want to have a book spoiled, but if they have read the book then he talks about it. He talked about Diary of a Wimpy Kid with a friend and he summarized it for them. 12. Where do you talk about books that you read? - On the bus. He only talked about books in school if in class. 13. What do you do when you get to a page you just read in a book but you didnt understand it? - Go back and reread it or read a couple more pages ahead to see if that would help. 14. What did you read over the summer? - He says he read a lot. He read a Brazil the Soccer Stars book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and most recently he read Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days. 15. What is your favorite reading activity that you have done in class? - He shared here that he skipped 2nd grade. But he likes to read to someone in class.

Reflection on Arya: Arya was the first child I interviewed and I was honestly blown away by some of his responses. He was using vocabulary that I have been learning in class such as making connections, making predictions, and syntax. He also seemed to know what the words actually meant when he talked about reading. In addition, when he described a good reader I thought that he was spot on. He said that a good reader reads at a good smooth pace, they can identity the main idea, they make connections, they use expression, and they use syntax and phrasing. If I were to describe a good reader I would say very similar things. Arya also talked about when he reads he relates to his background knowledge through the connections that he makes. Also with the picture books he said he is not too old to read them and can use the pictures to help with these connections. The most surprising thing to me with Arya was that he could actually say that if he does not know a word and cannot figure it out with the text clues then the book may be too hard for him. Most children will try to read the book and continue on even if they do not understand it because they may want to say they finished it. However, Arya would stop reading and try to read it when he is older rather then read it without understanding the text. Arya knows that he has a high reading level because he told me that he even skipped a grade because he was excelling. When recommending books for Arya I believe that I could give him a challenge to further his reading and vocabulary knowledge. I could give Arya text that relates to his background knowledge and that sparks his interest by giving him books relating to sports like soccer and by finding math books that are fun to read and can give him a challenge at the same time. He told me that he really has not really read math books for fun and I know of a few that he would really like with great illustrations. In

addition, I could give him mystery books that also will interest him and challenge him at the same time like Chasing Vermeer. It would be a good text for Arya to read because it has some illustrations to help him make connections and it would be a great mystery text for him to read. Arya knows a great deal about reading and certain to strategies to use. When teaching him I would continue to tell him to continue to use the strategies he knows but in a more challenging text because this would help further his reading knowledge. I would also teach him further strategies that he may not know. I would tell him that he could think within the text by self-monitoring to check for his accuracy. I would also tell him to critique the text and think critically about what the author is doing in his writing. This would really help make Arya an even more independent reader. Arya was telling me some about syntax and phrasing in sentences, but I would have him further analyze the authors craft and the text structure. This would help him because it is a more challenging concept to be more critical and actually look at the text structure, but it is one I think he would enjoy. I could help him do this by giving him a variety of text such as poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. He seems to read a great deal of non-fiction, which is great, but I would try to broaden his horizons even further by giving him books like other fiction and historical fiction books.

Interview #2: Name: Gender: Female Grade: 3 Age: 8 Level according to the teacher: Level K 1. What is your favorite part about reading? - Read to get better at it. 2. What is your favorite school subject? Do you like books that involve that subject? - She likes writing and she likes books that do involve the subject. 3. How do you pick a book? What stands out to you when picking a book? - She specifically picks Junie B Jones books becaue they are funny. Sometimes she picks books because the pictures or title stood out to her. 4. What are some of your favorite books? - Junie B Jones and the Fruitcake factory, writing poem book that they read in 2nd grade. 5. What does a good reader look like to you? - They are not wandering around and they focus on reading. 6. What do you do when you are reading and you get to a word that you dont know? - Chunk it out. If she cant chunk it out she skips the word and tries to make sure it makes sense later on in the sentence. 7. How do you remember what you read? - If she cant figure it out she rereads it and remember it then. 8. Where do you like to read? - At her desk or at the floor because no one is there and it is quieter. At her house she sits in her furry purple butterfly chair. 9. What do you like to read? - Poetry books or normal ones like Junie B Jones. She also likes dolphin books. 10. Do you think you can still read a picture book? Why or why not? - Yes, because she was just at library and was showed pictures so they had to predict. 11. Do you talk about reading with friends? If so, what do you talk about? - Talk about books with her mom by telling her what books she has read.

12. Where do you talk about books that you read? - At home, talk about cool books on the bus with friends. 13. What do you do when you get to a page you just read in a book but you didnt understand it? - Go back and reread it. 14. What did you read over the summer? - Yes, the whole book about Dolphin Tale. Also a couple Junie B Jones books. 15. What is your favorite reading activity that you have done in class? - Her older teacher did a Math test, where they read a paragraph and then answered questions (Math problem). Right now in class they are learning new words, and learned 5 words and three are, phrasing, syntax, and stress.

Reflection on Lauren: After talking with Arya Lauren gave me a different perspective on reading. When talking with Lauren she sounded like she enjoys reading, but at the same time she seems to struggle and want to get better. Laurens teacher told me that she is reading at a level K and that Lauren, if she were on track, should be reading at a level P. Even though Lauren may not be the best reader it sounds like she is learning and wants to really improve. She was able to remember and tell me about some of the vocabulary words she was learning about in class such as syntax, phrasing, and stress, but I am not exactly sure if she understood the words completely and how they apply to reading. However, my favorite answer Lauren gave me was right in the beginning when I asked what her favorite part about reading is. She told me that her favorite part about reading is so she can read to get better at it. This really shows that she wants to improve in order to master the skill and I think that is a great attitude towards reading. Lauren gave me some other good answers during the interview. She told me that if she does not understand a word she will chunk it out to find the different parts, which is a great strategy. She also told me that if she does not understand a page or if she wants to remember the text further that she will reread the page, which is also not a bad strategy. In addition, Lauren seemed to love and read any Junie B Jones book and she also liked books on Dolphins. One other thing that she said she really enjoyed reading is poetry. She told me about a book she had in her 2nd grade class that she liked to read. This did not surprise me that she liked poetry because she also shared with me that she enjoys writing.

Some recommendations for text she may enjoy could be finding more poetry for Lauren to read. I say this because poetry is great for practicing expression and for noticing text features on when to pause for commas and to take a longer pause after periods to practice a steady pace. A great website that I would use to find more poems for Lauren would be at gigglepoetry.com. I would also have her keep reading Junie B Jones books to keep her interest with those and to practice different strategies, such as Inferencing from the illustrations. One thing I think that Lauren would benefit from is reading more non-fiction. She shared with me that she enjoys books about dolphins, so I could find more books on dolphins as well as other animals and maybe books on the ocean as well. I would use non-fiction because she could learn in about a different content area while reading and she could practice comprehension strategies along the way to improve her reading. With non-fiction text she could work on strategies such as summarizing the text, making connections, and predicting. I could offer her other fiction text where she could do the same thing and I would, but the non-fiction text would give her a different incite on reading and that good readers read a variety of texts. Although Lauren is at a lower reading level than Arya and does not know all the terms he does, Lauren seems to have an idea of what good readers do. They are two different readers and from talking to Lauren I could see she really wants to become a better reader so she can read more challenging texts. I also believe that she can accomplish this goal by starting at reading a variety of texts she can read easily that interest her still, but variety is still key to show her more than just Junie B Jones in order to find other interests. With the easier texts in her level she can work on the comprehension strategies and then the teacher can gradually move to more difficult

texts in order to then give her a challenge and to solidify the strategies she learned. Although this will take some time, like reading usually does.