Ouch! Did I just learn something? Play-Based Learning: A Guide for Grown-Ups

By: Rebecca Wenstrom, Taryn Peacock, Julian Wilson, and Tonia Vines

What joyful childhood memory can you recall most clearly? When asked this question, one grown-up recalled long summer afternoons rigging a rope swing on which he and his neighbors swung into a creek. Another adult recalled long evenings playing capture-the-flag in the neighbors’ front yards up and down her block. Another describes playing dress-up imagination games with her siblings. When asked this question, adults reliably recall moments of freedom and discovery during extended periods of play. These experiences are exhilarating, creative, child-directed, unsupervised, and enormously fun. They are also, research tells us, hugely beneficial for brain development.

Psychologists like Boston College’s Peter Gray note that play, particularly child-directed play, helps children develop confidence and boundaries, learn to set expectations and follow rules, and practice negotiating outcomes with peers.

“When there is no movement, the brain literally goes to sleep.” This is the conclusion of Mary J Kawar, an Occupational Therapy specialist from El Cerrito, CA, who specializes in therapeutic programs for children with motor development challenges. Kawar notes that movement is essential in order to calibrate the human vestibular system, the special set of receptors in our inner ear responsible for balance, movement detection, and “modulating all of the various types of sensory input, including vision and hearing.” In other words, providing children opportunities to move in fact enhances their ability to learn and store new information in their memory.

Research also tells us, however, that child-directed, outdoor play is becoming scarce. Psychologists are concerned that insufficient opportunities for children to move may be contributing to a rise in mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist, also sees connections between lack of play and executive functioning disorders like ADHD. She explains, “With sensory systems not quite working right, [students] are asked to sit and pay attention. Children naturally start fidgeting, in order … to ‘turn their brain on.’”

When we square the research with the reality in many of our children’s lives, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that some of our children may be struggling through their schooling with their brains turned off. As parents and educators, it is essential that we actively plan for play to be a core component of every child’s day. We must understand how to create time and space for reasonable risk-taking and child-directed play, and be adept at building structured play-based learning opportunities into each child’s school day.

One deterrent to child-directed play is the pervasiveness of screens in children’s lives (Gray 2011), yet television and the internet are not the only culprits. Gray states, "Since about 1955 ... children's free play has been continually declining, at least partly because adults have exerted ever-increasing control over children's activities.” Safety concerns lead adults to direct their children’s play, or even restrict play time (Gray 2011). Additionally, as schools responded to No Child Left Behind and increasing academic demands, “many children are given less free time and fewer physical outlets at schools,” (Ginsburg 2007). Compared to students in 1981, students in 1997 spent 18 percent more time at school and 145 percent more time doing school work (Entin 2011). The emphasis on reading and math have taken away from free play time.

Have modern students lost the joy of climbing trees and risking that highest leap off the swings in exchange for text messaging and Angry Birds? Or does our culture pressure parents and teachers to structure kids’ lives with adult-directed activities? Both things are likely true. As The Atlantic’s Esther Entin writes, “It is not that anyone set out to do away with free play time. But it’s value has not been recognized. As a result, kids’ free play time has not been protected,” (Entin 2011). Whatever the cause, at Two Rivers we believe that adults can take an active role in supporting and structuring opportunities for the healthy play our children need.

In order for students to benefit from both structured and unstructured play, teachers and parents must be aware of their role in providing opportunities for and organizing play.  Play goes beyond the playground, recess, and P.E, and should be an essential component of a child’s everyday learning, both in and outside of the classroom.  Teachers at Two Rivers have found success in facilitating healthy opportunities for play using some of the following strategies and methods:

Create learning environments that invite and encourage play. Setting up imagination and investigation stations will spark a child’s imagination and support them in exploring their own interests. These environments might include:

• Imagination & Dramatic play areas
• Manipulative/Games areas
• Science/Discovery areas
• Art/Craft Areas
• Physical Play Areas

Providing varied and novel materials in these areas can help children learn and grow through play both individually and in groups. Materials should include loose parts inviting open-ended objectives that students design themselves, and empower creativity by providing children opportunities to think, plan, and do.

Ask questions

While it is essential that children have time to explore and design play activities independently, adults can support children’s learning by engaging in the play as curious observers. Ask exploratory questions that help extend the child’s play.  For example, if a child is playing with a truck, ask, “Where is that truck going? Why is it going there?”

