‘Go Be a Writer’: Intra-activity with materials,time and space in literacy learning

Abstract

This article is based on research in a United States second-grade classroom during a multimodal literacy workshop. Observing students working with tissue paper, foam board, string, pipe cleaners and other materials, we asked how is intra-activity with materials, time and space influencing literacy learning in Room 203? While the research partnership of the authors spanned four years, video and audio recordings, artefacts and interviews with children for this article focus on year two of the research. Poststructural enquiry methods of pedagogical documentation and thinking with theory were used for data production and analysis. Pedagogical documentation focuses not only on the expected ways of being and learning (in this case, the norms of writing in an early childhood classroom) but also on unexpected occurrences (departures from what is typical or developmental) when students write. Thinking with poststructural and posthumanist theories allowed us to explore time, space and materials with three ideas: departures from the expected, the notion of becoming and intra-activity with materials. We illustrate how intra-activity with materials, time and space manifested in two projects: a 3D birdhouse and a 19-foot giraffe mural. We encourage educators to consider how expanded definitions of writing that include intra-actions with a range of materials create learning opportunities for children to live out literacy desiring with multimodal artefacts.