Playing their way into literacies
Subtitle: reading, writing, and belonging in the early childhood classroom
By: Karen E. Wohlwend ; foreword by Jackie Marsh
Series: Language and literacy series
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 191
ISBN-13: 9780807752609; 9780807752616
Subjects: Social aspects; Play; Language arts (Early childhood); Discourse analysis
Description: Karen Wohlwend provides a new framework for rethinking the boundaries between literacy and play, so that play itself is viewed as a literacy practice along with reading, writing, and design. Through a variety of theoretical lenses, the author presents a portrait of literacy play that connects three play groups: the girls and, importantly, boys, who played with Disney Princess media; "Just Guys," who used design and sports media to make a boys-only space; and a group of children who played teacher with big books and other school texts. These young children "play by design," using play not only as a literacy to transform the texts that they read, write, and draw, but also as a tactic to transform their relational identities in the social spaces of peer and school cultures.

Emphasizing the importance of play despite current high-stakes testing demands, this book.

Offers cutting-edge analyses and examples of new literacies, popular culture, and multimodal discourses.

Illustrates how children's play can both produce and challenge normative discourses regarding ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.

Features vivid descriptions, examples of young children in action, and photographs.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Play as a literacy; title: Playing school and learning to read; title: "Just playin' around" and "just makin' stuff" to make a space for just guys; title: Boys and girls playing Disney princesses and (re)writing gender; title: Play as a tactic; title: Appendix A: methodology-researching literacies in a playful kindergarten; title: Appendix B: mediated discourse analysis and the playing/reading nexus; title: Appendix C: multimodal discourse analysis and the playing/designing nexus; title: Appendix D: critical discourse analysis and the playing/writing nexus.