Presents a fictional mystery scenario that addresses issues concerning instructional technologists and the debate surrounding media and methods. (LRW)

Discusses criteria of young children's dramatic play and various definitions of pretend play characteristics. Delineates differences and similarities between dramatic play and drama. Concludes that the term "dramatic play" can cover all kinds of pretend play, including symbolic, representational, imaginative, fantasy, thematic,…

Explains a classroom experiment to create a folk story about the trickster, a folklore metaphor, through dramatic role playing, improvisation, and imaginative play. Describes the activities used, including details of the students' dramatic role playing and the use of "gibberish" as language. Discusses the methods used for creation of a…

This article seeks to better understand the relation between local and traditional modes of communication and health literacy within the context of a rural West Nile community in Northern Uganda. Drawing on social semiotics (multimodality) and Bakhtin's notion of the carnival, the focus is on a group of women participating in a grassroots literacy…

While some studies have examined second language (L2) learning in young children who have at least one peer who speaks the same first language (L1) in the same preschool classroom (Clarke, 1999; Damhuis, 1993; Fraser & Wakefield, 1986), little research has been done concerning a young child learning an L2 through play in a natural setting in…

This study explores a teacher's understandings of the role of play and her use of play in literacy learning serving children from diverse language backgrounds. The participants in this study were a public pre-kindergarten teacher and her class. Data were collected from interviews, informal conversations, observations, and self-reflexive notes. The…

A discussion of how to captivate an instructional television audience through dramatization and role-playing. (Author)

Offers suggestions as to how teachers of nursery through second grade children might develop a creative dramatics program from elements that are already in the curriculum and in the children themselves. (Author/SDH)

This paper examines aspects of the use of puppets with young children and provides guidelines on proper times for puppet use, basic movements, and patterns. The use of puppetry in dramatic play provides young children with opportunities for refining communication skills and defining self. Puppetry provides a means for children to explore their…

The process by which preschoolers construct cohesive oral text was studied in dramatic and constructive play settings. Four preschoolers, two boys and two girls ranging in age from 51 to 60 months, were videotaped for 30 minutes in their preschool classrooms. It was found that players in both contexts of play repeated introductory utterances to…

Defines perceptual criticism as an act of verbalizing sight and sound perceptions and contends that this creative synthesizing gives a play its meaning. Speech and Drama, 205 Ashby Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. Subscription Rate: $6.00 per year. (MH)

Role-playing activities were employed by an elementary school counselor to influence moral development. Support was not found for moral reasoning and social perspective-taking levels being influenced by role-playing. Evidence in support of the age-related nature of these constructs and their parallel pattern of development was found. (Author)

Children aged 2 1/2, 3, and 3 1/2 years who had demonstrated appropriate uses for a set of objects, were asked to perform these same actions with objects which varied in similarity in the reference object, or with no object present. (JMB)