I can occasionally forget that 11-year-olds are still children.
11-year-old children that can self-regulate, organise their increasingly hectic schedules, empathise with causes and historical events, wonder critically, reason and apply success criteria to validate their own achievements, manage complex relationships with family, friends and teachers and evaluate the world in which they are growing up.
They emotionally react to climate change. They support each other through social pressures. They are bewildered by the national and international political climate.
When the classroom is silent, save for the sparse tapping of fingers or the scratching of pencil to paper, sonically, it’s impossible to tell the difference between this classroom and any that they will find themselves in for the next six or more years.
It is sometimes so easy to forget that 11-year-olds are children. This is a notion I push back on constantly, both desiring that ‘perfect’ quiet classroom where you can almost perceive brains whirring and maturing, all the while remembering that there are other domains in which children learn.
Play, often maligned as the opposite of learning, especially during my own childhood, is crucially important to a child’s development. Play becomes the vehicle through which children learn and internalize social rules, which develops self-regulation, and relationships with others (Vygotsky, 1978). This is a fundamental part of Early Childhood learning though it’s importance and place in child development decreases as they mature and as they develop the skills Vygotsky touches upon.
However, there are two examples of play that remind me how important the idea of play is still to students approaching Middle School. The first is Loose Parts Play.
The visual representation of a male teacher, complete with excruciatingly colourful trousers...
The Theory of Loose Parts Play was developed in 1972 by architect Simon Nicholson who proposed the designation of a place where the materials and structural elements were not binary in their use and direction. Instead, the ways in which the material or piece could be used was only limited by the user's imagination; creating the opportunity for more opportunities for creative play and engagement that conventional static structures.
Even with a burgeoning Loose Parts play space, students of ever-increasing volumes flock to the space both during standard breaks and request the space for reward time. It is an area where the conventional limits of what students can or cannot do are perceived to be relaxed and where students can get dirty, muddy, get a splinter, wreck a component, and it is all part of the fun. The pressure of academic success drains away and students creativity, self-regulation, social cues and responses to others are challenged and strengthened, just as Vygotsky proposed play should be about.
The more conventional activity that has prompted this reflection are two ‘Brain Break’ activities that both involve the use of hula-hoops. ‘Hula Crossing’ is a silent, team building style game where small groups have to move from one location to another through a small number of hula hoops, picking them up and dropping them off to progress. It involves teamwork, gross and fine motor skills and patience. In particular, it teaches students how to positively deal with failure. As soon as someone talks or a foot goes out of the hoop, the team has to go back to the very beginning and start again. This can be crushing – however, a team working well with one another acknowledges that this is a part of the game, it will happen to everyone, and the quicker they start again, the more of a lead they have on the next team to restart.
The second hula game is a current favourite and viral sensation. Hoops are placed in a line with half a class at each end. One student on each side starts to jump inside the hoops towards the other side and when they meet, they play a game of paper, scissors, rock. The winner of the game continues to jump toward the other end, the loser steps out and the next person on their team starts to hop to the other side. The game ends when one team gets their current hopper to the other side. It is wildly exciting to watch. Again, this game is all about gracious defeat. Because winning the game is based on a chance game, Paper, Scissors, Rock, all students of all abilities will at some point in the game suffer defeat. How they deal with this is the main learning intention of the game.
These two games share many common threads with Loose Parts Play; a sense of fun and play, academic-agnostic success criteria and a focus on experimental iteration of ideas.
More importantly, however, they also all remind me that the silent classroom is a part of a child’s development, but certainly not the only part. They help me remember that 11-year-olds are still big kids.