Your kids love to play. They're curious learners who want to move and discover and make meaning for themselves. How might we teach reading and writing in a way that amplifies this authentic, joyful spirit of learning? What might it look like to lean into the power of this developmental phase of childhood instead of forcing structures too soon? 

Our Let’s Play course offers 5 rich sessions exploring:

  • the power and nuances of play

  • an expansive vision of "writing" that honors multiple forms of communication and leverages linguistic capacity for our multilingual learners

  • what matters most for early readers and writers

  • creating supportive, movement-rich spaces for literacy learning

  • assessment journeys and making learning visible in the play-rich early years classroom

  • ways to transfer the best of playful practices into distance and blended learning environments

Course curriculum

    1. Padlet

    1. PART 1 - Course Introduction

    2. PART 2 - Why Play? The History of Early Childhood Education

    3. PART 3 - Why Play? What Is Play and Why Is it Important in Early Childhood?

    4. PART 4 - Why Play? – The History of Early Childhood Education

    1. PART 1 - How Might Environment Ignite Joyful Learning Across the Day? [1/2]

    2. PART 2 - How Might Environment Ignite Learning Across the Day? [2/2]

    3. PART 3 - What is Agency?

    4. PART 4 - What Roles Might Teachers Take On in the Early Childhood Classroom?

    5. PART 5 - How Might I Incorporate Strategies That Promote Play in My Classroom?

    6. PART 6 - How Might I Bridge the Link Between Play and Structured Learning?

    7. PART 7 - What Learning Progressions Might Support Me When Conferring?

    1. PART 1 - What Might Next-generation Writers' Workshop Look and Sound Like in the Early Years? [1/3]

    2. PART 2 - What Might Next-generation Writers' Workshop Look and Sound Like in the Early Years? [2/3]

    3. PART 3 - What Might Next-generation Writers' Workshop Look and Sound Like in the Early Years? [3/3]

    4. PART 4 - How Might We Build Writing Identity?

    5. PART 5 - What Might 1:1 and Small Group Work Look and Sound Like With a Larger Class?

    1. PART 1 - What's Most Important For Readers in the Early Years?

    2. PART 2 - Unpacking Reading Through the Lens of Agency, Movement, and Play [1/3]

    3. PART 3 - Unpacking Reading Through the Lens of Agency, Movement, and Play [2/3]

    4. PART 4 - Unpacking Reading Through the Lens of Agency, Movement, and Play [3/3]

    5. PART 5 - How Might We Leverage Story Workshop to Support Multilingual Learners?

    6. PART 6 - How Might the Frame of Story Workshop Live Alongside Units of Study and Units of Inquiry?

    7. PART 7 - How Might I Organize Story Workshop Across a Year?

    8. PART 8 - How Might I Get Story Workshop Started?

    1. PART 1 - Maximizing Time

    2. PART 2 - Data & Documentation: What are We Collecting and How are We Using It?

    3. PART 3 - Virtual Learning

About this course

  • $299.00
  • 28 lessons
  • 4.5 hours of video content

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Course Facilitator

Faiza Martin

Faiza (Fay) Martin has worked as an IB classroom teacher, reading specialist, literacy coach and PYP Coordinator in England, the UAE, and India. She has extensive experience in curriculum development, especially in unpacking standards and benchmarks to create tailored reading and writing units that fit the context of international schools and/or enhance their units of inquiry. She is particularly passionate about the many ways that play and emergent literacy intersect in the Early Years. As an EKC strategist, Fay coaches and mentors global groups of educators on creating inquiry-rich units of study and assessments that align with benchmarks and include student voice, tailoring units of study that integrate into units of inquiry, maximizing student choice and agency, and leveraging ways to lean on our many teacher roles to respond to learners. She is currently at the American School of Bombay where she is meshing the roles of literacy coach and PYP Coordinator into a brand new role of Transdisciplinary Coach and Coordinator (PYP).