The Importance of Play in the Classroom...

In today's classrooms, especially from grades one on up, there is a lot of 'business' that MUST get done.  Besides teaching, teachers are required to pre-test, and post test students over lessons.  The testing results are expected to show a mastery of the lesson taught.  Students are expected to sit in their desks, following the rules: quietly sitting, not bothering their neighbors and staying on task.  Time for students to create seems to have vanished with the extra recess part of the day at most schools.

In an article from Reading Research Quarterly, Dr. Karen E. Wohlwend (2008) documented the importance of play in learning within a kindergarten classroom.  Specifically, Dr. Wohlwend goes on to say that playing school at school is an important tool for students.  In playing school the students pair up reading and playing as reading-to-play, and playing-to-read.  Students showed these disciplines connected by reading books, reading charts, pretending to be the teacher, and by teaching pretend students.  In these ways, students made sense of books and multimedia, as well as produced social spaces where they indicated how kindergarteners should acts as readers and writers, leaders and followers, or boys and girls.

If these practices in a kindergarten room reinforce peer learning and set the stage for norms expected within the classroom, why is it that school districts feel teachers should act more as disciplinarians and less like facilitators of knowledge bearers?  Why are students expected to sit and be spoken at all day long?  How drab.

I understand the importance of being able to account for what our students are learning, and agree that tests are a quick and easy way to test knowledge.  But I feel there are also other ways our students can show what they learn.  I feel deeper learning happens when students are allowed to learn through inquiry, and study topics that matter to them.  Upper elementary students still need play in their lives.  I hope to be able to facilitate playing-to-learning within my classroom through role playing.  To learn about different cultures and groups who shaped our history, and to grasp the important lessons to be learned, my classroom will transform into those different cultures.  As an example, when studying Indiana history, we shall become members of tribes or explorers from the early days of Indiana.  We will write about our experiences in authentic ways, keeping journals, writing letters, reading recipes.  We will read stories that connect us, our classroom, to our community of long ago.

I believe no child benefits from being seated at their desk the entire school day.  Truly, most adults in the real world function by interacting with others.  Most adults are not in stationary positioned all day long either.  Why then do we expect that of our students?   In order for our students to become active learners, they need to be inspired by teachers who are willing to interact with them.

~ltk

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” 
                                                                                        ― Benjamin Franklin

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reference:

Wohlwend, K. E. (2008) . Kindergarten as Nexus of Practice: A Mediated Discourse Analysis of Reading, Writing, Play and Design in an Early Literacy .  Reading Research Quarterly, 43(3) , pp. 332-334 . Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20068350?uid=3739664&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103781288033

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Practical Thoughts and Helpful Words...

“You cannot see into children’s minds, but their behaviors can guide your teaching decisions.” 
                                                                           ~ educators Fountas and Pinnell (2006) 

As an educator, it is my job to: 

• confer with my students as they read, and as they write 

• to take note and take notes

• to evaluate the things they can do, and the things they can almost do

• to be able to note when a student is ready for the next challenge in their reading and writing growth  

A good teacher makes plans for her whole class, small groups of students, and one-on-one teaching. Then, she can almost simultaneously execute her plans!  But, teachers are not superhuman beings.  They do eat, sleep and exercise too!  Sometimes they even spell words incorrectly or mispronounce them. 

To allow me to be the best teacher educator I can be, I will work with my student’s families.  With that thought in mind, here are a few tips I will share with my classroom families:   

• No one is held back from beginning reading, even if they do not know all of their letter or letter sounds!  

• Share with you student, no one memorizes every book they read!  Readers learn to figure out the words.  Remind them that you learned how to do this and they will be able to learn this too!

• Reading isn’t about just saying the words...it’s all the thinking that goes on in your head at the same time!  

• Remember those “rules” about language that WE learned...less than 45% of the time those hold true!  Besides, if you have to stop and recall a “rule,” you might forget what it is you are reading about!  

• If a book is too easy for your student, that’s okay!  Quantity of successful reading builds the assured independence of a competent reader. But, if you think your student needs more variety, send me a note.  We, your student and I, can work together to find some other great books to read!

• It’s more important to me that your student understand and comprehends what they are reading. I place less emphasis on students reading levels.  AND I know each student  will progress at a level and speed that is appropriate for them.  

• To create a love of reading in your student...read aloud to them!  Enjoying books together is a wonderful way to share time. 

• Let them read to you, then celebrate their independence of being the reader! Be a good listener.  

I know these tips may seem more appropriate for beginning readers and their families to hear, but as a mother of two college students, it is ALWAYS important to be a good listen to the children in our lives.  ~ltk

Comprehension and the Teacher's Job...and What Proficient Readers DO

Comprehension IS thought.

How does one teach thought?  Everyone can think, so why try to teach how to think? This seems redundant.  In truth, children develop at different rates based on many internal and external influences.  I truly believe that all children want to be successful at school.  Some children need reminders that they all ready have what it takes to be successful.  They need encouragement to see all they possess.  If a child fails to understand a text they are reading, it is the teachers job to help identify first, students who are 'lost' and secondly, how to help lost students reconnect.  When a student doesn't understand something we are really meaning they do not comprehend.  A lack of comprehension may make a student feel inferior, not as smart as their peers, and not very good at school.  If a student has been unsuccessful in understanding things, they may shut down and not participate in the class discussions. Mostly this is seen when children are learning how to read, especially with struggling readers.

A teacher's job is to help identify students who are lost, those who don't quite understand.  It is also a teacher's job to make sure that each of their students develops a reading process system.  A reading process system is simply a set of strategies to become the best reader and the best at comprehending that one can be.  Proficient readers naturally develop these skills.  Struggling or beginning readers need help developing their skills in order to be successful.  These skills are questioning, visualization, inferring, predicting and summarizing.

As they read, proficient or capable readers will ask questions of the text.  They will make mental pictures (visualization) of what is happening.  They infer meaning based on their own background knowledge (schema).  They critique the text by making predictions of what will happen next.  In the end, they can summarize orally, then eventually on paper, what the main points of a particular reading.  Becoming a proficient reader does not mean a student needs to be able to name each strategy they are using.  A proficient reader just knows they can do, and does different things to help themselves understand.

In the classroom, a teacher models how something is done, does shared demonstrations, a guided practice and leads her students to independence.  When a teacher models a strategy she will actually do it AND think out loud.  This shows her students how it helps her to think as she is reading.  Shared demonstrations are initiated by the teacher.  She may say, "Let's read this together, and share what it makes us think about." In other words, she does the thinking with the students.  During guided practice, the students are allowed to practice the strategies on their own while the teacher takes mental or physical notes.  She can still guide the students if they need assistance.  Independence happens when the students initiate the strategies on their own.  The teacher is in the background just waiting and watching her students.  The action she may take at this stage will be encouragement.  She will  reinforce what was done correctly, and or effortlessly by pointing out the students strengths.  Students are also encouraged to talk about how different strategies help them to understand what it is they are reading.

The goal of our schools is not really to teach students how to parrot back answers they think teachers are wanting to hear.  Fact recalling is boring.  Instead, the goal of our schools needs to be to teach our students how to have original thoughts about what they read.  Original thinkers make better problem solvers.  Teachers grow smarter students when they help them make meaning of all they encounter at school.  Smarter students grow up to be smarter citizens.

~ltk