Next week please see if you can find some old magazines to bring to class.
**Reminder** Research papers are due next Monday, July 11 before class. Please e-mail me your paper unless you prefer to have a hard copy.
Enjoy the weekend!
Thursday, July 7, 2011
After Class Seven
Next week please see if you can find some old magazines to bring to class.
**Reminder** Research papers are due next Monday, July 11 before class. Please e-mail me your paper unless you prefer to have a hard copy.
Enjoy the weekend!
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“I really enjoyed the reading on problem solving this week. Learning the steps involved in working out a problem is a skill that people use through their whole life. I think that it’s also important to teach children how to problem solve with a partner or group. Sometimes people find this more difficult because there is too much input and people can’t agree on how the issue should be resolved, but other times it is really useful for basically the same reason… there are many ideas to work from and build on. In a grade two classroom that I was in I saw a poster board that had steps for resolving social issues or problems, so I a couple of kids came in from recess and had had a disagreement or some other issue they were told to go over to the poster and figure out a solution. The teacher would listen to them and watch them out of the corner of her eye, then would talk with them afterward about how they solved the problem. I thought this was a pretty good way of getting kids to start working out small issues on their own.
ReplyDeleteMaking the paper bag puppets was hilarious! It’s such a great idea to bring the different kinds of arts together. The Reader’s Theater combines reading with the visual arts and drama. Children are able to be creative and imaginative by using different voices for the puppets, adding in some of their own words, building a set, extending the story, making their own script, etc. If children are not comfortable with reading aloud on their own they should get some credit for participating in other aspects of the reader’s theater final presentation, or they can also maybe have a reading role in which they read along with another student or several other students. Reader’s theater is great for building comprehension and fluency because of the rereading/practicing aspect.”
Thinking about teaching the Intermediate grades, there are also many useful purposes I can see incorporating Reader’s Theatre into my future classroom. In a practical sense, Reader’s Theatre is relatively simple to prepare for, is an enjoyable activity, and helps develop students’ reading fluency and oral language skills. In addition, Reader’s Theatre would be a useful presentation to make for parents at open house events or for assemblies. It allows students to work on their oral presentation of language (such as voice volume, expression, eye contact) in a less intimidating mode (compared with, for example, a speech). Doing a few Reader’s Theatres at the beginning of the school year will provide me with an assessment opportunity on my students’ oral language and presentation skills, as well as give me insight into how students work independently in small groups. They also develop students listening skills, and provide an environment to discuss how to be a respectful audience member. These procedures can transfer into how students are expected to listen to each other, the teacher, and guests within the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThis week’s class was a lot of fun. I found that creating the puppets ourselves was a great way to start the creative juices flowing, and it also allowed us to make the stories more personal and entertaining. The way that everyone came out and tried different voices, and just really got into the stories, was very fun to see, and I loved the whole experience. Hearing some of the stories that I knew as a child but had nearly forgotten was another perk of the class. I think that as a child, the meaning of Stone Soup was rather lost on me, but I found it funny while I was listening to it (and watching it acted out) the other day. This seems like a great way to combine Art with Language Arts, and with the right choice of stories, it can offer great teachable moments as well. If we use stories with morals in them as a starting off point, once each story is acted out, a class discussion can be had about the characters and the lessons learned.
ReplyDeletePart of the discussion that I was particularly drawn to last class was the discussion around the use of pretend guns in schools. I am torn on this issue because on one hand I believe that if we allow children to turn regular objects into pretend guns, it allows the children to use imagination (which I find very important), and it also, as someone said in class, provides teachers with the opportunity to discuss imagination versus reality. I think that it is important that children learn the reality of the dangers of guns from an early age, especially with all of the videogames these days. On the other hand, some children will not always separate imagination from reality and the fact that they use “guns” in play, shows that they find guns to be “cool” and merely toys. The danger in this lies in the fact that if they were to ever find a real gun, they may see it as a toy as well and we all know the devastating effects that that could have. There have been too many cases of incidents just like that already, and it is always tragic.
