Alex Parrott

Dr. McCracken

Foundations of Literacy

14 December 2017

What I Learned About Response from Kellen and Kaycen

Project Story Boost is a research-based model for exposing at-risk Kindergarten students

to the rich language and the playful synthesis of words and illustrations that picturebooks provide

for emergent readers. As a result of participating in this initiative, I experienced firsthand some

of the ways in which children respond to literature; through emotional response, through

reference to themselves experientially, and through imaginative response.

Emotion is one of the most powerful means by which individuals interact with others and

with their surroundings, so I did not find it surprising that both students exhibited an emotional

response to many of the works of literature to which they were read. However, I did not

anticipate the degree to which both students responded emotionally to the stories that they were

read. This form of response seemed innate; both students responded emotionally to the stories

before they exhibited any other type of response.

Furthermore, some of the emotions elicited by the picturebooks seemed more significant

than others. Emotions of loneliness, isolation, or fear as brought about by the book Where the

Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak seemed to provoke a more powerful response than the glee

and euphoria of the animals in the book Duck for President by Doreen Cronin.

Another way in which students responded to the literature to which they were exposed

was through reference to themselves and the experiences of themselves or those close to them.
This response was evoked as early as the second week by Kellen, who was thrilled to tell me

about the caterpillars he had seen due to reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

While Kaycen did not respond as readily to the picturebook performances, he did eventually

participate in this form of response, as he discussed his experience at the movies in response to

the reading of If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff.

While this response was less immediate and direct than the emotional responses that were

elicited, I found that asking follow-up questions to their accounts of experiences they had shared

usually led to a deeper connection between the students personal life and the theme of the story

overall. While I could sometimes become frustrated at the length of the narrative provided by the

students in their recount of events, the events did seem to provide a venue by which students

could respond to the story in a deeper manner. Stories with which the students had less personal

connections required more prompting to produce an experiential response, or alternatively,

another form of response (emotional or imaginative) was utilized.

Lastly, Kellen responded in an imaginative manner to the books Olivia Forms a Band by

Ian Falconer, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, and If You Take a Mouse to the

Movies by Laura Numeroff. I believe this is the most advanced form of response that I

experienced during Story Boost; as Kellen read, he began to experience the story with the

characters and extend the story beyond the borders of the pages. If Project Story Boost was

extended, I believe that this type of response could be observed and further developed in both

students. Although I do not have concrete evidence as to why this form of response occurred in

Kellen and not in Kaycen, I would infer that it is because Kellen had previously been exposed to

more literature at home and in an educational setting than Kaycen.

 Overall, I believe that Story Boost was beneficial to myself and my students as I read and

observed their developing responses, including emotional, experiential, and imaginative

response. I plan to use the knowledge that I have gained as a result of participating in Story

Boost to look for and further extend the responses to literature that occur in my future classroom.