Inquiry Question:
How can I incorporate play into lessons while building language and literacy skills?
My Philosophy:
Learning should be engaging and fun.
Research Says:
I read several articles, and have taken out meaningful quotes that sum up some of the articles’ main points.
“They (ELLs) want to read, but they feel frustrated and too often just want to give up. There are many underlying reasons why a child struggles to read, and these obstacles are heightened with at-risk and ELL learners. There are many factors that may negatively influence their ability to read but the bottom line is they need to overcome these obstacles in order to acquire the basic language skills that are needed to begin to read. I’ve noticed these obstacles are the reasons many at-risk students become distrustful towards teachers, which further compounds the problem. We as teachers must find ways to gain their trust before we can engage in teaching.”
“As linguist Dorothy Donat (2006) explained, “literacy acquisition is the foundation of all learning. It opens the door of understanding in all content areas, and the ability to read proficiently leads to lifelong learning and pleasure””
“Play is considered necessary for healthy mental, physical, and social development; play activities are meaningful and relevant to children, and simply providing the opportunity for healthy play appears sufficient to ensure that young children will involve themselves” (p. 81).”
“Lessons that engage the students and keep their interest level high greatly increase the learning success of the student.”
“When students are reading “guided readers”, I often hear the same comments: “I don’t know how to read”, “I can’t read,” or “I don’t want to read. It is discouraging for the students, but they do not know how to begin, and thus, there is a natural tendency to not try. This frustration hinders the learning process as the student reacts negatively towards learning and engaging with the text. When playing language-focused games that either introduce or support new vocabulary, these excuses fall by the wayside and children focus instead their efforts on playing the game.”
This article gave a thorough description about the importance of playing games in classrooms with ELLs who are learning to read. It described the benefits of play in child development, and offered a detailed description of several different games that the author created for her students. All of the games described are intended to be easy to play, easy to set up for teachers, and there are different modifications that can be made to each game so teachers can adjust games as needed.
https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/trtr.1192
By integrating movement and gesture with vocabulary lessons, plot discussions, and dialogue, teachers facilitate the development of students’ semantic and conceptual knowledge, as well as narrative discourse. Additionally, the timing and structure inherent in drama and dance may help students’ syntactic understanding; rhythm is a predictor of future reading abilities (Huss, Verney, Fosker, Mead, & Goswami, 2011).
Children possess a sense of dramatic narrative they can put to use in classroom arts lessons by acting out stories or discussing plot, character, and themes. This is especially valuable for ELs as it allows them to inject their own cultural understanding into the story, using other modes of communication to take part in a meaningful dialogue despite a limited English vocabulary.
This article describes how dramatic arts can be used in classrooms to engage ELLs in literacy development. Through acting out stories, dancing, listen to stories read aloud and getting actively involved with movement, arts and drama, children are better able to understand the meaning of a story, despite their language barriers. By including drama in their classrooms, students who usually do not participate learned to show their teachers their understanding rather than by telling their teachers what they understood.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1050663
“Teachers reported that many passive and introverted children found the courage to express themselves during the arts lessons—and afterwards. A teacher commented: “I think engagement is the biggest thing [i.e., benefit of the arts program], because even the shy ones can become engaged.” The effect on shy students was a consistent theme:
- I was surprised that my quiet ones came so alive.
- It boosted the kids’ self- esteem and gave them new experiences to talk about.
- Everyone seemed to be on a more equal footing … There was just confidence. I didn’t see people hanging back, not in drama or dance.
- I think it changed a lot of them in that they felt more comfortable around each other.”
This article described a group of title 1 schools with a large ELL population that began integrating arts into their curriculum. Research shows that student participation in classes increased. Many teachers explained that by allowing silliness within dramatic lessons, students built a stronger sense of community and during group activities they were more productive.
One of the major lessons for the schools involved was in noticing how strongly the arts program improved attendance rates, and increased student engagement.
