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Playing a story: Narrativeand writing‐like features inscenes of dramatic playCarolyn Ann Walker aa Ball State UniversityPublished online: 28 Jan 2010.

To cite this article: Carolyn Ann Walker (1999) Playing a story: Narrative andwriting‐like features in scenes of dramatic play, Reading Research and Instruction,38:4, 401-413, DOI: 10.1080/19388079909558304

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Reading Research and InstructionSummer 1999, 38 (4) 401-413

Playing a story: Narrative and writing-likefeatures in scenes of dramatic play

Carolyn Ann WalkerBall State University

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the ways in which one group of Head Start childrenincluded narrative features in their naturally occurring dramatic play andengaged in behaviors similar to process writing. Young children can initi-ate and develop unassisted dramatic play and communicate with peers dur-ing this process (Allgeier, 1991; Roskos, 1988; Walker, 1992; Weinberger& Starkey, 1994). Young children can also include narrative features intheir play (Roskos, 1988). This paper extends information about narrativefeatures by describing play behaviors similar to mapping and revision(Graves, 1983; Routman, 1994). Findings presented are part of a largernon-intervention observational study that focused on the nature of the chil-dren's play and its contexts for literacy development.

Young children come to know the many contexts and uses of language andliteracy in their world through their interactions with others (Halliday, 1978,1979; Teale & Sulzby, 1986; Vygotsky, 1978). These interactions begin very earlyin life and occur in a variety of circumstances ranging from the intimate relation-ships between caretaker and child to relationships between peers and siblings toschool and other institutional environments.

Within these circumstances and environments children develop understand-ing of the many and complex choices to be made in the use of language and liter-acy (Halliday, 1978; Teale & Sulzby, 1986). Children develop the ability to uselanguage in complex ways by the approximate age of two (Halliday, 1978), andby the time children reach school age they use language in multifunctional ways.For example, children in a kindergarten class may tell a story during show andtell in order to share information and also in order to receive attention from thegroup. Similarly, two children might share a storybook in order to hear the storyand reinforce their friendship. Children also use language and literacy in purpose-ful ways during dramatic play as they select play partners, develop play contexts,and reconsider and reinterpret language.

Children's engagement in literacy related activities during dramatic play canalso provide them contexts and opportunities for literacy learning (Hall, 1992;Stone & Christie, 1996). Dramatic play provides a forum for children to consider,explore, and practice the multiple forms and functions of both reading and writing

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(Christie, 1992; Pelligrini & Galda, 1993), and in some instances may provide ameans for comprehending stories (Rowe, 1996).

A number of research studies have investigated the relationship between playand literacy development (Christie, 1992; Morrow & Rand, 1991; Pelligrini &Galda, 1993; Stone & Christie, 1996; Vukelich, 1994). These studies have focusedon several areas including the symbolic nature of play and literacy and children'suse of literacy materials during play (Morrow & Rand, 1991; Pelligrini & Galda,1993). Studies have also focused on peer relationships during play (Reynolds,1996; Stone & Christie, 1996).

A less common but equally important focus in the study of the relationshipbetween dramatic play and literacy development has been the presence of storyelements in spoken and non-verbal text of children's dramatic play. Paley(1981,1995) studied storytelling and dramatic play in young children. Roskos(1988) found that children developed narrative features during dramatic playincluding setting, characters, actions, and resolution and that they engaged in lit-eracy even though they were not using actual literacy materials. Sachs, Goldman,and Chaille (1985) studied the composition of dramatic play.

One question raised from these findings is whether or not children might alsoengage in play behaviors related to story writing. These behaviors might be simi-lar to pre-writing activities and revision and editing activities. This paper describesthe narrative features of one group of children's dramatic play and the similaritiesbetween their play behaviors and story writing. The findings described in thispaper are part of findings from a larger study. Two research questions guided thestudy including: (1) What is the nature of the dramatic play which occurs duringfree play periods in one Head Start classroom? (2) How does the dramatic playprovide contexts for literacy development?

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

This non-intervention observational study was conducted during the freeplay period of one Head Start class. This class was part of a larger program thatserved children of low-income families and was located in a small Midwesterncity. Class was held Monday through Thursday for approximately three-and-one-half-hours each day. One teacher, one assistant teacher, and seventeen childrenage 4 and 5 participated in the study. Six of the seventeen children were male.Sixteen children were Anglo and one was African American.

During free play the children were allowed to move freely throughout theroom with the exception of the housekeeping center which was monitored period-ically by teachers to limit the number of children in the center at one time. Chil-dren had opportunities to engage in play contexts during free play time includingdramatic play and play at four permanent centers including blocks and manipula-tives, books and computer, writing center, and housekeeping center. Play alsooccurred in temporary centers such as the sand table and water table. Activities inthe writing center included drawing, writing, and other activities.

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Playing a story 403

Dramatic play was defined in this study as play in which the children pre-tended and took on roles. Both solitary play and play with others were included inthis definition. Dramatic play was identified by talk, gestures, topics, and actions,with primary attention paid to the children's talk and conversations. Attentionwas given to talk such as, "Pretend I am . . . I am . . . , pretend you are . . . , andplay with me . . . " Play was also viewed as a type of text (Schwartzmen, 1979).

Data were collected four times a week for eight weeks during the free playperiod. Each data collection period lasted approximately one hour. A one-weekbreak occurred after the first four weeks of data collection. Non-interventionethnographic methods including observations, field notes, video taping, audiotaping, the collection of literacy artifacts, and interviews of the teacher, the assis-tant teacher, and the children were undertaken to answer questions in this study.Note taking and audio taping accompanied video taping and a second audio tapewas placed in centers that were not observed to provide information about dra-matic play throughout the classroom. Interviews were designed to provide informa-tion about children's background experiences including those relating to literacy.Interviews also clarified behaviors during play. Previously developed questionswere asked during structured interviews and questions were generated for semi-structured interviews as play behaviors were observed. Data were cataloguedafter collection.

Because one researcher collected data, one center and dramatic play incidentat a time received primary focus and observation while a second audio taperecorded play in other centers where dramatic play frequently occurred. At thebeginning of data collection, the housekeeping center, the books and computercenter, and the writing center were observed because pilot data indicated thatthese three areas, in particular the housekeeping center, were places where dra-matic play could occur. Observations of other areas did occur after initial datacollection because children moved into other centers and second source audiodata indicated that dramatic play was occurring in these centers.

A decision was also made to focus data collection on six representative chil-dren. Dyson (1989) selected focal children in order to gain representative and in-depth information about the children she was studying. The decision was made inthis study to select focal children because of the limitations of one researcher togather data on all children.

The children were observed and discussions occurred with the teachers inorder to determine which children were representative. The six children selectedin this study represented the gender, ethnicity, leadership, and personalities andcharacteristics of the class. Specifically, three children were female and threewere male. One of the female children was African American. Children who wereoutgoing and often played with other children, directive, quiet, and children whodid not mind playing alone were included in order to provide representative per-sonalities and characteristics.

Focal children included JR, Brandy T., Julieanna, Danny, Kelli, and Walt.Julieanna was very outgoing and was a leader in the play. She often suggested

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topics and guided play. Many children in the class seemed to gravitate towardsher. She had many friends and the teachers paid positive attention to her by com-menting on such things as her hair barrettes and her clothing. Brandy T. was alsoa leader during play. She was directive and sometimes pushy with other childrenand she sometimes tried to force them to play with her. The teachers who indi-cated through their comments that she was too loud or too excited often correctedher behavior. Walt had several friends and was outgoing. He often included phys-ical activity in his dramatic play including jumping and fencing. His dramaticplay topics included such things as Monster Trucks and Ninja Turtles. Duringdramatic play JR was outgoing and directive but he did not lead others to joinhim and engage in particular topics of dramatic play. Kelli was quiet and did notoften play with other children. She sometimes appeared unhappy. She frequentlywanted to play with another child in the room, who often rejected Kelli's sugges-tions that they play together. Danny sometimes played with other childrenalthough he often played alone. He appeared not to mind playing by himself andwas sometimes impatient with other children when they participated in dramaticplay with him.

Interestingly, a focus on these children resulted in data collection in all of thecenters and included many non-focal children as they participated in play withthe focal children. Therefore, while it is true that comprehensive identification ofall dramatic play did not occur, a sampling of the types of play that occurred wasmade.

The unit of analysis for this study was the play episode, a combination ofHymes' (1964) communicative event and Halliday's (1978) contexts of commu-nication. The play episode was designed so that it could include separate yetrelated play scenes. These scenes were incidents of play in which participants,setting, and action could be identified. Scenes were determined to be related andpart of a play episode if they were related by sequence of time, if at least onechild continued to participate, and if the topics were related.

The unit of analysis was developed after a pilot study was conducted (Walker,1992). Pilot data (Walker, 1992) indicated that incidents of dramatic play werecomprised of topic, participants, and various modes of communication includingliteracy. Halliday (1978) describes these elements as contexts of language use.

Constant comparative analysis (Strauss, 1987) occurred during and after datacollection. Data were reviewed for preliminary patterns and categories and thisprocess informed further data collection. Note taking and reflection also occurredduring analysis.

