Excerpted from chapter 1 of Read, Play, and Learn!®, Storybook Activities for Young Children: The Transdisciplinary Play-Based Curriculum by Toni W. Linder, Ed.D., with invited contributors

Copyright © 1999 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Read, Play, and Learn!® is a play-based, storybook-oriented curriculum that you and the children with whom you work are going to enjoy. Utilizing storybooks as a framework for providing highly stimulating experiences for learning, this curriculum offers a functional approach to educating young children. Read, Play, and Learn!® allows you to incorporate skills training across all of the developmental domains while letting children select what is motivating to them and have fun while learning.

Using the charm of storybooks, you, the facilitator, with your learners' parents/caregivers and other team members, provide a theme-based approach to encouraging and supporting each child's growth and development. The curriculum consists of this Teacher's Guide and a series of instructional modules, each designed around a popular storybook. The modules creatively build from the concepts, ideas, actions, and events of the stories in order to make learning more relevant for children. Each module is used for 2 weeks or longer as appropriate to your needs. Each day begins with the reading of the story followed by a range of activities for the many centers of a preschool or kindergarten class or a child care program. The retelling and rereading of the storybooks each day enhance emergent literacy skills, whereas the many suggested activities help promote children's growth across the core domains of development.

The design of this curriculum not only gives you a fun way to teach children between the chronological ages of 3 and 6 years, but it also shows you, through the inclusion of specialists in the planning process, how to incorporate therapeutic interventions for children functioning at a younger age, even those as developmentally young as 1 or 2 years. Employing themes in the classroom enables children to engage in a variety of activities suited to their developmental abilities and all relating to the same concepts. Repetition of these concepts across numerous and diverse situations encourages the generalization of knowledge and skills. Vocabulary, actions, and information related to the themes contained in the storybooks are expanded into activities that enhance cognitive (problem-solving), social-emotional, communication and language, and sensorimotor skills. Emerging literacy development is also encouraged through the child's familiarity and comfort with the storybook and the activities and environment developed for the module.

Although the curriculum presents ideas for centers and activities for 2-week units related to individual stories, each story is intended to serve as a flexible foundation for team planning for children of all developmental levels. The activities may be spread out over a longer period of time or may be deleted or adapted as dictated by the length of the day and needs and interests of the children. It should also be noted that the storybooks used for the curriculum framework are not the only books to which the children are exposed. Throughout the day at the Literacy Center and during reading time, many other books will be available and will be explored and read. The storybook serves as the thematic core around which other books can be integrated.

What Are the Goals of the Curriculum?

In Read, Play, and Learn!®, the desired educational and developmental outcomes result from play activities and experiences that all derive from and relate to the expansion of concepts and actions presented in various storybooks. Reading the story and dramatizing the story are accentuated first in the Read, Play, and Learn!® modules as they lay the foundation for the other centers and activities within the classroom. Areas, or centers set up around the room with various activities related to the story, are designed to provide toys, materials, and experiences to address specific developmental outcomes.

Individualization of instruction takes place as a result of the adaptations provided for each child within the center and the interactions among the child, other peers, and you, the facilitator, who is encouraging learning while the children are hard at play. Not only can children become involved in the telling and dramatizing of the story, but they can also have developmental needs and literacy skills reinforced through the supplemental activities in the various play areas. Infusion of emerging literacy development into a play-based, storybook-oriented curriculum is a potent means of presenting the written word, visual symbols, concepts about print, and sequential storytelling within a meaningful context for children.

The goals of Read, Play, and Learn!® are as follows:

1. To enable all children to actively participate through play in classroom activities that are relevant, challenging, and designed to promote independent learning and facilitate developmental progress
   
   
2. To provide a literature-based framework for learning for all children that encompasses cognitive, social-emotional, communication and language, and sensorimotor development
   
   
3. To encourage learning across the above domains (Goal 2) in a literacy-rich environment that expands children's competence and methods of expression and broadens their desire to learn to read, write, and communicate through numerous modalities, including print

Thus, Read, Play, and Learn!® is a transdisciplinary play-based curriculum (TPBC). This term represents a very important way of thinking about planning for young children's learning because it encompasses the perspectives of the different domains of development and focuses on building your curriculum with activities that are motivating to each child. (The origins of the TPBC concept, as well as related readings on transdisciplinary play-based assessment and transdisciplinary play-based intervention, are described briefly later in this chapter; see page 14.)

What Are the Components of the Curriculum?

