Play and dialogical reading Stig Broström Professor Aarhus University, Department of Education The Research Unit of Childhood, Learning and Curriculum Studies Stbr@dpu.dk Paper presented at International Council for Children’s Play, 26th World Play Conference. Tallin, Estonia on the 17 and 19 June 2012 Introduction Based on the hypothesis that dialogical reading followed by verbal dialogues, drawings and play contributes to children’s language development, this study examines following problem: Will the soul of play (e.g. voluntary and independence) be spoiled when children’s play is organized by the preschool teacher in order to adapt and rewrite the story? The paper contains three parts. The first part: “Dialogic reading” introduce the concept dialogical reading and research on the effect of dialogical reading, and also the increasing effect when dialogical reading is followed by play. Part two: “Play” deals with theories on play and play related to dialogical reading. Part three: “Dialogical reading and play” presents different forms of play, which might be useful for dialogical reading. Part four “An example from practice” reports extract from a course of events with dialogical reading and play. Finally in the conclusion I reflect on the proposed question: Will the soul of play be destroyed? Dialogical reading1 In 1988 the American psychologist Grover Whitehurst and colleague described a specific form for reading for children, which at that time was named ‘interactive reading of picture book’. Parallel with reading aloud the reader also put questions to the children, and too the children comment the book and they also ask questions. During the next decade the method was developed, and Whitehurst tried out the evidence for this method. 1 This part is based on Kristine Jensen de Lopez and Jette Løntoft, a book in progress Broström, de Lopez, Løntoft (in press) Dialogisk Læsning [Dialogical Reading]. 1 Whitehurst has not explicit described the theoretical foundation. However, there is a mixture of a number of developmental psychology theories consisting of behaviourism, Bandura’a theory of social learning (Whitehurst & Vasta, 1975), and also Vygotsky’s (1978) idea of zone of proximal development. The reason for to develop the method of dialogical reading was the fact, that in the 1990’ about 35% of American children had not achieved vocabulary and sentence structure corresponding to their ages. In other words they were described as not ready for school. Doing dialogical reading, the children are challenged not only to listen at the story but they also are invited to speak about the story, which gives opportunity to make use of the words and sentence from the book. They imitate sentences from the book, and early research from the 1960’ shows that children not only imitate but they do selective imitation (Slobin & Welsh, 1967; Whitehurst & Vasta, 1975). If children for example are asked to repeat a sentence, which is more difficult than they are able to manage, in order to make sense, they will integrate what they have heard and adjust the sentence at they own level. Based on this knowledge Whitehurst and colleagues set up a hypothesis consisting of same steps children go through when they develop communicative competences. The hypothesis is named Comprehension, Imitation and Production and expresses the idea: first the child is able to understand the word without being able to produce the word or sentence; next step the child is able to imitate the word or sentence via a selective imitation (that is not an exact reproduction); and finally independently the child manages the word or sentence, and he/she is able to ‘play’ with the word or sentence in new contexts. Dialogical reading is based on the assumption of children’s language acquisition is affected by three techniques, namely practice, feed-back and scaffolding. And a little more elaborated (Jensen de Lopez, in press) following four factors can be expressed: 1) The child practice using language – imitation 2) The child offers feed-back which elaborates its language 3) The child is involved in child-adult interaction – communicative activities 4) In general the child gets positive feed-back – reinforcement or recognition In addition the preschool teacher challenges the child during the reading session, using Vygotky’s concept (1978) the child and preschool teacher construct a zone of proximal development. Above understanding is expressed in a more advanced matter by Michael Tomasello (1999), who shows the fact, that children’s communicative competences is embedded in cultural learning. Via general socio-cultural skills like imitation, shared attention, categorize, symbolic thinking and 2 understanding of other people as intentional persons, the child becomes able to appropriate cultural tools and symbols, which is used in the child’s specific world. This understanding is in accordance with Vygotsky’s (1978) socio-cultural theory, where language is seen as a tool similar to physical tools (e.g. an axe, a computer). Thus a mental tool can be used like other tools. The child can use the language tool to affect other persons, to get their attention and also to express own ideas. However, first of all the child uses his language to make up new cognitive