This is Trace

Trace was 6 years old at the time of this research. He is in class with 2 other students who will not be fully featured in the research. At first Trace was reluctant to leave his class and come with us for the activities.

His pre-interview is short compared to his post interview where he took a leadership, guide role with Skylar who is very reticent.

On the computer he says he likes to go to game goo. (this is a game in the computer lab) He did not mention until later his avid use at home (his parent mention it.)
He was confident in his abilities as a story writer and story teller, but gave the reason as "I just am." When pressed he said he "thinks first and then writes." He answered the same for story telling: "I think first." This is a theme his teacher hits upon in her questionnaire about him.

Parent Questionnaire.
His parents think highly of his vocabulary and language skills. They are able to report that at school he has written about his pets, family vacations. When he talks at home he tells about the events of his day.

They report he plays toontown on the computer at home and academic games.

He likes stories about trains, cards, animals, "boy stuff," and fictional books.

They report an active reading and story life at home. He reads for homework, His sister reads to him, and his parents tell him stories about when they were kids.

They feel he has an advanced usage of words... uses large words and is very descriptive.

His teacher rates him as having "medium" written and spoken language skills. She reports he does use complete sentences, and has some advance vocabulary, but doesn't focus or plan his writing. He adds details as the come and kind of let them take him where ever... off into tangents.

She reports that he feels most comfortable writing about family, science, math and games he plays at home.

Trace's Journal

He has a piece where he describes himself. The structure of the piece features all sentences starting with "I have..." (pants, shirt, ... color, and mentions a spiderman shirt.) His spelling of words is conventional, though he does not seem to stretch for more exceptional vocabulary in his journal writing. Teacher has corrected some of his bs and ds (backward)

Writes another piece about his teeth and brushing habits. Again, traditional spelling. I think there may have been a word list posted for words like permanent etc. Teacher has corrected spelling for vegetables and fruits.

There is also a list of spelling words (three times each) in his journal graded with a happy face. And a story about his time at a friends house. (lacks detail other than lots of fun... had a "grate time."


Quick Research observations:
Trace was very reluctant to come at first and missed the first sessions. In fact circumstances of his first story was during his classes' period in the computer lab just to get him encouraged to come. This story is different than his final two that use stickers.

Trace's writing style might not have been best for the set up of this research. He edits afterwards it seems. This somewhat fits with is teacher's complaint that he doesn't plan first. I think his natural process is to get his ideas on paper and then edit. This is just my teacherly observations from his and his teacher's interview, and the way he tried to make changes during/after his recording particularly of his 1st story.

Trace, like Bryce spent a lot of time on his backgrounds. I think this was social acquired between both of them though I don't know which one started it. They both compared different techniques for changing backgrounds while they were working.

His middle story has a loose theme and then he assembles the pieces that fit his "bomb" motif. His last story was probably heavily influenced by me putting the camera beside him while he was working???? It is just a recitation of what is there. He asked to add music. During author's chair, seemed to not mind that his words were undecipherable under his music. Played it cool and danced along with the music and acted as if he didn't care that his voice was lost.

post interview
Still reports that what he likes best is to play on the computer. Lists Toontown and Pirates of the Caribbean. What he liked best about doing this type of story? That you could do different kinds (describing or funny.) He has picked up a theme that I talked about and made it his... just like the thinking first thing in his pre-interview. This kid is a teacher pleaser and a politician. He will tell you what he thinks you want to hear. He said it was bad that he had to click around for stickers... finding stickers he wanted for what he wanted to show. This is mentioned in other research... how the graphics often limit/control what students do. This was huge with Trace.

He said that folks seeing his dvd was "embarrassing." he said because his family laughed.

I asked him about his backgrounds and he said they were important for all stories, but didn't elaborate on that. He appreciated Deseree's story the most because it was just funny that there was a duck in the street. hah.