"It's Like Playing, but Learning": Supporting Early Literacy Development Through Responsive Play With Wordless Picture Books

• In Event: Poster Session 17
  In Poster Session: Early Childhood Language and Literacy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop deep understandings about the affordances of play in response to wordless picturebooks and to investigate the ways that children draw from their sociocultural resources and construct meaning as they respond to stories through play in a first-grade classroom. In this study, responsive play allowed the children to create a new classroom space in which they could make connections to wordless picturebooks, through their knowledge and experiences, in order to learn more about the stories and about the world they live in. The findings may help us consider how responsive play might be valued within primary/elementary classrooms in the context of today’s restrictive educational climate, challenging traditional notions of effective early literacy instruction.

Authors

• Tori K Flint, The University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Marietta Smith Adams, University of Louisiana at Lafayette