Wohlwend Article

Karen Wohlwend’s “More than a Child’s Work: Framing Teacher Discourse about Play”


I found Wohlwend’s conclusions about teacher discourse surrounding play interesting in that I often find myself wondering whether I would be “in trouble” if an administrator walked into my classroom. I identify with her findings that teachers feel the need to strike a balance between what they think administrators want to see and what they know would enhance student learning and engagement. I have a few games that I play with students that inevitable lead to loud, raucous interactions, but that also engage every student in the room. I have often wondered whether an administrator would approve of these games. That said, I know that I would also fight for the right to use these games because the students enjoy them and thus learn well from them.

I also find it interesting that the way we talk about our activities in the classroom largely defines the level of focus and seriousness we bring to those activities. For instance, as Brock mentioned in class the other day, the tenor of an activity changes when a teacher says “Let’s try to play with this” instead of “Let’s work on this”, though I’m not sure that either approach is completely useful in and of itself. For instance, when children play organized sports, they look at that as “hard work” (especially in high school), though it is ultimately play, And yet, when they come to school to do more “hard work”, the engagement that they have with their sports is often absent. Both are called work, but one seems to motivate and engage more than the other. Conversely, if something is called a “game”, students automatically perceive it as less important than “work”, but those lowered stakes do not automatically ensure the engagement of the students; in fact, the lowered stakes may just cause the students not to participate at all (because the “game” is “stupid” or for “babies”, etc.). I am interested in this line between work and play, and I believe that the language we use around it is important, but I am still not sure just how and why.