Brittney Tuttle

Dr. McCracken
EDU245Story Boost Research Response
December 16, 2015
What I Learned from Kenneth and Addison about Response
As I read aloud to a group of students each week, I learned many important aspects of
young readers responses to text. When presenting childrens literature to emergent readers, the
teacher must keep in mind the perspectives and experiences of a young child. While I read to the
emergent readers Kenneth and Addison, I learned that children of young age focus on concrete
aspects of stories over the underlying abstract moral concepts, focus on their personal
experiences and interests to make connections to the story, and use the characters and pictorial
illustrations in the story to formulate logical predications.
I found that the most impactful and interactive books for the children consisted of books
that directly addressed the audience and intermixed the readers perspective into the storyline.
Books in this category include Mo Willems Dont Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and Chris
Raschkas Yo! Yes? After I read Mo Willems pigeon book, Addison asked for me to read it again,
and Kenneth agreed. This response suggests that the students developed a connection to the book
and wanted to relive the experience again. Stories need to include the reader so that the reader
may explore the text and form higher-order levels of application and moral understanding.
Stories that directly address the reader are more effective when introducing literary components
to young emergent readers.
When presenting literary components to emergent readers, I learned that I must guide the
readers in their approach and understanding of abstract moral concepts represented within the
story. Abstract concepts are harder for the readers to grasp, and they focused primarily on the
concrete aspects and situations to determine their opinions and understanding of the story. For

example, when I asked the students whether the mouse in the story was a good or a bad mouse
after reading Anatole by Eve Titus, both Kenneth and Addison responded with the fact that the
Anatole was a bad mouse because he snuck into the restaurant and stole cheese. They were
focusing on their young understanding that sneaking and stealing is bad, and were not able to
adapt to the grey areas of the concept that the mouse sneaking and stealing the cheese was
actually helping the owners business. They only saw the negative action, rather than the positive
result. Another example of this idea was found after I read No David! by David Shannon.
Following the read-aloud I asked Kenneth and Addison whether David was a good kid or a bad
kid. Once again, both of them responded with the fact that David was a bad kid. They came to
this conclusion by drawing on their understanding that discipline means that the student was
acting poorly, which was happening to David often within the story. They were unable to
understand that just because a person makes bad choices and gets punished, does not mean that
they are a bad person. Analyzing my data on these responses from the students helped me
conclude that young readers focus on the concrete aspects of a story above the underlying
abstract concepts.
When making connections to the concrete aspects of the story, Kenneth and Addison
often related to what was happening in the story to their areas of interest and personal
experiences. While reading Yo Yes! by Chris Raschka, Addison predicted that the phone
conversation displayed in the book concerned the main characters little sister. She used her
personal experience of having a younger sister to relate to this story. Kenneth made the
prediction that the phone conversation was about a Spiderman movie. He used his interests of
Spiderman to form his predication about what the phone conversation was about. Kenneth and
Addisons personal interests and experiences stimulated many of their responses. I learned from

these responses that young readers often form their opinions and predications of a story based off
of their own interests and experiences.
Predictions are a valuable part of storytelling. When I asked the students to make
predictions during the story, they often drew on the illustrative aspects of the book. Even if their
predications turned out incorrectly, I found that these predications helped the students become
more engaged and involved in the story telling. They were interested to see whether or not their
predications would be right. As a teacher, I will integrate effective predication-making strategies
into my literacy instruction.
Overall, I learned many important characteristics of emergent readers through my
Storyboost research. Young readers are very literal, concrete, and driven by their personal
interests and experiences. As a teacher, I can make reading material more engaging and
interactive by guided the students in predication-making strategies and designing effective and
educational response activities that challenge their understandings on moral, societal, and
abstract concepts. This research was beneficial to me because I am now better equipped to adapt
my instruction to fit the individual learning needs of young readers.