Privileging drama and dramatic play to support young children’s writing development: a full year study of one early years’ classroom

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

This article describes a longitudinal multi-case study of a preparatory classroom where dramatic pedagogies were used as a key approach to the development of early literacy. Including guided drama, puppetry and dramatic play, the approach also made use of the explicit teaching of phonics (letter/sound relationships and phonemic awareness skills). Extracts from three key drama events are used to illustrate the findings from the study. The implications of these findings for current early years’ pedagogies are also explored.