Critical Literacy and Play - Nelson Blog Post #1

 

    After reading the Nelson article, I found many points that he touched on to be very intriguing.  The importance of play in schools and educational curriculum seems to have been pushed aside in an attempt to spend more time in the classroom, reading and learning.  In reality and as we learned from Nelson, play is one of the most important aspects of education and further advancing the literacy of children.  The area that I wanted to focus on specifically from this reading is play in the context of critical literacy.  Students and children can benefit greatly from the experiences they have when playing with their classmates.  Out on the playground and in various play spaces, children develop an understanding of what is socially acceptable behaviors given the situation that they are in just through interactions with one another.  Nelson states that, "Defined in the more expansive way as we have done here, literacy skills are not confined to the details of textual decoding in classroom textual analysis. Instead, they are meta-skills that can be brought to bear on a variety of practices, including ones associated with student play," (Nelson, pg. 11).  The skills that children learn through analyzing how they should behave in play scenarios can be related back to how they analyze information in the classroom, proving that play time is essential in the development of educational skills in children.

    This article made me reflect back on my own personal experiences that I remember from being an elementary school student as well as a more recent experience I have had.  As a first year student at the U of M, I had not decided on a specific major yet and was exploring courses in elementary education.  One assignment I had in class was to go back to my elementary school, meet with my old teachers, and observe what a classroom setting is like today.  The thing that is most memorable from revisiting my elementary school was when I stepped foot into the classroom, looked around, and saw that every child was sitting at their desk on an iPad - eyes glued to their screens and no one speaking.  What this scene made me think back to was my own experience in elementary school remembering how the teachers struggled to keep the students quiet and from talking with one another.  When I was a kid, I remember playing math games in class, board games at indoor recess when it rained, and running around making up games with my friends on the playground.  Much of this seems to have disappeared as technology has become so prevalent in the classroom in place of the games I remember loving.  As much as technology has allowed us to do so many great things, I also think it in part has taken away many of the positive outcomes that human-human interactions can give us.

    Childhood and the interactions little kids have while they are at school shape in part who they are going to grow up to be.  Educational curriculum has shifted so much, even since I was a kid, and as a society we are seeing the effects and discrepancies between my generation and the younger one.  The curriculum needs to be adjusted, as Nelson makes many points to argue why.  The focus Nelson puts on the importance of play time is one that I think can be a small start to make a big difference, one that will not only benefit children with their social skills but their literacy ones as well.