In my classroom experience in my practicum I used play on a daily basis for my students to explore various ideas in order to express their ideas. Play can be integrated into any lesson and can be used for a short or long time period. Giving students choices and facilitating the process of play is effective in providing valuable play experiences. Dramatic play offers children a forum for cognitive development as it helps them create a mental picture of schema of events. This fosters creativity and the use of the imagination in the young learners. As educators we can facilitate play through providing materials that can be used for a variety of activities, where students can use symbolic thought to pretend a box might be a plane or a car or a house. After our lecture on various forms of play, I feel as though I have a greater appreciation for the variety that can be used. I did not use story or interpretive drama where rehearsal was necessary, however I see the value in this form of dramatic play, as this play reinforces the importance of the process and rehearsal, which in turn might promote self-control and self-regulation. I appreciate the debate that was brought forward, as this is a worry and a concern of mine. At what point do we regulate their play? I never realized that children acting as action hero’s and using weapons if used in a positive manner, can allow them a safe way to feel in charge of what they are seeing and experiencing. Possibly an open dialogue should be in place to discuss with the students why we will not enact any violent behaviour. It would be important to discuss the difference between fantasy and reality. I like the idea of enforcing guidelines in the play that the students understand and have agreed upon. Overall, in my classroom I feel that I would “allow” super hero play, however not allow the use of pretend weapons, or play where any violent activity is being enacted.
ReplyDeleteThe puppet shows were so funny! I like how by the use of the paper bag the students can create an entirely new character aside from themselves and the character in the play. As for those students that are nervous about speaking in front of others, this provides a safe barrier and distraction, ideal for helping students get out of their shell. This activity could be done with any grade depending on the difficulty level of the story. In a primary class, the activity could begin by having the teacher read out all of the stories, and then have the students read the stories to one another. After these activities, the students could then create their puppets and practice their performance before showing the class. In essence, the possibilities are endless with this activity.
I was absent last class so I will base my post off of other classmate’s comments. From my knowledge the class made paper bags and performed a skit with them. I think that this is a great activity as it allows children to use their imagination and create their own characters. In addition, students are able to be creative and perform a skit. Play and drama are a crucial aspect of education which allows children to not only be creative but also practice oral language and problem solving. Teachers can also use drama to teach certain subjects. For example, if there is a bullying issue in the class teachers can use a drama skit or puppets to teach how to problem solve.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, it seems that there was discussion about allowing children to engage in pretend violent scenes or pretend that they have a gun during play. I think that if students do engage in this type of play it presents as a great teaching opportunity. I would have a discussion about why guns are dangerous, why we should not use them, or even when they are appropriate to use in certain situations by certain professionals. I would make it very clear that it is not appropriate to play with guns or pretend to shoot people as it is a dangerous activity. I personally do not think that I would offer a pretend gun for students to play with. As a teacher you could have student’s role play how the violent scene could have been changed to make it a better situation. I am curious to see how my opinion compares to the conversation that occurred in class.
Taking a look at music and drama in the classroom:
ReplyDeleteTaking a look at music and drama in the classroom made me think about how much I take for granted that not everybody considers them important. Being introduced to the field of educational neuroscience was interesting to me, and something I’d like to look into more—it would seem that it justifies using the fine arts heavily in the classroom…I suppose I’m getting ready to defend the use of arts in the classroom!
The dramatic play with paper-bag puppets was intriguing to me; I can see how the social aspect of creating a performance would be so rich for young students. Many negotiations between students take place as they decide how to design their puppets as the decide how to use their voice, decide where to move and who-will-be-who. Having some input into each other’s performance decisions in combination with the fun and thrill of the activity would encourage community and friendship in the classroom.
The problem solving guides presented in the text book were useful. I hadn’t thought about how and where we learn to problem solve and how that learning effect how we interact socially and professionally for the rest of our lives. This week was interesting. I really liked reading Paley’s article and what she had to say about children’s stories and meaning making. I was really interested in how the children used each other’s stories to make up their own and the different ways in which I, as the educator, could facilitate that meaning making experience. The puppet shows were a lot of fun and I really enjoyed presenting with everyone. I think that this sort of dramatized presentation would help children become confident in sharing their stories with their peers. It helps children become confident speakers. Readers Theatre would also help children build skills like reading fluency, creativity, and social skills.
ReplyDeleteCreating puppet shows this week was a great way to get everybody to work together and negotiate through everything. I think this would be a great lesson to give students to get them to build their teamwork. It is great to have certain plays that have a variation of lines so that the students that are not as comfortable speaking out can chose a character that only has a few lines to speak, and the students that love speaking out can have a part that requires a lot of talking. I also liked creating the puppets for the show. This gave us a chance to create our own characters from what we read about them on the script.
