Data drawn from an ethnographic study of kindergarten journal writing activity suggest that literacy knowledge is distributed socially through shifts in participant roles, or footings, within the participation framework of the activity. Discourse analysis of moment-to-moment talk and interaction reveals that activity participants assume a variety of participant roles available in the participation framework. By assuming these roles, literacy knowledge is distributed from restricted teacher-student dyads to other student overhearers. In this way, the participation framework highlights the ways in which participants in writing activity gain access to the social distribution of literacy knowledge that may otherwise be limited by restricting talk to dyadic interaction. Furthermore, the role of the participation framework as a mediating tool in purposeful writing activity is emphasized as a key factor in the distribution of literacy knowledge.