Emerging Literacy during One "Day in the Life" in the Transition to School

The transition to school, marked by significant moves towards print literacy, is a crucial school-life milestone that can be both exhilarating and daunting. This case study, extracted from an international, quasi-ecological examination of thriving kindergarten children in transition to school, films participants, their families, schools and communities during one ‘day in their lives’. We monitored one Canadian child's interactions[AQ6] with her interlocutors as she negotiated a day in her life from arising to bedtime. All literacy-related interchanges were identified, and three exemplary exchanges were selected, analysed and contextualised, applying Cameron and Pinto's [(2009). Day in the life: Secure interludes with joint book reading. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 23(4), 437–449. doi:10.1080/02568540909594672] taxonomy to: one child/school-teacher, one child/music instructor and one child/parent joint text-reading transaction. Capturing her engagement in meaning-making as she experienced different expectations and interaction styles we examined the continuities/discontinuities supporting her negotiation of those experiences.