As I reflect on my work in this assignment, I am glad that I chose to interview Andy. Before the interview began, I was well aware of Andy's test scores and performance on reading tasks in the classroom and I was worried that the questions I prepared would completely throw him off. I have to say that I was completely surprised by Andy's ability to be reflective and to explain his thinking. There were times when he took longer to process. However, even when he wasn't sure about something he did his best to explain. I enjoyed seeing how confidently he answered the questions about his own reading ability.
When I went into the interview, I had a set of questions. However, as the interview continued, my teacher instincts kicked in and I let the conversation take some turns. For example, with the connection conversation, we went from discussing visualization to talking about how to make connections between two stories. It was so intriguing to watch him utilize two of the ongoing reading strategies simultaneously. My favorite response from Andy was when I asked him how he knew what to answer on the iPad and he replied "It's called Listening" (hence, the title of this interview process).
Technically, the location was not the best for recording. Our school consists of four classroom pods that are open in the middle. There are no doors...so at any given point there is no such thing as a "quiet" place. I was able to interview Andy in a teacher planning office within the pod. Luckily, it was very quiet but at the same time, it caused a little echo. I was able to change the settings enough to cut out most of the echo.
I think this interview will be very useful to the intervention team as well as Andy's teacher. We can build on Andy's self-defined strengths and provide interventions for the areas where he is not as strong. Based on my discussion with Andy, I think it would be safe to say that we can openly discuss the interventions with him and help him to advance as a reader.
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