Of Tilting Earths, Ruler Swans, and Fighting Mosquitoes

Using discourse analysis methodology, this dissertation describes the literacy practices of first grade students as they engaged in researching, writing and illustrating nonfiction. The research focused on two instructional units on writing nonfiction that included a poster unit and a research report unit. The data consisted of 27 days of video recording, covering two periods of time during the 2009-2010 academic school year. This study generates grounded theoretical constructs about the nature of nonfiction writing as it is socially constructed through the interactions and language of first grade classroom participants. These constructs include: ways to conceptualize nonfiction writing for early elementary students; a conception of learning as a social and interactive process; and a model of pedagogy as a socially constructed process conducted through language-in-use. Key to this model are the ways in which the teacher guided acquisition of the cultural literacy practices through a complementary didactic/play process, the ways in which students came to understand and take up the identity of being a nonfiction writer and how the practices were recontextualized over time as students engaged in more academically sophisticated writing. I consider this work as adding to current research describing the social and cultural complexity of young children’s lives in school, attending, in particular, to how children construct knowledge about different reading and writing practices and genres.