RAW Notes - Story Reading at Frances Slocum - Amy Foster

These notes are a combination of what I wrote during the reading session and the notes I
added to supplement later that day. They are typed into a somewhat flowing mix of the
two.
Sept. 12 Unable to read due to pending background check- However, I gave a ride to some other
illustration majors to the school, which left me waiting in the lobby. As children went
back and forth to recess, they watched me draw and asked about the books I had. They
were particularly interested in the dinosaur book, How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?
And my drawings of children playing on the monkey bars. Almost every child that
looked at the drawings convinced themselves that I had specifically drawn them (I
hadnt).
Sept. 19 Books Read: The Tickleoctopus, How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon, A Ball for Daisy
1st Reading Buddy - Trevon. Energetic in nature; confident in posture, latino. Has a dog
named Bonita.... Talks at length about recess games... Seems competitive but not illnatured.... Easily distracted by passing children. First book we read was A Ball for Daisy.
No words, but Trevon doesnt seem to miss them. Rushes through the book to race to
the other side. Next book, How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon, is well recieved. Trevon
REALLY likes dinosaurs and giggles at their silly behavior in the book. I ask Trevon what
he wants to do when hes sick. He responds with RAAAAAAWWWRRRR!!!... The
Tickleoctopus is too long, he loses interest halfway through, except to turn the pages
(which have odd fold-outs and die cuts) the motion of moving the pages is the most
interesting to him.
2nd Reading Buddy- Cassy (with a Y!). Cassy is a talker, seems to be happy to have me
listen, even surprised... She is special needs with balance troubles (she uses a walker
and leans against me while we sit- is it an inner ear problem? I digress) We move onto
the stories... Cassy wants to choose the order of the books. First chooses How Do
Dinosaurs Get Well Soon, she seems to enjoy it (not as much as Trevon) but feels that
the Dinosaurs are not being properly listened to (Why dont his gardens know he dont
want to sleep?)... What does she mean by Garden? [later this afternoon I realized that
Cassy is possibly trying to say Guardian... Is she a foster child/adopted?) A Ball for Daisy
bores her, as she is evidently trying to learn words (she often stops to identify letters
and patterns in the text)
[I have hidden Tickleoctopus as it is too long and we are running out of time]
Sept. 26 Books Read: How Do Dinosaurs Say Im Mad, Rabbit! Duck!, Press Here
Trevon- Well, the rawrs are increasing. But he loves the dinosaur book... He also loves
TMNT. Look for a TMNT book at IWU. Rabbit! Duck! He thinks this book is rather silly...
Favorite part is when you have to turn it on the side. He believes creature is a rabbit.
Why? Because rabbits are faster. Is faster better? Yeah, Im fast. .... Okay. Press here is
his favorite this week. He loves interacting with the book and the sounds I make when

