Monday, February 4, 2008
Engaging Minds Chapter 5 Discussion Question
In chapter 5 of "Engaging Minds," the author states that "a vital quality of all living forms is play and, conversely, a likely indicator of an inert (or dead or equilibrated) form is lack of play" (p.84). What are some strategies for encouraging meaningful and purposeful play within a classroom?What is the importance of this?
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5 comments:
In response to the question posed, I believe that play is significant because it allows children to hypothesize, ability to chance from one situation to another, allows children to make sense of their world, and aids in identity formation, and self discovery. Some strategies for encouraging play in the classroom would be to incorporate play into children’s learning, so that they are able to use self discovery to make sense of new learning material. I believe that it is also very important to facilitate play either through personal encouragement as well incorporate play into the children’s everyday lives, and provide a safe place that play can occur.
The importance of play is that it will strengthen their creative and individual focus, and independence. It is also important because it integrates them socially with their peers, and allows them to deal with social conflicts, and come up with resolutions like negotiation. It is also vital for their personal development of narrative dialogue. Overall, play is an imperative element of a child’s social, cognitive and physical development.
In response to Leah’s chapter 5 question, I believe play is important in a child’s life because it can take place anywhere. The ability to transform defines play. I believe play is a way of entering the world of choice. Play is probably the most fertile development of the child’s mind through problem solving, social interaction, self discovery, and role playing. Children are developing many skills during play such as: a natural, rich way of creating meaning; play strengths focus and encourages the children to use his/her own resources. I completely agree with Kendahl’s comment for encouraging play in the classroom, the incorporations of play into the children’s learning in order for them to be able to use self discovery to make sense of new learning material.
In regards to Leah's question, Kendahl and Nicole have provided great explinations of why play is so critical in child development. Even though some people might think that play is a waste of time, I feel that it is extrememly important for children to play. Children gain knowledge and develop skills through play, which are useful in their everyday lives. Play is a learning tool that involves all three learning domains (cognitive, social and physical). As teachers, I think that if is important for us to encourage play within the classroom so that students can learn the skills and information that can be gained through play.
My cousin works as a speech pathologist with young children who are not able to speak. I found this funny video for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27-55h930gg
It introduces the idea of stages of play. I would like to learn more about these theories of development and explore their applications in the classroom. I found that British Columbia once had a program for children with moderate to severe learning disabilities called, "Play to Learn", which had pre-service and new teachers providing play therapy to help children gain basic life skills. However, I agree that play has applications in not only the primary classroom, but in any educational situation. Play is a mind-set which focuses on the processes of learning, rather than the products. I think that the most important thing to remember about play is that it is social and physical. In chapter 8 of Engaging Minds, there is a short discussion about how mass-printing contributed towards the value of silent reading. The argument presented is that silent reading requires the reader to draw on his or her repetoire of sensory and perceptive experiences, as a well as a variety of self-monitoring tasks, such that it is actually far more physical and vocal than we suppose. Likewise, I suppose that older students and adults often participate in types of play that are not easily recognizable as such because the individual is not discernably interacting with a present "other" in the process. Nevertheless, play does occur. Play is another name for what information-processing theory calls the exercise of lateral thinking. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjSjZOjNIJg&feature=related)
In response to the question that Leah posted. I believe that the best way to include play in a classroom (of students at any age from K - 8) is to incorporate drama activities. The story drama's that Carole Miller is teaching us is one way that I would add play to a classroom. With older students I would use drama in language arts and have students create final projects to do with literature where they select a character from a book they are reading and write a journal entry from that character's perspective. I might use that same idea and have students take on the attitutdes of that character for a whole week and act as that character at home and at school. There are many ways to incorporate play in the higher grades as well as lower grades. Another assignment that pops into mind was the "parenting assignment" that I did in grade 7. We were to take a hardcooked egg and draw a little face on it. The students then became the parent of this egg - they were to take it with them everywhere and make sure it didn't break. At the end of the week we had to write an assignment about how many times we forgot the egg, and what was difficult about having it around. The assignment gave me an understanding of some (basic) concerns that parents have. Having to remember that one extra thing, and not be so egocentric was something that I benefitted from. Play can be used in all subjects at all levels of school and it is definately a great way to get students engaged in an activity!
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