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Post and update to your research study and also answer the following questions:
What does playful learning look and feel like in your classroom?
To produce the conditions for playful learning, what is one thing that you tried (and tried again)? How did it go? What did you learn?
This month I created a game using the words for unit 1 where the students took turns rolling a die and identifying nouns, verbs, and adjectives. This game can be played using the words from any of the units. Here is a link to the game.
Here are two students playing the game. What I really liked about it is that some words could be used as both a noun and a verb so when a students chose a word that could be both they had tell their partner how they were using it and demonstrate by using the word in a sentence. Their partner had to agree or disagree. The conversations that I witnessed were rich. Students would remind themselves what a noun, verb, or adjective was and then they had to come up with a way to use it correctly in a sentence. I'm hopeful this kind of play will result in them being better writers.
Playful learning in my classroom looks like students engaging in an activity, either in partnerships, groups, or individually, where they are invested in what they are doing, where there are meaningful conversations being had, and where students genuinely seem to be enjoying themselves all while growing their learning. Playful learning feels fun. It feels like a natural next step in growing ones' learning. It is what students want more of, a feeling of excitement about learning that has a goal but not necessarily an end. It feels like play.
In this particular game, to produce the conditions for playful learning, I wasn't sure how I was going to have the students demonstrate that they knew a given word could be more than one part of speech and how I was going to have them demonstrate that. Initially, I was going to have them write the part of speech and then write a sentence using the word accordingly. What I discovered is that students didn't need to do this. The conversations they were having with one another, working together, trying to figure out which words could be more than one part of speech and then trying to use that word in a sentence correctly were all they needed. (Sometimes they needed to change the tense in order to make it work, but they did it.) I learned that students were truly invested in the "game" and were holding each other accountable in a positive, learning together sort of way. I didn't need to implement the writing piece because they were learning together in a plaful way.
Peer Comments:
Wow, Sarah! Creating a game for grammar is an amazing idea. At times the grammar can feel a bit dry, but this brings joys into the task. I loved reading about how invested the students were and had such a positive experience! Well done! :)
-Amy
Sarah! Play is more than evident in these examples. I like how it holds your students accountable for discussing the parts of speech and matching it to examples. I look forward to hearing about how it goes with the transfer to their independent writing.
Jaime
Sarah- You took a not so exciting subject like grammar and made it fun! I love this idea.- Joann
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