he shakes or pokes the book. He wants to read it again. Why do you want to read it
again? I like to shake it.
Cassy- We dont manage to get through How do Dinosaurs Say Im Mad because Cassy is
just reminded at every page about another thing shes mad about. Rabbit! Duck! cracks a
few giggles... Which do you think it is? Rabbit! Why? My neighbor has a rabbit. Her
name is Sunshine, shes white with brown spots and I wanna go play with her... [goes on
as such] Press Here is also favorite for Cassy. She wants control of the book while we
play... Wants to be able to do it by herself... She giggles and laughs the whole way
through. Why is this book fun, I ask? Because you let me do it! So if you watched me
play with the book it would not be as fun? Noooo! I like to see how you can do the
book yourself. I can do lots of things myself! I can run with my walker, race ya!
[aaaaannnnd shes gone]
Oct. 3 Books Read: How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms?, Tar Beach, My Friend Rabbit
Trevon- Rawrs as usual through the Dinosaurs book, attempts to rush through pages. I
notice that I have a hard time keeping Trevon focused because he likes to run through
books, but when we move on to the next one, he wants to return to the first in order to
look at the pictures better. In the future I may only read two books to him and repeat
them. He is not interested in Tar Beach, though he laughs at the end of My Friend Rabbit.
He often talks about all his friends so I ask him if he has a friend like Rabbit. He tells me
a little bit but wants to rush back to classroom. I realize that I may have to ask most of
my questions before the end of the last book if I want good answers.
Cassy- She thinks the Dinosaur book is dumb. Tar Beach Response: She wishes she had
a roof to hang out in, she sometimes sits on the porch but the other kids tease her
more when she goes outside and they throw balls at her because they know shell fall
over, she wishes she had a real brother or sister to lay on a blanket with. [Later she
connects this with My Friend Rabbit, saying she would not mind if her friend was stupid
so long as they were nice] She continues to put eort into actually learning how to
read, and I allow her as much time to meticulously go through a page as I do to gather a
response.
Oct. 10 Books Read: Harry the Dirty Dog, Bear Has a Story to Tell, Rubia and the Three Osos
Trevon- I ask him about his dog first, since all the books this week involve animals. He
says the usual, but also- he is responsible to take care of the dog and sometimes he
forgets about her. Que Harry the Dirty Dog. Trevon, what do you think would happen if
Bonita got out? She would probably lay on the porch cause momma says shes lazy...
But she might get dirty too. Would you clean her? If I got to bring her in the tub with
me, sure! Bear Has a Story to Tell bores Trevon... He keeps trying to grab Harry again. I
get his attention back with Rubia and the Three Osos. He recognizes some of the Spanish
words and uses the familiar story to figure out the rest. He enjoys puzzling out this
book verbally, since it is a way to show his language skills that does not actually involve
him reading.
Cassy- Connects to Harry the Dirty Dog- shares story about how she had to walk home
from school once because her Garden didnt pick her up and the other kids didnt stay

with her like they were supposed to. She said she told her teacher and after that the
kids and her Garden were mad at her. I asked her what it was like going home by
herself. I felt lonely and I was tired when I got back, but at least it was warm. Did you
feel like home was very far away? Yeah, it took me a long time to get home. Bear has a
story to tell seemed to make her vaguely happier. When I asked her what was her
favorite page in the book, she said she liked the part where the bug wakes up bear to
tell him to go to sleep. She commented on the circular plot (so all the animals go
around until it comes back to bear!. Rubia and the Three Osos was not so great for
Cassy, she did not know enough of the Spanish words and got frustrated when I had to
explain a lot of them. (I dont think she realized they were from another language,
looking back. This makes sense because the words are thrown in at random occasions
into the english.)
Oct. 17 - Our Fall Break
Oct. 24 - Frances Slocum Fall Break
Oct. 31 Books Read: Where the Wild Things Are, Leonardo the Terrible Monster, Creepy Carrots
Trevon- Liked that I picked out Halloween books, he shows me the fall leaf he painted
on the wall and says that he loves fall. I read Where the Wild Things Are, but he has
enough diculty with the movement of the plot that he cant focus on much else in the
book. Trevon laughs throughout Leonardo the Terrible Monster, and he seems to
understand Leonardos character (they are very similar). I ask him, Do you like to play
with kids who are dierent from you? No! What do you mean? I want to scare them like
Leonardo! But what did Leonardo do at the end? He was nice... But then he scared the
boy... But the boy scared him back so it was okay. He got pretty engrossed for Creepy
Carrots, and exclaimed aloud when he figured out the plot twist at the end (though I
had to direct him to figure it out by reversing the story- questions like Are walls meant
to keep things in or out? Helped).
Cassy- Also had a hard time following the plot of Where the Wild Things Are. I dont
think these kindergarteners are used to seeing a surreal or dream-like quality in picture
books. They want the books to make sense. Unlike Trevon, Cassy identifies more with
the kid in Leonardo the Terrible Monster. She thinks that the kid ought to have more
friends and that Leonardo was mean. She thinks that the best part is when the boy
scares Leonardo back. Cassy reacts similarly to Creepy Carrots as Trevon, but does not
get the plot twist at the end. She has a hard time understanding how the victim/bad
guy roles are reversed in the book. (But wait- why do the carrots look nice? Arnt they
the bad ones?)
Nov. 7 Books Read: Madelines Rescue, Is Your Mama A Llama?, The Cow Who Clucked
Trevon- Is asking about Dinosaurs again. I think that the book I get him will have
dinosaurs in it. He doesnt know what a Llama is, and so he gets rather confused with Is
Your Mamma a Llama?. Its a giant book, however, so he enjoys turning the pages and
patting down the pictures. He folds himself into the book to look better. We read the

