To include PLAY into a class lecture is to get students to
approach a topic in a way they would not have thought possible: to approach it
in a hands-on and enjoyable fashion. My understanding of play in curriculum is
to engage a student in a topic before they relate it to the ‘boring’ aspect of
study.
My play introduction is a little
more complicated than could be done at most schools, but I think it encompasses
all the bullets I would want to include (more on those later) so I have decided
to stick with it.
My topic for this course has been
oceanography and this activity is used to introduce ocean currents.
My activity involves the school
swimming pool. As a teacher I would inform the students that we are holding
class in the school pool the next day (so they can be prepared with swim gear).
I would then lie to them and inform them the reason has something to do with
our classroom being re-wired and the pool being free so why not take a fun day.
I would tell them we will be doing some fun games to pass the time. I purposefully
do not want them going thinking they have to LEARN something. That surprise at
the end of the lesson of play where they realize they have learned is my goal
with a play activity.
So the activity requires students
in the pool. It also requires at least three different float rafts and a whole
bunch of rubber ducks. After lots of random playing in the pool you need to set
them up something like this picture.
Then have some kids on each raft and others creating a
current in a clockwise fashion. Then rubber ducks can be added in. to see how
they move through the water. The kids don’t really realize what is going on except
challenges you call out like “can we get the ducks to pass float 3” or “will
any ducks get stuck in corners” or “how much work to get the ducks going the
other way?” or “Is the heat making an difference?”
The second day of the activity is
back in their classroom (which you can comment on the nice new ‘wiring’). As a
normal into lecture to ocean currents unfolds, observations about the ‘continents’
and ‘currents’ and rubber duckies provides a connection for your students.
Even though this is impossible without
access to a pool (and probably still hard with schedules and times and what
not) I think it is a very worthwhile activity for students (of any age really).
While they think they are just playing in the pool once they are back in their
desks they realize the significance. So what would normally be a dull lecture introduction
becomes a positive memory of physical activity linked to future knowledge.