Put play in learning

Teachers can be imaginative about how to link play activities to their curriculum.  A unit on cultivating relationships can be linked to a ball game where children shout another child’s name before throwing the ball to them. Bring manipulatives into the classroom to get your children playing with math, building their conceptual understanding while being physically active.

Talk to your kids about play

“Teachers can determine specific goals and outcomes they want students to achieve during play and share these with families and the students themselves” (Marlyn Rice, M.Ed). Build in time to reflect and debrief with your children about play. Ask kids what they learned from playing and how their play activities are helping them grow. Ask students to share examples of how play helps them build positive peer relationships and practice resilience and risk-taking.

By providing these and other experiences for students to play, we empower them to become lifelong learners exploring and engaged in their world.

Nurturing All Students: Structures that Support Differentiation

By: Jennifer McCormick, Mike Jordan, Kai Blackwood, and Elizabeth Leboo

In a 4th grade classroom, the teachers have planned a close reading task on anthropology, in preparation for the fall expedition. Knowing that their students have a variety of reading levels, they have anticipated some challenges that students may have with understanding the original text. They write a synthesis text, including much of the content specific vocabulary the students need, but simplifying the language so that the text is not overwhelmingly technical. Taking learning styles into account, and knowing that their students benefit from using text features to comprehend, they include some carefully evaluated visuals to enhance comprehension. Since the students will be asked to make a claim about what an anthropologist does based on in-depth understanding of the text, they create a chart for kids to notice and record unfamiliar words. The chart steered kids to the text and context, and provided an activity in making meaning based on using these clues. When students still struggled in understanding, teachers used careful, probing questions to redirect kids to the parts of the text where the word meanings were more explicit. Later on, students listened to each other during share and debrief, and were able to get clarity on any unfamiliar words that they were still unsure about.

Are the many steps to this activity really necessary?  Why not just pass out the text and have students read it?

You may remember your own schooling, when every student read from the same textbook. Thinking back to high school, you might recall an entire class dedicated to deciphering Lord of the Flies.  

At Two Rivers, we know that ‘one-size’ does not ‘fit all’ when it comes to teaching and learning. Differentiated instruction is a classroom model through which all students’ academic skills and abilities, learning styles and personal interests are embraced.

The practice of differentiation ensures that each student gets what he or she needs in class. In math, this may mean that some students explore a concept with counters while others explore the same concept by drawing a graph or writing an equation.  In a reading class, this may look like students breaking up into small reading groups to read different pieces of text that are at their instructional reading levels.  Meeting students where they are allows us to push them towards growth.  

To realize differentiation for every student, specific structures are built into our school that guarantee that every student has access to what he or she needs to succeed.  These structures include instructional strategies like flexible groups and centers; scheduling structures like labs, tutoring classes, and differentiated math classes; and staffing structures.  All of these work together in realizing the potential of differentiated classrooms where every student gets what he or she needs.

Instructional Structures that Support Differentiation: Flex Groups and Centers

The primary instructional structure for providing differentiated instruction at Two Rivers is flexible groups.  The purpose of flex groups is to allow  students the opportunity to express their potential by accessing multiple venues for a particular course of study, within groups that can change as students’ needs change.  For example in reading, students work with teachers in groups based on students ability to decode the text or comprehend the text. Several of these different groups may work with or without teacher support.   When it comes to teaching reading and understanding concepts, this multifaceted approach allows students the opportunity to access the material based on the specific skills that each student needs.  

The concept of centers figures strongly into the idea of flex groups, as the two concepts can mutually support the goal of breaking down the class based on lesson goals.  Centers are stations in the classroom where students work independently on targeted, differentiated assignments.  Particularly during our English language arts classes, they are a way that we promote literacy learning targets by allowing the students to move about the room to different areas, for the purposes of completing different parts of the lesson.  In many cases the parts appear unrelated, but essentially they are working toward a greater understanding of reading and language use.  These centers are composed of:  word sort, partner quizzes, word hunts, independent reading, partner reading, writing and listening.  Each center allows students to access a different piece through different goals.  Through the use of flexible groups and centers teachers can target experiences for each student to meet their needs.

