{"id":58,"date":"2017-05-29T23:19:37","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T23:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/ects\/?p=58"},"modified":"2017-08-15T16:38:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-15T16:38:26","slug":"socio-dramatic-play-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/ects\/2017\/05\/29\/socio-dramatic-play-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Beth and Jake’s Letter- Lack of Imaginative Play"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Running<\/a>
Running wildly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beth and Jake’s Letter<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n

When we received the letter from Beth and Jake, we responded and guided them through the process of implementing changes to address the teaching challenges they faced. This began with Beth saying: \u201crarely do children use materials imaginatively, in ways that reflect their own ideas in play\u201d<\/strong>.\u00a0 <\/em> Here is the letter from Beth and Jake with continued conversations between them and us over a short period of time.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Professors,<\/p>\n

We are a team of two educators \u2013 a lead teacher and teacher\u2019s aide and Brian, a teacher candidate, who work in an inclusive Head-Start classroom with sixteen 3 to 4 year old\u2019s. We need your help. We have several teaching challenges concerning children\u2019s socio-dramatic play and we are not sure what to do about them. First we both think socio-dramatic play is very important for all children\u2019s social development because it helps them develop acceptance of others who might be different and teaches them tolerance in a classroom of children with diverse needs. We like how the socio-dramatic play area offers boys the opportunity to take on different roles that challenge stereotypical male behavior.\u00a0\u00a0 For example, we think it is important for boys to act out traditionally female roles, that help them learn about different social and family dynamics.<\/p>\n

\"Limited<\/a>
Limited Socio dramatic Play<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, even though we have a generously-resourced socio-dramatic play area in our classroom, boys in particular do not play well in it. Instead, they often play singularly and in parallel when they act out domestic roles.\u00a0 They carry out tasks on their own. For example, we see this when boys change the baby\u2019s diaper and mop the floor. Boys tend to copy each other\u2019s play rather than initiating new play ideas. Because of this, socio-dramatic play has a \u201ccookie-cutter\u201d quality about it that makes it boring.\u00a0 This may explain why some boys are disruptive and break each other\u2019s play props. We wonder how we can get all children and boys, in particular, to interact more with each other in the socio-dramatic play area, sustaining children\u2019s play, and move from isolated tasks that are gender related but are difficult to develop into a story. We hope you can help us turn these challenges around so that we can help our children play imaginatively in the socio-dramatic play area.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Beth and Jake<\/p>\n

\n

Our Response<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Beth, Jake, and Brian, a teacher candidate, wanted to give children opportunities to play and learn through spontaneous and guided investigations because they believed spontaneous play is such a powerful window on children\u2019s development and knowledge.<\/em> After a brief discussion,\u00a0the educators decided to set up a video camera<\/strong> to record what children did in play over a 20-minute period.\u00a0 The educators also created a \u201ccheck-list\u201d to document\u00a0behaviors on video that illustrated the teaching challenges<\/strong>. \u00a0As they\u00a0viewed the videos, they saw:<\/p>\n