To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question

A Teacher Inquiry/Action Research Proposal

By
Denise Sumner

NC STATE UNIVERSITY
ECI 523

Dr. Michelle Falter

April 22, 2021

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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question

Introduction

Being a Kindergarten teacher for a total of 9 years, my ultimate goal is to have a

strong reading foundation for the students to build upon as they continue through their

educational career. Students in Kindergarten are transitioning from the way of life they

have known since birth, a fun and playful way, to a way of life that students are expected

to sit still for a huge part of their day to complete learning activities. Daily, I see a huge

struggle to keep students engaged and eager to learn. Every year I teach my students and

give them all I have but when I have to read from a manual and teach in a way that makes

me feel like I am just going through the motions, I struggle knowing they need more and

more to me means to incorporate play. I know in my heart that so many of these things I

must do is not developmentally appropriate for the students in my classroom. Much

research has been conducted on the topic of play-based learning (PBL), but the problem

lies in the fact that there is so much debate around a true definition of play and the

benefits it presents vs the concern of it hindering the acquisition of learning needed to be

prepared for the next grade. Kindergarten has been referred to as “the new first grade” by

many, but how is it fair to these kids to expect them to come to school with the

understanding of the school setting and also place the requirements of being school ready

before they even truly know what school is?

Mostly students of the age of 5 and 6 have known little about much outside of

playing. They are professionals at play, or in Vygotsky and Elkonin thoughts they are at

the peak performance of play and can show us how to have a good time with so little.

When we bring them into a classroom to work for several hours a day doing academic

activities void of play, we are asking them to change their whole world in the second that
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
first school bell rings. I feel making sure we provide learning in a manner that these

students are already use to will allow them to be more actively engaged and willing to

complete task that are presented. Using play-based learning allows the classroom to

come to life in the eyes of 5 and 6-year-old students. I feel putting play-based learning in

place consistently in my reading instruction is important to help make students more

engaged and allow for more reading success. I believe the students would benefit from

the practices and we would see an increase in student engagement and that in turn would

increase academic success. I do believe that it would also help my passion and drive to

see the students happily engaged. I would love to be able to show that students benefit

from it and see the chance for play to return to the classroom.

I was fortunate to have been chosen to do a yearlong training in a program that

allowed me to see the powers of teaching through play. Through the North Carolina

initiative, The Power of K, I was able to see what I would consider professional

kindergarteners. They had the background to complete tasks that were presented to them

for the soul purpose of achieving academic standards but in a manner that they were the

professionals in their area of work; play of course. They not only understood the

academics that they were learning but they were well spoken in explaining it, because

they were already a professional at the work they did to arrive at the answer to the

presented problems. The tools they were given were not new to them, they had prepared

their whole lives to complete the learning tasks. The play they took part in also helped

strengthen their social/emotional skills, also.

In an effort to try to bridge “the disconnect between early childhood research and

policy” (Portier, Friedrich & Peterson, 2019), I am hoping that my research will help my
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
principal understand the importance of allowing students more play-based learning for

kindergarten students, as opposed to continuing to take play out of the classroom. I would

also like to help other teachers understand the importance of play-based learning, as I

have heard some mention doing away with social centers in their classroom. I’m ready to

get in the pond because “by getting into the pond and sharing your inquiry, you

contribute to changing the ways some people outside of teaching view teachers and their

practice and try to change education from the inside out.” (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey,

2020) To make it truly rewarding it will take time to make sure the academic standards

are aligned to the play, but this is something I am willing to afford some time to. I want

to help be the change for the betterment of learning, in the eyes of a kindergartener. I

want them to go home and have a great story to tell about what and how they learned

when their parents/guardians ask them, “What did you learn today?”

Literature Review

“Can imagination act as a bridge between play and learning within the early

childhood period?” is a good question and one that Marilyn Fleer (2011) decided to

research. The study focused on psychological activity in play and how imagination can

connect play and learning within kindergarten practices. Fleer’s findings show “a

cultural-historical theory of play, as elaborated in this paper can help kindergarten

teachers to continue a work authentically and respectfully in the current cognitive times

we increasingly find ourselves in.” This is what we know to be truth but we struggle so

much to make it happen, even when students deserve to learn in the way that is best for

them developmentally.
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
The topic of play-based learning is broad and provokes so many different ideas

and understandings. Theories from so many areas have impacted play in the classroom;

constructivist, socio-developmental theory and sociocultural theories to name a few. We

see many well-known psychologist and influential thinkers have shared their knowledge

to help pave the way for discussions that supports play in the classroom. Their work helps

support the theory of the need for developmentally appropriate practices, but “researchers

still find it challenging to define what play entails in PBL in the classroom.” (Taylor &

