Literature Socialization in a Kindergarten Classroom

This article examines the storytelling event in a kindergarten classroom. The study took place in an urban, multi-ethnic public school located in a working-class neighborhood in Madrid, Spain. Poveda examines two aspects of this literacy event using tools from the ethnography of communication: the way canonical story openings and endings are presented and contextualized as social routines, and the way different narrative and character voices are performed. Storytelling sessions are construed as occasions to socialize children into literary language use. The analysis leads to several theoretical conclusions: (a) the relationship between literacy acquisition and decontextualized discourse and thought needs to be reexamined in light of classroom discourse processes, (b) socializing children into literature foregrounds debates regarding cultural change and intergenerational transmission, (c) children's literature should be seen as a social practice embedded in specific literary events.