“But Did We Learn Anything?” Students’ and Educators’ Understandings of Playful Writing

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Fostering Well-Being and Learning: Exploring Playful Writing and Community-Centered Literacy Engagement (Table 18)

Abstract

Foregrounding play and choice in students’ school-based writing activities has the power to transform students’ motivation for writing. However, school writing, over time, is marked by processes and mediated by assessments that foster structure and discourage play. Through Connected Learning and Expectancy-value lenses, this research looks at participants’ perceptions of playful writing during a National Day on Writing Celebration. Analysis of post-program survey responses indicate that while many participants felt that they learned something about writing during this event, many student participants felt that play and learning were incongruous. This work points to the importance of future research that observes what happens when educators explicitly introduce the value of playfulness prior to its incorporation in academic settings.

Authors

• Bethany Silva, University of New Hampshire

• Emilie Coppinger, University of New Hampshire

• Alecia Marie Magnifico, University of New Hampshire