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Stephanie Miller & Kayla Teeling

2008-2009 SOAR Students

Title: Play in the Secondary Education English Classroom
Students: Stephanie Miller & Kayla Teeling
Faculty advisor: Dr. Joseph Shosh

Play is not just meant to be conducted at recess during school hours. Play is just as beneficial to the building of learning within the English classroom. We conducted our research based upon the English Journal, a primary source within our field of study. We discovered that professionals in the English field are using playful ways in which to engage students within the learning environment. Using drama and unique writing prompts are two ways in which students can be playful and interactive with the English Language.

Play creates progress within the classroom by building skills, socialization, and engagement among students ultimately providing rewards for students. Using play historians such as Howard Chudacoff, and play scholars such as David Elkind, to support our English professionals, we discovered that play within the classroom surfaces from activities that extend beyond rote memorization and textbook formulas. Play within the classroom is dramatizing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Play within the classroom is using imagination to create responses to literature. The main reason for play within the English classroom is to foster the engagement of students. Where there is engagement, progress follows.