Playing to Learn and Learning to Play
By Kathleen Funk
“Okay, I’ll be the mommy and you be the big sister,” Ella says to me after we read a book about a family who goes to the store. Ella is 6 years old, the older of the two girls who I babysit. “I want to be the doggy! Ruff, ruff!” Lily barks as she gets on her hands and knees to crawl around on the floor. Lily is the younger sister and is 4 years old. “I have to go to the store. I’ll write the shopping list in my notebook!” says Ella. She runs to grab her purple notebook from the shelf in their playroom and begins to write a grocery list of foods. I have seen this an innumerable amount of times in my experiences working with children. I have grown up babysitting and worked as a camp counselor for young children for four years. Whether I am in an informal setting like babysitting or a formal setting at camp, I always end up playing a role in children’s pretend scenarios. The illustration of Ella and Lily is just one of many examples of play as a literacy.
Play as a literacy? Is that possible? Yes, it is! But first, let’s break it down, starting with literacy.
What is literacy? According to the Education Development Center’s website, “Literacy lies not only in the ability to read and write, but rather in an individual’s capacity to put those skills to work in shaping the course of his or her own life.” Literacy is much more than just reading the words on a page and being able to write a paper. Literacy is being fluent in certain skills that are important in one’s life. Literacy includes oral language. The ability to communicate through words with other people is a literacy itself. One way to form this oral literacy is through play.
In her article, Henniger explains Garvey’s theory on play assisting oral literacy. Children use “metacommunication” skills to set up their play. For example, Ella organized our play by assigning people to roles, “Okay, I’ll be the mommy and you be the big sister.” By setting up play in this manner, she is practicing her use of “metacommunication.” Other ways in which children can explore their oral literacy is through breaking grammatical rules while speaking. By making mistakes, children can begin to recognize their errors and self-correct, building their oral literacy. Garvey’s theory also says that through rhyming games and word play, students can begin to learn how to structure words and create meaning in these words. For example, often times, children will begin singing to themselves whatever they are thinking about or learning. Through this type of simple play, it helps them remember certain grammatical rules or the meaning behind the words they are singing. For example, singing a song with all of the letters of the alphabet is how most people learn all 26 letters of the English alphabet. I, myself, can remember different rhymes and jingles I used to sing in school to remember certain things I learned. Most people can. However, we cannot simply use this strategy as our main practice of literacy learning and teaching. There are many different factors that are involved in play literacy’s effectiveness. This is where the play-literacy nexus, defined by Christie & Roskos, comes in.
What is the play-literacy nexus? According to Christie & Roskos, this play-literacy nexus is, “The core space where play, language, and early literacy converge and interact. (Christie & Roskos, 2011)
Figure of Nexus retrieved from The Play-Literacy Nexus and the Importance of Evidence-Based Techniques in the Classroom by Christie & Roskos. (2011)
By incorporating “literacy-enriched play” into the classroom, students are likely to benefit from this kind of environment. Creating a classroom environment that supports literacy-rich play, a teacher can create this nexus in his or her classroom. One way to go about doing this is by setting up her classroom as a play-friendly room. By having play centers throughout the room with toys, props, and play sets such as kitchens are all supportive of high-quality play.
A teacher who wants to have this type of environment in her classroom should also provide tools that encourage literacy, such as pencils, markers, or notepads during play time. (Christie & Roskos, 2011)
This way, students will have the opportunity to incorporate the use of these literary materials into their play, which in turn helps further develop their literacy. Now, should a teacher only give the students some tools and leave them be whenever there is playtime? Or should he or she never intervene when it comes to student play? No. A teacher’s role in high-quality student playtime is very important.
The first step of a teacher’s role has been described; providing students resources to use during play time and also creating a play-rich environment. However, it does not stop there. Another part of a teacher’s role in literacy-building playtime is “teaching” play. By doing this, teachers set students up for successful, meaningful, literacy-enhancing play. According to Leong & Bodorva’s article, “teaching” play is a key ingredient to effective play. Does this mean that teachers must micromanage children’s free playtime? Do teachers have to give a lesson on “play” and give the students a test over it? Of course not. However, there is a healthy way to go about “teaching” children how to play in a way that has a positive impact on their learning and literacy. Leon & Bordova state, “Only by supporting mature, high-quality play can we really help children fully develop their language and literacy skills.” The highest quality play, according to Leong & Bodorva, is pretend play. Pretend play is when children act as different characters in different scenarios. One example of pretend play is when children play “house” and assume different familial roles. The ways in which Leon & Bordova suggest teachers should “support” this impactful play is through three different elements:
1. Using a variety of props and objects. (“Let’s pretend this block is a phone and we have to call for help when the car breaks down.”)
