Spring 2021      Volume 49, Number 2

Honoring Young Children’s Sense-Making: Lessons from Our Young Children on the Importance of Play in (Remote) School
By Kristine M. Schutz and Rebecca Woodard

Document: Column

Introductory Paragraph:  This is the second installment of our column, “Honoring Children’s Sense-Making,” which explores how teachers can work toward seeing young children as sense-makers who are constantly witnessing and participating in language, texts, and the world. In a previous issue of the Illinois Reading Council Journal, we offered educators’ recommendations for incorporating a stance toward seeing children as sense-makers in their everyday practice (see Schutz & Woodard, 2019), including the importance of designing “‘kid-honoring’ learning environments that foster collaboration and play” (p. 10). Our own young children have repeatedly reminded us how play and collaboration fuel their own learning and sense-making during remote learning. As we interweave examples of our own children’s textual, interest-driven, physical, and social play with research on children’s literacy learning, we highlight the ways that play supports sense-making and literacy learning. We conclude with recommendations for designing “kid-honoring” learning environments—online or in-person—that honor play.

DOI:   https://doi.org/10.33600/IRCJ.49.2.2021.52

Page Numbers:   52-58