Scheduling Structures that Support Differentiation: Writing Intensive, Lab, and Differentiated Math Classes

Differentiated instruction is something we do all the time, both in our classrooms organically, as well as through structures that are built into our day.  Three of the structures built into our Middle School schedule that support differentiation are our writing intensive classes, lab, and differentiated math classes.

All of our students write in their English language arts classes, and are pushed to develop their critical thinking and writing skills throughout all the content classes.  We know, however, that there are students who need extra support with writing, and that while pushing their conceptual knowledge is invaluable, they also need time carved out during the day where they can receive assistance with writing mechanics.   These students are placed in a writing intensive class at the beginning of the year.  In writing intensive, students can practice basic writing skills and receive extra support in writing structure, skills which transfer comprehensive writing pieces in the subject area courses.

Our labs in the middle school also support differentiation by providing students with targeted instruction where they need it most.  At the beginning of the year, we review our students’ assessment data - state test proficiency, performance on periodic assessments throughout the year, performance and growth on MAP (Measures of Academic Progress), performance in their academic classes and teacher recommendations.  Using these data sources, we look to see where students need the most support, or if they are proficient and need an extra push.  Our labs fall into three bands: intervention labs, that are focused on helping to fill gaps in basic skills and knowledge; push labs, for students who are on the cusp of grade level and need some extra time and practice with the grade level work; and advanced labs, which provide extension for students who have mastered grade level work in a specific content area and are ready for the next challenge.  

Our intervention labs focus on providing practice with basic skills and knowledge in either the English language arts or math classroom; students are placed depending on their academic need.  Intervention labs are incredibly important and necessary, because this is the time built into the day where students can work in a small group (average intervention lab class is 7 students) with a teacher to receive targeted instruction and practice with foundational skills that are not being covered in their math or English language arts class.  Filling in these skill gaps makes students better able to access the current content.

Our push labs help students practice with grade-level English language arts skills.  Here, students look at their performance data on interim assessments and set goals for what skills they need to work on to master grade level content.  Students then work with complex texts that challenge them to hone their skills as readers and writers, and receive extra support from their grade-level English language arts teacher in doing this work.  

Our advanced labs provide students with the opportunity to extend and challenge their thinking in a specific content area.  We have advanced labs in science, math, Spanish and social studies.  Students in our advanced science labs develop their own science identities, and then form groups around a science experiment they want to take on.   Students in our advanced math lab are challenged with complex math problems in preparation for the American Mathematical Competition 8 (AMC 8).  Students work on exam problems from the previous years, draft solutions, and engage in critique of their peers’ work.  In our advanced Spanish lab, students who are proficient in Spanish push their skills by having conversations, writing a Two Rivers Spanish newsletter called, “Que Pasa, TR?” and preparing to take the National Spanish Exam at the end of the year.  In our advanced social studies lab, students gain a deeper understanding of historical contextualization by exploring contemporary issues and historical thinking.

Lab provides an opportunity for all students to receive targeted instructions exactly where they need it, in the content where they need it most.  It’s a living example of differentiation every day.

In addition to writing intensive and lab, we offer explicit differentiation in math classes in the middle school.  All of our math instruction allows for all students to develop proficiency in mathematical concepts, application and communication. Taking learning styles and differences into account, math teachers guide students through multiple ways to approach real-life mathematical problems, and support them in various ways to demonstrate understanding. Realizing that all math students do not enter middle school with the same set of basic skills, Math classes are not only divided by grade level, but extensive assessment data is used to place students according to their level. For example, some middle school students  who have demonstrated preparedness to work on more advanced mathematics are able to take a credit-bearing Algebra class. Students who have not reached proficiency with grade level math are supported in the appropriate grade level work in addition to attending a Math Lab that supports their ongoing development of basic numeracy skills.

Staffing Structures that Support Differentiation: Special Educator Support

In addition to instructional structures and scheduling classes that support differentiation, Two Rivers’ commitment to making high quality education accessible to all learners is reflected in our faculty composition. A special educator is a member of every grade level team in Grades 2-5, participating in the planning, instruction and assessment of all students. Preschool through Grade 1 are supported by an early childhood special educator, and, at the Middle School level, special educators co-teach in both math and English language arts classes, as well as teach individual intervention classes in reading, writing and math.  Students with identified learning differences are supported to meet their individual learning goals in whole class activities, small groups and through individual instruction in the classroom setting. Including a qualified special educator on teams ensures that accommodations and strategies for students with special educational needs are consistently planned for and incorporated into every aspect of learning.

