The Boys Show, the Girls Tell: Gendered Play and Story Feedback in a K–1 Classroom

• In Event: Playful Possibilities of the #playrevolution: Narrating Necessary Stories of Literacies in Play

Abstract

Objectives
With standardization ever-squeezing creative curricula in K-1 classrooms, finding space for play-based pedagogy that values children’s strengths as multimodal storytellers is revolutionary (Author 11, 2015; Author 9, 2009).  Yet, in the process of standardization, print and expressive language-based storytelling is often privileged over nonverbal, cinematic-envisioned, embodied storying.  

This poster examines gender at play between children and teachers in storytelling workshop during share time. In this classroom, the ‘exemplary’ girls’ group emphasized character dialogue, while the ‘never-with-it’ boys’ group took up action-oriented storytelling.  I especially attend to how children exchanged “unforgettable storytelling ideas;” how they supported one another’s narrative growth in feedback, how feedback was received; and how gender was at play during interactions.

Framing & Methods
This work draws from a 6-year study of play-based pedagogy in a K-1 multiage classroom.  Using critical discourse analysis methodologies, video data of interactions are analyzed through a gender lens, informed by literature detailing the boy problem in literacy classrooms (Sciescka, 2017; Newkirk, 2002; Smith & Wilhelm, 2002), rhizomatic gender performance in literacy, (Blackburn, 2005; Author 9, 2012) and notions of privileging language over nonverbal, multimodal storytelling.

Focal data is pulled from two instances of whole-class share time for a small group of ‘worrisome’ boys, then ‘exemplary’ girls, performing stories for peer feedback. Questions included, what are children and teachers valuing?  What feedback pushes story development?  How are children trained to give peer feedback, and who’s doing it ‘right’?  And, how is gender at play in these interactions?

During feedback for the girls’ dialogue-heavy performance, peers praised girls “acting out” characters travel through a forest by skipping around the share circle.  Two (female) teachers did not intervene or comment on this feedback, and embodying characters’ actions spontaneously alongside puppetry became a popular storytelling tool in the classroom going forward.

During feedback for the action-heavy boys’ performance, one (male) child’s comments demonstrated understanding of their largely-nonverbal plotline, and suggested alterations for displaying fight scenes by “acting out” battles with bodies rather than puppets (see Figure 4). As he got up to perform this feedback, teachers cut him off due to meandering comments about movies he’d seen.  His feedback was summarized by teachers for him as making “one comment about moving puppets.”  In contrast, two (female) children commented they “didn’t get what was going on” and suggested, “make the story clearer.” They didn’t offer tangible suggestions for how to increase clarity.  Yet, teachers reinforced this feedback by repeating and affirming it would be helpful to clarify the storyline.

Findings
Feminized discourse in the form of verbal-centric feedback potentially limited and disregarded boys’ action-oriented storytelling ability and development.  Girls’ feedback mirrored teachers’ modeled language: they were “doing feedback right,” but didn’t offer tangible/demonstrated suggestions for growth.

Significance
Teachers seeking to revitalize their literacy blocks to account for children’s multimodal storytelling strengths are revolutionaries; yet what gets implicitly valued in classrooms bound by gendered discourses is still subtly at play.  This leaves room for teacher/researcher collaborations to explore ways to reimagine forms of feedback to include demonstration and impromptu performance.  

Author

• Christy Wessel-Powell, Purdue University