The aim of this paper is to explore the interactional conditions constituted in collective writing in a primary school classroom. Theoretically, we turn to New Literacy Studies for understanding the writing classrooms as literacy practices and the actual writing as literacy events (Barton 2001, 2007; Heath 1984; Street, 1984). The study has an ethnographical approach and the constructed material is based on literacy events over three hours’ videotaped lessons of collective text production in a group of six 3d graders and their teacher. This study is part of a larger study where the particular class with its pupils and teachers have been studied for three years, which makes it possible for us to understand what kind of literacy practice these events can be understood being a part of. In order to analyse what kind of interactional conditions that are constituted in the event, we analyse the event as a secondary speech genre, using an adjusted version of an analytic model (Hultin, 2006) that is an operationalization of Bakhtin’s theory of speech genre (1986). The model consists of eight analytical foci covering different aspects, for instance interactional structural patterns and conditions for participation. The result shows that the interaction of the literacy event as a whole is strictly structured through a didactical tool, consisting of ten questions to answer for constructing a story (Telling Ten). However, within this structural frame, several interactional patterns are constituted; both interactional patterns initiated by the teachers and those initiated by the pupils. The degree of dialogism in these interactional patterns varies. The condition for participating in the interaction varies also for different children; some children have to fight to make their voice heard while other children are listened to instantly. To conclude, the teacher’s pedagogical purpose of the literacy event was to highlight formal aspects of writing a story (focusing narrative structure). However, the children’s ways of participating in the literacy event, where they challenged each other and sometimes also the teacher, contributed to constitute a literacy event where they also could make democratic experiences (in terms of negotiating, discussing, arguing, listening, and reaching consensus in decision-making).

David Barton (2001) Directions for Literacy Research: Analysing Language and Social Practices in a Textually Mediated World, Language and Education, 15:2-3, 92-104, DOI: 10.1080/09500780108666803 Barton, David (2007): Literacy. An introduction to the ecology of written language. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Heath, Shirley Brice (1983): Ways with words – Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press. Hultin, Eva (2006): Samtalsgenrer i gymnasieskolans litteraturundervisning – en ämnesdidaktisk studie. Örebro: Örebro Studies in Education, 16. Street, Brian (1984): Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.