Fiction apprentices

about reading and writing stories at school

Abstract

The article presents an excerpt from a qualitative research about the development of fictional narratives by children, carried out with in a 5th grade of elementary school at a public school in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. It aims to reflect on the effects of reading literature and interlocution between peers on the process of creating stories. The research was based on studies on literature (Candido, 2012), fiction reading (Amarilha, 2013 e 1997; Jauss, 1994; Eco, 1994), pedagogical mediation and textual production (Vigotski, 2007; Graves e Graves, 1995; Calkins, 1989). The research design included reading sessions of the work Fazendo Ana Paz (Making Ana Paz), by Lygia Bojunga, and meetings for writing, discussing and rewriting fiction stories. Data analysis revealed that reading literature, under the scaffolding methodology, favored the freedom of creating stories by apprentices, who used literary references to write narratives that presented new choices regarding the type of narrator, use of time, outcome, among other aspects. The choice of the literary work (Bojunga, 2007), which is metafictional in nature, had a major impact on the new meanings attributed by the apprentices to the writing activity. It was also noticing the effect of interaction among peers and the research teacher in the writing and textual review processes, through the children's attempts to create their fictional narratives, triggered by writing conferences.