representations, which transform the child’s understanding and perspectives (Jensen de Lopez, in press). How to do dialogical reading Dialogical reading is reading of good quality child literature, fiction. In short the preschool teacher reads the selected book in small groups with maximum five children. The preschool teacher reads the book three times during one week, and afterwards each reading the preschool teacher and children have dialogues about the book. Whitehurst gives thorough descriptions of how to organize the dialogue with the children and he also describes five different types of questions the preschool teacher can make use of: - Questions where the child has to complete a word or sentence, e.g. “he walks uphill and… - Open questions like “what happens here?” - What, when, who- questions, e.g. “what is this?” pointing at something from an illustration - Question which helps the child to relate the story to own life, e.g. “have you ever had toothache”? The three reading aloud sessions are different. First of all gradually the children are involved more and more, and the dialogues on languages, content and illustrations are extended. The first reading is done without interruptions, and afterwards the preschool teacher and children reflect on the language, content and illustrations based on children’s questions, and the preschool teacher has to get all children motivated and interesting and to take active part. In second reading the children are invited to comment and to start dialogues. Often the preschool teacher has prepared ten selected words to speak about, and to dramatize. After the reading inspired of Chambers (1994) the individual child are also meet by a literature conversation expressed by four questions: - Did you find elements in the story which you liked? - Did you find something which you disliked? - Did you find something which concerned you? 3 - Did you find patterns in the story which you recognised and reminds you of other stories? After each reading, the preschool teacher and children make use of different forms of aesthetical activities, e.g. drawings and play. In a Danish version (Broström, Frandsen & Vilhelmsen, 2008) we made use of six different forms of reflections: conversation, retell the story, re-writing, drawing, play and dramatization. Research on effect of dialogical reading Traditional reading The general hypothesis that reading aloud has a positive effect on children’s language acquisition has been supported by several studies. A big numbers of research show a coherence between adult’s reading aloud and development of children’s language and also later reading skills (e.g. Robbins & Ehri, 1994; Sénéchal & LeFebre, 2002; Silvén et al., 2003). More specific a study by Crain-Thoreson & Dale (1992) shows that children between one and three years, who were used to listen to reading and also speaks with their parents, achieved a more extend vocabulary expressed in preschool; more in the age of seven they also had an extended verbal skills and better text comprehension compared with children of the same age, who do not meet reading. Further The Bristol Study of Language Development shows a correspondence between how often children in preschool participated in reading sessions and their knowledge on literacy at school start plus general academic knowledge five years later (Wells, 1983; Aukrust, 2005). Among several research (e.g. Heath, 1982), a new review made by Vibeke Grøver Aukrust (2005) about early language activities in preschool shows an effect on children’s literacy competences, among other things a relation between children’s oral language in preschool and later reading abilities. However, this is contradict by the Danish reading researcher Carsten Elbro (1997), who refers to a review on 31 published investigations (Scarborough & Dobrich, 1994) saying there is shown an effect on children’s general language development but not reading abilities. Probably the controversy is about how to define the term ‘reading’, how narrow this is defined. But no doubt children achieve and reading interest and pleasure. 4 Dialogical reading and play When it comes to reading of literature followed by dialogues research the effect seems to be rather evident. Whitehurst and colleagues have shown that dialogical reading not only has an effect on children’s vocabulary but also on their narrative competences (Whitehurst et al., 1994; Lever & Sénéchal, 2011). Also a new research done by Lever & Sénéchal, 2011) investigating 40 children aged five and six shows am improvement of their abilities to structure a narrative and also their spontaneous use of mental words. Dialogical reading seems to have an effect on children’s language development in general, both the increase of vocabulary, language comprehension plus communicative competence. The effect seems to be increased when reading of the story not only is followed by different forms of verbal dialogues but also followed by a variation of aesthetic activities. Thus dialogical reading followed by role playing and drawing has an effect (Anning, 2003; Pellegrini and Galda, 1998, Silvén et al. 2003; Pellegrini and Galda, 1993; Baumer, Ferholt & Lecusay, 2005); Andresen, 2005). Inspired of Gunilla Lindqvist and Vygotsky an American