Salt In His Shoes Summary

Reader Interview Alicia Johnson

Salt in His Shoes by Deloris Jordan & Roslyn M. Jordan is the children’s book selected for this assignment.

Summary describes in depth the reader and setting

I selected my 6-year-old nephew, Mason for the reader interview assignment. Mason can best be described as being energetic, inquisitive, and full of life. He has just completed Kindergarten and is a fluent reader with strong vocabulary skills. It is important to note that Mason has been reading sight words since he was 2 years old and can currently read books from the, I Can Read series at level three without any assistance. Mason also has great reading comprehension skills for a 6-year-old. For instance, after reading a story Mason can provide

He seemed interested about the task while equally interested in the fact that we were at the park. I pulled the book out of my bag and his eyes immediately lit up and he shouted, “Basketball! I love playing basketball.” I explained to him that this was a children’s book about Michael Jordan and his next response was, “Who is that?” So, I spent the next few minutes explaining who Michael Jordan was and that he used to play professional basketball on television. He seemed satisfied with my explanation and focused his attention on the title book. While, it was important to select a text that Mason was not familiar with, it was also important to choose something that would ultimately pique his interest. Salt in His Shoes is a book based on Michael Jordan’s childhood and dream to grow tall and play basketball. I asked Mason if he was ready to read the book and he answered, “yes, but you have to read the first page and I’ll read the second page.” I agreed without hesitation as my sister-in-law already filled me in on how they read books together. While opening the book, I immediately noticed that Mason was drawn to the illustrations in the book. Some of the reading behaviors that were observed included Mason’s ability to read the text from the left to the right, his ability to search for and use information in the picture to support the text, and his ability to

For example, asking Mason questions about the story event or the wealth or poverty of the characters were difficult for Mason to understand. Although, I rephrased the question for a six-year-old, I found that Mason still had to go back through the text to answer the questions. This reveals that while he may understand the text to some degree he has not been taught how to fully analyze the text by considering the socioeconomic level of the character or by considering the path of the story’s discourse. That being said, I think questioning the reader is a good method to check for the readers understanding of the