Additional information
by Stephanie Parsons (Author)
A playful mindset is key to finding creative, resourceful ways of doing the things we need to do in life. And yet, in the past 50 years there has been a steep decline of free self-directed play both in and out of school. "In providing more structured activities outside of school, longer school days and more rigorous curricula, we have raised children who are less prepared for a successful adulthood," Stephanie writes. But there is hope!
In Play Attention! you'll learn how play can add value to what you are already doing in your classroom and can even help you do it better. Stephanie offers:
- Individual playful experiences and tools to encourage a playful mindset across the day and year
- A predictable framework for planning for play: invite, play, reflect
- Ideas to show you how play can be a powerful tool for assessment
- Questions to guide your observations of different kinds of play
Author Biography
Stephanie Parsons is a literacy consultant, a former staff developer with Lucy Calkins and the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, and a former teacher. She loves working alongside teachers and children to discover new ways of teaching. She hopes you will feel the power of transformative teaching along with your students. After attending Yale University and Teachers College at Columbia University, she became a first grade teacher at P.S. 321 in Brooklyn. She is now a reading and writing staff developer working with elementary schools in New York City and across the country.
