An Experience: describe something you saw or were a part of & what you learnt as a result
I was at a family gathering over the weekend and I was observing my second cousin (who I will call by the pseudonym of 'Sarah'), who is three and a half, engaged in play with a set of animal families and a train set. The way she assigned personalities to each animal figurine and how she connected the two worlds of the animal families to that of the train set, directed my thinking to how literacy is so interconnected in everything we do and experience. Imaginative play fascinates me, how during childhood we have the potential to create other realities, separating the reality of the present from the reality of the imagined, yet still exist and communicate within the two environments at the same time. Sarah continued to switch between communicating within the two different contexts quickly and effortlessly, whenever she was spoken to by an adult she would lift her head, reply to what they were saying and then go back to displaying the personality of the animal she was impersonating in her imaginative play.
I was at a family gathering over the weekend and I was observing my second cousin (who I will call by the pseudonym of 'Sarah'), who is three and a half, engaged in play with a set of animal families and a train set. The way she assigned personalities to each animal figurine and how she connected the two worlds of the animal families to that of the train set, directed my thinking to how literacy is so interconnected in everything we do and experience. Imaginative play fascinates me, how during childhood we have the potential to create other realities, separating the reality of the present from the reality of the imagined, yet still exist and communicate within the two environments at the same time. Sarah continued to switch between communicating within the two different contexts quickly and effortlessly, whenever she was spoken to by an adult she would lift her head, reply to what they were saying and then go back to displaying the personality of the animal she was impersonating in her imaginative play.
I was amazed at how well she could modify her communication style to suit the context. This observation drew my attention to the point that Barratt-Pugh (2000) made in her article, how so much of the learning involved with literacy and becoming literate is embedded in our everyday social and cultural interactions and understandings. Where Sarah was demonstrating her understanding in a practical sense of what family meant, which social roles were required, how trains could be used for transport, how dialogue can be used to represent talking and communicating within situations and how social roles can be represented and recreated between contexts. Sarah was also able to process and make sense of what was happening in her external, physical world whilst being simultaneously engaged with her internal, cognitive world.
Relevance to Topic Outcome:
1.2 Explains how young children’s literacy & numeracy learning can be socially conveyed through their behaviour, feelings or approach
References:
Barratt-Pugh, C. (2000). The socio-cultural context of literacy learning. In C. Barratt-Pugh & M. Rohl (Eds.), Literacy learning in the early years (pp. 1-27). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin
Dear Anna,
ReplyDeleteI am also fascinated by the complex ways in which imaginative play enables learning in young children. You mentioned how your cousin 'assigned' personalities to the animal figurines using them as a secondary means of expression and to project her understandings about different personalities and perspectives formed in the everyday. I like how this ties with what you have written about multiple realities.
Thank you for your insight,
Hester