The Read, Play, and Learn!® curriculum is presented in a series of individual booklets, or instructional modules. Each module features a different popular children's story and presents engaging, theme-based activities to accompany that story. (The storybooks themselves are available through local libraries or bookstores as well as on the World Wide Web; you can try such sites as www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com; complete bibliographic data appear in each module.) Suggestions for additional stories are provided at the back of each module, some of which may be appropriate substitutions if you have trouble obtaining the recommended storybook. Before using any of the modules, be sure that you are thoroughly familiar with the contents of this Teacher's Guide.

The Storybook Modules

The storybook modules range in topic from seasonal themes to predictable sequences, from emotional issues to culture heritages. Some are based on storybooks that are just plain fun. The storybook modules of Read, Play, and Learn!® are offered in easy-to-use booklets that are sold in boxed sets referred to as "Collections." Collections 1 and 2 each contain eight modules, and together they span a typical fall-to-spring school year (see page 74 of each module for ordering information, and contact Brookes Publishing for information on the availability of other collections):

Collection 1

1. The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn
   
   
2. Somebody and the Three Blairs, by Marilyn Tolhurst
   
   
3. Picking Apples & Pumpkins, by Amy and Richard Hutchings
   
   
4. The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, by Linda Williams
   
   
5. The Knight and the Dragon, by Tomie dePaola
   
   
6. Abiyoyo, by Pete Seeger
   
   
7. Night Tree, by Eve Bunting
   
   
8. The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats

Collection 2

9. A Porcupine Named Fluffy, by Helen Lester
   
   
10. First Flight, by David McPhail
    
    
11. Friends, by Helme Heine
    
    
12. The Three Billy Goats Gruff, by Janet Stevens
    
    
13. The Three Little Javelinas, by Susan Lowell
    
    
14. A Rainbow of Friends, by P.K. Hallinan
    
    
15. Franklin Has a Sleepover, by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark
    
    
16. The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister

Throughout the chapters of this Teacher's Guide, you will find illustrative examples drawn from these stories.

You can use the modules in the sequence suggested by these collections or in any other order that suits your needs, that suits the time of year or your geographic location and climate, or that suits the interests of your learners. Users are also invited to develop additional modules following the same or a similar format. New modules may be developed by brainstorming with a team around creative activities and experiences or a favorite book. Selected ideas should be organized into center-based applications and sequenced to be sure that the various play areas across the day are interrelated. Modules may also be submitted for possible inclusion in future collections; inquire with the publisher, or watch for more information at our web site at www.brookespublishing.com.

The Module Format

Each module follows the same format and has the following sections:

1. The Story: A brief retelling or summary of the picture book, with information on where to get the book
   
   
2. The Planning Sheets: Charts for at-a-glance reference to all of the suggested activities for the 2 weeks
   
   
3. Vocabulary: A list of the key words and concepts, including labels, action words, and descriptors, to which the children can be introduced in the module
   
   
4. Materials: A list of the toys and equipment, supplies, food, and other items needed for the module
   
   
5. Areas/Centers: A description of 10 days of different activities for each area or center in the classroom, plus suggested modifications for the children functioning at the sensorimotor, functional, and symbolic levels of learning (described in the next section)
   
   
6. How to Involve Families: Sample letters with recommendations to help keep family members or other caregivers informed
   
   
7. More Suggestions: Additional storybooks and other activities (e.g., songs, fingerplays, resources, computer games) that can be used with the module

The centers, or areas of the classroom referenced previously, include a place for reading the story at the start of each day; an area to dramatize the story; a literacy center; areas for sensory and motor play; an art area; and sites for science and math activities, floor play, table play, outdoor play, woodworking, and snack. These centers may be distinct or may overlap. For example, a miniature story scenario might be found on the table, on the floor, or on the floor combined with the block area to encourage further building of the scenario. All of the areas may be set up in the room, or the team may choose to generate only a few of the areas or centers at one time. Team members from half-day and full-day programs may use the centers differently. Full-day programs may have centers grouped for morning and afternoon or may offer children more time at the centers. The team may add to or change the areas for each storybook as is deemed necessary to maintain the children's high level of involvement (see Chapter 4). Use your imagination, and have fun with the design of your classroom or child care center.

Levels of Understanding and Learning

Activities and experiences are developed within the curriculum at three developmental levels across each of the areas. These three levels are not geared to specific ages but are somewhat flexible groupings of developmental age levels in the cognitive and language domains to simplify planning for an entire classroom of children. More information about developmental levels and specific guidelines for individualized planning for children are provided in Transdisciplinary Play-Based Intervention, Second Edition (Linder, 2008), as described later in this chapter (see "Are There Related Products?" on page 14).

