Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate young children's opportunities to socially construct literacy during story extension time. Viewed from a sociopsychological perspective, findings suggest that story extension time afforded the children with occasions to accomplish key purposes of literacy development and construct concepts about literacy. Children took the following identifiable stances toward the tasks: (a) deliberate observers, peer watchers who contributed little to the group discussions but learned about literacy strategies and forms from observing other children in their group; (b) divergent collaborators, who varied their ways of expressing ideas or socially interacting with peers and explored many forms of meaning-making during story extension sessions; and (c) focused collaborators, who consistently used recurrent topics, themes, or strategies or sought out particular individuals. This repetition allowed them time to explore a topic or strategy until they felt they had some control over the required forms, functions, and processes. Each stance afforded children unique occasions for exploring their concepts about literacy and stories.