study (Baumer, Ferholt & Lecusay, 2005) made op a so-called Play World based on a story, which they preschool teachers and children captured once a week and played together in this fantasy world. Children’s were forced to reflect on the relation between the Play World, fantasy world, their pretended world and the real world. Compared with a control group the experimental group achieved a higher level of narrative competences. Based on a Vygotskian approach Bodrova & Leong ((2003) has made up a numbers of adult guided play activities as for exampler socio-dramatic play in order to promote children’s literacy. In the program Tools of Mind (Bannet et al., 2008) they describe 40 Vygosky inspired activities which has shown effect on children’s development. Also a numbers of studies (Neeley et al., 2001) using scripted play, where children have to carry through dialogues on visits on restaurant, hospital etc. show an effect on children’s development. Corresponding a study (Klein et al., 2010) on children’s involvement in both scripted play, free play and re-telling of a story contributes to children’s ability to use complex sentences, which also Leung (2008) shows. In addition a numbers of play research show the possibility to create a play-based curriculum. As an example van Oers established an experimental group of 5 years old children doing a shoe shop in which they sold and bought shoes 5 during a numbers of sessions. Compared with a control group, the children from the experimental group achieved better grades in mathematics (van Oers, 2011). To sum up there might be a basis for a combination of reading, dialogues and play. For that reason the next part will give a description of how a classroom with five to six years old children worked with reading of fiction, dialogues and play. 2. Play With reference to above, dialogical reading followed by play seems to have a positive influence on the development of children’s language and communicative competences. However, one might ask which dimensions and dynamics in play contain such a transforming power. Theory of play From a cultural-historical understanding of play it is assumed that important changes take place in the preschool child’s psyche through play. They pave the way for the child’s transition to a new level of development (Leont’ev, 1981, p. 369). Play activity has a number of benefits. Through interaction with peers and adults the child deals with signs and symbols in order to represent the culture. Signs and symbols also influence the development of higher mental functions (Leont‘ev, 1978, p. 59; Vygotsky, 1978, pp. 54-57). When children enter role-play (symbol-play, pretend play, make-believe-play, socio-dramaticplay) they make use of symbols. They replace persons and objects from reality with a symbolic representation. A stick symbolizes a gun or a sword, and they themselves pretend to be a policeman, a mother or a superhero from the outer space. Vygotsky states that the play is characterized by the fact “that in play a child creates an imaginary situation” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 93). The child is able to symbolize the reality. According to Vygotsky the reason for this is motivation. The child strives for to do what the adults are doing. The child wants to drive Mums car or fly to the moon in a spacecraft. This is not possible, but the child can fulfilment its desire through play. “[T]he preschool child enters in an imaginary, illusory world in which the unrealizable desires can be realized, and this world is what we call play” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 93). In play, children are able to master ideas and to take more advanced actions than is possible for them in non-play situations. The child raises the demand on itself and brings itself into the zone of proximal development, which Vygotsky defined as: 6 “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). This starts new processes of development. According to Vygotsky, not only will the independent actions in the zone of proximal development support new developments, but the child’s imitations also have a similar effect. The child is able to imitate actions which go beyond his or her possibilities, but not without limits. “In play a child always behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behaviour; in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself. As in the focus of a magnifying glass, play contains all developmental tendencies in a condensed form and is itself a major source of development” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 102). However, the optimistic idea that play has a leading and developmental function (Leont‘ev, 1978) has been over-interpreted, and the (often misunderstood) phrases ‘in play a child always behaves beyond its average age’ and ‘play always leads to a more advanced level of development’ have been discussed and criticized. For example, van der Veer and Valsiner (1991) argue that play does not in itself contribute to the child’s development. From their point of view, play has a development potential only when the play environment has the potential to challenge children to cross their zone of proximal development. Furthermore, Wood and Attifeld (1996) define such an