“Characters´ voices in rewriting and transformation of traditional narrative texts produced by pairs of children in multigrade classes”

CASTEDO, MIRTA

París

Conferencia; International Conference on Writing Research Writing Research Across Borders III; 2014

Université Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense

The research “Characters´ voices in rewriting and transformation of traditional narrative texts produced by pairs of children in multigrade classes” shows how children that are learning to introduce the voice of the characters in narrative texts use the known and historically constructed forms in different ways – that are sometimes considered as deviating from the norm to literate adults. The purpose of this work is to show the diverse uses of punctuation, declarative verbs and other linguistic and discursive marks used by three groups of rural students in one-room schools. Children’s re-narrations and transformations were analyzed (after them being asked to tell the story using the voice of some of the characters) from the tale “The Liar Shepherd”. Seven pairs of children in each of the three classes produced from two to four versions of the story. The teaching groups of the one-room schools receive children from all elementary years, from first (6 years-old) to sixth (11 years-old). In some cases, the pairs were made up of students with a similar level of written language skills, and in other cases of students with very different levels. The units of analysis were “statements”, “episodes” and “word spaces”. Additionally, the exchanges between the pairs were registered as well as the teachers’ lesson plans. This study provides evidence about the transformation of texts during revision and about the incidence of interactions between students of “diverse” ages.