Embracing Play with Middle School Learners

As I write this post, I am observing a class of high school students who are finishing an exam. In the moments that they finish, they begin to turn and engage in wordless games using gestures. Contrary to what some might suggest, older students are still kids. Concepts of play are often readily embraced in early grades, but fall off in some teaching and classroom practice as children grow older. This complete move away from play, however, need not be the case. 

Researchers like Karen Wohlwend and Jennifer Rowsell have connected concepts of play with ideas like toys and their nature as texts, and the concept of playful (ludic) interaction with digital media.

There are a number of ways to include play in learning with middle school students, from simple to complex, as I will explore through the rest of this post.

Learning New Concepts

When learning new concepts and connecting ideas to prior learning, games and play can be useful. For example, mad lib and fill in the letter games can be simple ways to learn new words and connect them to literacy learning. In hexagonal thinking, students connect ideas from one text or concept to another, lining up the places where ideas connect using physical cards or tiles.

This type of hexagonal thinking can be applied in creative ways, like connecting strands of mathematical relationships, linking historical events, examples of cause and effect, or task-specific steps. Any concepts that can be connected can become the basis for play pieces, which can then be useful for play.

Literacy resources like Words Their Way (available from Pearson) include ideas for readers at a variety of learning levels to connect and sort new types of words and word relationships. This sorting approach can be an inspiration for categorizing and sorting any type of content that exists in different types of relationships, from historical events to science-based categories.

Engaging Review

In many places, students begin multiple choice high stakes testing in the third grade. When doing end of semester or end of the year review, creativity can help diminish multiple choice burnout before students take final exams or summative tests. 

Simple trivia games using flash cards or white boards in small groups can be inviting ways to remember concepts. Including artistic responses can be playful in its own way, with review games like Pictionary and invitations like asking students to create their own board games to explore and review concepts.

Students can create board games that represent the plots of books, as well as connections among concepts, and can use existing board games as a way of inspiring spinoffs on classic games. Both Pictionary and a game board-based design process for representing a string of ideas engage higher-order thinking/synthesis skills, requiring students to understand concepts and then apply them in new ways.

Digital and Old School Toys

Adding to the idea that toys are texts, using action figures, Legos, and other types of playful objects can be inventive tools for telling stories. In the past, I have had students create stories demonstrating narrative elements or major ideas using toys which could be presented in videoed format. This additional element of digital media allowed children to add sound and visual effects, and I created my own examples as mentor texts.

Literacy scholar James Gee has examined the ways that video games can be useful for learning, and Jennifer Rowsell, noted earlier, has studied the way children playfully engage with iPads and other forms of technology. There are a variety of options that already exist for learning in digital modes, including online game sites like Blooket. These types of games have been available for a number of years and can inspire your own game-like development with your child.

The narrative architecture of popular video games and the community-building that is part of online gaming can be activated for its own learning value. For example, inviting a child to create a how-to on gaming can be a meaningful way to include literacy skills and using a video game as a basis for an inquiry project can add interest for some students.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I normalize play as learning for my child?

A: It can be helpful to engage in play yourself as teacher and learning leader. Embracing play, creating your own mentor texts with toys, and connecting toys to your sense of nostalgia and learning are important.

Q: Does play really benefit my child in learning?

A: While it might depend to some degree on the type of play, engaging in ludic interaction can be useful in building knowledge of concepts, as well as learning norms and social boundaries.

Q: What qualities or ingredients should I keep in mind when designing play-based learning for older students?

A: Learning and play should ultimately be an experience that is positive both for thinking development and as an active engagement. With this in mind, learning as play should be designed around what children enjoy doing – from athletic movement and skills to creation and design.

In many cases, the student can take the lead in designing games to learn and in finding inventive ways to practice new concepts and review important ideas or skills.