Table 9

Mentor Response Log Ian Sheldon
  • In what ways was your experience different from what you expected?
  • "We decided to do a Book Review: Nonfiction. Had read this questions in advance and did not see the problem some questions would generate to a 4th grader"
  • "This was the first time I read to these kids. I was a bit nervous but it could have been worse, but I was used to the children so I think it went pretty good"
  • What problems did you experience?
  • "Problems were experienced when trying to explain what biographical writing was to 4th grade students.
  • The exercise we picked asked 'What did you learn about the craft of biographical writing?' A complete lesson could be spent on teaching what biographical or informational writing is"
  • "Initially we thought the questions were pretty basic. However, some of the children had problems. We tried to explain it the best we could, but some still did not understand"

Despite some of these issues, Sheldon wrote in his response log, "...I think we are all becoming more comfortable around each other. They [the students] wanted to know if we were going to be there for the rest of the year." A student/mentor connection was forming.

Other problems were encountered in the book The Longest Home Run by R. Carriere. This book held the greatest mixed reviews from both boys and girls of all the Read Aloud books. The boys who responded to the book negatively had difficulty understanding the plot as evidenced in the following responses: "I DID NOT GET IT!"; "...very far fetched, very far from realistic [illustrations], very short and not interesting"; and " Where did Adeline go?" Girls did not openly reveal that they had difficulty following the plot. However, they did express their view of the book with comments such as " The book was so boring I don't think I want you to bring it again." and "This book was not very interesting".