Sparking Joyful Learning

Sparking Joyful Learning: A Teacher's Guide to Connecting Play and Reader Response explains the connections between play and literacy and provides teachers with resources for building upon children's playful reading responses in the PK-3 classroom

Tori K. Flint is an associate professor of literacy and early childhood education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the co-director of the Louisiana Center for Research and Education on Languages and Literacies. She believes that education should be joyful and that we should listen to and learn from the brilliance of children.

Foreword by Karen Wohlwend Introduction Jumping into Playful Reader Response What the Research Tells Us Bringing it All Together Igniting the Spark Chapter 1: The Importance of Children's Literature Read, Play, Laugh The Need for Quality, Diverse Children's Literature Resources Examples Final Thoughts Chapter 2: Putting Play to Work: Implementing Responsive Play in the Classroom The Space-Time-Materiality Continuum Key Components of Responsive Play Final Thoughts: Adjusting Responsive Play to Meet Your Classroom Needs Chapter 3: Connecting Playful Reader Response to Classroom Literacy Goals Connecting to Personal Experiences and Knowledge Intertextuality Developing and Practicing Literacy Skills and Strategies Final Thoughts: (Re)Playing Chapter 4: Observing, Documenting, and Assessing Literacy Learning Observing Children's Play Documenting Children's Engagements Assessing Learning Final Thoughts: Self-Evaluation Chapter 5: Play(ing) Across the Day Playful Writing Playing into the Future Final, Final Thoughts References About the Author