Playful learning is more than just Sight Word BINGO

This weekend my sons had four days off from school. They played and built; wrote thank you notes and get well cards; did some baking with their dad and helped clean the house. An excellent time all around.

I am worried tonight, though, because I know tomorrow will be tough for my two five-year-olds. Kindergarten these days is not what it used to be, and my boys are not happy about it.

This weekend I also met other parents (from other schools) at the local playground. Their young sons, too, are  feeling the stress of not having time to play at school. With all the current mandated assessments, it is getting harder and harder for teachers to keep recess, let alone incorporate child-directed and playful learning into their “academic” day.

At best, good teachers struggle daily to balance what they know is appropriate for their students with what they have to do to keep their jobs. At worst, confused and misguided teachers label behavior problems as emotional issues – when in truth,  expectations are inappropriate and their students are visibly suffering.  These days, there are kindergarten teachers who believe “playful learning” constitutes  a few minutes playing “Math facts beanbag toss” or “Sight Word BINGO”.  However, I am advocating child-centered, adult-supported play that leads to questions and discoveries. I am talking about dramatic play and  block building that evolves over days and weeks, with the children making decisions. And the teachers involved can listen and ask questions in a manner that expands and deepens the play. These rich and playful moments in kindergarten classrooms are getting harder and harder to find.

Consider one kindergarten teacher’s story chronicled in the current issue of Rethinking Schools:

“The students in my classroom during the 2008-09 school year completed more assessments than during any of my prior years of teaching kindergarten:

• Milwaukee Public Schools’ 5-Year-Old Kindergarten Assessment (completed three times a year)
• On the Mark Reading Verification Assessment (completed three times a year)
• A monthly writing prompt focused on different strands of the Six Traits of Writing
• 28 assessments measuring key early reading and spelling skills
• Chapter pre- and post-tests for all nine math chapters completed
• Three additional assessments for each math chapter completed
• A monthly math prompt
• Four Classroom Assessments Based on Standards (CABS) per social studies chapter (20 total)
• Four CABS assessments per science chapter (20 total)
• Four CABS assessments per health chapter (20 total)

I recently learned that my students will also be expected to complete four benchmark assessments beginning in the 2010-11 school year.

This list does not include the pre- and post-Marzano vocabulary tests (which I refuse to have my students complete because the assessment design is entirely developmentally inappropriate) or the writing and math portfolios we are required to keep.”

Click here to read Kelly McMahon’s full story,  Testing Kindergarten.

Back in 2002 my friend Debbie Meier gave me a copy of Susan Ohanian’s book What Happened to Recess and Why are our Children Struggling in Kindergarten? I always remember the opening of the book where Ohanian talks about the protections that animals and insects have on Hollywood film sets. Apes on movie sets have time and space to play – and the American Humane Association is there to enforce the scheduled breaks. Why don’t our children have the same rights? Sadly, things have only gotten worse since Ohanian’s book was published.  With Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top and the push for national core standards, I worry how much worse things can get. For more food foe thought, check out Alfie Kohn’s essay in Education Week -  Debunking the Case for National Standards: One-Size-Fits-All Mandates and Their Dangers.

The disappearance of play is a systemic problem, and I’ll do what I can by talking with district leaders and sharing the Alliance for Childhood’s report Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School. I am thankful for my sons’ teachers who are doing what they can to keep the learning playful, and I will do what I can to help kindergarten classrooms everywhere return to developmentally appropriate “kinder gardens”.

P.S. With the launching of the new Empowered by Play website (don’t you love it?!) I have crossed over from Blogger to WordPress. Some posts imported nicely, others are a little funky – with spacing issues, etc. If you see any links that aren’t working or anything else seriously amiss, please let me know. Thanks!