The first level of understanding and learning is the sensorimotor level (sometimes called the exploratory level), when children are interested in concrete labels and meanings, social interactions, and physical manipulation of the environment. Learning takes place through various forms of sensory exploration. This level corresponds roughly to the cognitive and language levels of children functioning from early infancy to about 18 months of age.

The second level of understanding and learning is the functional level, when children are interested in listening and watching, imitating, relating, and beginning to sequence ideas and actions. Learning becomes more socially instigated but is still very concrete and sensory, involving functional objects and actions. This level coincides approximately with children functioning from about 18 months to 3 years of age.

The third level, approximately 3 years of age and older, is the symbolic level, when children become interested in learning and representing their understandings though a variety of representational and symbolic means, including fantasy play, storytelling, music, dance, art, drawing, and print.

The suggestions provided in the Read, Play, and Learn!® modules at these three levels will expedite planning, as these levels will encompass the ready-to-learn, or cognitive, levels of all the children in the class. Modifications will also need to be made for the physical, social, and sensory disabilities that may compromise children's learning. Suggestions for these adaptations are in Chapters 4, 5, and 6.

Where and When Can the Curriculum Be Used?

Read, Play, and Learn!® can be implemented in any child care, preschool, early education, Head Start, or kindergarten program that emphasizes a developmental approach to learning. It can be utilized with various schedules within programs. The activities and experiences suggested in the modules can be included in "choice" times, spread out through the day, or extended over a longer period of time than the recommended 2 weeks. Your educational and therapeutic team should meet on a regular basis to determine which of the modules' activities will motivate the children to become absorbed in the play, which need to be modified, what sequence of activities is desired, and whether additional experiences will be needed to supplement the ones suggested in the curriculum. The team plans from the modules provided, implements the activities selected, and meets to evaluate and discuss the effectiveness of activities for individual children.

Why Use Read, Play, and Learn!®?

As a transdisciplinary play-based curriculum, Read, Play, and Learn!® is valuable for two reasons: It ensures success in a literacy-based culture, and it capitalizes on the children's natural inclinations.

To Ensure Success in a Literacy-Based Culture

Play is the natural mode of learning for young children. Many early education programs, however, emphasize preacademics in preparation for academic curricula for school-age children. As academics assume greater significance in the early learning environments, play is frequently deemphasized. Some curricula accentuate developmental domains, with only cursory inclusion of emerging literacy development. Other curricula are primarily focused on teaching preacademic skills and stressing memorization of letters, sounds, numbers, and words. Either approach does a disservice to children. Literacy can and should be encouraged in developmentally sound sequences using motivating methods to which young children can relate. Few pastimes are more motivating to children than play. The use of literature and play activities related to storybooks provides teachers with a natural mode for developing a literacy-rich environment that infuses into the curriculum the necessary cognitive, language and communication, motor, and social components to build literacy skills. Phonemic awareness, an important component of literacy development, can be addressed along with the listening, comprehending, and communicating skills that lay the foundation for literacy development.

To Capitalize on the Children's Natural Inclinations

The combination of literature and play builds on two interests of young children: 1) the desire to learn about and communicate to others knowledge about the people, places, things, and ideas that are having an impact on the children's world; and 2) the need to increase the number of ways that such knowledge can be acquired and shared. Edwards, Gandini, and Forman (1995) identified many "languages" that children use. In addition to verbal language, children use bodily expression to communicate in many ways, including gestures, actions, words, dramatizations, and pictures, among others. Emerging literacy development can best be fostered through means that tap into these natural forms of learning and expression, specifically through the highly stimulating venue of play. Dramatic play enables a child to represent his or her world through symbolic actions. Communication through words or signs enables a child to communicate through yet another symbolic system. Learning to read and write involves developing an understanding of a new symbol system to represent words and ideas. Once children develop an awareness of this written symbol system and learn to use symbols as a means of expression, they then can move through the cognitive, language, and fine motor developmental sequences needed to use this symbol system to both acquire and impart information.

Who Can Benfit from Read, Play, and Learn!®?

The benefits of a curriculum based on literature and play are numerous. Although young children are the obvious targets of the curriculum, others profit as well. Individuals who work with children and parents/caregivers in homes with young children will acquire new knowledge and skills that will improve their abilities to enhance children's development.