environment as interaction of high quality in relation to the task, the playmates, and relations between children and adults. It may be beneficial to differentiate between two kinds of play. On the one hand, there is a ‘romantic’ understanding, free flow play (Bruce, 1991), suggesting that any play has a developing potential: just let children play and they will learn and develop automatically. On the other hand, there is play as a social interaction where the child is challenged and forced to create new meanings and understandings. Here the teacher plays an active role rather than just observing with a wait-and-see attitude. This form of play goes beyond the traditional role-play and is called border play (Leont’ev, 1981). Play embedded in dialogical reading In my understanding play connected to dialogical reading can be seen as a form of border play. In dialogical reading the children influence both the content of the dialogues, the drawing and play. However, also the preschool teacher has an active role. She lead the conservation on the book, she puts forward questions, organizes both the drawing and play sessions. In some play sessions the children 7 themselves set up play episodes related to the reading, in others the preschool teacher organizes the frame and the children fill out the frame, and sometimes she acts as play leader and organizes some in advanced defined play scenes. However, regardless of forms of play organization, the preschool teacher has to be very attentive and sensitive on both children and the play process. She has to be aware of the characterization of play and not to neglect the soul of play. First of all following four dimensions, which according to Lillemyr (2009) and based on Levy (1978), seems to characterize play: - Play is intrinsically motivated, feelings of enjoyment, motivations is a strong dimension. - Play put reality aside, suspension of reality – freedom to imagination, use of creative abilities. The child knows it is make-believe play. The child cannot fail. - The child himself has control of what happens. He can take initiatives, chose his role; the child can decide himself. - Play is characterized by interactions and communication. The child understands the signal that “this is play”. Many play researchers interpret above dimensions like play must be a matter for children without adult influence, and this has been the general understanding among preschool teachers. Thus freeflow play has been a hallmark and with reference to Lillemyr (2009), “it has long been normal to warn against an extended play-directed pedagogy” (Berg, 1992; Steinsholt, 1999), which especially is emphasized by Heinsohn and Knieper (1975). However during the last decade researchers and also practitioners argue for preschool teacher’s involvement in play (Broström, 1999; Lillemyr, 2003; Smilansky and Shefatya, 1995; Vedeler, 1997, 1999; Åm, 1984; Lindqvist, 1978; Olofsson, 1990; Singer et al., 2006; Dockett and Fleer, 1999; Wood and Attfield, 2005). Above researchers argue for the possibility to play together with children without just to push children towards the educational goal. The point is to play with children not as a “teacher” but as a play partner. Although adults never can play as a child, he/she can act playful based on knowledge both of children’s development and the essence of play. According to Leont’ev (1981) the preschool teacher has to understand and respect the dynamic and legality of the play. Like this Lillemyr (2009, p. 152-153) states: “However it is possible to do this with proper respect for both children and play. Many have also noted that it is possible to find a good balance between safeguarding the unique value of play for children and at the same time working towards educational goals that include children’s play, even as free play. For example adult’s involvement in play and the 8 development of children’s independence need not to be mutually exclusive, as it has been pointed out.“ Based on reading session and dialogues on the story it is possible to create play sessions, which on the one hand relate to the story and on the other hand go beyond. In play children must be involved in dynamic and challenging interactions. For example inspired from the reading the preschool teacher raises new dimensions. This gives opportunities for what Holzman (1997) call creative imitation. This happens when a child is doing something en a new way beyond its actual development. This is seen in play where the child imitates a role or sequence from the story and transforms and expands this in new ways. This is not not merely reproduction of roles and actions, this is creation of quite new dimensions - and, with that, new moments of learning can appear. In such interactions children not only play according to a certain theme, but they also expand on that theme. According to Engeström (1987), new knowledge, skills and actions often emerge through such activities. Engeström names this kind of learning activity ‘learning by expanding’. However, for this kind of learning to occur, children need to be provided with the raw materials; for example, participating in field trips, reading quality literature, and engaging in interesting dialogues with adults. This is exactly what dialogical