Play's Place? In the Classroom!

It was so refreshing to read about the success of a class in which play is a focus!  All too often, it seems like the “c[h]ool” is being taken out of school, leaving behind assessments and the rigorous curricula deemed necessary to prepare students for them.  As recess shrinks to an infinitesimal speck on the daily schedule and the so-called “specials”—music, gym, art, library—disappear altogether, children spend an ever-increasing amount of time in an environment in which they’re expected to sit quietly and focus on whatever task is at hand, be it listening to the teacher, working on projects or worksheets alone or in a group, reading, or writing.  And teachers are told that this is what we have to do in order to keep up with the expectations laid out by the standardized tests of the hour.  But is it really?  Is sitting in straight rows, silently listening then working on assignments really what’s best for our students?  Is that how they learn most effectively and engage best with the material?  Karen Wohlwend’s (2011) book Playing Their Way into Literacies:  Reading, Writing, and Belonging in the Early Childhood Classroom makes a case for play as a frame for early childhood learning, and makes it quite convincingly.  In the second chapter, Wohlwend cites multiple instances from her case study of a class taught by Abbie Howard, and focuses on a group of students styled the “Abbie Wannabes”:  these students routinely choose to participate in teacher/student modeled play during choice time, drawing on the strategies they have been explicitly taught or have picked up on from their surrounding contexts in order to help themselves and their playmates successfully engage in their play.  And perhaps most heartwarming for me, the students were able to help each other to become better navigators of the literacies surrounding them.  Even students who were independent readers in the kindergarten context could learn from their peers who may not have been reading as readily, but who were experienced and confident storytellers.  This kind of natural give-and-take and sharpening of skills by peers is something exciting to see.

What's in a question? More than you may've thought...

          According to Dr. Diana Leyva, it turns out that while book-reading is important, it may not be the most vital thing.  Yep, that’s what I said…you read it right!  Book-reading is important, but Dr. Leyva advocates for the significance of reminiscing and especially of asking your children or students open-ended questions to positively impact children’s phonological awareness.  Why open-ended questions?  Because if I ask, “Did you go to the park yesterday?” the child responding has a lot less mental processing to do than if I query instead, “Where did you go yesterday?”  To answer the second question, the child has to recall what s/he did yesterday and where it took place.  And the child may even inform me that s/he went to a whole list of places, instead of only responding that, “Yes, s/he went to the park.”

          So where does reminiscing come in?  Well, that’s where parents who are uncomfortable reading aloud or don’t have the resources to do so can still immerse their children in a narrative structure and where parents can pick up a productive conversation while in the middle of other activities, like eating or while in the car.  This reminiscing can be as simple as asking and answering the question above, “Where did you go yesterday?” or could be something more involved, such as a parent sharing stories from 

his/her childhood and interacting with the listener(s), for instance, asking children to connect with the stories or say what they may do in a similar situation.  The engagement with vocabulary helps children to become more comfortable more words, increasing their phonological awareness as they encounter more words and sounds.

A Call to Speak Out!

When I read the comments of one primary teacher, "I know it's developmentally inappropriate, but I've got to do it" (Wohlwend, 2009, p. 345), my immediate response was to be moved nearly to tears of empathy and frustration.  How can the mandates handed down to teachers be in favor of teaching writing as merely a "task through which children demonstrate skill competency or display content knowledge, rather than communicate personal meanings or carry out social functions" (Wohlwend, 2009, p. 344), when writing can be something so much richer and more fulfilling?  Something that can give voices to students' imaginations and let them express themselves.  So what can we do, the concerned adults who see the children around us going through an educational system where mandates trump children's needs?  Dr. Caitlin Dooley makes a case for advocation, saying that if we--parents, teachers, and concerned citizens--don't speak out, how can we hope that change will happen spontaneously (Baker & Dooley, 2010)?  She calls for teachers and parents to work together and speak out about what's best for students.  And she asks for principals and administrators to tell the policy-makers when they feel that mandates aren't helping students.  Policy-makers she recommends to discover what achievement really is so that they can truly create an innovative way of assessing it.  And what might this assessment look like?  Well, Dooley mentions the video games that her children so enjoy and questions why assessment can't be more authentic, perhaps built into games that are engaging.  So what's our starting point?  Parents:  a good place might be to find out what your children know and what they're learning...and how they're learning it.  Teachers:  take note of where your students are and what practices are helpful--and which ones aren't--and ask parents to get involved with speaking up about what's good for the children you all care about so much.

Baker, E. A., & Dooley, C. (2010, March 1). "Teaching language arts in a high stakes era." Voice of Literacy. Retrieved from http://voiceofliteracy.org

Wohlwend, K. E. (2009, May).  "Dilemmas and discourses of learning to write:  Assessment as a contested site."  Language arts, 86(5), 341-351.