ReplyDeleteThe article we read in class was very intriguing. However, I remember that I always hated reading things in class because I am a slower reader and felt bad if the class was waiting on me to finish reading. I always was rushed and did not get a chance to completely process what I was reading before discussions started. I liked that there was a lot of time given to read this article! I actually got to read it thoroughly and understand what the author was explaining. I think that it is a great idea to get the children to use dramatic plays in the classroom with guidance from the teacher.
This past week, making puppets to the different stories was quite an interesting activity. As we did it, I imagined the different ways children would enjoy this activity and all the benefits it would provide. The first part of the activity was determining who would play what roles, something that would require the use of the children’s developing social skills. Organizing all the roles, allowing each person in the group to contribute and managing disputes, are all necessary skills for the story to be successful. Then the characters can be created, as children have to imagine their characters, imagining their features, emotions/expressions and their clothes. This would require the child to reflect on their knowledge to identify emotions that would be appropriate to the characters role, as well as allowing diversity of clothing and physical features (This could provide an opportunity for discussion). Then working collaboratively in a group, to practice and make the story come together, would be the final task. This is certainly an activity that pairing younger children with older children can provide benefits to both ages. The younger children are given the guidance so that they can take part in the activity. The older children are given added responsibility and take on a leadership role to ensure that the story runs smoothly.
ReplyDeleteI think that the puppet activity transitioned nicely from the article we read. Although I wonder how a teacher could find the time among all other things in a day to allow each child to tell a story and act it out, write out the story, record the story and listen to it again later, I think it is a great activity. I think that to save some time for props, this activity would work great with children making puppets.
I enjoy giving children the opportunity to create their own stories, I have had children act out skits, but I have never tried having children act out their stories. As a start I fully intend to try using the children’s stories as a base for puppet shows. I like this as a transition to acting it out, because puppets provide a safer environment for shyer children. The decorating of the puppets also allow children to express their creativity for their character, as well as it works as an exercise to match the emotions of their character in their story, to their puppet depiction.
I thoroughly enjoyed the paper bag puppet shows. There were so many benefits to a lesson like that. the focus is no longer about presenting in front of an audience, or on proper pronounciation, or even memorizing your lines correctly. you become distracted by designing your puppet and making up character voices and even little props. You have the choice of hiding behind a table or screen, or not. You have a choice of taking a character with many lines, or few. You can hold your script in front of you. It's fun.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lesson I definitely plan on using in the future. Students don't even recognize all the benefits that come from a fun activity such as that, and I think it's great when the focus isn't on what you're learning, but on the process. It would be interesting to see paper bag puppets made to present a script about something with more information to it - I wonder if it would turn out the same way?
It was interesting to see how the different groups approached their presentation as well. Some were very active participants, with voices and props, while other chose to read the script like a story book. Some chose to show their faces, while others did not. Some ad-libbed a little, and others followed the script quite closely - there's a lot of opportunity for personal touches or personalities to come out with a project like this. And doing it in class demonstrated that it didn't need to be a long drawn out activity - it's easily completed in a day.
For the readings this past week, I was really interested in the chapter on problem-solving. It mentions how social problem-solving is important in building young children’s social competence and pro-social behaviours. As educators, we need to provide a safe environment for children so that they are encouraged to try out their ideas for problem-solving. We also need to allow enough time for children to work out their problems, find a suitable place to experiment with solutions using a variety of materials, brainstorm ideas and logical steps to problem solve as well as finding appropriate problems to solve (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). In a kindergarten classroom that I visited, the teacher facilitated problem-solving during centers. Sometimes, problems came up when the children were playing; the teacher would ask the students questions to help them solve the problem. For example, if the children were playing and were having problems sharing, the teacher would ask them what they should do if they wanted to play with a toy that one of them was playing with at the moment. The teacher would help them come up with a solution so that they could learn to solve the problem themselves if a similar situation were to happen again. I thought that this was a great way to teach students how to develop solutions and socially appropriate behaviours.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed performing the paper bag puppets skits last class. Everybody did such a great job. The skits were funny and the paper bag puppets were colourful and cute. We were all very engaged and had a good time. After the performances, I realized the importance of learning through play as it helps children to become creative, imaginative, allows them to practice different skills and understand concepts. Students in a class can work in small groups to come up with their own stories and present their own puppet shows using different voices. For students who are shy or afraid of public speaking, the puppet show gives them an opportunity to work on their presentation skills. It also helps students to act out ideas or feelings that they cannot completely verbalize. Teachers can also use puppets to tell stories to help students better understand the stories being told (for example, the morals behind the stories). When teachers are creative and imaginative in assisting students to learn through play, they help students to become creative and imaginative as well. This will help students to become successful in academics as they will have a chance to brainstorm and try out their ideas. As we have discussed in class, I feel that there is a relationship between imagination, literacy and academic success.
