Second stories (Theobald & Reynolds, 2015)

Theobald, M. & Reynolds, E. (2015) In pursuit of some appreciation: Assessment and group membership in children’s second stories. Text & Talk, 35(3), 407-430.  

In this paper, Maryanne Theobald and Edward Reynolds show how children use second stories to manage affiliation and group membership or to build oppositional stances and bid for status.  The data illustrates ‘storytelling as a jointly accomplished activity’ (p. 411) and contributes to our deepening understanding of the communicative and cultural complexity of young children’s peer relationships. These cultures are simultaneously designed, sustained and moderated through talk-in-interaction.

 ‘This paper explored how status and group membership were oriented to within children’s production and management of a storytelling round. Weobserved a simultaneously competitive and collaborative group dynamic, with group membership linked to having a story to tell, whether the story proposed a properly newsworthy assessable, and noted the work of storytellers and story recipients toward appreciation of the story. These elements, accomplished on a turn-by-turn process, highlighted the complex politics of a children’s peer group.’ (pp. 426-427)