 |
 |
 |
 |
  |
|
  |
 |
||||
Professor Snow comments:
All three of these girls could read the words of Ramona Quimby, Age 8, with relative ease. A standard assessment of word reading errors, often used to see if a text is at a child's appropriate level for frustration-free reading, would confirm that any of these 4th graders should be able to read this book with enjoyment.
| Interviewer: | So how big do you think Ramona's feet really are? | |
| Georgina: | About a foot or two wide. | |
| Interviewer: | Show me with your hands. | |
| Georgina: | Maybe probably that big (gestures indicating 14-15 inches). | |
| Interviewer: | Really big. | |
| Norida: | Um, just like regular. | |
| Interviewer: | Just regular so they really weren't Bigfoot size. | |
| Lesley: | Three inch. | |
| Interviewer: | Three inches, like how about with your hands? | |
| Lesley: | This big (gestures indicating 12-14 inches). | |
| Interviewer: | That's pretty big, huh. | |
| Lesley: | Yeah. |
When asked to interpret the meaning of the insult 'Bigfoot,' two of the three girls respond in a way that suggests they were taking the term literally. Understanding the exchange of words between Ramona and Danny in the text, and the resolution of that exchange, depends on recognizing the nonliteral nature of the term Bigfoot—that it was not really applicable to Ramona or at least hyperbolic.
| Interviewer: | Why do you think Danny gave Ramona her eraser back? | |
| Georgina: | Because um, Ramona um Ramona looked down at her foot and actually noticed that her feet was growing so she called herself Bigfoot. Danny might have think that she might kick him a lot because she had a big foot. | |
| Norida: | (silence) | |
| Interviewer: | Take a guess. | |
| Georgina: | Because—Ramona was mad and he didn't want to get her really, really mad. | |
| Lesley: | So he doesn't have to get in trouble. | |
| Interviewer: | Why do you think Ramona says Superfoot to you, Yard Ape? | |
| Georgina: | Because um he called her Bigfoot and a big foot can step on things and it can cause a lot of damage. That's why she called him superfoot. | |
| Norida: | Because she was mad at the boy and um he keeps on calling her Yard Ape. No, she calls him Yard Ape. | |
| Interviewer: | She calls him Yard Ape. And what did he call her? | |
| Norida: | Bigfoot. |
The exchange between Danny and Ramona invokes a common and important theme in peer relations—the need to stand up for oneself, to respond to teasing in a way that is good natured but neither passive nor subservient. The text depicts Ramona besting Danny at his own game—taking his insult 'Bigfoot' and recrafting it into the more positive yet thematically related 'Superfoot.' Yet none of the information needed to understand the exchange as being about social relationships rather than foot size is actually in the text. The reader needs to develop this scenario using information from the text and background knowledge about kids, friendship, teasing, insults, and self-esteem. Of the three readers, only Norida shows some evidence of having understood that the exchange reflects something about social relations, rather than about brute force, and even she is quite unclear in expressing her understanding of this.
| Interviewer: | What does it mean that Ramona returned to her seat with her nose in the air? | |
| Georgina: | She walked back to her desk with her head up high. | |
| Interviewer: | Ah hah, sort of what you are doing right there, good. | |
| Georgina: | That she was proud of herself. | |
| Norida: | Like I got my eraser back and he can't take it back from me. | |
| Lesley: | She had her nose up in the roof. |
"Walking with her nose in the air" is an easy phrase to read, but a complex one to understand. Knowing what it means depends on recognizing the connection between how Ramona walks and what has gone on just before. And it requires calling on knowledge about pride and self-confidence and their relationship to posture. Georgina and Norida understand this fully—so they have gotten one important big idea out of this paragraph, that Ramona has somehow triumphed. Lesley continues to interpret the text literally, which means that she will be quite puzzled to understand the friendship that ultimately develops between Ramona and Danny, or why Ramona ends up happy and successful in her new school. next
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|