Glenda MacNaughton and Gillian Williams (2009). Teaching young children: Choices in theories and practice (2nd edition). Berkshire, England: Open University Press.
I really liked the puppet activity that we did last week; it was a lot of fun and really made me take another look at the activity in and of itself. In retrospect, our puppet theatre reminded me of British style pantomimes that I attended as a small child; in these plays, the actors take traditional fairytales and ‘ad-lib’ what seems like extra parts to them and then encourage the children to call out suggestions and offers to the actors. These plays are very interactive and evolve from day to day depending on the suggestions and responses of the children audience. I think that this activity (creating a puppet theatre or acting out skits) could very easily be done in a classroom and that instead of using fairytales; the teacher could have the children tell their stories, personal or created. It could be a sort of class project broken into different aspects that would help build various aspects of literacy (reading parts, writing scripts, lettering signs and props etc.) while making it a fun activity that everyone can take part in, kind of like an interactive reader’s theatre.
ReplyDeleteAs well, this sort of puppet theatre could be used as a form of problem solving and conflict resolution for some of the more intimidated or shy children in the classroom. The skits can address conflicts or concerns that are taking place in the class and perhaps by allowing the shy or intimidated child to be in a position of power (not being threatened directly or given a way to address the situation in a safe setting with a positive resolution), it allows them to be more honest without fear of repercussion, as they were just pretending what the character might do. This sort of play acting can allow the children to act out different situations and scenarios to test different outcomes before committing to a course of action. This sort of play acting can make conflict resolution into something that is not a high stress or high anxiety situation, diffusing high emotions and soothing bruised feelings.
I had just written my paper about the importance of play in the early childhood education and I think it ties in nicely with this week's reading about problem-solving and also the puppet activity because it is dramatic play. Through play, children learn to problem-solve through conflicts that they may encounter with other children during group play. In order for the children to achieve the common goal, they must work together to solve any problems. Also, through different role play scenarios, the child may be required to have to problem solve and this gives the child a sense of what they should do in reality if they ever come across a similar scenario in their everyday lives.
ReplyDeleteAllowing the children to make their own puppets and then create their own story line and present them gives the children an opportunity to use their imagination and creativity.
In this week’s reading, I really enjoyed the chapter on problem solving. The chapter talks about how problem-solving takes time and how it is important that children have enough time to think about how to solve problems as well as be able to test their solutions. As teachers, I think that we often jump the gun too soon and try to solve any conflicts students are having before they themselves are given a chance to solve the problem. I believe that learning to problem solve should start as early as kindergarten. Although their problem would be based on their social relationships with other classmates where they may have disagreements about who should get the red toy truck to play with or who should be able to play with the new baby doll. Teachers should recognize that this is a great starting point to talk about problem solving. The first step in teaching children how to problem solve is by getting the students to recognize what the problem was. Through years of volunteering and toc’ing, I’ve come to realize that when students come to ‘tattle’ on a classmate or friend when asked what the problem is a lot of them really don’t know what it is and often want to tattle first thinking that it would mean that they would not get into trouble themselves. I think that children, especially those from the younger grades, have become reliant on simply coming to an adult to solve their problems. If adults continue to solve children’s problems, I do not believe that children will be able to develop and understand the process of thinking involved with problem solving.
ReplyDeleteMaking the paper puppets to go along with our Readers Theatres was a lot of fun. Although I am not too familiar with Readers Theatre and have only seen it used a few times, what I really enjoyed and had never seen before was how it could be combined with visual arts. I would have never thought about combining the two! By combining the two, I think that it would allow for the students to be more creative by trying out different voices and by even adding sound effects to their stories. I think that students who once would have thought the whole idea of Readers Theatres to be daunting would really enjoy combining the reading with the puppets. By combining the two you are able to reach the different needs of students in your classroom, because someone may not be good at acting but is very creative in art and vice versa.