reading provides. Using different kinds of play, ‘border play’ or ‘expansive play’ (frame-play, aesthetic theme play, drama-play) the boundaries of traditional role-play will be crossed. Such kinds of play can be seen as an activity situated between play and learning. Thus it can be described as a transitory activity which may have the potential to enrich the individual child, to support the development towards a learning motive (Leont’ev, 1981). The child’s transition between the two systems can be facilitated by developing a ‘transitory activity system’ which mediates between the two systems, ensuring that the result of one system serves as tool in the next (Baumer, 2003). Such a transitory activity system contains different elements, and I propose different kinds of ‘border play’. Driven by the use of children’s storytelling (Broström, 2002b), the concept of frameplay (Broström, 1999), play-drama (Baumer, Ferholt & Lecusay, 2005) and aesthetic theme play (Lindqvist, 1995) form the basis for the development of a new play concept that combines reading, literature dialogues, drawing, play, drama and philosophical dialogues. 3. Dialogical reading and play Any role-play entails the exercise of shared imagination and shared development of the theme (Garvey, 1976). For that reason, older children become more conscious of the imaginary play situation (Elkonin, 9 1980), the concrete situation they imagine. This makes it possible to introduce more advanced forms of play which go beyond children’s free flow play (Bruce, 1991). In frame-play, aesthetic theme play and drama-play, children and the teacher plan and play together, and the teacher takes an active and challenging role called ‘teacher in role’ (Lindqvist, 1995). On the basis of common experiences - for example, a field trip and of course a story - they decide a general theme (e.g. ‘What happens in the witch’s forest?’) or they invite loved characters from children’s literature into their play; for example, Pippi Longstocking (Lindqvist, 1995). The concept frame is used with reference to the importance of the imaginary play situation (Elkonin, 1980). In role-play the imaginary play situation often refers to a situation with only narrow limits. But creating a frame-play with older preschool children makes it possible to generate an extended and common imaginary play situation - a shared frame the children can use for a long time. When the children make plans for the play, and also during the play, the content is expressed, or, in Bateson’s (1972) words, the text. Simultaneously, the children give signals about how to interpret the message, the context. These signals help the play participants to understand each other. According to Bateson (1972), the establishment of the context is a psychological frame. In play with older preschool children the psychological frame is usually clear. Its function is to include certain messages and actions and to exclude others. A psychological frame has the same function as a picture frame: it tells the viewer what he or she should notice. The frame defines the context. In this new form of play, the children’s consciousness of the psychological frame is strengthened through the establishment of a real frame. For example they have read a book about a child on hospital, and then they construct the frame together: they turn the classroom into a hospital with a casualty ward and operating theatre. Supported by this physical frame, children and adults imagine themes, roles and actions. In other words: ‘they share a fantasy, which they collectively construct and modify’ (Fine, 1983, p. 12). The frame-play contains several elements decided in advance by the children and the adults. Because of the time interval between the formulation of the plan and realization of the play, the roles, rules and actions are prepared thoroughly. Often children produce lots of accessories for the play. For instance, in a frame-play involving ships, the children created an engine, a bridge, a wheel and an anchor, and also money for shopping in the store and restaurant. In this way, the frame-play is more organized and more purposeful than role-play. As well, the motives of the two kinds of play are different. In a form similar to frame-play, Gunilla Lindqvist has created ‘aesthetic theme play’. With reference to Vygotsky’s book The Psychology of Art (Vygotsky, 1971), Lindqvist (1995) argues for an 10 open and dynamic approach to play, where children’s imagination and creativity are stressed. She quotes Vygotsky, saying: ‘Art is the organization of our future behaviour. Without art there can be no new man’ (Vygotsky, 1971, pp. 253, 259). The art dimension is expressed through an aesthetic attitude and also by combining play and drama. Referring to Vygotsky, Lindqvist argues that drama is linked to play more directly than is any other form of art. ‘Children can compose the text, improvise the roles and prepare the scenic accessories: scenery and costumes, which they can paint, stick on, cut out and joint together’ (Lindqvist, 1995, p. 53). Together with a group of children, Lindqvist creates a play-world. She introduces children to specific child literature and sets up a theme; for example, ‘Alone in the big, wide world’. Loneliness is one of the most important existential questions, especially for small children who have to leave their parents to go to preschool every day (Lindqvist, 1995, p. 73). In another story taken from Nordic literature, The Dangerous Journey by Finnish author Tove Jansson, the children cope with the concept ‘fear’. “One dark chilly morning in February, Fear is lying under the bed. The teacher Karin has put on her pyjamas and a night cap. She is now Rasmus, a boy about to go to bed. ‘What if there is something under my bed? I am scared. Why is it so dark’, Rasmus asked. The children huddle closely together. Rasmus whispers: ‘Who are you? What are you doing under my bed?’ ‘I am Fear and I am frightened’ he says a thin voice” (Lindqvist, 1995, p. 78). From this starting point, children and the teachers create a play-world which can last for weeks and month. The idea is to move between reality and imagination and to establish a creative and playful atmosphere and at the same time become familiar with the chosen theme ‘fear’, which they express through monsters, ghosts, spiders and snakes. Such play not only deals with children’s daily experiences but also supports the production of aesthetic quality. Very close to Lindqvist’s aesthetic theme play, Baumer, Ferholt & Lecusay, (2005) describe a form of play named drama-play. Here three elements are integrated: - Explorative play experimenting with roles, actions and dressing-up. - Dramatization involving the preschool teachers and focused on creating a product, a story. - ‘Reflection via dialogue’, a kind of philosophical conversation with children. An example of how these elements of drama-play can be integrated is when the Russian folktale Baba Yaga was read aloud by the teacher and children were shown scenes of the film based upon the tale. 11 Inspired by class discussion of the story, the children re-create the witch’s house and are visited by the character of Baba Yaga, who shows them how to perform a conjuring trick. When children are involved in the above forms of play, they not only have fun, but are also challenged to reflect on their play and to discuss what and how they play. Such play might pave the way to the development of a learning motive. Achieving a learning motive enables the child to go beyond passive learning and to become an active learner in school. 5. An example from practice The aforementioned kinds of play, frame-play, aesthetic theme play, and drama-play, have the potential to create an educational play model which is an alternative (but not a replacement) to freeflow-play (Bruce, 1991) and also to traditional teaching. More I propose, this forms of play to be one by many ways to rewrite the shared reading. Following an extract from a Danish developmental research (Broström, Frandsen & Vilhelmsen, 2004; Broström, 2011): In a classroom with 25 six-year-old students, over a three-month period, a preschool teacher, a teacher and a researcher worked weekly with the children, divided in three groups, with different forms of play. The project experimented with activities combining literature, play, drama and dialogues. The aim was to devise a new educational method which could support children’s consciousness of their own activity and their ability to reflect on their actions, and, with that, reach an awareness of why, what and how to learn. The project was not designed to demonstrate whether these children actually achieved this. The following points characterize play which could serve as a transitory activity system: 1. Reading aloud a short story of high literary quality. 2. Based on the story, teacher and children carry engage in a structured conversation, socalled literature dialogue (Chambers, 1994). 3. After the dialogue they make drawings to illustrate their understanding of the text. 4. Then the children, in formal groups, are challenged to turn their literature experiences into play. The teacher has an observer role and also participates as ‘teacher-in-role’. 5. Sometimes the teacher asks the children to present their version of the play/story for their classmates and teachers. 6. After the presentation, the teachers and each play group hold a structured conversation called a learning dialogue. 7. During all phases, the teacher and the children have philosophical dialogues reflecting their ideas. 12 The following aspects of the developmental project illustrate some of the elements. Reading aloud With the children in small groups, the teacher read aloud five short books in the series Miss Ignora in the Water Tower. All five books display strong emotions which all children experience (friendship, anger, happiness, sorrow, shyness, disappointment and love) and inspire children to participate in philosophical dialogues which may support the development of children’s meta-cognitive thinking. The books make up a series with a recognizable structure and a permanent gallery of characters. The series differs from most traditional series for young children in that the main character develops during the books. Each book has 21 pages dominated by vigorous and expressive illustrations which support and expand on the text. The Miss Ignora books are of a high literary quality. The stories are told in simple, rhythmical and unsentimental language, and the