Young Children

All young children whose cultures recognize the importance of self-expression in its many forms can benefit from Read, Play, and Learn!® Children, whether typically developing, advanced, or experiencing delays or deviations in their development, need a foundation that will inspire them to learn to listen, think, communicate, and learn about their world in as many modes as possible. The use of storybooks that capture interests and imaginations provides the framework for young learners to become involved in experiences that challenge them developmentally.

People Who Work with Young Children

Because the storybook curriculum incorporates ideas from all developmental domains and modifies activities and interactions to meet the needs of a wide spectrum of children, the people who work with young children can also benefit from this curriculum. Most teacher-training programs do not prepare teachers adequately to understand the disparate learning and developmental needs of young children with a broad range of abilities. In fact, most "methods" courses for teachers of young children focus on typically developing children. The trend toward including children of all ability levels into a single learning environment, however, necessitates the expansion of teachers' knowledge and skills related to working with a group of children with diverse learning needs.

This curriculum provides teachers and other team members with strategies as well as the justification for using those strategies to facilitate the development of children with and without disabilities in all of the developmental domains. When transdisciplinary teams use the curriculum for planning purposes, team members learn from each other how best to meet the needs of individual children. Discussing what modifications will be needed for specific children, planning for the adaptation of content and strategies, and identifying the facilitation techniques appropriate for each child lead to better teaching and intervention for all children.

Parents/Caregivers

Parents of young children are viewed as key players in Read, Play, and Learn!® After all, the "T" in TPBC stands for "transdisciplinary," and that means parents, too. Parents know their children better than anyone else, and teachers miss an important opportunity to extend learning if they do not invite family members to participate. The storybook themes provide an easy mechanism for parents to replicate school readings at home as well as a centerpiece for discussing the child's experiences at school each day. You can provide parents with guidelines for helping their children to love listening to, reading, and writing words and stories. (Chapter 8 gives you plenty of information, including handouts to photocopy and send home, that shows families how they can use the storybooks and make their homes literacy-rich environments for everyone.) In addition to the family materials in this Teacher's Guide, each module includes sample letters you can send to parents. The letters introduce each book, explain what is going to be happening in the classroom, and provide suggestions for how the fun at school can become fun at home. Back-and-forth communication between home and school is an important element of a successful program. Through written communication, spoken exchange, and classroom participation, parents should be integral members of your educational team.

Substantial family participation and involvement is critical for effective child assessment and education. Research has shown that children's development is enhanced across all domains and that children show an increased interest in school when their parents are involved in their education (Coleman, 1991; Powell, 1989; Rich, 1985). Indeed, parents, teachers, and schools overall benefit from effective communication, information exchange, participation in school activities, and educational planning (Wishon, Crabtree, & Jones, 1998).

Who Can Use Read, Play, and Learn!®?

Most curricula for young children are designed to be used by teachers or early childhood educators. By its very label as a transdisciplinary play-based curriculum, however, it is clear that Read, Play, and Learn!® can be used by professionals in many disciplines. As classrooms become larger or more children with special needs are included in general education classrooms, teacher assistants and other professionals come to play a vital role in the implementation of the curricula. Administrators, too, now play a greater role in supporting classroom environments and explaining the curriculum to parents and the community.

Teachers, Early Childhood Educators, and Reading Specialists

The curriculum can be used by child care providers, Head Start instructors, preschool and kindergarten teachers, early childhood professionals, and reading specialists in consultation with related-services professionals. The recommended model is 1) inclusive, integrating children with special needs into the classroom; 2) transdisciplinary, integrating various disciplines into assessment, planning, and direct classroom education and intervention; and 3) developmental, integrating hierarchical skills and developmental processes into the curriculum. Teachers will be able to use Read, Play, and Learn!® to plan for both groups and individual children.

Therapists and Related-Services Personnel

The curriculum will assist speech-language pathologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, mobility specialists, vision and hearing specialists, and other professionals in incorporating intervention and therapy into the functional, meaningful activities of the classroom. Professionals can also use the classroom activities as a common basis for discussion of approaches in communicating with each other about individual children's needs. Other members on your team could include a nurse, psychologist, nutritionist, or any specialist assisting the children in your classroom.

Teacher Assistants

Teacher assistants can be more meaningfully involved in the classroom program because the curriculum involves all staff in planning and implementing the daily activities as well as modifying them to meet individual children's needs. The structure of the Read, Play, and Learn!® curriculum will enable the assistant to understand not only the activities but also the justification for modifications. The assistant should be involved in planning meetings with the rest of the staff.

