About ten days ago, I got excited about what I was hearing in regards to the Common Core Standards. The standards were released June 2nd by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers. (States that adopt these Common Core Standards earn points on their application for Race to the Top funds.) As I read Lisa Guernsey’s Early Ed Watch blog, I learned that for kindergarten, the standards presented on June 2nd are slightly better than the earlier drafts. That is good news. What is even better is that the authors included an acknowledgment of the value of play. Specifically they wrote:
The Standards define what all students are expected to know and be able to do, not how teachers should teach. For instance, the use of play with young children is not specified by the Standards, but it is welcome as a valuable activity in its own right and as a way to help students meet the expectations in this document.
How great is that?! A definite victory for the early childhood world. It is such a victory, that a few days later, on Saturday June 5th, Joan Almon of the Alliance for Childhood included it (several times!) in her keynote address at the Hudson Valley Writer’s Project Annual Early Childhood Conference. I agreed with Joan when she said we should be shouting these words from the rooftops. “…the use of play with young children is not specified by the Standards, but it is welcome as a valuable activity in its own right and as a way to help students meet the expectations in this document.” Did you catch that play is “a welcome activity in its own right” ?!
I went back to the Common Core Standards website and hunted for those powerful words. I looked everywhere I could think of, clicking every link a kindergartner teacher might choose for information. I couldn’t find the words – and I was determined to know exactly where they were. I contacted Lisa Guernsey and she helped me zero in. They are on page six of the sixty-six page document for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. They are in the first bullet in the section titled, “What is Not Covered by the Standards”. Awesome!
The conference on Saturday was the perfect place to celebrate this victory. The theme of the conference was “Constructing Worlds, Composing Stories: Where Literacy and Play Meet”. The conference was designed for “educators interested in exploring the role of play in children’s learning, literacy and social and physical development.”
The range of workshops included Storytelling; Dramatic Play; Music and Movement; Nature and Blocks – each bringing in specifics about how literacy, math, science and cooperative play are all woven together in rich and engaging learning experiences. Together, these workshops demonstrated how meaningful learning happens through play.
Blocks are one of my favorite things in the whole wide world, so I was drawn to Rebecca Burdett’s workshop, “Let Me Build You a Story: Literacy in the Block Area”. I had the honor of visiting Rebecca’s kindergarten classroom in November, and was impressed with her ability to juggle state and district mandates while staying true to what is good for children. I could feel it the moment I entered her room. It was alive with learning in a way many kindergarten classrooms just aren’t anymore.
Luckily, I don’t have to describe what Rebecca has been doing, because she has a link to some of her work – a stories created by her students – on her school’s website. What is truly amazing, is that Rebecca was able to do this work with her students, and then capture it in a way that is easy to share. Her principal was impressed and invited her to bring the work to the school board. Not only did Rebecca bring the digital story, and the process documented in a Power Point, she also brought some of her kindergartners to advocate! You see, when Rebecca returned to her present school to teach- after having been away – she found no blocks had been left in the classroom. She knew that she could not do her job without a good set of blocks – and she found a way to get blocks donated from the folks at Community Playthings. Rebecca wanted to find a way to bring more blocks back to her school. She described for us how her young students stood up in front of the board, at seven o’clock at night, and read the reflections they had written about their love of working with blocks.
The board was so impressed, they decided to budget block purchases for all the first grade classrooms in her school – and next year for all the second grade classrooms. (They found a way to allocate text book money!) Through Rebecca’s presentation, the board was able to understand the deep, rich experiences and real learning that can come through block play. She made the learning visible to them. Brilliant!
The power of advocacy cannot be underestimated. Just look: The Common Core Standards include a statement about the value of play and a school board is bringing blocks back into classrooms. These are the stories that give me hope. Let us shout them from the rooftops!
I am glad that there are teachers like Rebecca who will do what is right for kids. The core standards for kindergarteners remain problematic because they should be about play and not about 60 some odd pages of skills that no five year old will master. If five and six year olds don’t master play at five and six, we are in big trouble as a nation. Way to go Rebecca! And that school district deserves some credit too, for listening and for swimming in the opposite direction to practically everyone else!