Play Based Activity

I am reading LITERACYH PLAYSHOP by Karen E. Wohlwend. I selected this book because I work on the field of early childhood education. I have found interesting how it is proposed in this book to open the doors of classrooms to popular media. Children literacy experience are not limited to what they see in the classes. All throughout the day children view, read or play commercials, films, tv shows and video games.  Despite the big influence from all this already mention sources in children lives, all the material relate to popular media is banned from the classes, except some fairy tail stories.  By opening the classroom’ door to popular media, we would be offering students the opportunity to access their cultural expertise and approach it the way they know best.

For my infographic, I decided to emphasize in the close connection between play and storying.  In chapter 2, the author wrote about the reflective process of turning media literacy curriculum toward Literacy Playshop on a daily basis.  The process began with conversations about heroes, villains and power; students recognized heroic qualities not only in popular media character, but in real people. These conversations prepare Students for producing their own story.  Students draw their own characters and participated in a play-based activity that lead to naturally storytelling. The two teachers used stroyboards as a tool that aligned with the writing skills students were familiar with, students could use information from popular media sources.

For the creation of my infographic I used canvas. I decided not to include any images of superheroes because even though popular media characters are the inspiration, the students’ heroes do not necessarily have to look like popular characters.   Students can create characters free of stereotypes and gender norms.

 

Reference:

Wohlwend, Karen. (2013).  Literacy Playshop: New Literacies, Popular Media, and Play in the Early Childhood Classroom.  New York, NY: Teachers College Press.