Charlotte's Web: Field Research, Psycho-Social Research, and a Textual Summary and Analysis

Introduction and Field Research Background

My niece Ariel, age 11, agreed to read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White with me, and to be my informant on this project (Shapiro, "Personal Interview"). Ariel is extremely bright (IQ over 140), and has already finished the 7th grade, having skipped second grade in elementary school (I bring this up not so much to brag about her, but because she may in fact be more advanced in her thinking and vocabulary skills than some of the other 9-11-year-old informants: arguably somewhere between Piaget's third (ages 7-11) and fourth (ages 11-15) concrete operational and formal operational stages of development). Ariel told me this was actually her second exposure to Charlotte's Web, though her first time reading the book on her own. Her third grade teacher had read it to her class, but Ariel...
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