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Embodied Literacies for Preschoolers with Diverse Abilities: Developing Inclusive, Drama-Based Storytimes in a Research-Practice Partnership

Fri, April 10, 7:45 to 9:15am PDT (7:45 to 9:15am PDT), JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE, Floor: Gold Level, Gold 3

Abstract

Drama-based instruction (DBI) in early literacy is an imaginative, embodied approach to shared book reading. It provides students opportunities to participate and show knowledge through movement, gesture, and facial expression, supporting comprehension and language development (Authors, YR; Cawthon et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2020; Mages, 2018). This presentation reports on a project to make one DBI program in early literacy, Early Years Educators at Play (EYEPlay), more inclusive of students with disabilities. Previous work has shown that EYEPlay promotes language, literacy, and socioemotional development in typically-developing preschoolers (Authors, 2024ab), and EYEPlay teachers in inclusive preschool classrooms have also described increased participation, engagement, and comprehension for students with disabilities (Authors, 2016, 2017, 2021). Yet, EYEPlay has not historically focused on these students—in programming or in outcome measures.
Here, we examine the process and products of a two-year research-practice partnership called EYEPlay ADAPT (All Different Abilities Participate and Thrive). In EYEPlay ADAPT, we (researchers, a local children’s theatre company, and seven early childhood special educators) collaborated to revise EYEPlay’s curriculum and develop more inclusive learning measures. We asked:
What adaptations can be made to EYEPlay to build on the strengths of learners with diverse abilities during drama-based storytimes?
What new measures can be developed to capture students’ learning?

We used design-based implementation research (DBIR; Fishman et al., 2013), combining evaluation research, participatory action research, design-based research, and implementation research in “a relationship between research and practice that are mutually transformative” (Fishman et al., 2013, p. 138). Data include two years of meeting recordings, planning documents, program artifacts, and classroom recordings.
In this presentation, we share three adaptations to EYEPlay that made drama-based literacy more inclusive. First, we developed short 1:1 DBI storytimes for focal students to help prepare them for whole-group DBI storytimes. Second, rather than asking students to rely solely on their imagination and their bodies to embody a story, we developed opportunities to dramatize books using concrete objects like puppets, props, and figurines. Third, we created opportunities for students to demonstrate understanding non-verbally (e.g., laminated cards of key plot points to point to, hold up, or sequence). To illustrate each approach, we share brief video clips as well as teacher reflections.
We additionally share how we developed and implemented a novel measure of storytime participation and engagement, the Storytime Engagement And Participation Observation Protocol (SEAPOP). Like traditional measures of storytime engagement, the SEAPOP captures behaviors like looking/orienting and responding verbally, but uniquely, the SEAPOP also accounts for embodied participation like gesture, pantomime, object interaction, and body movement.
In this presentation, we show that all learners can demonstrate knowledge of storytime through EYEPlay ADAPT and the SEAPOP. Importantly, this programming and new measure were both developed with teachers and for students with disabilities. Together, EYEPlay ADAPT and the SEAPOP expand what counts as literacy and who is part of the community of literate learners. Building on the conference theme, our work invites others to imagine a future of early literacy that is expansive, inclusive, and embodied. [499]

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