Four Schools Try Play-Based Learning

Recess is no longer the only time New Haven’s students will get to play around.

After a successful test run this summer, administrators are planning to take a freer form of teaching, known as play-based learning, to Pre‑K to Grade 3 classrooms throughout the district within the next six years.

They’ll start out this year with pre-kindergarten classes at Bishop Woods Architecture & Design Magnet School, Columbus Family Academy, Strong 21st Century Communications Magnet School (soon to be renamed Barack H. Obama Magnet University School), and Dr. Reginald Mayo Early Learning Center.

(Conte-West Hills Magnet School already has its own form of play-based learning in place, developed with the Seedlings Educators Collaborative.)

Pamela-Augustine Jefferson, the district’s new director of early learning programs, announced that roll-out at a recent meeting of the Board of Education’s Teaching & Learning Committee in the district’s Meadow Street headquarters.

She said the district is still trying to line up funding, probably through the state’s Alliance District grant, that will allow it continue working with the Gesell Institute of Child Development that helped set up the summer school pilot, especially on training a new set of coaches.

In play-based learning, teachers come up with hands-on activities that indirectly get at fundamental math and writing lessons, rather than drilling them through worksheets. The teacher becomes more like a ​“facilitator,” Augustine-Jefferson said.

“The big piece is wondering questions, like ​‘What is home?’ or ​‘Why do we need water?’ Then they do open-ended work to explore those things” in a way that’s cross-curricular and standards-based, Augustine-Jefferson added. ​“We want them to turn kids on to learning, to be problem-solvers. We want the scores too [because] that is a measure of how effective that is.”

It’s not supposed to be a free-for-all with a box of toys in the middle of the room, but a guided pursuit of what kids are curious about knowing about the big theme. That’s why Acting Superintendent Iline Tracey said she prefers to call it an ​“inquiry” or ​“exploration.”

Whatever the name, experts say it’s a more developmentally appropriate model that develops creativity and encourages collaboration, which can in turn build up language by talking with classmates.

The model isn’t entirely new. Play was common in kindergarten up until the Bush-era No Child Left Behind Act shifted the emphasis to preparing for annual high-stakes tests. At that point in New Haven, they ​“literally” took the sandboxes out of kindergarten classes, remembered Keisha Redd-Hannans, the district’s assistant superintendent.

The challenge for administrators now will be figuring out how to merge those two ideas. Is there a way students can pick out what they want to do, while still following mandatory Common Core curricular standards? Augustine-Jefferson said it might be ​“a little messy at first” as the district builds its own model.

“It doesn’t mean that we don’t have to teach the foundational skills, but we don’t want [guided play] to be just an hour in the day,” she said. ​“We want it to be something that we do.”

The district conducted its first training for all pre-kindergarten teachers last month, and it plans to hold a more in-depth session for the four elementary schools early next month.

The big questions, so far, have been what materials teachers need for the stations that will explore facets of the main theme, said Mary Derwin, the district’s school readiness director.

Susan DeNicola, Strong School’s principal, said she signed her school up, because they’re ​“looking forward to seeing kids explore education from a different aspect,” not just with pencils and paper, but with ​“a little more of their creative abilities.”