Prioritizing Play

PDFs for Workshop

Sonya – Play

 

MetaRubric-Cards

2018-scratch-game-design-teacher-guide

Pedagogical documentation

Mirror and Light

Learning Through Play

Learning Through Play – Neuroscience

Next week, I will be leading two extended sessions on Prioritizing Play.  Now, I am no expert on Play but I am an educator and a mom and I want to think more deeply about how play is the work of childhood (to quote Jean Piaget) or, as Mr. Rogers elaborated: “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning.”

In preparation for Learning2 at the American School in Japan, I have been collating resources/links/posts about play.  I am sharing them below in the hopes of inspiring those dabbling with play, to delve deeper into all it has to offer us as learners, parents, and educators.

The Image Of The Child

I will be starting the Extended Sessions and this blog post in the same way: asking the participants and the readers to consider: Who is the child? For more on what that means, read this post, or take a moment to reflect on your image of the child – the person in your classroom, the person you will interact with in your lesson. What is your image of them – because it will influence everything about how you engage with them.

Resources on Play

These will be updated over the next week and following the sessions. If you have suggestions for material, please link below or send me links! 

Peter Gray Ph.D

• The Rules of Play – this one is amazing!
• Free Play Is Essential For Normal Emotional Development
• Children Teach Themselves To Read
• Risky Play – Why Children Love It And Need It
• A Playful Path And DeKoven’s Advice For Getting Back On It

Teacher Tom

Teacher Tom has a great blog and is a teacher who embodies play in all that he does, in his own words:

“Play is a pure good and should not need to be defended, but I also know we live in a real world where  policy-makers still consider play a mere relief from serious work rather than a core aspect of the real work of being human.”

-Teacher Tom

• Why Are We Afraid To Just Let Children Play?
• Teaching Our Kids To Hate Reading
• A Good STEM Education is a Play-Based One
• Stupid Questions (a favorite! Read before ‘documenting’ anything you observe!)

The Genius of Play

• 6 Benefits of Play
• Play Facts
• Play Talk: Experts on education, childhood, and play share the latest information and research about the importance of play, childhood development, and tips you can use.

NZ Education Review

• Play misunderstood: the divide between primary classroom
• Play-based Learning: producing critical, creative, and innovative thinkers

Creativity and Curiosity and Resilience

• How Free Play Can Define Kids’ Success – A list of the 7 C’s of Resilience
• En-Courage-Ment by Will Richardson – How do we ‘put courage in’?
• The Benefits of Cultivating Curiosity In Kids
• Students Need To Practice Creativity – ISTE Blog Post (summarized in graphic below)

Play Frameworks

• The Play Cycle
• Characteristics of Playful Experiences – Lego Foundation
• Principles of Play – Linda Liukas (Creator of Hello Ruby!)
• Principles of Play – Teaching Children in the Age of Computers
• Meeting Children Where They Are

Linda Liukas – Principles of Play from Nation Conferences on Vimeo.

Benefits of Play

• Five Proven Benefits of Play – NPR
• Effects on the Learning Brain (Parenting Science Blog)
• Social Emotional Development and Play
• Play: Our Democracy Depends on It – NYT
• Forget Flashcards! Play With Sticks! -How Children Learn
• Power of Play – American Association of Pediatrics (Study)
• Does Your Teaching Lead to Deep Understanding – Making learning visible (image below)

Documentation

“Documentation is not about finding answers, but generating questions.” (Filippini in Turner & Wilson, 2010, p. 9)

• Documentation as an act of Love
• Five Evidence Gathering Routines
• Why Documenting Learning Matters
• Simplifying Documentation
• Dipsticks to Check for Understanding
• 21 Ways to Construct Knowledge – Go beyond the worksheet!
• Research Skill Development Framework for educators to facilitate the explicit, coherent, incremental and cyclic development of the skills associated with researching, problem solving, critical thinking and clinical reasoning.
• IDEO Lifeline Cards – prompts for critical thinking
• IDEO Method Cards
• BC Curriculum Draft Creative Thinking Competency Profiles (continuum)
• Making Learning Visible Through Pedagogical Documentation
• Documentation Tools for Makers – MakerEd
• A Network Vision for Sharing and Documenting – MakerEd
• Open Portfolios: Journey Map – MakerEd
• Self-Assessment Protocol
• documentation-okenwright

Playgrounds and Libraries

• A Place to Just Play (Part 1) and (Part 2)
• No Child Left Inside
• Get Kids Outside To Play!
• Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play
• PlayGround Rules to Break for Greater Play Skill Development from the website Kids Play Space by Anna, an OT from Melbourne, Australia and an advocate for play. So much information on this website!
• Play:Ground NYC  (see video below – link to website)

Loose Parts

• Using Loose Parts to Create Cultural Sustainable Environments – Webinar Recording
• Frobel’s Gifts – the first “toys” of the Kindergarten movement

LEGO

• Why Play?
• Children Should Learn Mainly Through Play Until Age 8 – The Guardian
• What We Mean By: Learning Through Play
• Six Bricks
• Learning Through Play: A Review of the Evidence
• Neuroscience and Learning Through Play
• The Role of Play In Child Development
• The Future of Play
• Play, Learning, and Narrative Skills
• Lego Videos (A-Maze-Ing!)

Lifelong Kindergarten

• The Clubhouse Network – an initiative in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab

 

Play In The Early Years

• Play In the Early Years
• Thinking About Play
• Too early too soon

Play and High School

• How To Bring Playfulness to High School Students
• The Institute of Inquiry offers workshops and online curriculum ideas for teachers to incorporate inquiry into their science classrooms.
• The Inquiry Approach to Learning Science
• Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education has some examples of how high school teachers have integrated arts into their lessons.
• The Institute of Play offers professional development for teachers.
• Shark Tank Mission Pack: example of a ninth-grade math mission at Quest to Learn, where students develop business plans and pitch them to potential investors.
• Self on the Stand: example of a ninth-grade language arts mission at Quest to Learn, where students contribute to TeenInk magazine’s Discovering Identity series.
• Student-directed Learning via Jackie Gerstein’s blog User-Generated Education.

Playfulness

• Gears of My Childhood – Seymour Papert
• Promoting Healthy Relationship (Parent/Child) Through Play
• Duct Tape Network

I adore this and think @davecaleb @terSonya @paulabaxter67 will too https://t.co/Y9ZkgXuliU

— Tricia Friedman (@FriedEnglish101) October 20, 2018

Innovation Playlist

When you are ready to take the leap to innovate or change at your school and you want a guide to help you, look no further than the Innovation Playlist by Ted Dintersmith. The Innovation Playlist can help your school make positive, informed change. It hosts a WEALTH of information organized into “Albums” and “Tracks” that will guide your thinking about innovation.

Ideas Worth Sharing

Here are some of my favorite TED talks related to all things playful: