This I Believe Annotated Bibliography

This I Believe Annotated Bibliography

Engel, Maria. "The Importance Of Free Play In The Early Childhood Classroom: Perspectives From A Teacher." Childhood Education 91.5 (2015): 323-324. Education Research Complete. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

This journal by Maria Engel provides information about how free play is an important part of learning especially for early childhood students. Engel goes on to describe her personal experience as a Kindergarten and First grade teacher. She discusses how sitting at desks and learning basic things like reading, writing, and math are important, but there is also learning through play which is just as important. Students are able to solve problems, role play, create real life situations, and sharing. They learn how to be social and make friends. These are all important factors at such a young age, and the students are happy! This journal will be helpful to my essay because it will allow me to discuss how in the classroom teachers believe that free play is important. This source also provides many examples with different classroom structures. It also provides examples of free play, and all of the reasons that it is beneficial.

Bekoff, Marc, and William Crain. "A Crime Against Children." Encounter 24.4 (2011): 12-14. Education Research Complete. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

This academic journal discusses how free play is a basic human right and that it is important to provide more time in schools for this play. The article goes on to discuss the difference between child-initiated play and adult-directed play. The difference is very real and it is something that not many education officials seem to notice. This source backs up its claims about how free play is important through historical and political facts like the Declaration of Independence and information from the United Nations. Not only does this source support free play for children, but it provides statistical and factual evidence as to why it is important. This source will be useful for providing information for my essay because it shows a supporting argument for why free play is so important. This source will also be especially helpful because of the statistics that it provides. It is not only stating that free play is important, but is a provider of the actual numbers to back the theory up.

Lillemyr, Ole, et al. "A Multicultural Perspective On Play And Learning In Primary School." International Journal Of Early Childhood 43.1 (2011): 43-65. Education Research Complete. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

This source expresses how play is essential to child development. It discusses how play contributes to language development and conceptual meaning, sometimes these things can not just be understood while sitting at a desk. This source brings up the point that play can allow for a change in environment, making it a place students want to be. According to this source, play allows for the creation of relationships, which is crucial to the development of a person because building relationships will always be a part of life. This source will be essential to my essay because it allows for a more conceptual understanding of how play is important. It describes how play is important to a child’s development, which will be a main point in my essay. Overall, this source has a plethora of information that will allow me to state what I believe in a way that others will be able to see and hopefully agree with me.

"Experiences With An Outdoor Prop Box." YC: Young Children 65.1 (2010): 30-33. Education Research Complete. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

This academic journal supports the claim that free play is an important factor of learning, and they go on to provide evidence as to why learning through play is so very important. Through play, students can learn things without anyone telling them to. This source discusses how a lot of schools are shortening play time, or even eliminating it altogether. This source also provides the example of an outdoor prop box. With these props, kindergarteners are playing with and drawing insects. They are discovering this on their own, and learning what they would be learning just the same in the classroom due to mandated science standards. But by playing, they were learning, working with other students, and having fun. This source will help me because it will allow me to have supportive evidence that free play is crucial. It also allows me to understand how free play is essentially used in classrooms.