Playful Literacy Activities
Overview
Playful activities can support the development of learners' Metacognition and also inspire their narratives and writing. A creative task helps students brainstorm and develop their ideas prior to engaging deeply in the writing process, easing the demand on Working Memory.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch as these elementary school students use Legos as an aid in their narrative writing. Students use the Legos to brainstorm, try out different ideas, and add details to their writing. Their delight in play increases Motivation and positive Emotion towards writing.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Learn how Minecraft, an online game, provides blocks that can be used to build anything, from a scene to a full story. Additionally, multiple players can collaborate to construct creative objects or stories, allowing learners to practice Social Awareness & Relationship Skills.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Active Learning Strategies
Physically acting out a text enhances reading comprehension.
Expressing ideas through visuals and audio, and understanding others' ideas in these forms, is as critical in today's world as traditional reading and writing.
Students activate more cognitive processes by exploring and representing their understandings in visual form.
When students explain their thinking process aloud, they recognize the strategies they use and solidify their understanding.
Visiting places connected to classroom learning provides opportunities to deepen understanding through firsthand experiences.
Games help students visualize how to connect one fact to another.
Project-based learning (PBL) actively engages learners in authentic tasks designed to create products that answer a given question or solve a problem.
Response devices boost engagement by encouraging all students to answer every question.
