The Possibilities Of Play In The Classroom

This book reveals the nature, possibilities, and power of aesthetic play in teaching, learning, and researching at a middle school (Creative Arts Centre, Milton Williams School, Calgary, Alberta, Canada), which chooses to value the creating process across the entire school curriculum. Questions surface recursively throughout the book: What does it mean for teachers and students to experience and learn aesthetically? How is the aesthetic embodied in teachers' discourses and discursive patterns as well as in students' approaches to learning and in their work? What are the effects of learning through integration of the aesthetic into the school curriculum as a whole? The artistic form of collage acts as a literary device to address these questions from multiple perspectives.

Thoughtfully created learning centers are bubbling with opportunities for active learning. Dr. Jean, beloved author of dozens of books and songs, and coauthor Carolyn Kisloski bring you a collection of practical ideas and tips to inspire engagment and spark learning in your classroom centers--and, importantly, keep children coming back for more. Children learn best through play. Discover how you can help them thrive in your learning centers. The Possibilities of Play brings expert tips for selecting and managing materials, facilitating explorations, and challenging children to: explore on their own time and at their own level, engage in hands-on discovery, solve problems and use critical-thinking skills, practice emerging skills across domains, share and get along with others, develop language, and realize their own sense of creativity.

Playing with Possibilities sits at the heart of all creative endeavours. This collection brings together a multidisciplinary group of thinkers and writers to explore the potential of play to shape and reshape who we are and the worlds in which we live. It offers a series of encounters with playful possibilities, and asks us to question, consider and ultimately celebrate the importance of fanciful approaches to living. This book is a companion to The Possibilities of Creativity (2016).

This book is based on the findings of a research project into Reception Teachers' Theories of Play funded by the Economic & Social Research Council. There is strong ideological and theoretical support for a play-based curriculum in the early years. But evidence suggests that teachers find this difficult to translate into practice. The educational potential of play is not realized. This study focuses on nine reception class teachers, ranging from novices to experts, in order to discover their theories of play and how these relate to classroom practice. The data reveal new insights into how they strive to incorporate play into the curriculum in contrasting ways and the constraints they encounter in this process. There is a need to improve the quality of teaching and learning through play. Teaching Through Play makes a valuable contribution to this process.

Play is serious business. Whether it's reenacting a favorite book (comprehension and close reading), negotiating the rules for a game (speaking and listening), or collaborating over building blocks (college and career readiness and STEM), Kristi Mraz, Alison Porcelli, and Cheryl Tyler see every day how play helps students reach standards and goals in ways that in-their-seat instruction alone can't do. And not just during playtimes. "We believe there is play in work and work in play," they write. "It helps to have practical ways to carry that mindset into all aspects of the curriculum." In Purposeful Play, they share ways to: optimize and balance different types of play to deepen regular classroom learning teach into play to foster social-emotional skills and a growth mindset bring the impact of play into all your lessons across the day. "We believe that play is one type of environment where children can be rigorous in their learning," Kristi, Alison, and Cheryl write. So they provide a host of lessons, suggestions for classroom setups, helpful tools and charts, curriculum connections, teaching points, and teaching language to help you foster mature play that makes every moment in your classroom instructional. Play doesn't only happen when work is over. Children show us time and time again that play is the way they work. In Purposeful Play, you'll find research-driven methods for making play an engine for rigorous learning in your classroom.

"Excerpts from The absorbent mind ... translated from the Italian by Claude A. Claremont"--T.p. verso.

The Agency by Design guide to implementing maker-centered teaching and learning Maker-Centered Learning provides both a theoretical framework and practical resources for the educators, curriculum developers, librarians, administrators, and parents navigating this burgeoning field. Written by the expert team from the Agency by Design initiative at Harvard's Project Zero, this book Identifies a set of educational practices and ideas that define maker-centered learning, and introduces the focal concepts of maker empowerment and sensitivity to design. Shares cutting edge research that provides evidence of the benefits of maker-centered learning for students and education as a whole. Presents a clear Project Zero-based framework for maker-centered teaching and learning Includes valuable educator resources that can be applied in a variety of design and maker-centered learning environments Describes unique thinking routines that foster the primary maker capacities of looking closely, exploring complexity, and finding opportunity. A surge of voices from government, industry, and education have argued that, in order to equip the next generation for life and work in the decades ahead, it is vital to support maker-centered learning in various educational environments. Maker-Centered Learning provides insight into what that means, and offers tools and knowledge that can be applied anywhere that learning takes place.

Now in its third edition, this classic text remains the seminal resource for in-depth information about major concepts and principles of the cultural-historical theory developed by Lev Vygotsky, his students, and colleagues, as well as three generations of neo-Vygotskian scholars in Russia and the West. Featuring two new chapters on brain development and scaffolding in the zone of proximal development, as well as additional content on technology, dual language learners, and students with disabilities, this new edition provides the latest research evidence supporting the basics of the cultural-historical approach alongside Vygotskian-based practical implications. With concrete explanations and strategies on how to scaffold young children’s learning and development, this book is essential reading for students of early childhood theory and development.