Scaffolding and empowerment are two fundamentals I utilize in my teaching. I believe that by empowering students we are giving them the opportunity to take a leadership role in their learning. When students feel they have control of their learning they tend to produce better results because they are invested in their work. The book also discusses empowerment as “transferring power from one group to another in order to create greater social justice between groups in a particular society.”(Naughton & Williams. (2009). P. 315) As I have mentioned before I am a huge fan of using “Tribes” methods in my classroom, and I feel the above quote basically sums up what tribes represent. It helps to empower children to mediate their own social environment as well as to learn who they are internally.
ReplyDeleteI believe that scaffolding is an essential component to teaching. By scaffolding learning for your students you are teaching to the needs of every student in your class. When you employ scaffolding in your lessons you are providing students multiple opportunities to interact with something that is new to them before they are expected to complete individual work. You are providing students who perhaps need extra exposure the opportunity without being singled out and students who understand right away the opportunity to share their learning with others. I really liked the example in the book about scaffolding the different types of hair on the dolls. Having taught in higher grades where dolls are not present in the classroom I thought this was a great idea.
Last class we made paper bag puppets (which I had never done before) and it was so much fun. After the lesson I walked away having a light bulb moment. I knew before that the lessons we always connected but the last class it became crystal clear how connected. I really liked the fact that we were able to choose our play and create the characters we had chosen to be. Even during practice I found myself being very involved and connected to this activity. I really enjoyed watching the rest of the classes plays they were so entertaining. It wasn’t so much the activity I learnt from but rather the methods it took us to get to that performance.
Empowering is a really important topic to me. Students need to be responsible for their own learning: they need to reflect on topics, make choices, and learn that those choices have consequences. Children should not always follow directions from the teacher, there needs to be a thinking process behind educational tasks. Overtime the students will feel more independent and capable of learning. Learning is an active engaging process, rather than passive.
ReplyDeleteCritical knowledge (page 314) is a crucial skill to teach when empowering students. Being able to question (i.e. "Is this source reliable?" "Can I learn through it?") sources and instructions is an important skill to prepare students for making informed thoughtful decisions in the future. This is a very important skill to have currently, with the media and the internet always trying to influence people to buy things and behave a certain way.
The puppets activity was fun and engaging - will definetely use that during my practicum.
I was excited to make the paper bag puppets, when I was in grade one this was my favourite activity. However, there were quite a few differences between the two activities. The first difference was that my teacher always gave us colouring sheet templates to colour, cut, and paste on to the bags. This never bothered me, until I saw how much work many people put into their projects, and how individual they were. Instead of boring cookie cutter puppets, which offered little variety and imagination, each person was allowed to take their character and create them based on their own view. I love this idea, because it gives children a chance to be creative and not conform to another person’s perspective of what the character should look like. I think that one of the reasons that teachers choose the cut and paste options is that it guarantees a decent looking project at the end. Many children fear that their art is not good enough, and I constantly hear children during art projects saying they cannot do something or they are not good at it. I think that having an activity where all the projects turn out the same is easier to deal with. I think that to fix this, the teacher has to take the time to teach and reinforce that children should be proud of their work, as long as they took their time and put effort into it.
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect of the class that stood out to me was the discussion of imaginary violence. I am quite torn on this subject, because it is easy to agree with the argument on both sides. However, I think many schools have gone a touch overboard with some of their rules regarding violence and weapons. The schools I have volunteered and completed my practicums in have had rules that there is no weapons, imaginary or fake, allowed. The thing that bothers me the most is that for Halloween the rule still applies; one child could not even bring a trident in for his costume because of the no weapons policy. I understand the goal to promote a safe environment where violence is considered wrong even when pretending. However, in my experience, especially with young boys, this is a huge part of their imaginary play, and I feel that the more we try to stifle this urge, the worse it becomes. I remember once, I had to give time outs for a group of friends playing cops and robbers, because I continually had to speak to them about their imaginary guns. This was how the teacher dealt with it, so it was important that I followed through with her classroom and the school’s rules, but I felt horrible for doing this. I did not agree with it; no one was getting hurt, and they were working cooperatively to establish rules and procedures. Violence is wrong, but is a bit of imaginary play that damaging?