Boyer, 2019) People desire clarification when you say we need to let young students play

in the learning environment. Taylor and Boyer (2019) expound on the idea and

philosophies of play as a learning tool through their study. They provide us with a

continuum that helps up understand the range of play-based learning. The continuum

ranges from free play where children have unlimited play and flexibility and are able

have control of their play to the more adult-guided play where they learn through games

where children are intentionally learning academic content. I would work toward the

“collaborative play” that allows for control from the student and the teacher, but would

start with free play to allow a time for learning more about my students. This would

allow me, as the educator, to create the environment and learning objectives based around

the students’ interest and needs.

Cavanaugh et al. (2016) performed a repeated measure, counter balance

design study “of literacy-rich sociodramatic guided play on kindergarten student literacy

performance and behavior”. The students were from various socioeconomic backgrounds,

which is similar to the students I will be studying. In their study the students had a 15-

minute block of time that was designated to play-based learning. This also has a link to
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
my scenario because if I am not allowed to broaden the play to a larger chunk of my

literacy time, I do have a small amount of time for students to engage in social centers

throughout the week. This would allow me to have a scaled down version of my research.

I would use this time to incorporate literacy enriched play. I feel students are able to

connect play-based activities to literacy-rich opportunities, as well as linguistic and

social-emotional skills. In this study, the play is more teacher guided but students

invented literacy games. Reading various articles, I have seen a concern of teachers being

the use of the term play when students have no say in their play-based learning. This

article did make me think of that but sometimes we have to accept that we have to use

what we can to help students find the fun in learning. I feel like in this study the term play

is used loosely as there is no free choice in activity but they did have freedom in creating

their own games, using creativity in that way. The “DIBELS standardized test showed a

statistically significant advantage for students in the experimental conditions.” (2016)

This was after only 3 weeks of intervention.

“The disconnect between early childhood research and policy indicates a need for

research examining ways in which teachers can emphasize academics while maximizing

play.” (Portier et al. 2019) We must understand our role as a teacher when it comes to

PBL so that we can make this happen. We must understand that “teacher involvement

during play was observed to contribute to rich and targeted literacy practices during

play.” (Pyle et al. 2017) Pyle et al. completed a study to “analyze the enacted integration

of literacy instruction and play-based learning,” “describe if and how play is used to

support the development of children’s literacy skills,” and “to articulate a theory that

bridges the theoretical disconnect between the academic and developmental orientations.”
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
The findings show “that teachers use play as a pedagogical tool in different ways in the

kindergarten classroom.” The study produced two types of beliefs. Teachers that used

primarily free play for oral language development and teachers that used play to nurture

students’ academic skills. I am looking to nurture students’ academic skills during PBL. I

believe when you nurture academic skills in play it will also strengthen social skills and

oral language. We must be available to help drive the play in a direction of learning

literacy skills during the play. We want to get the most out of every minute of the day,

especially when students are engaged.

DeLuca et al. (2020) conducted a study to “work against a bifurcated view of play

and assessment in kindergarten education and to look at ways in which they work

productively together to support and report on student learning and development.”

Helping people see the effectiveness of PBL in the kindergarten classroom means we

allow them to see that students can and will grow with the implementation of play. With

this comes a duty to show the growth and learning that is happening while students are so

happily engaged in their well-crafted skill of play. We must ensure we are embedding

assessments into their play-based learning outside of the formal assessments they

complete. This provides us with challenges, but assessments provide challenge no matter

what the mode of learning. With PBL, students’ assessments can be personalized and

manifested in a way that meets their abilities. Not only does this allow the assessments to

be developmentally appropriate but also “marks a notable shift from their previous

reliance on prescriptive, academic skill-based diagnostic assessments conducted through

one-on-one withdrawal toward a more responsive, multifaceted approach to assessment

that (a)encompasses both academic learning skills, (b) recognizes each child’s current
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
progress along a developmental learning continuum, and (c) situates assessments within

the context of a child’s play.” (DeLuca et al. 2020) We also question the developmentally

appropriateness of all the prescriptive assessments we place on the students, this allows

us to be able to make non-mandated assessment less intimidating. The study provided us

with understanding of how to produce this assessment data in play-based classrooms.

Teacher belief about and confidence in play-based learning will always be a

driving force for PBL, but the barriers will, unfortunately, also. Teachers that feel the

need for students to have access to developmentally appropriate learning activities will

see PBL as a way to make them a reality. Meghan Lynch performed a netnography study,

qualitative research, using teacher message board discussions, to understand teachers’

thoughts on incorporating play into instruction. The findings were that teachers were in

agreement with past research and they do value play, despite the decreasing use of it in

classrooms today. (Lynch, 2015) The issue doesn’t come with teachers not seeing the

value, it comes from other factors that make what we know to be appropriate hard to

implement. There are several barriers teachers feel make it hard to implement PBL but

the two that show up repeatedly, throughout the research I read, are having students

academically prepared for the next grade/standardized testing and understanding that

allows for support.

In the research performed by Baron et al. (2016) “to examine the beliefs of

teachers and administrators regarding DAP, as well as perceived supports and barriers for

the implementation of play” we see by the findings stated that teachers felt “readiness

tasks and assessments should take precedence over time allocated for play activities”

although they felt that developmentally appropriate practices are important. They stated
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
that these feelings tend to come from the lack of support of administration and the lack of

understanding of PBL.

Research shows, repeatedly, that play-based learning is developmentally

appropriate and helps in so many areas of kindergarten student’s development;

academically and socially. Instruction that is provided in an engaging and fun way will

always be more beneficial and rewarding to a child than having teacher directed

instruction the entire school day. This allows for instruction to be individualized and

appealing to each child’s needs. One teacher in a study to explore practitioner’s

experiences and perceptions of play-based pedagogies performed by Hesterman &

Targowska (2020) stated, “I think my enthusiasm and perseverance [to continue with

play-based pedagogy] comes from child happiness. I see the children I teach want to

come to school.” The same study found that the participants felt that the “diminishing

role of play in the early years of schooling, have an impact on young children’s

wellbeing, development, and academic outcomes.” I feel like it also affects the teachers’

wellbeing and passion, as well. I have seen student’s excitement just fade with the

lessening of fun, play-based learning over my years of teaching and that is heart

wrenching to someone that knows what took the spark away! I want the excitement back

in my classroom, for my students and for myself.

Methodology

Research Questions

The research question I am focusing on is “How will the use of play-based

learning in my reading instruction improve student engagement and academic success in

kindergarteners?” I also want to look for relating data to the following two questions:
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
 Would this benefit all students or a certain group of students?

 What effect would this have on behavior and social emotional development?

My top priority is to provide a place where children from all backgrounds and

learning abilities can thrive and grow. I want student engagement to be so great that

students are able to reach their full ability and to progress in all areas, especially

academically and socially. In order to see such progress children must be appropriately

challenged, which will ensure the play isn’t just any kind of play but that which would be

in agreement with the children’s developmental needs, as well as the academic needs. I

know that engagement is a leading factor in student success; if they’re not engaged, they

are much less likely to retain information. I feel like the ultimate way to engage children

of the young age of 5 and 6 is playful activities. Playful activities also allow for students

to show their knowledge in multiple ways throughout the activities, proving more of a

true understanding versus a lucky guess.

Context

I will be studying approximately 20 kindergarten students with varying academic

and social needs. My school is a title I school and has a diverse population from various

socio-economic backgrounds. Classes are formed with an equal number of boys and girls

as possible and a good mix of ability levels. Very few students come to the kindergarten

classroom with prior experience in any type of pre-school experience. Approximately 1/3

of the students will have been to some type of pre-school or daycare. They come to

school with various academic knowledge, mostly with little to no basic literacy skills.

Kindergarten is unlike other grade levels in that the teachers deal with such a

large range of abilities; academic and social skills are such. Kindergarten teachers have
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
the responsibility to acclimate the students to the school setting, even if they have had

pre-school experience, unless the pre-k program was located in a school building that

includes students in a wide range of grade levels (our school, ranging from pre-k to fifth

grade, has 2 pre-k classes). Some students enter into the classroom with eyes wide and

full of excitement, while others come clinging to their parents not wanting them to leave

and when they do, they fall all to pieces. The process of just getting them use to being at

school and understanding rules takes much of the learning time, yet the academic

expectations have grown in the past few years.

As a parent of a child that struggled to interact socially, I feel strongly that

kindergarten is the ultimate time to start working on the social skills. During this time,

they can use the time they are learning through play to also strengthen their social skills.

With the guidance of teachers in the classroom students can have the help learning how

to ask to play with others. I feel it is important to be able to approach others and have a

meaningful conversation with them and it allows children to be able to function and get

jobs once they have attained their education. Both academics and social skills are

important and are learned through play-based learning.

I understand that “teacher inquiry is often exempt from a formal review process

by a district research office because it is considered a natural and normal part of the work

teachers do to continually improve their own instructional practice” (Dana & Yendol-

Hoppey, 2020) but I will make sure I am within any school or district guidelines that may

apply. My students are young and will not completely understand the ramifications of the

study but I do plan to make them aware of what I am doing to the best of my ability and

their understanding. I will also provide their parents with a consent form explaining my
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
position as a student and my intentions of the research. To keep myself within ethical

guidelines I will refer to the questions suggested in our book The Reflective Educator’s

Guide to Classroom Research.

Intervention/Innovation

To promote student engagement, I would like to incorporate play-based

instruction for students to use during literacy instruction. I would use teacher directed

and free play during different parts of the literacy block. I would also use teacher

directed play to help them understand and practice certain skills. During this time, they

will have different activities they can play in order to work on the skills they need

depending on their level and where they are in the phonics and phonemic awareness

continuum. During free play the students will be observed using literacy skills to help

build language skills and strengthen social/emotional development. During free play and

teacher directed play there will be a teacher and/or a teacher assistant to ask questions

and help guide deeper thinking.

I plan to use this as 2-month study, approximately an eight-week span, to see the

growth of literacy skill success compared to previous learning rates I have seen. The play

will vary and as the time continues, we will move from more free play to more teacher

directed with certain skills embedded but still allow student choice. Each day students

will be allowed a 40-minute time for play-based learning where they will use and extend

the skills they have been taught in whole group and small group literacy time. Centers

will be set up according to their skill needs to extend their understanding. Students will

take part in free play, as well as teacher directed play.

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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
At the beginning of the study, I will obtain consent from students’

parents/guardians. I will interview the students to find their interests and things they are

interested in learning about. I will share the guidelines and rules for the play-based

centers so that they will understand the expectations. We will role play good behavior

and bad behavior for the students to see examples of what to do and what not to do. This

will allow me to help them understand the behavior rubric and share with them how and

when we will use it. I will also have a phonics and phonemic awareness assessment

packet copied for each child to assess their skills knowledge.

For the first two weeks I will allow students to work in free play centers with

teacher and TA observing/taking anecdotal notes and recording students during their

play. We will listen and learn about our students and their needs during this time. We will

also guide behavior during this time to help set up the expectations. During weeks 3 & 4

we will move to skill driven free-play centers with teacher and T.A. observing/taking

anecdotal notes and recording students using skills. We will also demonstrate examples

of how to incorporate the skills into the students play, to help them understand the idea

and what we will be looking for. Students will have activities to choose while the

activities incorporate different skills. During weeks 5 & 6 skill driven play-based literacy

centers activities (with product completion) will be woven into the centers. Students will

have a variety of ways to produce their product. Students may present work with a paper

product if the activity calls for that, if not they will use an iPad to produce a recording

(teacher and T.A. will be available to help guide for those that need it) or a picture to

share and explain at the end of play-based center time. During weeks 7 & 8, students will

participate in skill driven play-based literacy center literacy activities (with product at
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
completion) students may present work with a paper product, picture or video (using iPad

if needed). Teacher and TA will be pulling students for groups while students are

completing center activities independently but checking in to centers and guiding

students between groups and as needed. Students will be expected to produce work and

help others. They will also be instructed to try to ask questions of their peers in the center

(EVERYONE can learn something from someone else). They will share about their

center activity as we wrap up literacy time. Throughout all the weeks skill assessments

will be continuously done to monitor students’ success and needs.

Data Collection and Analysis

I will use various data collection methods to measure the growth students make

during the play-based learning. I will use anecdotal notes, videos and our school’s

literacy skills assessment. Using multiple data collection tools will allow for us to see the

students’ ability to use the skills in multiple settings and get an idea of their true

understanding of the skills.

Using a student notebook each day, my assistant and I would make notes of

students’ activities and skills they present. I would allow my assistant to find the method

that works best for her, suggesting sticky notes she can arrange after her notes are made

in the corresponding child’s section of our notebook, writing in her own notebook she

reviews with me at the end of the day. At that time I could add notes to my notebook for

my records, etc. This can be tweaked to find the method that works best for us as a team.

This gives us the ability to see skills presented and helps us see if the skills are consistent.

Anecdotal notes are a must in the classroom. This allows teachers to recall what students

share and present to us and our thinking at the time. This is especially helpful in
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
kindergarten when you don’t have a lot of paper pencil task prior to them being able to

produce that. Some play will produce written work samples, when the students are

capable, such as, but not limited to: list, orders, written plans for a project, words from

within the play center, their own observation of their play, etc. This will give samples of

skills learned and their ability to use the knowledge of those skills (ex: beginning/ending

sound, letter formation, encoding, etc.) We can place anecdotal notes regarding these

pieces of work samples so that students can have the samples to share at home.

We will use videos and pictures as a data source as well. The use of videos will

help us review multiple times to glean a clear picture of the students’ understanding of

skills and social aspects of the students. This would be a great assessment tool for us, but

also for the students to do a self-evaluation of their skills or their social skills and

behaviors. We, my T.A. and I, would discuss the skills we would be looking for

depending on the activities and skill assigned to the play. We would definitely decide to

video if a student is working on a particular skill that seems to be causing issues amongst

a student or group of students. This would be helpful in discovering possible issues or

misunderstandings. We can use pictures of student written work samples for our records

and to allow students to take the work samples home to share with their families.

We will use our school’s literacy skills assessment at least every other Friday to

measure the growth in the skills gained by the students during their play-based learning.

We will also do this if we see a skill being presented in play over multiple occasions.

This will be a teacher directed assessment to measure student success and find the skills

students need to work on during their small group sessions, that will then be placed into

their play-based center for independent work. Using this data, will also guide my T.A. on
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
what she can work with the student on as she is with them in a center or if she is able to

pull them for a small group.

I will also have a behavior rubric to use on an as need basis. This will be used

when/if students aren’t behaving well while taking part in play-based learning. This will

be a rubric in kid terms that we can have them help us score them on their

behavior/actions during play time with their friends. To continue to have the choices to

play during the centers they will have to follow certain rules. When we see them not

following the rules consistently, we will allow them to help us give them a score by the

rubric and then discuss what they could do better using the rubric. This will allow them to

rate how their behavior is by simply answering the questions guided by the rubric. They

can score themselves with a thumbs up for good behaviors pertaining to the topic, a

thumbs down at which point we will discuss what they could have done differently. They

also have an option of a question mark if they need help figuring out what was happening

or for us to share what we saw happening to help them figure out what they should have

done. Students will also have to ask themselves if they applied the golden rule and treated

others the way they would like to be treated. This will allow them to be able to discuss

fully what was happening. I find that even at 5- and 6-years old students, if students are

given the opportunity to explain the situation with the understanding that I understand

everyone makes mistakes and we can fix the problem, they tend to tell the truth. With this

I usually get down to the root of the problem and I haven’t just taken one person’s

account and accused someone of something that may or may not have been their fault.

Using the rubric to guide the discussion will give the student(s) a guideline to help us

discuss the behavior and how to improve.

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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question
Discussion

Once I have my findings, I would like to present them to my administration and

my kindergarten team during a PLC. Providing the evidence that play-based learning is

effective in improving student engagement and academic success in my literacy

instruction will allow administration and other reluctant teachers to see the student

success in academic and social areas is possible with play-based learning. I would like to

see change in my school, but ultimately, I would like to see change made for all students

that would benefit from learning that would engage students and make them excited to

learn each and every day. A strong literacy foundation build through a strategy that

engages students and sparks the flame for learning is a dream that I would like to make a

reality for all students, kindergarten is the place that should start for most but definitely

not where it should be diminished. I hope to show that we can build a strong reading

foundation through play-based learning and make it a desire for other teachers to do the

same for their students. My ultimate goal is to help students have social emotional and

academic success in kindergarten, because that is the start of a long journey to future

success!
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References

Baron, S., Immekus, J. C., González, J. C., & Yun, C. K. (2016). LICENSE TO LET GO

IN TRANSITIONAL KINDERGARTEN PROGRAMS: Supports and barriers of

play-based strategies. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, 18(1),

103A,104A,105A,106A,107A,108A,109A,110A,111A,112A,113A,114A,115A,1

16A,117A,118A,191-192,194. Retrieved from

https://proxying.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php/login?url=https://search-proquest-

com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/docview/1826911516?accountid=12725

Cavanaugh, D. M., Clemence, K. J., Teale, M. M., Rule, A. C., & Montgomery, S. E.

