Playing Their Way into Literacies: Reading, Writing, and Belonging in the Early Childhood Classroom

by Karen E. Wohlwend, Jackie Marsh (Foreword)

Karen Wohlwend provides a new framework for rethinking the boundaries between literacy and play, so that play itself is viewed as a literacy practice along with reading, writing, and design. Through a variety of theoretical lenses, the author presents a portrait of literacy play that connects three play the girls and, importantly, boys, who played with Disney Princess media; "Just Guys" who used design and sports media to make a boys-only space; and a group of children who played teacher with big books and other school texts. These young children "play by design," using play not only as a literacy to transform the texts that they read, write, and draw, but also as a tactic to transform their relational identities in the social spaces of peer and school cultures.

Emphasizing the importance of play despite current high-stakes testing demands, this

Provides an argument for re-centering play in early childhood curricula where play functions as a literacy in its own right.Offers cutting-edge analyses and examples of new literacies, popular culture, and multimodal discourses.Illustrates how children’s play can both produce and challenge normative discourses regarding ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.Examines the multimodal, multimedia textual practices of young children as they play across tensions among popular media, peer relationships, and school literacy.Features vivid descriptions, examples of young children in action, and photographs.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

Scaffolded approaches within a child’s ZPD

Takes about importance of space