Play as Legitimate as Reading and Writing in Learning Literacy
​By Zahra Rahbari

In this post, I briefly elaborate on the topic of early literacy curriculum and instruction for young children mainly for Preschool and Kindergarten.

Creating a Culturally Responsive Classroom    
According to Bennett et al. (2018), more and more societies move toward culturally diverse and consequently the educational system with a more mixed culture student population. Bennett et al. suggested culturally responsive teaching (CRT) that represents contemporary multicultural individuals in the community and reflects on their ethics, backgrounds, languages, religions and values. CRT is complex since it adopts and bridges a complicated web of home, school and community. According to Bennett et al. CRT framework:

• has culturally responsive teachers who embody all children’s cultures and consider their success in the classroom.
• connects children’s homes and school contexts by being based on and relevant to children’s life experiences.
• focuses on equality of education and appreciating diversity through social justice orientation.   

By offering a CRT framework, Bennett et al. (2018) emphasized, teachers, incorporate some areas in an early childhood setting, such as creating a culturally responsive learning community, family involvement, critical literacy, multicultural literature and a print-rich environment. Conversations and relationships are the main factors to promote authentic experiences. Bennett et al. went beyond discussing CRT practices and demonstrated some culturally CRT classrooms through the following:

• Scaffold instructions and appreciate students’ individualities and needs
• Create a nurturing environment to promote children’s relationships with peers, teachers and deepen respect, care and trust for others: by listening actively to students while they share their experiences about their families, hobbies, and interests.
• Acknowledge parents’ values and cultures by getting them involved in the learning community through formal or informal activities.

• Informal involvement is a parent initiated at any time and anywhere, such as reading a book to children interactively or pointing to the signs in the streets 
• Formal involvement requires parents’ guidance and puts parents in a position for children’s learning, e.g., by sending assignments or literacy bags home. The drawback of this is that not all families are able to contribute, so teachers should support families who struggle at home to help their children.

Qs from Bennett et al.’s (2018) article: How do you create a culturally responsive classroom? What does the classroom look like? What are the students engaged in? 

Indigenous Knowledge and Reconciliation
Kinzel (2020) gathered and studied stories of non-Indigenous ECE students' familiarity with Indigenous knowledges through a small-scale qualitative study. Through the conversational interviews, the following themes were found:

• Transformative learning: engaging in a targeted adoption of Indigenous critical pedagogy and moving beyond ECE classrooms to connect Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
•  Move toward truth and Reconciliation: acceptance of the truths and realities of Canadian history that comes with conscious and targeted representations including listening to elders, having respectful relationships with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and dialogue, as well as starting on a journey of transformative learning.
• Experiencing Indigenous knowledges Necessity: The Indigenous way of knowing, being and doing is about the relationships and connections with ourselves and others physically, mentally and spiritually. Through Indigenization students get familiar with Indigenous languages, and a respectful way of collaboration of Indigenous knowing and pedagogy.

By using the metaphor of building a nest, Kinzel (2020) illustrated the transformative learning, truth-telling and incorporation of Indigenous knowledges as an approach to the Reconciliation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous in early learning settings.

Effective Pre-K Literacy Instruction
According to Neuman (2018), reading or writing and literacy skills are more than just learning the letter names or sounds and reading the print. Neuman suggested meaning-making activities, such as singing, participating in conversations and playing or dancing are the first steps toward reading and writing and literacy skills development. Some strategies to build on literacy skills are as follows:

• Shared reading experiences: children learn from listening to the books, e.g., by hearing words from everyday conversations, vocabulary growth, comprehension of the stories and engaging in conversations.
• Discovery areas: young children learn through making choices and connections with peers and adults and their takeaways from the print. Providing children with opportunities, such as stories and books to integrate play and print to promote their discovery and learning, enhances their understanding of their surroundings and literacy.
• Drawing and writing on paper: providing children with paper without focusing on correcting them gives them the chance to practice their writing skills and realize that writing has a purpose; for example, through writing their names and other labels they create their messages and communicate with others. 

In sum, Neuman (2018) suggested classrooms filled with print and language and writing materials provide children to experience the autonomy and agency of reading and writing through play and child-led activities.
Policy Recommendations for Early Literacy Achievement
According to Neuman (2018), early childhood learning lacks consistency as it is offered by public schools, community-based organizations and family child care settings. It is critical for the policymakers to integrate funding, so the ECEs are compensated and trained adequately to ensure the development of early literacy learning, e.g., professional development and resources for individualized learning, smaller class sizes, and providing reading materials and resources.
Q: What does effective early learning setting literacy look like to you?

Literacy Learning in the Real World 
By focusing on students’ lives and taking it as literacy instruction, Powell and Davidson (2005) suggested the following:

• literacy which is situated in children’s homes and cultures promotes children’s literacy learning, e.g., written language. 
• contrasted schooled literacy or prepackaged materials (reading and writing outside of context and for school only) and situated literacy (literacy is embodied in real-life).
• Schooled literacy separates language from events; consequently, schooled literacy treats written language as an object for study rather than a way of communication. 
• Schooled literacy privileges some language forms over others, i.e., dominant discourses are given more focus (for example, writing essays over writing lists)
• Students resist school literacy, e.g., children react passively and engage in other activities.
• Through the empowerment model, children get engaged with literacy in real-life literacy.

 
Learning Words Through Play
Lenhart, Roskos, Brueck and Liang (2019) emphasized the impacts of active ingredients of direct teaching and easy-to-implement technique, say-tell-do- play (STDP), such as shared book reading and structured play on preschoolers' meaning-making and word learning. STDP was a direct vocabulary instruction that engaged children by expression through words and gestures and playing with words in routinely shared book reading. Lenhart et al.’s finding of the study supported the unique contribution play could have for word recognition and understanding word meanings. In addition, Lenhart et al. stated current research in the field of language and literacy supports storybook reading, sociodramatic play and teachers’ everyday conversations to advance children’s language and literacy learning. Further, exposure to new words in the early years should be constant, child-friendly and through play. 

Q: Contrary to time and policy constraints, as school teachers, how could you promote the concept of learning through play and incorporate play as an element of literacy learning in the school system?    
                    
              
References
Bennett, S. V., Gunn, A. A., Gayle-Evans, G., Barrera, E. S., & Leung, C. B. (2018). Culturally responsive literacy practices in an early childhood community. Early Childhood Education Journal, 46(2), 241-248. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.1007/s10643-017-0839-9

Kinzel, C. (2020). Indigenous Knowledge in Early Childhood Education: Building a Nest for Reconciliation. Journal of Childhood Studies, 45(1), 19-32. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs00019397

Lenhart, L. A., Roskos, K. A., Brueck, J., & Liang, X. (2019). Does play help children learn words?: Analysis of a book play approach using an adapted alternating treatments design. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 33(2), 290-306. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2019.1577776

Neuman, S. B. (2018). What Effective Pre-K Literacy Instruction Looks Like. Literacy Leadership Brief. International Literacy Association.
Retrieved from  https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila-what-effective-pre-k-literacy-instruction-looks-like.pdf

Powell, R., & Davidson, N. (2005). The donut house: Real world literacy in an urban kindergarten classroom. Language Arts, 82(4), 248. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/41483485


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