reader can identify with Ignora. The titles reflect Miss Ignora’s development: Miss Ignora Explodes; Miss Ignora in the Schoolyard; Miss Ignora and the Starry Sky; Miss Ignora Falls in Love; Miss Ignora and George Influence their World. In the first two books, Miss Ignora and her universe are presented. When she loses her temper in front of her teacher, her best friend Nina becomes afraid and Ignora is sorry. Ignora sometimes speaks with her neighbour, a fish dealer, from whom she also occasionally steals fish. In the third book Ignora is alone: her mother has left her, and her father has died in a traffic accident. However, during the night, sitting on the top of the water tower, she speaks with him. The book also contains an episode in the schoolyard where a boy, George, scolds her. However, the fourth book focuses on the friendship with George, and the fifth book tells how Ignora and George come to the assistance of a dog in distress, and they reflect on the theme of being a person who makes a difference in the world. Literature dialogue In order to influence and enrich children’s play we first introduced the Miss Ignora stories in class, and then arranged a structured conversation around the stories. Some changes to the literary conversation method used with older children (Chambers, 1994) made it a useful tool to help young appreciate complex children’s literature and also to observe and document children’s reactions. The earlier four fundamental questions were included in our literature dialogue (Did you find elements in the story which you liked? Did you find something which you disliked? Did you find something which 13 concerned you? Did you find patterns in the story which you recognised, and which remind you of other stories?). The first day story we read aloud was Miss Ignora Explodes, in which Ignora loses her temper becoming ‘crazy’ and ‘exploding’, which upset her friend Nina. The children were also introduced to Miss Ignora’s neighbour, the fish dealer. Many cats live around his shop. After the reading session the children were invited to discuss the book. They were asked the four questions mentioned earlier. In answer to the first question: Did you find elements in the story which you liked? Several boys said they thought it ‘was cool when Miss Ignora exploded’, while the girls liked ‘when Miss Ignora apologised to the teacher’ (because of her explosion), and ‘she was nice to the cats’. In answer to the second question: Did you find something which you disliked? Many girls mentioned the explosion as a problem. A few other girls also disliked Ignora stealing from the fish dealer. Some boys also expressed reservations about stealing fish and also about Miss Ignora’s explosion. But a number of boys said: ‘There was nothing we disliked’. Children make drawings After the reading session and the dialogues, the children were invited to write and draw their reflections related to the two first questions and the debate about what they liked from the book. Some children made collective drawings in small groups, while other made individual drawings. A typical drawing was an isolated episode from the story, for example Miss Ignora feeds the cats (narrative number 1 with the text: I liked Miss Ignora feeding the cats) and Miss Ignora’s explosion in front of the teacher (narrative number 2 with the text: I did not like when she exploded). Besides these individual drawings, which make use of the content pattern (Kress and Leeuwen, 1996) there were also examples of drawings, where more than one episode was situated in the picture, where the narrative pattern became more visible. And especially in the collective drawings children managed to express the narrative dimension clearly. 14 Narrative number 1 I like Narrative number 2 I dislike When they had finished their drawings, the teachers invite them to tell a story based on their drawing, and she displayed the results on two bulletin boards, placing similar ideas side-by-side. This enabled the children to view their own answers and reflections in line with similar answers. This session led to a new dialogue, and the third question was asked: Did you find something which surprised you? Common wonders were: When they had finished their drawings, the children were invited to write and draw their answers to the two questions the teachers displayed the results on two bulletin boards, placing similar ideas side-byside. This enabled the children to view their own answers in line with similar answers. This session led to new dialogues, and the third question was asked: Did you find something, which concerned you? Common concerns were: - Why does she not have a mother? - Why does she come to that point that she explodes? - Why does she live in that strange house? - Why does she not ask for help from the fish dealer? - Why Miss Ignora’s father died in a traffic accident: ‘They do not use to die in books’, one girl said. The children’s comments formed a basis for rich conversations. Most of the children had reached a high level of attention by the time they replied to the fourth question: Did you find patterns in the story which you recognised and which remind you of other stories? 