In week 2 of my Unintended Consequences in Teacher-Led Classrooms series, I explore the ins and outs of play and why a teacher-led model shortchanges our kiddos when it comes to play.
Teacher-directed classrooms are frequently structured with a working schedule in mind. The day is broken up into segments of specific learning times and transitions happen by the clock.
The program I currently work in has a unique schedule that consists of rotating through 5 different classrooms and spending 30 minutes in each one. When I was initially introduced to this concept, I was impressed with its uniqueness and liked how well-defined the time in each room was. Something I had struggled with in my early days of teaching was setting up my classroom in workable zones that flowed well and made sense–so having a separate classroom for large motor, art, circle time, snack, and academics seemed like a great solution.
I quickly learned, however, that being bound by the rotation schedule meant that we would never have long stretches of time to engage in play. By the time we got through the lesson plan activities, the kids were lucky to have 10 minutes to play before having to clean up and move to the next room. These short bursts of time were a nice break from sitting at tables, but were way too short to really elicit the benefits of play that we should be striving for in early childhood classrooms. I began to long for my old less-than-perfect classroom that allowed me flexibility in the daily schedule to meet the needs of my students on-demand.
Teacher-led classrooms are often task-driven, with a focus on direct instruction and seat work. Teachers are the ones calling the shots, determining the length of time spent in each activity, and managing the course of the day. Play time is often rewarded only once work is completed.
There is a common misconception–even among educators–that play and learning are two separate entities. In reality they are closely knit together, especially during the early childhood years. Research has shown time and time again that young children learn best through play, and they need uninterrupted stretches of time to get some of the best benefits that play has to offer. When play only comes in shorts bursts, there isn’t time to fully engage the imagination or practice the social skills that play helps to develop.
Because of the way our day is structured in my current situation, there is a very clear separation between “learning time” and “play time”. I’m able to provide 3 periods of play every day, each lasting 10-15 minutes. The kids are just getting started when it’s time to clean up! While they might have a cumulative time of 45 minutes a day spent playing at school, they don’t even come close to getting the benefit that one 45 minute stretch of play would give them. Imagine how different my students’ experiences would be if we took all of the skills we were targeting each day in our lesson plans and embedded them into play! I don’t know a single child who wouldn’t love to play all day at school 😀
If play is the gold standard, why is it becoming a lost art in many preschool programs? Play-based, child-led classrooms require a different kind of work behind the scenes than task-driven, teacher-led classrooms do. It can take some practice to shift from gathering tasks that teach specific skills and inserting them into blocks of time in the schedule to observing and assessing what skills your students need help with and offering play materials that support that. Play-based classrooms are not void of lesson plans, but they are less rigid, focused instead on the needs of the students in the moment. This can leave a teacher who is accustomed to having more control over the schedule feeling a little lost. It takes time a practice to made the adjustment, but the rewards are great!