Tracy Howse

03/12/2018
SCED 518
Barker
Student Interview

About the Interviewee

Jake is an 11-year-old middle schooler from Waldwick, NJ. My cousin and his mother,

Rose, often asks me questions about improving his grades, book choices, and school system.

Jake is in a pull-out class which works on his reading abilities, and Rose believes he hates school

and reading. Jake and I have casually discussed his frustration with school, but I have never

heard him state that he hates school. Thus, I wanted to see if he would agree to a formal

interview with me. Due to our distance, I conducted the interview over facetime; however, I

believe this aided the interview process. Since he loves technology and an excuse to stay up late,

he was very interested in having an interview this way.

Description and analysis

Jake used his mother’s phone for the interview and I began asking questions while Rose

pulled up the “think aloud” text. After my introduction and explanation of my class, I asked him

what he enjoys reading. Initially, his mom began answering the questions and telling me the

titles of books he has read in the past few months. I began to stall, realizing I wanted to wait for

him to be alone, so he could explain his preferences.

What to Read

Jake confirmed his mother’s statement that he enjoys reading Scholastic’s I Survived

novels. Once she left, he explains that his favorite books are within The Last Kids on Earth

series, which utilizes written prose and comic book visuals throughout the book. When

describing the differences between these books, he says The Last Kids on Earth is “animated and
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it’s like a fun book,” but that the I Survived ones are “real books.” Jake was certain that the use

of visuals throughout a book differentiates the fun books from the “real books.” However, I

believe these visual graphic novel and picture-focused books represent how young adult novels

invites young adults into the literature. “Growing up in a visual and digital society, contemporary

adolescents are comfortable with the visual styles” (Butcher & Hinton, 2014). Since he does

struggle with some texts, reading contextually engaging books that appear similar to the video

games and visual style of our society gives him greater self-efficacy.

Jake’s greatest interest is riding bikes around town with his friends. Thus, one

contemporary realistic fiction novel he discussed frequently tells the story of a young boy riding

his bike and accidentally getting into trouble, two things Jake says he relates to. It is thematically

similar to his daily life, presenting characters like his friends and realistic scenarios. When I

asked him how he chooses what to read, he states that sometimes in school they give him genres.

His favorite tactic is to “read a paragraph first and see if I like it.” This insightful tactic depicts

his ability to choose interesting books on his reading level. When I pressed him on this tactic, he

stated he likes to see if it peaks his interest and that he can understand the book. Meanwhile, he

does not discuss options with anyone, including teachers, friends, or family.

Reading in School

Jake has strong opinions about the difference between reading class and ELA. He

understands that reading is more about independent books, whereas ELA focuses on learning

topics through reading. He also stated that his textbooks books in ELA are “ok for a textbook”

and that students primarily read excerpts. When reading these passages, he also must take notes

either during or after reading.

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His biggest complaint about ELA is his teacher’s approach: “she’s an old school teacher

who really pushes me to keep reading, even when I don’t want to.” Upon further discussion, he

stated the larger passages in ELA are “big paragraphs and they’re so big that they’re

intimidating,” further elaborating that “you have to do notes on that… it absolutely devours all of

my notebooks. It’s not scary; it’s hard to take in.” This explanation of ELA helped me realize

that Jake feels overwhelmed when he has to read large paragraphs and take notes but does not

necessarily feel overwhelmed by reading itself.

A ‘Good’ Reader

Now that I understood the differentiation Jake felt between task-related assignments and

reading itself, this section was a natural successor. He stated that someone who is a ‘good’ reader

“just reads through a bunch of books in a month. They read fast and don’t stumble.” When I

asked about ‘good’ readers in his class, he felt that everyone was about even. Even though he is

in a pull-out course for reading, he still feels this way about students in all of his

When I asked about his perception of his own reading skill, I received the following

response: “I’m like average. I read like… kind of fast, and I generally stumble, but yeah… I feel

pretty good about it.” He further explained that the stumbling occurs most often in the large ELA

paragraphs, stated above. He continued to explain his best skill is sitting down and reading; “just

doing it.” Jake is an incredibly verbal student and he told me he succeeds at talking about books

after reading them. However, when asking him about group discussions, it seems that his classes

does not have effective ones. I would suggest that his classes, especially the reading pull-out

class, incorporate literature circles for promoting student engagement with their texts. Daniels

(2002) gives key ingredients such as “open, natural conversations” and a teacher “facilitator.”

