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As part of my pre-service field
experience, I recently got to sit in on a local kindergarten classroom.
While I was enthralled by the tiny little beings, I was shocked by their lack
of time to play. Their daily agenda was tightly scheduled around reading
and math. When I look back to my days in kindergarten, I hardly remember
doing drills in math and reading. I think the goals of that year were to
learn our alphabet and numbers, learn to tie our shoes, and start to learn
to read. I remember getting to play for long periods of time in my
classroom. We had a dress-up area, a play kitchen set, as well as areas
to read and play games. As a result of high stakes testing, teachers are
finding less and less time to make room for play in their classrooms.
With the pressures of improving test scores, teachers are forced to use what
was once playtime in order to fit in more time for drills. Lucky for children
and teachers, there are people out there looking for ways to get more time for play.
Dr. Karen Wohlwend, professor of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education at Indiana University has spent much of her research devoted to finding connections between play and literacy development. In a recent Voice of Literacy Podcast, Dr. Wohlwend describes her research. Dr. Wohlwend conducted her research in a kindergarten classroom. There she focused on many groups of children at play. One group in particular focused their playtime on Disney Princesses. The children in this group would bring their Disney Princesses dolls from home and would reenact the movies. What might look like children just playing with dolls, Dr. Wohlwend saw children developing their literacy skills. While playing with the dolls and reenacting their stories, the children were developing deeper meanings of plot and character. The children brought these dolls into their writing workshops as well. They would play with the dolls, reenact their stories, and in the writing workshop, the children created a storyboard for the stories they played during playtime.
In the interview, Dr. Wohlwend discusses the need to find better arguments for the allotment of playtime in the classroom. The argument of play helping to develop social skills and cues is not cutting it anymore. To me, Dr. Wohlwend's arugment for the need to play and the use of popular media in the classroom is one that is both moving and eye-opening. Dr. Wohlwend ends the interview with some advice for teachers. She asks teachers to allow time for play in the classroom, but also asks that teachers allow and encourage children to bring their culture and popular media into the classroom and into their literacy learning. Dr. Wohlwend states that there is not just one way to teach literacy. Teachers need to use all of the cultural resources of their students, including popular media, to help children develop and readers and writers.
As part of my pre-service field
experience, I recently got to sit in on a local kindergarten classroom.
While I was enthralled by the tiny little beings, I was shocked by their lack
of time to play. Their daily agenda was tightly scheduled around reading
and math. When I look back to my days in kindergarten, I hardly remember
doing drills in math and reading. I think the goals of that year were to
learn our alphabet and numbers, learn to tie our shoes, and start to learn
to read. I remember getting to play for long periods of time in my
classroom. We had a dress-up area, a play kitchen set, as well as areas
to read and play games. As a result of high stakes testing, teachers are
finding less and less time to make room for play in their classrooms.
With the pressures of improving test scores, teachers are forced to use what
was once playtime in order to fit in more time for drills. Lucky for children
and teachers, there are people out there looking for ways to get more time for play.
Dr. Karen Wohlwend, professor of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education at Indiana University has spent much of her research devoted to finding connections between play and literacy development. In a recent Voice of Literacy Podcast, Dr. Wohlwend describes her research. Dr. Wohlwend conducted her research in a kindergarten classroom. There she focused on many groups of children at play. One group in particular focused their playtime on Disney Princesses. The children in this group would bring their Disney Princesses dolls from home and would reenact the movies. What might look like children just playing with dolls, Dr. Wohlwend saw children developing their literacy skills. While playing with the dolls and reenacting their stories, the children were developing deeper meanings of plot and character. The children brought these dolls into their writing workshops as well. They would play with the dolls, reenact their stories, and in the writing workshop, the children created a storyboard for the stories they played during playtime.