Assignment: Evaluating a Play Episode with Blocks
Over the past six weeks, you have considered the environmental and teacher interaction effects on a child's ability to learn during play. Your text presents two methods of classifying the developmental stages of play. One is from Piaget's theory and includes functional level play, constructive play, dramatic play, and games with rules. The other classification is based on Parten's theory and includes solitary play, parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play.
For this Assignment, write an informative essay based on the video, Playing with Blocks, that evaluates play episodes of four children with varying levels of developmental skills. Support your evaluation with citations from at least three of your sources included in your reference list. Observe each of the boys playing in the block area and describe the following:
1. What levels of play did you observe from the "Ted" in the striped shirt; "Adam" in the Celtic shirt; "Eli" in the white shirt; and "Ben" in the gray shirt? Include also the other individual developmental skills you noticed in each child in the areas of cognitive, social-emotional, physical, and language.
2. How was the environment or area set up to encourage play? What could you do to the environment to help facilitate enhanced play skills and other developmental skills?
3. As an early childhood professional, what could you have done in this classroom to help extend this child-directed activity? How could you have intervened to help promote a higher level of play and other skills for each child?
4. Describe any observed activities from the video that do or do not align with best practices.
Your paper should be 3-4 pages long, doubled-spaced, in a 12-point font size (Arial or Times New Roman) with one-inch margins, written in Standard American English, and APA format for citations and references. You must include a title page and a reference page (but these do not count in the 3-4 page guidelines). Finally, your essay should include a strong introduction and conclusion which connects your evaluation of the play episode with blocks to both Piaget and Parten's theories of play.