At Two Rivers, we are able to meet our students where they are in their learning journey because of the structures that support differentiation.  Through flexible groups, centers, intensive writing, labs, differentiated math classes, and supportive staffing structure, we are better able to guide and challenge all students as they become expert thinkers and complex communicators.

It’s All in the Problem: Putting Students in Charge of Their Own Learning PART 2

By: Jazmin Heartfield, Meaghan Petersack, and Elaine Hou

What does problem-based learning look like at Two Rivers?

Problems are opportunities, but how does a school create and capitalize on those opportunities? What does the problem-based learning approach look look like in in a typical school day?  Walking into a classroom at Two Rivers, what instructional strategies and moves might a visitor see that are preparing our students to be flexible problem-solvers?  

Over the past two years, our staff has focused its energy around planning math instruction that empowers students as mathematicians and prepares them for the higher demands of the common core standards.  Across all grades, we have implemented an instructional strategy called “problem-based tasks.”  These tasks turn the traditional lesson plan (I do, we do, you do) on its head.  After a short introduction, students are given problems with all of the qualities we listed above (ill-structured, open-ended). Teachers act as coaches, guiding but not dictating student thinking as they try to solve a problem.  Following a period of grappling with the problem, students gather together for a well-planned share and debrief session in which peers and teachers unpack different strategies for solving the problem-reflecting on both new content learned and transferable problem-solving habits of mind they can apply to solve any ill-structured problem.  

Does students-centered problem solving mean we just leave them on their own?

At Two Rivers, we mimic real-world problems by allowing students to grapple with these problems as the heart of their learning experiences in and out of the classroom. When students enter the 21st century workforce, it is unlikely that their bosses or mentors will give them a problem and then lay out the exact steps for solving it.  Instead, they will be given a problem and asked to solve it.  

This is not to say that all learning at Two Rivers is constructivist.  There are times when students do need exact steps and skills that require explicit instruction.  We seek to balance direct instruction and constructivist learning so that students are able to acquire discrete skills and deeper, foundational understandings that can be flexibly applied to problems.  Maintaining this balance requires embedding the problem-based approach into all subjects that students study.  For example, in the second grade curriculum, students learn all about the importance of laws and the process by which legislators create laws.   Teachers at this grade level design problems that students can solve using their knowledge and understanding of laws.  Taking on the expert role of legislators, students are tackling a problem with unsafe play at recess.  They will mimic the process of real legislators in order to create the school “law” that solves the playground problem. Once again, we are finding ways for students to solve authentic problems which will prepare them to do so in all parts of their educational career and future in the 21st century workforce.

Every Social Conflict Becomes a Learning Opportunity

At Two Rivers we extend the problem-based learning approach to our social emotional curriculum as well.   As any teacher can attest, a typical school day includes problems that arise organically in terms of student interactions and behavior.  Students get into arguments with one another, break rules, and face disappointments and obstacles.   Given that life as an adult in the 21st century will bring similar struggles, our social emotional curriculum seeks to empower students to control their own emotions and behavior and solve their own interpersonal conflicts.  We do this through a strategy called “Problem-Solving Conferences.” These are one on one conversations between students and adults that involve collaborating to name a problem and making a plan for solving it.   By including the student in this process, rather than just gathering the adults in that students’ life and making a plan to fix the problem, we are developing a skill set that will be crucial later in life.  

The “Real World” Starts Now

So what will truly set a student up for lifelong success after they leave the walls of their school experiences?  It is the ability to understand and solve complex problems.  That work cannot wait until they enter into the “real world.” As John Dewey expressed, “Education is not simply preparation for life. It is life itself.”  Lifelong learning starts now as we as educators skillfully give students multiple opportunities to solve authentic problems, communicate their solutions, and see the opportunity in every challenge. To do anything less would be closing instead of opening doors for our students.

THIS IS THE SECOND IN A TWO-PART PIECE ON PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING. PART 1 ABOUT WHAT IS PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING AND WHY WE NEED IT WAS POSTED ON MARCH 27, 2015.