24/02/2017 BECERA 2017 Adults Supporting Young Children’s Play Helen Moylett OR Back to basics Are your hen, goat, pig and cow where they belong ? Areas of learning, routines 1
24/02/2017 Where is the love? Play Where are the frolics and fiddle-de-dees ? The need for play • Play is the natural way all young mammals learn. • Those that have the most to learn play the most. • Adults understand that this is how they practise the skills that they must acquire to become effective adults. “We play to make sense of life in activity.” Trevarthen (2017) 2
24/02/2017 Life long learning What matters? Building on the characteristics of effective early learning Playing and exploring What will I • Finding out and exploring do? • Playing with what they know • Being willing to ‘have a go’ Active learning Do I want • Being involved and concentrating to? • Keeping trying • Enjoying achieving what they set out to do Creating and thinking critically • Having their own ideas How will I • Making links do it? • Choosing ways to do things 3
24/02/2017 Finding out and exploring ‘ What is this? What does it do?’ • sensory investigation, seeking knowledge Playing with what they know ‘What if…? What else…?’ • using symbols, flexibility of thought • theory of mind Being willing to ‘ ‘have a go’ • initiating activities • seeking challenge, taking risks • ‘can do’ attitude All young children are creative. In their play and self-directed exploration they create their own mental models of the world around them and also models of imaginary worlds. Adults whom we call geniuses are those who somehow retain and build upon that childlike capacity throughout their lives Peter Gray ‘Independent Voices’ 13.01.14 4
24/02/2017 Albert Einstein …referred to his innovative work as “combinatorial play”. He claimed that he developed his concept of relativity by imagining himself chasing a sunbeam and catching up with it, and then thinking about the consequences. Peter Gray ‘Independent Voices’ 13.01.14 Albert Einstein …referred to his innovative work as “combinatorial play”. He claimed that he developed his concept of relativity by imagining himself chasing a sunbeam and catching up with it, and then thinking about the consequences. Image:Reflections Nursery Whitebread and O’Sullivan (2012) study of complex social pretend play • extensive self-regulatory opportunities within this kind of play. Children guide the play narrative forward either in character (‘Oh dear, the baby’s crying!’) • or by stepping momentarily out of character (‘OK, you pretend you’re the baby and you’re crying because you’re upset’) 5
24/02/2017 Whitebread (2013) - the crucial importance of the adult role ‘This is perhaps the most sophisticated type of play in which young children engage, and one that many children struggle to perform well. ……. a skilful adult can participate, taking on some of the regulatory role, and if they are able to sensitively withdraw as the children become more competent, it can be an excellent vehicle to support a range of linguistic and self- regulation abilities.’ Whitebread D (2013) ‘ The importance of self- regulation for learning from birth’ in H Moylett (ed) The Characteristics of Effective Early Learning. Open University Press. Stories are at the centre of human life. Through stories we: • make sense of our lives; • understand our own and other people’s thinking; • create our personal and collective histories; • present ourselves to other people; • imagine new possibilities; • learn about language. 6
24/02/2017 ‘The narrative begins early. Even before the spoken word, the pictures in a young child’s mind assume a story -like quality. How else could the dramatic play emerge so fully formed, filling up the spaces in other people’s stories? Our books and conversations work their magic because the children meet us more than halfway. They have already begun feeling the emotional highs and lows of the hero and victim and are ready to climb to the next rung of the ladder.’ Vivian Gussin Paley (2004:14) A Child’s Work: the importance of fantasy play I rarely paused to listen…. ..I saw myself as the bestower of place and belonging, of custom and curriculum, too often ignoring the delicate web being constructed by the children in their constant exchange of ideas the moment I stopped talking and they resumed playing. Paley (2004:19) 7
24/02/2017 T-Rex T-Rex lived long time ago. He was here now. They don’t eat potatoes. He is not in Worthing, he is in Brighton. But he is here. And look at my dinosaur, he has got a long tail. He is bigger and bigger and… He broke the ceiling. Rex 2 years 10 months There are many individual and vivid stories in this book, but one big story runs through all of them; the story of two year old children making new, sometimes startling meaning. 8
24/02/2017 “This is sad….. I imagine a tiny baby monkey taken away from his mummy by an angry man to his angry cave. He would have the baby in a bag, a big one and he would give the baby to a horrible angry monkey who would eat it. The little monkey went down the big monkey’s throat and then all chopped up and blood was bleeding and it really hurt and the baby cried.” Abi : 3 years 9 months The Power of Story Jack and the Beanstalk 9
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24/02/2017 Don’t pretend think – be a thinker! ‘ If teachers want their young pupils to have robust dispositions to investigate, hypothesize, experiment, conjecture and so forth, they might consider making their own such intellectual dispositions more visible to the children.’ (Katz 1995 : 65) Self-regulation in practice Kaizen Primary School Gainsborough Primary School Woodgrange Infant School Earlham Primary School North Beckton Primary School Forest School at North Beckton Primary 11
24/02/2017 Ori rigin ins of of the the Proje oject • Group of Newham early years leaders all believe that children are entitled to become good learners whatever their circumstances and that the best early years pedagogy rests on a deep understanding of child development and learning • BUT there was growing evidence that seemed to indicate that in some schools the value of play was becoming misunderstood. • Probably because schools often feel pushed into children learning for short-term gain rather than becoming learners for life • BIG QUESTION ….How to bridge the gap between their conviction that play based learning is right for children in reception and the everyday practice in their schools. They applied to the Newham Innovation Fund for money for cover and consultancy to support an action research project Aims ‘Maximising pupil progress, through play -based learning in reception classes, by developing: • effective EYFS leadership skills • the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding of teachers and other reception based adults’. 12
24/02/2017 Play • Play is freely chosen by the child, and is under the control of the child. • The child decides how to play, how long to sustain the play, what the play is about, who to play with. • There are many forms of play, but it is usually highly creative, open-ended and imaginative. It requires active engagement of the players, and can be deeply satisfying. Playing, Learning and Interacting (DCSF 2008) The e role e of the adult lt A pedagogy which supports children as self-regulating learners provides: • secu cure e attachm tachmen ent t and emoti tion onal l warmth rmth • feeli ling ngs of contr trol ol and agen ency cy • cognit itiv ive e chall llen enge ge – including the challenges children set themselves in play, and adults providing and supporting achievable challenges • arti ticu culation lation of learnin rning g – using talk, as well as other ways children express themselves, to help children to recognise and clarify the way they think and learn. David Whitebread 13
24/02/2017 Key features All schools audited their practice in supporting the characteristics of effective learning Schools then chose different approaches to improvement but key themes have been • Playful interaction with children • Support for communication and language • Supporting imaginative play • Following children’s playful interests across all areas of learning Underpinned by • Work on leadership skills to successfully manage change Earlham Primary School • Peer learning and visits Learning Dinosaurs Woodgrange Infant School, Forest Gate 14
24/02/2017 Why begin this? Part of the project with other Newham Schools • on valuing learning through play in Reception To value play and to value the process of • learning rather than the end result To give everyone a working knowledge of the • characteristics of effective learning To encourage children (and staff) to use the • language of learning I am a Shareonyx – I share my ideas and resources. 15
24/02/2017 I am a Tryatops - I try my best and never give up. I am an Explorosaur – I explore everything around me. 16
24/02/2017 I am a Thinkodocus – I think carefully about what I do when I learn. I am an Askaraptor – I ask questions and find things out. 17
24/02/2017 Solveosaurus Rex – I am learning to work hard to solve problems. 18
24/02/2017 Home learning / links with parents 19
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