THE SOCIOCOGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION OF WRITTEN GENRES IN FIRST-GRADE

This paper examines the written genres of a group of six children in a first grade classroom. Using the dual lenses of sociocognitive constr uctivism and emergent literacy, it explores relationships among the ch ildren's genres and between these genres and the social context of the classroom in which the children's written discourse is situated. Anal ysis of naturalistic data (using an integrated functional-formal analy sis which considered substance, intention, form and context as interre lated dimensions of genre) resulted in a classification scheme which e ncompassed all genres in the children's writing. Analyses of the class room discourse revealed the children to be active participants in the social dialogue within their classroom. They constructed their written genres in response to the texts with which they engaged during collab orative reading and writing tasks and in response to the ways in which the teacher structured the writing tasks. They acted upon their world by writing about their personal experiences, creating imaginary world s through drawing and writing and playing with words and ideas. The ge nres the children employed came from the morning news, from stories an d poems, and from genres that were embedded in their literacy environm ent or constructed by them in collaboration with their teacher and eac h other Both construction and appropriation were seen as active proces ses on the part of the child rather than as passive imitation or copyi ng from models.