15 Some children were able to compare the stories of Miss Ignora with other well-known books for children. For example, one boy said: ‘Pippi Longstocking, both Pippi and Miss Ignora do not have a father and mother’. Another boy said: ‘It reminds me of Superman. That story starts with he has no father and mother’. A number of boys and girls referred to the story of Sleeping Beauty. Play In continuation of the children’s interest in the first three books, the teacher read the last Miss Ignora book: Miss Ignora and George Influence their World. The plot deals with Ignora and George becoming friends and freeing a dog which is wedged in a door. Then they talk about how, in doing so, they had influenced their world. After the reading session the children were invited to establish their own play events, and they quickly set up different groups to discuss the play theme, roles and actions. . One group of boys and girls was inspired by the incident involving the wedged dog, and they spent some time planning a play with many details. The characters were Ignora, George, a sour man, Ignora’s friend Nina, a dog and some cats. An extract from a transcript follows: Miss Ignora said: ‘Hey, do you like to be my boyfriend’? George answered: ‘Yes’. Miss Ignora said: ‘Then we take a promenade in the park’. Miss Ignora and George danced around. George: ‘Oh, see an old shack, it’s ugly’, and then he continued: ‘Something is whining’. Miss Ignora: ‘Yes, it is from over there, inside’. George looked around and then he said: ‘Oh, it is a nice little dog’. ‘Come here’ Miss Ignora said and then she kissed the dog at the nose. Suddenly a man showed up from the old shack. He scolded the children and cried: ‘Get out, now’! Miss Ignora said: ‘Sorry, we will …’ then she whispered to George: ‘What a sour man’. The sour man cried: ‘This is my place; buzz off, stupid children’ The two children disappeared quickly, and went away from the place. Then George said: ‘Oh, I am so hungry; let’s eat’. George and Miss Ignora established a place to eat. They sat up a table and some chairs illustrating a restaurant where they placed themselves. 16 They sat in front of each other and ate their food. Suddenly Miss Ignora burst out: ‘Oh, I forgot an appointment with Nina’. She left the table and ran over to her best friend Nina who was loudly snuffling. Then she sobbed: ‘You forgot our appointment’. ‘Sorry Nina’, Miss Ignora said, ‘I was out eating with George. Sorry, should we not play all together’? Then they started to skip. George and Nina swung the jump rope. A bit later Nina said: ‘I do not like this anymore’ and Miss Ignora said: ‘I agree’. ‘Hey’, George said, ‘look at that nice dog’. Miss Ignora said: ‘It is the sour man’s dog. Let’s return the dog to him’. George said: ‘I really don’t like to do it, but we have to’. The three children went to the sour man’s house and they knocked at his door. Then he opened and snapped: ‘Pooh… you again, toddlers’. Nina timidly said: ‘We just want to return…’, but here the sour man interrupted her with an angry ‘Buzz off’. He closed the door, and when the three children were alone with the dog, Nina said: ‘Ugh how sour he was’. ‘Right’ Miss Ignora complimented, ‘he was old, big and fat’. While the children talked together the sour man arrived and said: ‘I just want to apologize because I was so sour. I would like to give you my dog as a present’. With this remark the children decided to return to their house with the dog and eat soft rolls and drink cocoa. The above extract seems to show that the children had established a relation with the characters, the action and some of the themes in the five Miss Ignora books. They managed to set up a story line, or what Markova and Zaporozhetz (1983) calls plot: Children’s ‘reflections of certain actions, events, and interrelationships from surrounding life’. In other words, they made up a script. They focused on some specific existential themes, some mentioned in the books and some they created themselves. Thus their play displayed productive and creative dimensions close to the concept of expanding learning (Engeström, 1987) and expanding play (Broström, 1999). 17 Conclusion Based on the hypothesis that dialogical reading followed by verbal dialogues, drawings and play might contribute to children’s language development. However, the present does not investigate children’s possible language development. The idea was to create a theoretical foundation for a play approach and also an educational methodological sketch. However in advance it also problematizes the idea of using play as educational means and asked if too much adult leading will disturb the soul of play and with that both spoil play and the development dimension. In other words will the soul of play be spoiled when children’s play is organized by the preschool teacher in order to adapt and rewrite the story? Now, does my presentation give any answers? Analysis of the observed play sessions seems to show that, both in form and content, children reached a more advanced level than what could be expected via free-flow play. Many of the observed play sessions displayed creative imitations rather than mere reproduction of roles and actions. Thus they play through some themes from the book, but they also created some themes themselves. 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