This is Arianna

Arianna is 7 at the time of this research project. She is in 1st grade. She is in the same class as Michael, Deseree and Chosen. She is an African American child with a Latino father. According to her parent, she speaks fluent Spanish. Bryce in this study is her cousin.

Her parents tell us she doesn't choose to use the computer much at home. When she does, it is usually starfall or educational cds. Later in her pre-interview, Arianna will say that she likes playing games on the computer, but does not know many sites. She sites a website that the librarian taught her very recently as her "favorite."

Her parents say they are not aware of much story writing she does at school. There are occasional paragraphs describing a picture. Her parents read her bed time stories. She enjoys hearing stories about her cousins. Her parents report that she enjoys hearing Junie B. Jones.

Arianna, in her pre-interview says she likes all types of books when asked about her favorite book. WHen pressed, she said she liked fiction books. Asked to name a favorite, and she paused and said she doesn't remember the names of favorites. She said she likes to tell scary stories- tell scary stories to her little cousin who reacts "scary."

At school she says she likes to write about her "weekend."
Asked about opportunities to share and talk at school, she had not answer. She did say that in kindergarten she would bring her stuffed Animals for show and tell. When asked what she would say about those animals, she said that she usually gets them from sea world.

She said she is a good story writer because she "writes neatly."
She said that what makes a good story to tell "words come out of your mouth." I thought she might have meant expression, but when pressed that doesn't seem to be where she was headed.

Her teacher's evaluation of Arianna's language skills was pretty glowing. The teacher said she was on grade level. She classifed her as having high verbal skills. She gave clear and concise statements and complete thoughts. She claimed Arianna was medium at writing and had improved at a steady pace and she expected her to be right on track at the end of the year. She writes in complete sentences... writing flows.

Arianna chooses to write about friends and family (usually assigned topics.)


Arinna uses complete senses and can be very dramatic to get her point across. She uses correct tenses. Her teacher lists her as a strong language user.

Her Journal:

The journal samples I could get from her were pretty sparse. I tried to choose from each child a sample that was their longest from their journal. That was my criteria... as much words as possible in the three writing samples. Something they seemed to have put some energy into.

Arianna had a numbered list of what she'd done over the weekened which was a common topic in the classroom. The sentences were checked by the teacher. There was correct spelling, capitals and punctuation. There was not much elaboration, but I do not think that was expected. "I went bowling." "I swang on a swing."

She also has a piece where she copied a poem or a song. Again spelled in standard form for the most part.

She has a description of her self (what she is wearing) that other students also have.

Lastly there is a piece that is actually copied from another student. I will get to the reason for that in another post.

She has some half hearted stick figures drawn to accompany her writing.

Field Notes:

Arriana is hard on herself. She was very worried about making her first story. She is a perfectionist... but in the ways she knows...spelling... neatness.. etc. She started out using the shape tools that we learned during computer lab time, but move on to a girls and flowers theme. This was her anchor and she stuck with it. (anchor)

Arianna spoke several times (tapes during work time and 2nd author's chair) that she wanted to do things for Bryce... I am making a story for Bryce, Bryce what should I add here? She expressed interest in making Bryce laugh for her third story.

Arianna erased when the tool was a problem... instead of fixing the tool. That is she didn't really adjust the technology to her needs. She worked around it. She showed less frustration at the end and her third story reflects her working with Jaidyn. Jaidyn left and in her third panael the story is typical Arianna.

During 2nd authors chair Ariann was very critical of her own story. "I don't think mine is interesting" "It was stupid." During her third story she expresses that she hates her story during the last panel. During the 2nd author's chair she expresses that she is going to be funnier next time as her goal.

Post Interview
Arianna is very bouyant during this interview. She is making farting noises joyfully.
Arianna answered immediately that she liked to write silly stories. She said she wanted to laugh Bryces head off' She said computers were fun and that she liked to play on them, play pixie (software used to create stories.)

Said at home her cousin (bryce) helped her with describing words but that when she did these stories she had more time to do lots of stories.
Liked Trace's stories... said because he used the blender (stamps)than she did.

Was looking forward to to getting a dvd. Started making weird monkey sounds so I left her alone.

;Labbo and Arianna
Screen as canvas. She is drawing pretty pictures. The story comes from her lster. I mean I don't know if her pictures reflect deliberate story telling.