Lauryn Scheske

EDU-245

Story Boost Reflection

Through my time at Frances Slocum, I learned so many things about the developmental

levels of kindergarten-aged children as well as how read-alouds and discussions can aide in their

development. My students were very sweet and were very eager to participate and interact with

the texts I brought each week. One of the first aspects of their literacy development that I could

recognize was their ability to analyze and pull meaning from illustrations. After reflecting on the

Story Boost research article, I made the assumption that the students may not be able to

understand how to utilize elements of books such as pictures. However, they made connections

very quickly with the images and could tell me a story simply based on the illustrations. Through

this I realized that I should not have been surprised about this finding. Children begin to

understand their world through images. Because they cannot yet read, they are constantly

looking for images and symbols as clues for how to navigate and understand the world around

them. This was a very interesting discovery.

This finding also led me to another discovery that I did not anticipate. One day, I brought

in two books. One was A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka and the other was A Spooky Eerie

Night Noise by Mona Rabun Reeves. My intention with bringing in these two books was simple:

I wanted to see if the students could tell me the story of A Ball for Daisy. I wanted to see their

interpretation and if they could anticipate the events to come throughout the book. I brought in A

Spooky Eerie Night Noise because the students said that they enjoyed spooky books and they all

loved Halloween. The two books were completely unrelated. However, the students made an

inference that I did not anticipate. In A Spooky Eerie Night Noise the main character is scared at
night as she is trying to go to sleep because she continues to hear noises outside. She begins to

imagine all the horrifying monsters and beasts the noise could be coming from. The illustrations

draw out what the little girl is imagining, however the text tells us that this is just what she is

thinking about. Dracula and a dragon are not actually outside her window. Well at one point in

the book, there is an image of a tiger outside her window, but it clearly says in the text that she

imagines a tiger in her mind. I asked the students if the tiger was really there. To my surprise,

they said yes. I asked again with more context, repeating the line about how it is all in her mind.

They continued to say that the tiger was actually there. So I had the students close their eyes. I

told them to imagine that a small zebra with a green and purple polka dot sweater on is sitting at

the blanket here with us. Then once they said that they were imagining it, I had them open their

eyes. I asked if the zebra was really sitting at the blanket with us, and they replied no. I began to

get more excited and explain that sometimes we can imagine things in our minds, but they aren’t

actually there. They seemed to understand so I said, so if the little girl is imagining the tiger in

her mind, is it actually outside her window? And they excitedly said, “Yes!” I laughed and

decided to move on. Reflecting later on the incident, I realized that I had set my students up for

failure in that question and their understanding of the second book. In A Ball for Daisy, the

students solely had the pictures as their tool to understand the book. Then in the second book, the

pictures contradict what the text is trying to convey. I began to more fully understand the

marriage of picture and text and how important it is to teach children about this beautiful

marriage. Students in the emergent level of literacy especially are going to rely heavily on the

illustrations as a clue for comprehension; as they should. However, it is vital to teach how the

marriage of the two makes the text that much more interesting.
 My students’ ability to make connections with the text was far greater than I had

anticipated. They loved sharing stories and they would love when I would take what they said

and relate it back to the story. Sometimes the stories were rather random, but I modeled how to

best connect their personal lives to the text. By doing this, the students were very engaged and I

feel that they were able to make deeper neural connections to the text.

Overall, my students were wonderful to read to. They asked good questions and would

often lead the discussion where they wanted it to go. Through this experience, I feel as though I

gained a greater understanding children’s books from a child’s perspective. These books are not

just for fun or to introduce a lesson, these books are really maps for understanding their world.

These books allow them to play with their imagination and connect it with what is true of the

world. I was so proud to see their development over the semester. By then end, they were

pointing out sight words and talking about word families. They could anticipate the kinds of

questions I would ask and would just begin to talk about what they thought. I encouraged

immediate response, such as gasps, “awhh’s,” and laughter. I wanted to show them that a book is

something you can interact with and respond to. After this semester, I have a much greater

appreciation for picture books and read alouds and their impact on the literacy development of

children.