Playing by the Book: Creativity, Engagement and Children’s

P Burke / S Mc Enery

Playing by the Book: Creativity, Engagement and

Children’s Literature

Patrick Burke & Sinéad Mc Enery

Department of Language and Literacy Education

patrick.burke@mic.ul.ie / sinead.mcenery@mic.ul.ie

Revolutionising Play: Perspectives, Possibilities and Promise

MIC – September 15 2018

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Aims of the session

• Explore links between children’s literature, children’s reading and play

• Examine examples of playfulness in children’s literature

• Examine the potential of children’s literature for creativity and lateral thinking

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Playing by the Book?

“in accordance with rules and regulations”

A primary goal of education should be developing a

sense of wonder so indestructible that it will last

throughout one's life time(Carson 1956 as cited in Serafini & Moses 2014)

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“I … like to believe that the incredible creative spirit of children’s play does not simply disappear but is kept alive in all the various forms of adult play including the play of reading”

- John Morgenstern in American Journal of Play - 2010

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Books and Play

• Book-related play supports (Wells Rowe 2007):• Symbolic representation in literacy

• Comprehension

• Deep-processing of narrative/literature

• This student-initiated play helps children to

“explore the fundamental purpose of literacy, the construction of meaning” (Welsch 2008, p. 139)

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Playfulness in Children’s Literature

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Postmodern picturebooks

•Tend to be:•Playful

•Parodic and

• Ironic

•Defy expectations and norms!(Allan, 2015)

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Wordless picturebooks

•Challenge children to use their imagination in interpreting books

•Encourage multiple interpretations

•Develop narrative/creative capacities

(Serafini 2014)

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Playful language use in children’s books

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Children’s Literature for Developing Curiosity and Imagination

• ‘Picturebooks can help foster a sense of wonder and curiosity in young readers’ (Serafini and Moses 2014, p. 466)

• ‘Reading aloud to children and letting them discuss what they have visualised during the read aloud fosters their imagination’ (Serafini and Moses 2014, p. 466)

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Creative Thinking

• All children are born with creative ability but need a creative climate and practice in creative processes to develop creative potential (Fisher

2014, p.52)

• Right soil, creative climate, seed of stimulus (Fisher 2014)

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Establishing a creative climate

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Creative Thinking - Asking Questions

Beauty of a young child’s thinking is that it is unconstrained

Use children’s questions to generate further questions

(Fisher 2014)

Where does your

lap go when you

stand up?

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Foster curiosity and encourage the questioning child

Expose children to open-ended questions (Fisher 2014)

• What if…

• I wonder why…

• What would you do if …

• Can you explain why…

• What might ___ be thinking?

• In what ways could you….

• What would happen if….

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Dialogic approach to discussions

• Open discussion – generates communal reflection (Roche 2015; Murris 2013)

• Democratic practices that include child’s voice (Murris 2013). Leave space for students to respond to one another (Zapata et al. 2017; Roche 2015)

• Freedom of expression (Fisher 2014)

• Value originality rather than conformity, not the sameness but difference of ideas (Fisher 2014)

I agree/ disagree with

___because___

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Thinking time

• ..children tend to respond in whole sentences and complete thoughts.

• …shows child that the responsibility for thinking is the child’s, not the teacher’s.

• Silence communicates a teacher’s expectation and faith that child can find an answer.

(Fisher 2014)

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Engaging children in creative processes

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Creative Thinking

(Fisher 2014)

Children often absorb attitudes / opinions of significant adults in

their lives – belief structures can be imposed on children –

children can become dependent on thinking of others – can lead

to close-mindedness

Vs.

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Creative Thinking

(Fisher 2014)

Children often absorb attitudes / opinions of significant adults in

their lives – belief structures can be imposed on children –

children can become dependent on thinking of others – can lead

to close-mindedness

Encouraging children to value authority of their own reasoning capacities, realise it's natural that people may differ in beliefs and points of view, question their /

others reasoning.

Vs

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Developing Lateral Thinking

• Need not to rely on automatic processes – these make thought stimulus bound, habit bound.

• Need to look beyond surface of things, seeking hidden patterns

• Imagine what might be hidden from view within picture or beyond picture frame

(Fisher 2014, p.25)

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Developing Lateral Thinking

Making thinking visible

• Making child more aware of thinking - thinking aloud, using images, drawing, writing. Develop thinking by sharing or recording it.

