As a group, the boys organized physical reactions. Once, before the reading of a battle scene and its
aftermath, the researcher told the group that following the reading they would be acting out the parts of the three
soldier friends. At the reading’s end, the boys quickly chose the parts to play, each one seeming to know which part
would fit him best. Then followed scouting between book shelves, dragging the wounded down the lane by the
reading table, and peering for more enemy—through the library window.
Verbal responses. The three students were verbal from beginning to end. All the boys liked to discuss the
stories as they were read. Sometimes the researcher initiated the brief discussions, using comprehension strategies
of connection, questioning, and clarification. Sometimes the boys interjected thoughts in free-flowing style, each
anxious to share his expertise on topics ranging from mummies to dog waste, proving to the researcher Fletcher’s
(2006) premise that shocking or disgusting topics keep boys’ attention. One exemplary event resulted from reading a
memoir passage. The author had recalled his battle games with his five brothers, fun times involving soldier sets and
burning model planes. The boys crowded around the table to see the illustrations of the games. Immediately after
completion of the reading, the boys tumbled over themselves to share their experiences with pyrotechnics. Kinetic
Andrew was most dramatic, describing a group of fireworks simultaneously exploding in “coiling” fashion (illustrated
with his arms wrapping around themselves), “like flowers everywhere.”
Discussions let the researcher know just how closely the boys listened and how the read-alouds affected the boys’
vocabularies. Once while she read about soldiers being told to watch their flank, the researcher paused to define
“flank.” “Oh, that’s what ‘flank’ means!” Andrew exclaimed. He said he had heard the word repeatedly in one of his
video games, and he had not known what it meant. He was glad he could have better chances at winning the game
now. Once when the researcher was reading a high-level poem, she was concerned that the boys might not be able
to follow the text, despite her frontloading of vocabulary. However, a quick question at the end led the boys to
summarize the text, with each adding his own ideas to those of the others.
The researcher’s most exciting exchange directly related to reading occurred at the end of a scary story about
a house from which a family never emerged alive. At the end of the story, Billy, standing, said, “I get it! The house
was living off the people! When they died, it died!” Andrew picked up on this idea and replied, “Yeah, like batteries.
The people were like batteries, and the house lived off them.” This drew thoughtful nods all around.
On the last day of the read-aloud meetings, Andrew came to the researcher and said, “I’m stressed.” When
asked why, he responded, “Because today is our last meeting of group, and I don’t want it to be over. I have ADD and
ADDHD, and I’m depressed, so when I get stressed, I act out. And I’m stressed.” Billy told the researcher, also during
class time, “I’m sad that today is our last meeting. Can’t we keep going?”
Written responses. Each boy had his own mechanical pencil and spiral notebook. They were careful to keep
their pencils and notebooks together in the materials box. The first assignment in the notebook was to draw what
the participants visualized in a read-aloud. Each boy tackled the assignment enthusiastically. The next assignment
was to write a favorite part of the day’s read-aloud during which the boys had enacted a scene. Billy and Charlie
remarked on the fun of acting out the scene. Andrew was excited to have learned the meaning of the word “flank.”
Other writings involved connections to a story about pyrotechnics and drawing and writing captions for visualized
events. All writing was done with good humor.
The writing highlight was to a prompt following the reading of five passages about scary places—two stories,
two poems, and a student-written paragraph, read over the course of three sessions. After discussing the texts’
68