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Before this session, Read or listen to the podcast for Playful Learning Practices, Strategies, and Tools
Ch. 4 - How can educators support playful learning in the classroom?
A Picture of Practice of your choice
Optional: Ch. 2 (research on animals and human) and Ch. 3 (cross-cultural research)
Chapter 4 was one of my favorites so far. I am trying so hard to make my all of my decisions with my specific students that I am teaching this year in mind. This means a great deal of rewriting of curriculum and providing a ton of academic choice. As I explore Academic Choice in ELA in my room this year I have really been involving learners in decision-making about what choices they have as well as how they will accomplish their tasks. A great deal of the growth I have seen from the kids is based on all of the reflecting that they have been doing on both their own work and that of their peers. I love in chapter 4 when it says, "Understanding the strengths, knowledge, and interests students bring to the classroom also empowers them to lead their own learning because they are more likely to play an active role in the process. It can be helpful to think of these qualities as funds of knowledge that learners can contribute to the learning community." After Meeting with Sue and Yvonne to discuss my lesson and the Studios I was planning on using, it occurred to us that my students were already including some of their own studios so why not let them create their own menus?
This is an example of some of the ideas my students came up with to show the theme in their paired texts.
Ultimately, this is the Choice Board we agreed upon for this lesson on theme.
I was so impressed that so many students came up with their own variations and new ideas as they worked. It reminded me of our first class when we all had materials and started to play. We all ended up somewhere totally different than where we had started. This is my favorite part of studios, the fact that students feel free to really push the boundaries and make their learning their own.
This chapter really shows that I need to work on modeling and encouraging more "imaginative thinking". The next step for me is going to add role-play and pretend scenarios to our studios and have students act things out. I also love using Tableaus.
I also want to think more about my purpose for having the students write reflections. On page 70 it says, "What kind- and whose- learning do you want to support by asking students to reflect?" In class I have been using a See, Think, Wonder Routine for the students to reflect and provide feedback to one another and this has been really great. I am trying to figure out a more exciting way for the kids to reflect on their own work. I also hadn't really considered if I was intentionally asking for feedback on the process and how they felt about it (yes( or how it enhanced or added to their learning (no). Today I asked them a few simple questions that really led to some deeper thinking about themselves and how they learn best.
Did you push yourself outside of your comfort zone in this Studio?
How was this playing to learn?
What was your conversation with peers about? How did it feel having these talks?
How did Choice play a role in this assignment?
What can I do to keep the learning exciting for all of you?
The Reflections they wrote this time were definitely more insightful, but they still need work on recognizing their own successes and areas for growth.
In an effort to digitize some of this I have been working with Chris Casal on the Google Slides below. We will eventually include copies of studio assignments, examples as well as reflections and images so that furture students can learn from these as well.
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