To sum up my articles:
Overall, the articles are all discussing different ways to build literacy through play. Two articles focus on drama and the arts to build language skills and literacy, and the other article focuses on games to build literacy skills. I would like to implement both within my classes more so that students can play and have a creative outlet while building language skills.
Important Context to Know:
As a first-year teacher of ELLs, I knew the year would be difficult, but I was somewhat surprised to realize my biggest struggle would be with my smallest group of students. From 12:00-12:30 each day I take a group of four students to my room for a reading group. Two students in this group are entering ELLs without any foundational literacy education. The two other students are expanding ELLs with literacy education, (AIS support) but for whatever reason, the literacy lessons are not quite resonating with the children. While one child is making forward strides in his learning, the other child still struggles to consistently identify letters and letter sounds.
When I tried to read a “level A” reader, the group lost focus and I struggled to manage my four students. In all honesty, I can’t blame them for their lack of interest in books that repeat the phrase, “I can see…”.
After speaking with their classroom teacher, I learned that prior to coming to my classroom the students have been stuck sitting at their desks working, and listening to instruction for over an hour. I realize that in first grade, that is really hard.
I want my students to be engaged, to enjoy school, and I really want them to want to read. I also realize that for my entering ELLs, it is silly to try tapping out new words when you have no idea what the “words” you are saying mean. I decided to try to implement play strategies that also help develop ELLs vocabulary, and I began with basic CVC words. Our first game was a matching/memory game, where students had to find matches to cards which included “cat” on one card and a picture of a cat with the word “cat” beneath it on another. Students enjoyed playing this game, and were practicing reading while playing. When a student got a match, they had to write the word they earned under their name on the white board. By the end of class, students were all smiling, I was feeling like an effective teacher, and students were getting lots of practice reading, writing, and saying words. At the same time, my beginner ELLs were learning new vocabulary words.
I believed that play might be my solution to classroom management and language and literacy acquisition for my four squirmy and very noisy little students.
What I Tried:
Thinking about the term “play” as something that children and adults take part in, I tried to diversify the forms of “play” within my lessons. We played by drawing and creating, we played by making recipes, and writing about our favorite recipes, we played by singing and dancing, and we played by simply PLAYING games.
Pictionary: One of my favorite games we played was a very easy to explain and fun to manage game of Pictionary. Students were given word lists with pictures so they could reference the correct spelling of each word, and they were given mini white boards. When a child was called up to draw, they had to choose a random word from the jar (if the child was an advanced reader in the group I would cover the image and ask them to read the word, and for my entering students, they could look at the picture and whisper the word to me, or I would whisper to them if needed.) Then they would draw the picture. As the one student drew the picture, other children would write the word they believed their classmate was making on their whiteboards. Once everyone was done writing, the artist had to determine who was correct and who was not by reading their words. Students really enjoyed this game, and it warmed my heart to see a student who usually struggles in school when he won a round. He raised both arms in the air in a feat of triumph and got out of his chair to double high five the girl next to him. I’m not a scientist, but I am pretty sure that round of Pictionary boosted his self-esteem.
Recipes: While reading was much more challenging during our baking day, students were thrilled when they got to eat their sweet treats at the end. I prepared a recipe, which included lots of visuals beneath words in order to assist students in their reading. I asked my strongest reader to start reading the recipe and he told me, “I can’t read.” Luckily, I was able to answer, “Well if you don’t try reading, we can’t make our recipe and we will never get to eat cookies and candy.” He quickly realized what was at stake, and attempted to sound out words, which he was able to read beautifully! At the end of his sentence, he had a proud smile on his face and we followed his directions to crush three Oreos in a bag. Each child took a turn reading, and following the direction. Once the recipe was started, it worked out nicely because each child was able to follow whatever directive they read, which kept them busy and content while I read one on one with another student. I did not intend for that to happen, but it worked out great. My expanding students left class with more practice reading, and they learned the term recipe and ingredients which they did not know prior to our lesson.
