Play Defense Assignment
Read the following scenario.
In your Kindergarten classroom, you have students working in a variety of centers while you, the teacher, work with a small group of 4-5 students on writing instruction. Some of the centers include: A science center with students examining ant farms and creating tunnels in the sand table; an art center where some students are painting scenes and others are building 3-D models of ants; a mathematics center with small plastic ants of multiple colors that the students are sorting, counting, patterning and playing with; a dramatic play area in the kitchen that has included ants and small plastic shovels, a block center with small 2 inch sized plastic ants and cars added to the area as well as a variety of pictures of ant tunnels, and a reading center with science books on ants and insects, fiction books with ants as main characters and other print out pictures of ants.
Your school administrator walks into the classroom and disapprovingly looks around. He asks you to meet him in his office after school. You have a sense that he will want to talk to you about the students not being engaged in “learning activities”. You walk into the office and your administrator says, “I am really concerned by what I saw in your classroom. What were the students doing playing during instructional time? You know we have to meet AYP (adequate yearly progress) this year. How can you justify the students spending all of this time playing?”
Write a defense
Prepare a 2-3 page defense of your teaching strategies based on the course information. In your response, be sure to address why you have set up the learning environment in this fashion, why the students are engaged in these activities (use specific examples), what the students are learning by participating in these activities and how you know the students are actually learning. You may feel free to make elaborations to the scenario that may better describe effective classroom strategies. Be creative, professional, and complete in your response. Remember many administrators (and parents) do not understand the importance of play.
Play Defense Rubric
|
|
Exemplary |
Highly Proficient |
Proficient |
Approaches Proficient |
Does Not Meet Expectations |
|
5 points |
4 points |
3 points |
2 points |
0-1 points |
|
|
Overview of Teaching Strategies |
|
(Evidence in both columns 3 and 5 present) |
(Evidence in both columns 1 and 3 present) |
||
|
5 points |
4 points |
3 points |
2 points |
0-1 points |
|
|
Learning Environment |
(Evidence in both columns 3 and 5 present) |
(Evidence in both columns 1 and 3 present) |
|||
|
5 points |
4 points |
3 points |
2 points |
0-1 points |
|
|
Student Engagement |
(Evidence in both columns 3 and 5 present) |
(Evidence in both columns 1 and 3 present) |
|||
|
5 points |
4 points |
3 points |
2 points |
0 -1 points |
|
|
Conclusion |
Conclusion provides an exceptional summary and defense of play with purpose. |
(Evidence in both columns 3 and 5 present) |
Conclusion provides a summary and defense of play with purpose. |
(Evidence in both columns 1 and 3 present) |
Conclusion fails to provide a summary and defense of play with purpose. |
|
5 points |
4 points |
3 points |
2 points |
0-1 points |
|
|
Writing/APA Style |
|
(Evidence in both columns 3 and 5 present) |
(Evidence in both columns 1 and 3 present) |
website from lesson: http://www.nifplay.org/science/pattern-play/
You tube video from lesson
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