• Before Reading - Sketch to Stretch – predict book cover illustration based on title

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Developing Lateral Thinking

Sketch to Stretch – predict book cover illustration based on title

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Developing Lateral Thinking

Before Reading - Sketch to Stretch – predict book cover illustration based on section of illustration

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Developing Lateral Thinking

What are possible interpretations of image

‘Imaginative responses were often triggered by points of fascination, particularly with the

images’ (Baird et al. 2016, p.16)

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(Zapata et al. 2017, p. 63)

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Choosing picturebooks suitable for developing creative thinking

• Storyline that doesn’t overtly teach or moralise. Reader is actively involved in constructing meaning in text. Allow for multiple interpretations

• Space within book for children to ask questions / challenge / infer / create visual images / make connections

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Children’s responses to picturebooks(Baird et al. 2016, p.2)

• Children’s responses to picturebooks showed them moving fluidly between real world, book world and play world

• Play world revealed occasions when children expanded meaning of story, showing inventive ability to engage with and play with the text and make it their own – bringing their own imagination and interpretation to the book in a playful way

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Alternative / Extended Versions of well known stories

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Stories told from different points of view

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Creating an alternative version of a storySwitching

• Gender Switch

• Theme Switch

• Setting Switch

• Clothing switch

• Emotion switch

…and imagine an alternative version of the story, critically analysing how the message would change if the gender / theme / setting was changed.

(McLaughlin and DeVoogd 2004)

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References & Recommended Reading• Baird, A., Laugharne, J., Maagerø, E. and Tønnessen, E.S. (2016) 'Child Readers and the Worlds of the Picture Book', Children's Literature in Education, 47(1), 1-17.

• Boerman-Cornell, W. (2016) 'The Intersection of Words and Pictures: Second Through Fourth Graders Read Graphic Novels', Reading Teacher, 70(3), 327-335.

• Fisher, R. (2013) Teaching thinking: philosophical enquiry in the classroom, 4th ed., London: Bloomsbury Academic.

• Fisher, R. (2014) Teaching children to think, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• Flores-Koulish, S. A. and Smith-D'Arezzo, W. M. (2016) '"The Three Pigs": Can They Blow Us into Critical Media Literacy Old School Style?', Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 30(3), 349-360.

• Kress, G. (2004) 'Reading images: Multimodality, representation and new media', Information Design Journal, 12(2), 110-110.

• McLaughlin, M. and DeVoogd, G. (2004a) 'Critical literacy as comprehension: Expanding reader response. ', Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy., 48(1), 52-62.

• McLaughlin, M. and DeVoogd, G. (2004b) 'Teaching Critical Literacy' in Critical Literacy: Enhancing Students’ Comprehension of Text New York: Scholastic, 35-58.

• Murris, K. (2013) 'The Epistemic Challenge of Hearing Child’s Voice', Studies in Philosophy and Education, 32(3), 245-259.

• Reznitskaya, A. (2012) 'Dialogic Teaching: Rethinking Language Use During Literature Discussions', The Reading Teacher, 65(7), 446-456.

• Roche, M. (2015) Developing Children's Critical Thinking through Picturebooks, New York: Routledge.

• Serafini, F. and Moses, L. (2014) 'The Roles of Children's Literature in the Primary Grades', The Reading Teacher, 67(6), 465-468.

• Serafini, F. (2014). Exploring wordless picture books. The Reading Teacher, 68(1), 24–26.

• Sipe, L. R. and Pantaleo, S. J. (2008) Postmodern picturebooks: play, parody, and self-referentiality, London;NewYork;: Routledge.

• Zapata, A. z. m. e., Fugit, M. M. c. o. and Moss, D. d. c. o. (2017) 'Awakening Socially Just Mindsets Through Visual Thinking Strategies and Diverse Picturebooks', Journal of Children's Literature, 4(3), 62-69.

• Wells Rowe, D. (2007) ‘Bringing books to life: The role of book-related dramatic play in young children’s literacy learning’. In Roskos, K.A. and Christie, J.F., eds., Play and literacy in early childhood: Research from multiple perspectives. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.

• Welsch, J. G. (2008) Playing Within and Beyond the Story: Encouraging Book-Related Pretend Play. The Reading Teacher, 62(2), 138–148. https://doi.org/10.1598/RT.62.2.5