INSPIRED BY REGGIO EMILIA: Play Learning Environments

Learning Strategies Which Reflect on Imaginary Play

3 Hours and 53 Minutes of Content

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Higher education faculty and students, early childhood educators, preschools, K-Grade 3 school administration, parents and home schools networks.

Celebrating over 18,000+ students at Udemy, we release this great course describing the ways learning is driven through imaginary play.

It seems every generation of teachers rediscovers the powerful learning that occurs through imaginary play. Vygotsky, over 200 years ago, discovered that it was in this imaginary play space and time that children expand their vocabularies and stretch their social skills. If we are teaching to the whole child, we should be paying attention and creating learning environments that offer and promote imaginary play.

IN THIS COURSE WE PROVIDE:

1.  A concrete example of how imaginary play builds relationships within the classroom, across the school community and between families and the classrooms.  Join us for a discussion about a tiny woodland elf living on a preschool playground.

2.  A review of the contributions to understanding fantasy or imaginary play by author and educator, Vivian Gussin Paley.  Paley authored over a dozen books documenting the learning of children through imaginary play and storytelling.

3.  A quick review of types of play typical throughout child development, followed by a detailed focus on cooperative play.  Cooperative play is the highest form of play, often represented through the imaginary. 

Classrooms that promote and support imaginary play find that children's social-emotional, language and literacy flourish.  As social-emotional development, language and literacy are at the heart of our curriculum, we suggest that promoting and supporting Cooperative Play should be a skill set every educator must cultivate. 

Appropriately in this section, we discuss the landmark work of Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong, Tools of the Mind.

4.  A deep dive into the role of the Atelierista and school design.   The Atelierista is central to the functioning of the Reggio Emilia classrooms, connecting classrooms to each other through artistic expression.

We are reminded that we all learn by doing, by creating, by problem solving.  This our focus and intention with all interactions with children.

5. Lastly, we look at Interactive Storytelling using Open-Ended Materials. In this section, we look at how open-ended materials are a natural fit for interactive storytelling. Throughout this course you have witnessed the Six Traits of Progressive Education:

1. Foster environments that allow children to problems solve.

2. Classroom environments integrate learning across the domains.

3. Environments are designed to bring children together in small groups.

4. Learning is designed to build and construct knowledge over time - slow down!

5. Learning is not only concerned about creating good students, but also good people and citizens.

6. The burden of assessment falls on the teacher, not the student.

Focusing our efforts on language and literacy is foundational to the Hundred Languages of Children. Here we connect creating stories with open-ended materials and the human need to express our desires and imaginings.

RESOURCE MATERIALS:

Includes book reviews, article reviews, PDF article attachments.  Article reviews are provided as a means to foster discussion within teaching teams and learning groups within higher education coursework.

REVIEWS:

Priyanka – “This course is to remind me of children's potential to learn through play.”

Emily – “I love learning about all the different Reggio ideas to implement into my classroom. I can't wait to test out these ideas!”

Alefiyah – “The course is totally about what I believe and strongly feel for about the learning system. It's helping me understand myself better. Thank you.”

Victoria – “Very user friendly. Instructor is clear and easy to understand.”

Zeenat – “I really enjoyed this course!”

Tara – “This is exactly what I was looking for to start my own learning of the Reggio Emilia approach. I love the resources that are provided.”

Renee – “I appreciate the passion of the instructor. I was more involved as it wasn't a dry lecture, but a passionate one. It was helpful to have the "wrap up" at the end to bring home the points of the videos. Thank you. I gained more knowledge from this course. I would like to learn more. I do own a digital copy of the 100 Languages of Children, older edition, but it is pretty dry and I am not a textbook learner. I am a visual/doer learner. Reggio learner one might say. :)”

Christelle – “It is so interesting how we can develop children through different methods of play.”

Maria – “I am amazed by this course as of right now. I am feeling emotional and looking to learn all about Reggio Emilia. I am beyond happy to have found this approach. I am getting this course to work as a teacher in a Reggio Inspired school and I can not be more excited!! Thank you! Mary Ann Biermeier, your course has been an eye opening to me.”

Liz – “Its so rich. Concise yet powerful. Passionately presented.”

Julia – “This course was very interesting and well-done. I was engaged throughout and I feel I really learned a lot about the Reggio Emilia approach to education.”

Joanmarie – “Yes, I love it !”

Helene – “The explanation is clear and easy to follow. The flow of the presentations is organized. The examples that are given and the repetition that sometimes takes place, ensures that we focus on the main objectives behind this approach.”

Martha – “ I love this training its informative, clear and very simple to learn and adapt.”

Kartina – “It is wonderful to learn about the Reggio Emilia approach. It is my first course on Reggio education. They have been very educational, informative, practical. Good presentation, English is my second language and I was able to understand everything perfectly since the way they speak is very slow and clear. I was not mistaken in choosing you and I am sure that I will be taking more courses with Udemy!”

Dakota – “It was informative and I learned a lot. Not only how to interact with the children, but it also gave a newer perspective on how to encourage them and help them develop at their own pace.”