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Building Literacy Skills With Dramatic Play

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    >>Oscar: One time, I went to Legoland.
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    >>Student: Oh!
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    >>Noelle: Because our class
    does storytelling, story acting,
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    our students know and
    respect each other more.
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    It's a language and literacy practice,
    really, but it does so much more.
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    It helps the kids with their
    social emotional development.
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    It's really community
    building within the classroom.
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    >>Student: I went to Legoland.
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    >>Sarah: Amigos is a two way
    immersion school
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    for students, in Cambridge,
    Massachusetts.
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    At Amigos, we look to support biliteracy
    in the early years by really developing
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    and strengthening oral language
    skills, and the students' ability
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    to tell stories, understand the shape
    of a story, and be able to share
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    that with oral language in
    both Spanish and English.
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    >>Student: With my mom, my dad.
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    >>Oscar: So storytelling, story acting,
    we first ask a child to tell us a story,
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    and it could be a personal
    story of theirs,
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    or something that they have made up.
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    And then when it's time to
    do the story acting,
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    we are actually seeing a visual
    representation of their story.
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    >>And there was petals.
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    >>We're actually working with
    language, but at the same time,
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    we're working with elements of a story.
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    >>You can use Legos to make a car.
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    Students: Brrmm, brmm
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    >>It has setting, characters.
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    >>Student: A brother.
    >>Noelle: Brother.
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    >>Noelle: Each day, a different student
    has a turn to tell a story to me.
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    >>It was a family of turtles.
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    >>Student: Yeah.
    >>Noelle: Ah, okay.
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    So there was a family of turtles.
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    >>I take the story dictation
    during rest time.
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    It's a quiet time, so I
    call the student over.
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    >>Student: The shark.
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    >>There's a shark in your story?
    >>Student: Yeah.
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    >>Noelle: It just probably
    takes five or ten minutes.
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    They tell me the story.
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    >>Student: Then I [speaks Spanish].
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    >>Noelle: And often because
    we're a bilingual school,
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    it's really a motivator for the kids
    who are just learning Spanish
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    to try to tell the story
    in Spanish.
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    And then we clean up the mats,
    we get in our circle,
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    and then I call the student
    up to sit next to me.
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    >>There was a family of turtles.
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    >>I read the story aloud.
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    >>Do you want to be the baby?
    >>Student: Uh-huh.
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    >>Noelle: And then they are responsible
    for choosing who the actors are.
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    >>Student: Do you want
    to be the mommy?
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    >>Noelle: We just go in a circle.
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    So it's not popularity contest,
    but more of just whose turn it is.
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    >>Do you want to be the sister?
    >>Student: [speaks Spanish]
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    >>Noelle: And they put them
    in their places,
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    and then I read the story
    for a final time,
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    and they act it out.
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    >>The turtle said "Hi!" to the girl.
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    >>Student: Hi.
    >>I'm not the girl, she is.
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    >>Noelle: Oh, so if you're a turtle,
    then you have to go like that.
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    >>For the very shy kids, it gives
    them a structure and a platform
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    and rules to be able to do that.
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    >>And then the shark
    ate all the turtles.
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    >>For other kids, it gives them that
    much-needed like
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    "This is my turn. I've been
    wanting this all day long!"
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    So it depends on the child.
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    But it is very powerful for everyone
    to have that kind of spotlight on you.
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    >>Wow, look at the shark.
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    Look at the shark!
Title:
Building Literacy Skills With Dramatic Play
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Amplifying Voices
Project:
Promotion of Literacy Worldwide
Duration:
03:44

English subtitles

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