Family Cookbook: Before Thanksgiving, we were discussing family recipes, and many students, even in the expanding and commanding ELL groups, did not know what a recipe was referring to, so we decided to create our own classroom cook books. Students brought in their favorite family recipes from home, and we worked together to create a classroom cook book. Students had to list all the ingredients, and then they described the directions for making the recipe. Students were happily engaged the entire time, and they were happy to explain why they love their recipes so much. It was a great way to not only engage students in their writing, but it also allowed me to connect with the parents in a new way during parent conferences.
Songs: Students in my first grade entering group LOVE songs. We sing a phonics alphabet song which they are thrilled by each time we play it, so I decided to introduce them to the wonderful tune… “head, shoulders, knees and toes”. It was an immediate hit, and they danced their hearts away. After practicing the song several times, and practicing different body part activities, I randomly asked my students, “Where are your eyes/ears/nose/mouth?” All my students were able to correctly identify these parts of their body. Clearly their vocabulary was growing.
Guiding Drawings: Students participated in guided drawings, and were given several different sticker choices to decorate their creations. Through listening and following directions, and through selecting their favorite stickers, students were practicing saying new words and gained a lot of exposure to different prepositions, which are often challenging.
Miniatures: I have a miniature Gazebo with several miniature items from when I was young. I have never gotten rid of these things because they seem like they could be put to use in a classroom at some point. I realized this teaching position is the perfect place for my miniature gazebo. After reading a few books to describe the idea of Thanksgiving to my new students, I had the students set up the inside of the gazebo with all the furniture pieces and items that someone would need for Thanksgiving. Students took turns going around in a circle and choosing their favorite items from the mess of miniatures to prepare the gazebo for thanksgiving. They used the sentence stem: “They need a _______” and filled in the item they selected. This particular lesson was interesting because a newer student, who was beginning to get sick and is not enjoying his school experience so far, was sobbing hysterically the entire lesson prior to this activity. Once we began our lesson, he calmed down enough to participate and eventually stopped crying.
Letter Bingo/Sight Word Bingo: Playing sight word bingo or letter bingo was a really great game. Children were excited to be playing a game, and at the same time they practiced writing their letters/sight words, and they had to practice listening to the teacher call out sight words or letters, and reading their own board. It was a very easy game to prepare, and children loved it. Another way that letter bingo could be played was by having the teacher only say the sound of the letter. While playing sight word bingo I had my larger group divide into two groups. One group needed more supports, so they were able to see the words I called and match them to their board, while the more advanced group sat further away and had to rely more on their reading and listening skills.
These games were easy to differentiate and really fun for students to play and practice their language skills.
What I learned:
- My life is easier when students are engaged and wanting to participate in lessons.
- I learned that one student, who struggles in nearly all areas academically, is a very talented little artist.
- I witness play calm down a child to the point where he was smiling and participating, when minutes before he had nearly puked on my table due to crying so hard.
- I learned that song and dance helped my students memorize names of body parts.
- I saw students celebrate teamwork and success through high fives and smiles.
- I saw stress levels decrease.
- I witnessed learning becoming easier.
- I connected with families while reading about their children’s favorite family recipes.
- I learned that one student who struggles to communicate in any language LOVES dogs.
- I learned that my initial thoughts about the importance of play were correct, but I also unexpectedly learned that through introducing play I learned a lot about my students lives that I would otherwise not have known, which was a very happy bonus.
Conclusion:
Overall, I still think it’s really hard to teach, and I think it can be hard to defend your practice, especially when what you are doing looks a little different than what others are practicing. Then again, I think about what my students are up against. At six years old they’ve been the tiny tagalongs as their families voyage to a new country, with a completely new language, new culture, and for many, they are tackling this challenge without their whole family by their side. On top of that, I am sure they recognize that other students are academically ahead of them, and I am sure it is exhausting to listen to a foreign language all day, every day.
While I am not able to use play in my lessons every single day, I am trying to make my lessons as meaningful and engaging as I can. Throughout this work, I have seen the benefits for my students, and I look forward to learning new songs, dances, and games to implement in my classroom in the future.
Citations:
https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/trtr.1192
ECLInstitute - HVWP 2019-2020 