THE QUESTION

How do kindergarten students explore and engage in play during Readers Workshop?

KINDERGARTEN
The word kindergarten means childrens garden.
A place to grow

Inside the Garden

If we peak in a kindergarten classroom during reading time, would we see this.

Table Talk
Discuss at your table what you just saw, and what we would see if we walked in your classroom?

Are your students playing during reading?

Whole Group Discussion

Why Play
Young children have opportunities to learn the fun, as well as the importance, of reading and writing in everyday life through imaginative and constructive play (Owocki, 1999)

PLAY

ON..

Play helps a child develop cognitively, and helps them figure out the world. Play also opens the mind up to creativity (Fromberg, D. P. 2002).

STILL

PLAYING

Other advantages of play include the opportunity to develop character and social competencies, improve communication and language, and support emotional intelligence. Play provides the potential for learning.

WHY READERS WORKSHOP?

Readers Workshop is one of the key components in a balanced literacy program (Candler,2011)

The Purpose
The purpose of Readers Workshop is to promote fluency and to provide time to nurture the love of reading and to learn about literacy in a variety of ways (Candler 2011)

Classroom Community
Reading Workshop builds a community of readers as students receive support from their peers and interact with each other to develop good literacy skills.

WHAT READING WORKSHOP IS NOT

Reading Workshop is not just guided reading groups, its an active lesson sequence that if followed can help students explore and engage as they meet their goals (Alley&orehovec, 2003).

TABLE ACTIVITY
ON THE PAPER PROVIDED AT YOUR TABLE, LIST
THE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES THAT ARE AVAILABLE IF CHILDREN ARE PLAYING DOCTOR AT A READING STATION IN THE CLASSROOM DURING READERS WORKSHOP.

WHAT

SAW IN THE VIDEO?

WAS ON YOUR LIST THAT YOU

WHOLE GROUP DISCUSSION

PRETEND PLAY AND READERS WORKSHOP

In pretend play, children use role-appropriate statements, plan a story line and assign roles.

PRETEND PLAY CONTINUED

Pretending to be someone else enables children to use language in situations they may or may not have encountered. Play helps children internalize the many rule systems associated with the language they are speaking. It also helps them generate multiple ways of expressing their thinking (Dansky, J. L. 1980)

THE PLAYERS
Rylee Emilee

STATION #1
Video

STATION #2
Video

STATION #3
Video

STATION # 4
Video

TABLE TALK

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PLAY AND READERS WORKSHOP ARE

COMBINED

DRAMATIC PLAY

CHILDRENS

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT

READING AND WRITING OFTEN OCCUR DURING DRAMATIC PLAY AS THEY READ LISTS, OR PLAY SCHOOL. ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT, MAKE SHOPPING

DRAMATIC
ELEMENTS

PLAY DEVELOPS IMPROVED

STORY COMPREHENSION AND AN INCREASED UNDERSTANDING OF STORY

2009)

(CHRISTIE JF, ROSKOS KA.

CATEGORIES
WORKSHOP

OF PLAY AND

RELATIONSHIP TO WRITERS

MEANINGFUL PLAY
The problem solving that children engage in as they play meaningfully, has direct implications for toleration of trial and error, crucial in creative writing and the prediction and decoding necessary for tackling a challenging text (Hughes, F. 1999)

SYMBOLIC PLAY
SYMBOLIC PLAY IS THE ABILITY TO
MANIPULATION OF OBJECTS AND LANGUAGE. (MONIGHAN-NOUROT, VAN HOORN, J. L. 1991)
INCLUDE THE CREATION OF PRETEND ROLES, IMAGINED SCENES, AND THE SYMBOLIC

P., &

ACTIVE PLAY
Active play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Active play allows children to manipulate objects or materials to make something (Monighan-Nourot, P., & Van Hoorn, J. L. 1991).

CROSS-CURRICULAR LEARNING