Cow Who Clucked, but he does not have the attention span for the repeating words. He
does like the colors though, when I ask him to physically point out one thing in the
book that he likes. Colors allows him to rub his finger all over the book. Trevon loves
Medelines Rescue, mostly because of the dog Genevieve. I am surprised by this (it
seems like a girly book) but Trevon feels that all has been made right in the world by
Madeline. I think he admires her spunk (She says what is the good, but the tall man
dont care).
Cassy- Cassy instantly grabs Madelines Rescue. She says the little girls are like her
sissies. She gets really scared when Madeline falls into the water, and gets really
angry when the boarding school president kicks Genevieve out of the house. Why was
it wrong for the old man to kick out the dog? Because she is nice and they keep her
clean! Did he stop to ask about why they have the dog? No. Do you think it would have
changed the way he treated the dog if he knew why she was there? No. Why not?
Because when people dont like something then they are mean about it... I dont know
why. We read both Is Your Momma a Llama and The Cow Who Clucked, but they bore her
quickly due to their repetitive nature.
Nov. 14 Books Read: Madeline, Diary of a Worm, Chicken Cheeks
Trevon- I shamelessly picked out Chicken Cheeks because all the dierent ways to
describe animal butts is pretty hilarious. Trevon agreed. Since the story is not the most
profound one, we had fun trying dierent voices on for the dierent words. I asked
him if the voices made the book more fun, and he said he was going to use his voices
for his other books. We also enjoyed Madeline- Trevon says hes never pretended to be
sick before like the little girls did but I dont really believe him. Diary of a Worm is cute,
but I think the humor went over his head and he got bored.
Cassy- We started out with Madeline- which involves her getting taken away to the
hospital- and I think the story inspired Cassy to get a boo-boo. She showed me an
almost pink mark on her arm where Danny pinched me. She said she needed a bandaid. I asked her when it happened... 3 days ago. The rest of the time was dicult to get
her to concentrate. I skipped Diary of a Worm altogether, and we made a round of
Chicken Cheeks (which she did sort of stop to laugh at) before the band aid calls were
undeniable. We went to go back to class and a kid was walking over to the nurses oce,
puking his guts out. I told her she might have to watch him puke if we went to the nurse
and she promptly stopped asking about the bandaids.
Nov. 21 Books Read: King Bidgoods In the Bathtub, Each Kindness
Trevon- helped me read the King Bidgoods in the Bathtub by playing the part of the
page (who repeats a short line every other spread) we used the voices we learned last
week to tell the story and he laughed all over the place. We went through the book
again to look at the pictures better since we went quickly through the first time. I also
brought a longer book, Each Kindness, but I did not manage to finish it as he was
sprawled out on the floor doing circles half-way through. I dont think the bullying story
was of any interest to him at all, he could not relate.

Cassy- Although Cassy liked the ending of King Bidgoods in the Bathtub, she seemed to
think the characters were all rather stupid (and that bothered her). Why are they
dressed like that? Why do they have so many things in the bathtub?, etc. I was
concerned that Each Kindness would be too long for her, but it kept her interest
throughout. She related to the new girl who is left out at school (thats why I got it). But
Maya dressed up all pretty and they were still mean to her. Why are they so mean to
her? She said that a lot of people at her school were not nice to her because she was
special. She didnt think it was fair that they were mean to her because she couldnt
keep balanced like the other kids. I asked her if there were other kids like her, who did
not have many friends because they were dierent. She considered this for a moment.
Yeah, I guess soooo.... I asked her if she talked to them. Not much. They are in other
classes and I only see them in special class. She then switched the focus back on
herself, getting more upset and frantic the more she talked. I let her talk for a while. At
the end of the session she said other kids got books and candy and toys from their
readers. I told her she would have a surprise the next week.
Planned Books for December 5th: Madelines Christmas, Wombat Divine, Dinotopia (Gift for
Trevon) and Frederick (Gift for Cassy)