Jake explained his books to me in thorough detail; just because he has difficulty answering
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standardized tests or filling in pre-determined answers about texts does not mean he lacks critical

thinking skills.

Think Aloud

For the think aloud task, I had Jake read pages 10 through 20 from American Born

Chinese (Yang, 2006). During this section, the monkey king attempts to improve himself and fit

in with other deities but ends up leaving dejected. I had initially decided to use a graphic novel

coming into this interview due to his mother’s concern about his reading level. I was further

energized with his comments about loving visual-based texts. Throughout this reading aloud,

Jake utilized excellent reading strategies that helped with the text and overall content. Text-based

strategies included sounding out and reading on. For understanding the content of the story, he

used strategies such as predicting, synthesizing, and summarizing/paraphrasing.

Text-Based Reading Strategies

Jake encountered difficult words in the second block, including heavenly, prerequisites,

and immortality. When encountering these words, he utilized the reading strategy of sounding

out, attempting to arrive at a pronunciation. With immortality, he was able to sound it out and

recognize the word. With Heavenly, he utilized “reading on,” determining he had enough

information. He then attempted to apply the word during a think aloud comment: “He must be an

extremely fast learner. He learned thousands of minor disciplines as well as the heavenly

disciplines. I don’t know how he’s doing all this!” Although he had not realized the term’s

meaning, he was able to use context clues for determining that it was a type of ‘discipline’ in the

Monkey King’s Kung-Fu regiment.

Content-Based Reading Strategies

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When the guard would not let the Monkey King into the party Jake stated to make

predictions: “I think the monkey king is going to try to like hit him” and “He’s about to pull out

some Kung-Fu things he just learned.” He started also synthesizing the information, stating “just

because he has no shoes, they’re discriminating against him.” Later, he continued this thread: “he

thought of ways to get rid of his monkey smell because he was like rejected from the party. He

wants to fit in.” These instances were notable moments of synthesis because he captured a major

essence of the novel through connecting these pieces of information (Annandale, 2005). Upon

summarizing the text afterwards (something which I did not ask him to do), he included what he

synthesized and explained that the monkey was always training to be the best, but still could not

fit in.

Transferable Insight

Jake’s ability to explain his successes and difficulties within school shows his insight for

reading and assignments. The data I gathered could be a resource for reading educators in

standard or pull-out reading classes. It is clear that Jake enjoys reading but can feel overwhelmed

by large blocks of text simultaneously paired with assignments. I am not suggesting removing

these elements of teaching, but rather include scaffolding to decrease intimidation. Helping

students chunk texts, giving guided note sheets, and allowing individuals to take notes in ways

they see fit could all promote a larger focus on reading and less concern about the actual

assignment.

As a future library media specialist, I am invigorated about graphic novels and books

with graphic novel sections. Although somewhat stigmatized as “easy” or “low interest” texts,

graphic novels give students high interest stories and ways to access difficult vocabulary through

pre-chunked texts and visual aids. I will also keep in mind the importance of series in my
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collections. Jake described his love for different book series and I believe the predictable

formatting makes it easier to reach for the next one. Novels and texts of these nature promote

more reading through predictability and comfort.

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References

Annandale, K. (2005). Comprehension instruction: Explicit and multifaceted. In Linda Hoyt

(Ed.), Spotlight on comprehension: Building a literacy of thoughtfulness, (46-57).

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Butcher, K. & Hinton, B. (2014). Young adult literature: Exploration, evaluation, and

appreciation (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Daniels, H. (2002). Literature circles: Voice and choice in book clubs & reading groups.

Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Yang, G. (2006) Chinese born American (1st ed.) First Second Books: New York, NY.