2. Combining multiple roles and themes. (“Toby is the daddy. He’s the doctor too.”)
3. Creating a pretend scenario and solving disagreements by talking and negotiating. (“Let’s play hospital. OK, you’ll be the doctor first, and then I’ll be the doctor.”)
By including these three elements in their play, children create the “highest levels of language and literacy development.” A teacher has to be careful when supporting “high-level” play. However, it is important that teachers use correction and redirection. (See article for examples.) A teacher must be sure to keep play involving ONLY the children and not involving him or her self, keeping it child-focused. Although a teacher may get involved in guiding play, he or she must remain in the background of play and not make him or herself the center of the children’s attention. One example that Leon & Bordova give in their article of a teacher making a distracting or negative play intervention was if children are feeding a bunny a plastic carrot and the teacher were to say, “No, you cannot feed the bunny a plastic carrot.” This takes away the focus from the child and turns the free playtime into another teacher-instructed activity. A teacher is merely a means of supporting high-quality play, not necessarily intervening in play to guide it. If we leave children to figure out play completely on their own and do not properly support them, children can have a hard time finding new ways to play with something. Also, sometimes children have not developed their social skills, especially if they are very young, and simply do not know how to play with others. When a teacher is “teaching” play, he or she is not doing what she traditionally think of when we hear “teaching.” Some tips that Leong & Bodorva give us help teachers to be positive supporters of high-quality play:
· Help children see different uses for familiar props and create new props
· Expand the repertoire of play themes and roles by exposing children to new and varied experiences.
· Help children use appropriate strategies in planning their play with their playmates, and, later, in carrying out their play.
To put these suggestions to a practical use, one example of guiding children through play if they get stuck on what should happen next is if children are playing house and they have a pretend TV, the teacher could stay on the outside of the play area and pretend to be a newscaster who comes on the television to report some sort of news that changes the scenario. This is a good example of a teacher simply guiding children through play when they get stuck, rather than correcting them or instructing them on what to do next. Leon & Bordova also stress the importance on the teacher keeping a distance between her and the play area. By entering the play area, the playing then automatically becomes focused on her and what she has to say. However, by staying on the outside of the play center and guiding from a distance, like in the previous example, the teacher can keep her play support focused on the students and their imaginations.
Another aspect of literacy-developing pretend play is dramatic play. In their article, Gaining Ground in Understanding the Play-Literacy Relationship, Christie & Roskos reflect on Piaget’s view of pretend play. Piaget emphasizes that pretend (what was discussed above) or dramatic play, “Broaden[s] cognitive skills, such as symbolic representation, and emerging literacy skills such as print awareness.” (Christie & Roskos, 2013) Children are developing their literary skills everyday, particularly when they are interacting with others. During thematic play, children are constantly interacting with one another. When children participate in dramatic play, they are practicing their comprehension skills. Children must understand the story of the skit or play in order to perform it. Therefore, when students work with one another on performance plays, they are developing their story comprehension together.
I did not know it at the time, but this was what Ella and Lily were doing the whole time when we were playing. They were taking the story we had just read together and acting it out. They were using their comprehension literacy skills to interpret and act out the story. Not only were they using their comprehension skills, but also Ella specifically used her writing skills to make a shopping list. Play is not just something that is fun for children, but it is also something that can greatly increase their development as literate and successful adults. Although we know it has the potential enhance literacy, Christe & Roskos say it does not always mean that when children play they WILL become more literate. In their article, Play’s Potential in Early Literacy Development, they state clearly that it has not been proven that all play directly leads to literacy development. Research is still being done and the studies that have been completed are still young. They express their concern that, “Only with good literacy practices in play can literacy be effected positively.” (Christie & Roskos, 2009) In other words, the way play is being used in the classroom is what determines the potential for play to help literacy skills. We must be critical of our own practices and truly take a look at the play that occurs in our classrooms.
Podcast with Karen Wohlwend on Digital Play Literacy:
Play the game at this link and learn more about play literacy! http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/32503754/
References
Christie, J.F. & Roskos, K. A. (May 2009). Play’s Potential in Early Literacy Development. Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. Retrieved from http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/documents/Christie-RoskosANGxp.pdf.
Christie, J.F. & Roskos, K.A. (2011). The Play-Literacy Nexus and the Importance of Evidence-Based Techniques in the Classroom. American Journal of Play. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ985588.pdf.
Christie, J.F. & Roskos, K.A. (2013). Gaining Ground in Understanding the Play-Literacy Relationship. American Journal of Play. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1016166.pdf.
Henniger, M.L. (July 2010). Play and Language and Literacy Development. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/play-language-literacy-development/.
Leong, D.J. & Bodorva, E. (2014). Building Language and Literacy Through Play. Early Childhood Today. Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/building-language-literacy-through-play.