I liked in the textbook how they gave a step – by – step problem solving guide for teachers to facilitate conflict resolution for students. I find for younger students it can be very difficult for them to communicate what the problem is when there is conflict with another child or when they are frustrated. On page 354 it gives a great outline to help strategize how to deal with issues when they arise. I feel that more than not with young children teachers need to make more assumptions than we would like to about how a child is feeling. In reality, it is very possible that we are completely wrong in our assumptions and this book provides some things to consider when attempting to resolve issues. For example, how well did you take into account developmental, cultural, gender or disability considerations? These are very broad topics, but without us realizing it they shape the way we perceive our students and it is important for us to ensure that we consider these areas, but do not stereotype them. This also reminds me of our discussion about our school and daycare visits because when talking about discipline and conflict resolution it became very apparent that not one size fits all. We can attribute these variations to the considerations the textbook asks us to consider. We may automatically assume that because the child is a boy, developmentally behind and comes from a household where he is spoilt and has little supervision is the trouble maker when being faced with a conflict with a more mature, quite female child. These factors can be both misleading and helpful, therefore we need to be aware of how they shape the way we problem solve.
ReplyDeleteThe other topic I feel strongly about is reinforcing. I believe reinforcement is far more counter productive than productive because it takes away from the learning process making it about earning praise. The only time I feel that a reward system is appropriate is when a child has demonstrated a behavior that is very problematic and instead of constantly punishing the child more positive actions can be taken. This happens in extreme cases where the child is having substantail developmental or behavioral difficulties and they need motivation for change. For example, every day the child goes the entire day without biting, hitting, calling names etc they get a sticker and after a certain amount of days they get a prize. This reinforcement is taken away quickly. I do not think reward systems should be implemented a group effort because I don’t think it fairly distributes the praise to those who truly deserve it.
The puppet shows were each hilarious, I really enjoyed them a lot. The process of making the puppets is such a great activity for kids. There are so many skills that children are learning; planning, cooperation, art skills, discussion and helping others—to name a few. Children are also learning literacy skills when they embark on an activity such as this one. For older children one could even ask them to write their own lines for the puppet show. I find also that if there are children that tend to be shy talking in front of others, the hand puppet provides a feeling of security for the child, since it is the “puppet talking” and not them. The child can feel more comfortable performing through the puppet instead of on their own, because the focus of the audience is on the puppet and not them. So it’s a great activity to include in your class to get some students to come out of their shells, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteFrom this week’s readings, I would say the chapter that stood out to me the most was Chapter 27 which focuses on the topic of problem solving. Problem solving is a skill that I feel is very important for young children to learn. The problems that children face can occur daily and can range from trying to figure out how to solve a puzzle to trying to decide what is fair when engaging in dramatic play with their peers. I really like how the textbook pointed out the fact that problem solving is more than a cognitive skill; it can actually build “children’s social competence and pro-social behaviors” (p. 343) as well. In my experience in a Kindergarten classroom, I found that many of the problems that children faced were social problems. Children would constantly come up to the teacher or myself and say that one child wont let them play with them or a group of children would have an argument over who should play what character in their imaginative play. A lot of the time, the teacher I worked with would encourage the children to talk to each other and work out their disputes for themselves which I thought was great but I also found that offering a simple suggestion of what the children could do instead in order to solve the dispute would usually work as well. I think that teaching these problem solving skills when kids are young is beneficial as these skills can be enriched and expanded upon as they grow older.
ReplyDeleteThe whole experience of making the paper bag puppets, presenting to them to the class and watching others present was so fun for me. In my own experience with children and even in my own childhood days, I never really had too much experience with puppets or putting on puppet shows which I truly feel is a shame because of all the possibilities that they present for young children. They encourage imagination and creativity through the designing of a puppet, they foster social relationships and friendships as children learn to work together to figure out who is playing what character and how they want to act it out, and it encourages a sense of community as they are fun for the whole class. I really liked how one group used a table to present their puppet play so all you could see were the puppets, not the actors. I thought it really put the story to life as you didn’t get distracted by the people acting it out. I feel that doing something like that would be especially great for shy children. I know when I was young I was very shy child and was always so nervous if I ever had to go up to the front of a large audience and present something and even to this day I still get nervous presenting to large crowds. Due to my own experience with being a shyer child, I feel that presenting and acting out a story in this way, with puppets, is a great way to have all the children from the very outgoing child to the shyer one enjoy the experience.