Administrators

Administrators will be able to use the curriculum to define the goals, outcomes, and educational and therapeutic processes that frame education for the early years. The philosophy of Read, Play, and Learn!® and the other transdisciplinary play-based products supports the acquisition of developmental and preacademic skills necessary for success in the elementary school years. The unification of cognitive, language, social, and motor development with emerging literacy development creates a program that is educationally and developmentally sound.

Are There Related Products?

Read, Play, and Learn!® is an extension of the other transdisciplinary play-based work from Toni Linder. Because most classrooms and child care settings today have children of varying ability levels, you will likely want to become familiar with the other transdisciplinary play-based products as well. Transdisciplinary Play-Based Assessment, Second Edition (Linder, 2008) presents a process for assessing the functional level of children from birth to 6 years of age, across cognitive, social-emotional, communication and language, and sensorimotor development. The process enables people observing the child's play to also determine the child's learning style, interests, and most positive interactional patterns. The information gained from this assessment can then be translated into educational and/or therapeutic program plans. Transdisciplinary Play-Based Intervention, Second Edition (Linder, 2008) presents strategies, materials, and learning experiences appropriate for children at varying levels of development from birth to age 6 who demonstrate differing learning and interaction styles. The strategies provided are individualized for the children depending on their developmental level and personal characteristics. These two volumes link assessment and intervention to provide a holistic approach to learning for each child.

Read, Play, and Learn!® provides a means for bringing the individualized focus of transdisciplinary play-based assessment (TPBA) and transdisciplinary play-based intervention (TPBI) into use in group settings. The TPBI approach introduces the use of storybooks but does not highlight it as a key component; Read, Play, and Learn!® ties together cognitive, language, motor, and social aspects of development. In other words, Read, Play, and Learn!® lets you integrate developmental and cross-domain intervention and education into a classroom of children of varying ability levels. Read, Play, and Learn!® can be used in conjunction with other assessment and intervention approaches, but the model is designed specifically to build on the same theoretical and philosophical foundations as TPBA and TPBI. The holistic appraisal of individual children's abilities and needs through observation of play is fundamental to all of the components of the play-based system. As with TPBA and TPBI, flexibility in order to better meet the needs of children is vital. All of the transdisciplinary play-based books (Linder, 2008) are available from Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Professionals who want to use Read, Play, and Learn!® but are unfamiliar with the TPBA and TPBI can use the storybook curriculum as their starting point. The other volumes are not necessary but will help you when you need to write individualized family service plans (IFSPs) or individualized education programs (IEPs) for any of the children in your classroom. Observing children while engaged in various play activities within the classroom using the TPBA guidelines can help team members assess where and how children are functioning. The TPBI volume then actually gives you a "Planner" of play materials and suggested opportunities, intervention guidelines, and more to develop individualized programs for children who need extra assistance.

Is a Transdisciplinary Team Essential?

Read, Play, and Learn!® is meant to be used by a transdisciplinary team, and staff who are using the curriculum are encouraged to seek professional consultation when planning for the needs of children with developmental delays or disabilities. The greater the input obtained from related-services professionals on adaptations and intervention strategies, the more effective the curriculum will be for each child. The goal of having each child participate to a maximum level in each module can best be achieved through team planning, demonstration, and support. Consequently, team members also need to be involved in the classroom as often as possible. It is recognized, however, that not all programs have access to specialized professionals on a regular basis. For this reason, the curriculum provides some guidance on how to modify activities for children with differing ability levels and various types of disabilities.

Has Read, Play, and Learn!® Been Field-Tested?

The modules contained in the curriculum have been field-tested in two programs with differing levels of professional involvement. At one site, implementing a reverse mainstreaming model, therapists functioned as part of the classroom team, with a teacher, a teacher assistant, and one therapist (alternately a speech-language pathologist or an occupational therapist) in the classroom with the children. All of the team members were involved in planning and evaluating the program together. In another inclusive site, teacher assistants were responsible for classroom program implementation with outside consultation from representatives of various disciplines. The model was effective in both sites, with children of all levels and with all types of disabilities, as well as with children who were within the average or gifted range of abilities. In the Foreword "Teacher to Teacher: A Personal View of Read, Play, and Learn!®," one teacher who taught in both sites provides a qualitative review of her experiences with the curriculum in both of these sites.

Conclusion

Professional development on this title is available through Brookes On Location!

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