Paley, Vivian (1988) discusses how children use fantasy play as a way to come over fear, she states that children who have an experience with the perception of danger and or loss will often portray fear into their fantasy play in order to prove that they are not afraid which will help them to conquered their own fears. The concept of fear can be linked to all domains of development because fear is a natural emotional that all humans feel at one time or another. I feel that this was an excellent choice of book to read in class because it captures a teachers methods of assessments without using a standardized method such as the four screeners we have previously learn about. While teachers are observing Fantasy play, children often incorporate skill building on their own terms. They use Social/ emotional concepts, Cognitive concepts, Language ,Physical development and creativity without even realizing it. This allows the assessment from the teacher to be authentic because the teacher is using an quantitative research method to collect data and make an analysis on the assessment. I have to agree with my classmate on her example that she used in her Post. Kristin used the example of the cop fantasy play and where Paley had gotten offend by the children use of language which was how they have said are now going take her away. This is a great example of portraying fear, and conquering fear because the children though they might have offended their teacher are using their conquering fear in the statement. They are showing that they understand the role of law enforcement which is a fearful topic, but because the are showing their understanding they are conquering their fear. My question to you would be what a some feared topics or plays have you encounter and how did you interoperate that play as an authentic assess
ment?
Hi Cori, thank you for sharing your post this week about Paley's book! I agree, children exhibit all these concepts (social emotional, cognitive, language, physical development, and creativity) without even realizing it. Because we know this, we're able to help scaffold a child's learning and further their understanding of said topics. Like you mentioned, Paley's approach is a much better conclusive assessment than taking a one-time "test" and basing the overall evaluation of the child off of that.
ReplyDeleteAs for your question, one example of a feared topic or play that I've encountered is gun play. I actually talked a bit about this in my post but I will elaborate here. Gun play is definitely a controversial topic in the ECE environment especially because of the dangerous repercussions and negative connotations that guns (often associated with cops) have in society today. I've been in classrooms where guns and weapons of that sort were banned and on the other side, I've been in classrooms where guns and weapons were accepted as a normal part of play. I mentioned in my response last week and I'll say it again, restricting something makes it more desirable for both adults and children. That said, gun play or games of that sort are inevitable especially because children see these things all over TV shows, in their games, and even in the daily news. It's up to us to find appropriate and acceptable ways to carry out these kinds of play. Gun play and those similar types of play can be interpreted as authentic assessment because it can be interpreted in different ways. Through the use of target practice children are practicing their physical development, when they fight monsters and protect their friends they are exercising their creativity, and when they work together and come up with a plan to defeat said monster they are utilizing their cognitive development skills by problem solving and thinking ahead.
by the way, this is Kristin :)
DeleteHi Cori,
ReplyDeleteYes, one of Paley's big ideas is the 3 F's of childhood: Friendship, Fantasy, and Fairness. Your conversation about tackling fear can definitely be seen played out through their fantasy play, but we also see evidence of friendship and fairness there as well. Paley's use of observation, documentation and assessment is quite different than other methods we've seen so far - though her work can be quite inspiring, it is also very time consuming and not "quick and easy" like some of the earlier systems we investigated. Though a lot of teachers might be interested in her methods, oftentimes I hear students say it would be very challenging to do such in-depth assessment on each child in the classroom. One point I like to make is that if you are looking at the stories of multiple children, you are assessing more than one child at one time - therefore, you are doubling, tripling, etc. up on your assessments. However, that being the case, it still takes time to actually assess the data you've collected. What might your thoughts be about both sides - that her work might be too time consuming, but also something to strive towards? How can we perhaps use some of her ideas in a way that honors her process, but is still achievable in our unique settings? Mahalo!