What really stood out to me from this week was how to engage children in problem-solving to promote pro-social behaviour and self-regulation. I feel that asking questions rather than telling children what to do can initiate them to start thinking for themselves on their own. Also, when students see themselves as making decisions for themselves, this can lead into empowering them. Giving choice to children can aid in empowering them, and direct children towards the suitable path for problem-solving.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the paper-bag activity we did in class! I definitely look forward to using that in the classroom, as it implemented socio-dramatic play and had a script ready for students to follow along. Using the paper-bags promotes instant empathy and thinking from another's point of view, which is helpful to practice from a young age. Socio-dramatic play can regulate pro-social behaviour when children interact during play as well as have children engage in practical real-life situations. From my Educ 464 course, I remembering reading that there is much debate surrounding socio-dramatic play in ECE and that many researchers have argued that it can support many foundational skills and academic readiness for children.
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ReplyDeleteA topic from this class that I am still grappling with is the idea of toy weapons in the classroom. I am one of those people who prefer to keep toy weapons out of the classroom and out of my home. That said, I had no problem with my husband being a pirate for Halloween and having a sword (in fact I may have waved it around myself). I understand the argument for allowing weapons in imaginary play, and to be honest I am not overly bothered by sticks and fingers turned in to guns. I myself have enjoyed playing laser tag and having water fights with super soakers and yet I get a visceral reaction when I see a child point a realistic toy gun at another child and pretend to shoot her or when I watch an adult play a first person shooter video game. Perhaps it is the desensitization to such violence that is my primary concern. I guess what I’m saying is that the issue isn’t black or white for me and I am swimming around somewhere in the grey.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed creating puppets and organizing our puppet show. Like many of the activities we have done, I feel that the greatest value of the activity was in the process and not the final product. We organized, discussed, compromised, planned, adapted, socialized, assessed - all while making puppets! This focus on process is an area where I feel I am growing in my understanding. I feel that previously my activity choices have been overly product oriented, that is focused on the end process. While I definitely did put thought in to the process, it was not my initial consideration. As I go through the course and experience the activities myself, I am becoming more aware of all the subtle learning experiences involved in the process of the activities we have participated in and this awareness is shifting my focus when it comes to choosing activities.
Puppets are so much fun. Children and adults of all ages can use them or enjoy a puppet show. One of my favorite memories of my trip to Vegas quite a few years ago was the black light puppet show. In the show a dragon puppet sang "I don't want to set the world on fire". It was awesome, and I cant tell you how many adults and children were completely mesmerized by the show. Puppets are fun to use in a classroom setting. They can be used for free play or even for creating puppet shows. I still have the dragon puppet I sewed myself in grade four as a school project. In my class I have had the children write puppet shows and then create puppets to go with them. Even the really shy children will get up and act in a puppet show if they know that they can hide behind the screen. What a wonderful way for the children to be able to use their self expression in a relatively non threatening kind of way.
ReplyDeleteSince play is the work of children, and sociodramatic play is thought to lead to self regulation, the more opportunities we can provide for play or more specifically sociodramatic play, the more potential benefits there are for our young students.
Teacher's Role in Play:
ReplyDeleteI find this topic of interest because play can be a powerful teaching technique to enhance student's learning and development. Play is a natural way of learning. It is also voluntary, spontaneous and carries a make believe component.
I think the role of a teacher during play scenarios is to provide time, space, materials, background knowledge and safety. I think the teacher should only intervene during play on an individual basis. Otherwise the teacher should be observing the development of play and if the children are struggling with extending the fantasy component of the play. The teacher should intervene as a player when noticing the play is having difficulties or if their is a lack of language used to help extend the play.
Teachers can also provide background knowledge on a play them and suggest play themes or assign roles.
Overall play should be self-regulating by the children, be enjoyable and intrinsically motivating.
Scaffolding is another important teaching tool. It helps the student internalize an external skill through guidance and support. It is a progressive teaching skill that helps the child acquire a skill to be independent in it. As the child becomes more proficient, the teacher can slowly step back. Scaffolding can be used in many of the different subjects, such as language arts and math. Scaffolding also provides an higher level of thinking, increased memory and keeps the student on task.
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