PlayBased Learning Coaching - Sarah's first observation

Sarah Aiono Education Consultant sarahaiono@gmail.com +6421552846Poraiti, RD2 Napier 4182 New Zealand

Observation Notes: Room 1 Frimley School

25 July 2016 9am – 11am

Strengths noted:

The day started with a coming together as a learning group to focus on greetings, orientation to the date and weather and general reconnection following the holiday break.  You noted that the class naturally gravitated to this meeting point and so you responded to this need appropriately.  Time spent on the mat was developmentally appropriate, as was your management of those who struggled to maintain focus.  Reinforcement of your expectations was kind but firm and class rules and behavior communicated very clearly.

The students were visibly excited and motivated to begin their learning through play for the morning.  Evidence of this was observed both verbally (“yeesss!!” and “cool!!”) and visually (including fist pumps and looking at each other smiling).  Children moved quickly to the resources available to them around the room and engaged with these immediately.  At no time throughout the observation period were any students noticeably off task or disengaged. 

Children throughout the morning worked both independently and cooperatively through their play.  They were self-motivated and self-directed in the activities they engaged with, a key indicator of an authentic play environment.  You positioned yourself firmly within the environment as the facilitator of their ideas, receiving and acknowledging their thinking, social interaction and problem-solving.  You demonstrated some useful scaffolding of their ideas to aspects of new learning as well as modelling skills needed in the tasks they had established for themselves. You responded to individual developmental need and clearly know your learners as individuals competently.

Several types of functional play was observed during this period.  These included exploratory play, physical play, fantasy and socio-dramatic play (in it’s infancy), language play and social play.  Students also demonstrated a variety of urges through their play including deconstruction, construction, transporting, ordering and collecting, rotation, climbing, digging and enclosure.  This is indicative of the resources and opportunities you have created within the learning environment to allow the students to explore these urges through their play.

Play interactions heralded the opportunity for significant oral communication between students.  The children were observed using a variety of both simple and complex sentences, conversational and with aspects of problem-solving, including negotiating and commanding.  At times a variety of topical vocabulary was used and language was introduced to students in an appropriate contextual and authentic manner, with students making clear links between the vocabulary and the purpose of its use within the activity they were engaged in.

The resources provided and the subsequent interaction by the students with these resources provide the opportunity for several assessment points that can be clearly linked to both academic and key competency areas of the New Zealand Curriculum.  Areas of the curriculum explored through play during today’s observation include literacy (reading, writing and oral language), physical education (balance, coordination, fine and gross motor development), the arts (understanding primary and secondary colours), mathematics (patterning, grouping, equal sharing, positioning and orientation, shape, ordering and comparing), science (physical world – forces and movement, magnetism, electricity; material world), and technology (technological products).  All Key Competencies were observed in student interactions throughout the morning observation. 

Children were observed interrupting their play willingly and without resistance to attend to the guided reading session run by yourself.  They seemed to accept that this was a requirement and consolidated this with the knowledge that they would be able to return to their activity when their reading session was completed.  There was no reluctance to follow teacher instructions or engage in explicit teacher-directed tasks observed at any time.

Children took part in co-constructing the behaviours expected of them during their new self-directed fruit break time.  They were able to articulate clearly three rules that would enable them to take their fruit break as required.  It was accepted by all that not everyone is hungry at the same time and that this would be the indicator to needing to stop their play for fruit as required.  Children appeared to enjoy the level of responsibility placed on them in making this decision for themselves. 

In summary, the play observed this morning in Room 1 meets the criteria for an authentic play based learning environment as per the indicators included below. 

Was play self-chosen and self-directed?	YES
Was play process rather than product focused?	YES
Were the students responsible for creating the structure/rules of the play activity?	YES
Was the play imaginative, non-literal and removed some way from ‘real’ or ‘serious’ life?	YES
Were the students active, alert and non-stressed?	YES

Suggestions to Encourage Further Authentic and Rich Play Based Learning:

Developmental Needs/Level of Play/Urges:

·     It may be useful to consider your students on the developmental continuum both with regards to their levels of play and cognitive development.  This may assist you in providing appropriate resourcing as well as positioning yourself to scaffold their learning towards the next developmental milestone. 

·     Identifying common urges in the group will also assist you to respond through resourcing and coaching and encourage the full exploration of these urges within the students.  A planning template demonstrating this may be useful in identifying and planning for these urges further. 

Resourcing:

·    Students need to be able to have access to a variety of loose parts both small and large.  This is an ongoing challenge for teachers operating a play-based learning environment.  Loose parts ideally, but not exclusively should be part of an environment that is “rich in open-ended materials and real materials, invoking children to experiment, engage, construct and invent; inviting them to tinker, to manipulate and to play” (Nicholson, 1972). 

·      Loose parts should be available to the students as and when they require in order to be as responsive as possible to their passions and inspirations. 

Achieving a Balance of Explicit Teaching, Modelling and Coaching of Identified Socio-Emotional Skills:

·     The interactions observed today indicate some common themes that can now be identified and planned for with regards to key socio-emotional skill development in your students. 

·      A plan identifying which skills to begin a focus on will then assist you in determining what explicit teaching is required, how these skills can be modelled and practiced and provide a focus for your coaching interactions with students during their play. 

·   Teaching, modelling and coaching a simple problem-solving process will also aid in developing responsibility and independence in your learners when faced with challenges that arise within their play interactions. 

Assessing and Recording the Learning Occurring during Play:

·      The observation today provided rich data for the eventual assessment and documented observation of the learning that is occurring in Room 1.  Discussion regarding how this can be managed may be useful, as well as the basic structure needed to implement the Narrative Assessment process.