(2016). Kindergarten Scores, Storytelling, Executive Function, and Motivation

Improved through Literacy-Rich Guided Play. Early Childhood Education

Journal, 45(6), 831–843. doi: 10.1007/s10643-016-0832-8

Dana, N. F. & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2020). The Reflective Educator’s Guide to

Classroom

Research: Learning to Teach and Teaching to Learn Through Practitioner

Inquiry. (4th ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

Deluca, C., Pyle, A., Valiquette, A., & Lapointe-Mcewan, D. (2020). New Directions for

Kindergarten Education. The Elementary School Journal, 120(3), 455–479. doi:

10.1086/707008

Fleer, M. (2011). Kindergartens in cognitive times: Imagination as a dialectical relation

between play and learning.  International Journal of Early Childhood, 43(3), 245-

259. doi:http://dx.doi.org.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/10.1007/s13158-011-0044-8
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Hesterman, S., & Targowska, A. (2019). The status-quo of play-based pedagogies in

Western Australia: Reflections of early childhood education

practitioners. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 45(1), 30–42. doi:

10.1177/1836939119885305

Lynch, M. (2015). More play, please: The perspective of kindergarten teachers on play in

the classroom. American Journal of Play, 7(3), 347-370. Retrieved from

https://proxying.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php/login?url=https://search-proquest-

com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/docview/1693772985?accountid=12725

Portier, C., Friedrich, N., & Peterson, S. S. (2019). Play(ful) Pedagogical Practices for

Creative Collaborative Literacy. The Reading Teacher, 73(1), 17–27. doi:

10.1002/trtr.1795

Pyle, A. & Danniels E. (2017) A Continuum of Play-Based Learning: The

Role of the Teacher in Play-Based Pedagogy and the Fear of Hijacking

Play, Early Education and Development, 28:3, 274-

289, DOI: 10.1080/10409289.2016.1220771

Taylor, M. E. & Boyer, W. (2019). Play-Based Learning: Evidence-Based Research to

Improve Children’s Learning Experiences in the Kindergarten Classroom. Early

Childhood Education Journal, 48(2), 127–133. doi: 10.1007/s10643-019-00989-7

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Appendix A

Parent Consent Form

Dear Parent/Guardian of ____________________________,

This year I am taking part in a graduate program through North Carolina State
University. In order to earn a Master’s Degree. Part of my work this year results in the
completion of an action research project. This action research will allow me to examine
my teaching method and investigate how those methods influence others, especially my
students. I have chosen to study how play-based learning in reading instruction improves
student engagement and academic success. I would be grateful if you would grant your
permission for your child to take part in my research.

My data collection methods will include photographs, video and audio recordings of
students engaged in play-based learning and/or copies of their completed assignments. I
will make sure confidentiality of information and the names of the school and my
colleagues will not be made public. Student names will not be revealed or names will be
replaced by aliases when needed to keep the child’s identity confidential.

Participation is going to be during the instructional day and will not involve any stress or
risk to you or your child. If you choose to not allow your child to take part in this study, I
will provide them the same instruction and opportunities for engagement. Upon your
request, I will keep you abreast of the progress of the research.
Please sign and return permission slip below at your earliest convenience if you grant
your permission for your child to take part in my research.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Sumner

I, _________________, parent/guardian of ______________________ grant permission

for my child to participate in Mrs. Sumner’s action research project. I understand that my
child may be photographed, video/audio recorded and the use of written material may be
required. These items will only be shared for instructional purposes.

Parent/Guardian Printed Name:__________________________

Signature:____________________________________________

Date: _____________
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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question

Appendix B

Student Interest Inventory

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To Play or Not to Play: That is the Question

Appendix C

Behavior Rubric (for use on as needed basis)

Students will answer how they feel they rated for each expectation. Question mark

will let the teacher know they need to talk about the situation to figure out how to

rate. This will help guide the discussion of the behaviors in the center.

Share with others Take turns appropriately Use kind words

Did you treat others the way you would want to be treated?