BLOG ENTRY #13 Literacy Playshop: The Puppet Show

With the highly developed technology, we are now able to easily incorporate the new media with everyday teaching. With the help of all kinds of media, literacy learning for young children becomes more fun and effective.

For the literacy playshop, I collaborated with a 5 year-old preschooler and made a little movie together. He was very interested when I told him that we are going to make a little movie together with ipad, and puppets of his own choice. I took a basket of different puppet toys, and encouraged him to choose a few characters so we can make up a little story among them. When he picked out the puppets, I asked him to name them if he liked, and guided him to think about what kind of stories and conversations we can make to make the show interesting and fun by asking him a sequence of questions, such as, “what do you think of their relationship”, “what do you think they will do together”, or “what would they say in this situation”.

We actually tried out a couple set of different toys and settings before he finally decided to use the giraffe, cow and Winnie the Pooh. I was curious about how would he use this three unrelated characters, but he quickly decided that Winnie the Pooh would be the “bad guy” who tried to eat the little cow, and giraffe would come to save the girl as a good friend. I am very pleased by and interested in his plot, since normally not many people would consider the “cute, friendly” Pooh as a “bad guy” who wants to eat other animals. That’s new! I appreciate this child can break the (sort of) stereotype and be creative in his own way! Since he only got the main plot, we had to make more plots to make the story complete and rational, and of course, try to add a little humor in it. I began to ask him all kinds of questions, like an interview, and while he was answering, I gave suggestions as well. Finally we decided that Pooh was sleeping in his cave and the cow bumped into him when wandering around, so Pooh was angry and wanted to eat her up. Then giraffe came to save cow upon hearing her yelling for help. They became best friends forever. In the movie shooting, we worked on the lines together,such as 

Cow: Thank you for saving my life

Giraffe: That’s what friends do (I proposed)

Cow: Maybe I can save your life sometimes (we discussed a little, and he decided to go with this while shooting)

Giraffe: That’s a good idea!

The whole process of using new media to emphasize literacy learning was very successful. During making the movie, children can contribute ideas and get a sense of ownership of the movie; they also feel the responsibility to act well and make the movie looks good. After the shooting is done, my student was very excited at the movie and asked me to show another teacher our work. I feel he is tired after the playshop but also very proud of himself. Self-esteem could be built within the playshop.

I would definitely recommend elementary teachers to incorporate new media into literacy learning, maybe in different ways. I feel it is a great opportunity for children to improvise, be creative, be a critical thinker, and to acutally enjoy the learning process.