Emergent Literacy During a “Day in the Life” in the Transition to School

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: Understanding the Literacy Skills of Early Readers and Writers

Abstract

The transition to school can be both daunting and exhilarating. Whatever the transitional experience quality, it is a crucial school-life milestone. This transition is marked by critical moves toward literacy (Authors, 1996, 2009). This case study is extracted from an international, quasi-ecological examination of thriving kindergarten children in transition to school that films participants, their families and schools during one ‘Day in their Lives’ (Authors, 2010). We tracked here one child’s transactions with her interlocutors as they negotiated an illustrative Day from arising to bedtime. From this Day, we analyzed and contextualized one child-parent joint book-reading exchange and showed how this interchange related to other ‘promotive transactions’ (Sameroff, 2010) during the Day and supported the child’s successful transition to school.

Authors

• Catherine Ann Cameron, The University of British Columbia

• Anne Hunt, University of New Brunswick

• Paul Leger, University of New Brunswick

• Giuliana Pinto, University of Florence