Over 100 individual contexts or scenes of dramatic play were identified atthe end of data collection. In an effort to reduce this number to a manageable yetrepresentative amount, the number of scenes to be analyzed was limited to 48.Decisions about which scenes to use in further analysis were made based on severalfactors. An effort to represent the range of topics of play, to represent both focaland other children in the room, to include scenes in which children used literacy

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Playing a story 405

materials, and to include play episodes with multiple scenes was made. Afterthese categories were met other scenes were eliminated from analysis.

Data analysis continued after data collection for approximately 17 months.This analysis included open coding and the formation of and testing of categories.Categories were then examined for linkages. Eventually assertions were madethat answered the questions of the larger study. The assertion presented in thispaper focuses on the ways in which the children's dramatic play provided a con-text for literacy development.

RESULTS

The children included narrative features in their play. Narrative featuresincluding topics, setting, characters, and events were present and were evidencedby verbal and non-verbal communication. Some children also engaged in behav-iors similar to mapping and revision during dramatic play. This development andrevision of narrative features is similar some ways to process story writing asdescribed Graves (1983), and Routman (1994).

Though not all narrative features were present in all scenes, the narrative fea-tures were, for the most part, cohesive in the play scenes. Elements of the scenesfit together and were appropriate for each other. The following transcript excerptof a dramatic play scene provides evidence of several narrative features andshows the relationship between the features. The name of the participants and theirverbal and non-verbal communication are included. Language in this and othertranscripts reflects the children's actual talk.

Participant

1. Julieanna

2.3. Volunteer

4. Julieanna5. Volunteer6. Julieanna7.8. Kindra

9. Julieanna10. Kindra11. Julieanna12.13.

Verbal

I'm the teacher and we'relearnin' about dinosaurs.Make butterfly legs.O.K.

What kind of dinosaur is this?I don't know.What kinda dinosaur is that?Wmm. . . (a child) is wrong.I know, I know what it is.

What Kindra?A lion.Good.You're right Kindra.You're the winner Kindra.

Nonverbal

They are in the blockscenter.

She and childrendo this.

She puts down the card.She raises and waves hand,comes up on knees to thechair where Julieanna issitting.She picks up the past card.

Taps her on the head,smiles and puts downthe cards.

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The narrative features included in this scene excerpt are topic, setting, char-acters, and action. The setting is circle time. This is evident through the childrenactions and the fact that they sit in the same place as circle time. Circle time wasa daily activity in which the teacher and the children meet together on the rug.The topic is a lesson and this is evident through the children's verbal and non-verbal communication. The characters include the teacher and the students whoare evidenced through both where they are sitting and their talk including "Sitwith butterfly legs." The action in the scene includes discussion about studentbehaviors, questions, answers, and evaluations about dinosaurs.

Other scene topics included read aloud, moving, monster trucks, motherscaring for babies, homework, and a trip to the library. Settings included school,home, office, and library. Settings were both stated and implied by verbal andnon-verbal communication. Characters included but were not limited to mothersand babies, teachers and students, rescue workers and victims, and movie charac-ters such as Edward Scissorhands and Ghostbusters. The characters chosen werealso appropriate for the topics and settings. For example, if the children engagedin read-alouds they selected teacher and student roles for the participants.

Dramatic play scenes often included an initiating event or problem thatserved as a catalyst for the action. In the following scene, this initiating event wasboth verbal and non-verbal. One child fell to the floor and told the others to callthe hospital. This initiated the scene and resulted in a series of related actions.

Participants Verbal Communication Nonverbal Communication

1. JR2. Brandy T.34.5.6.7.8.9.

10.11.12. Misty

13. Brandy T.14. Misty15. Brandy T.

16. Misty17. Brandy18. Misty

Somebody call the hospital.I'll call the hospital.911.There's a blanket.Ring. . .Ring. . .You get 911 over here.Fast.Our number is 474-786.And, wait, wait, wait.Our address is 609608.You stay with me until911 leaves.I need an am-bu-lance.You stay with him.Bye.She's comin'Ring.Hello.(Inaudible)

JR lies down on the floor.

It is not clear ifshe is looking atthe numbers.D

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19. Brandy T.21.22.23.24.25. Brandy T.26.27.28.29.30.31.32. Chelsey:33. Brandy T.34. Brandy T.

35. Brandy T.36.37.

38.

39.40.

O.K.Bye.Roll 'im over.Roll 'im over.911 is hereYou have to bevery good.I have to giveyou a shot.Alright honey.We have to takehis temperature.Its very high.63.We have to give you a shot.(inaudible)Stay down.STAY DOWN!Stay down J.J.(to JR)There you go.

I need some.I'm helping him up guys.

Playing a story 407

Misty walks towardthe children.

She puts a blanket overhim.

She stands him up.

Similar to Roskos' (1988) findings, these children used story during theirplay as a way of coordinating their actions. JR initiated the scene by falling downon the ground. This non-verbal signal was followed by actions and talk relating toa familiar show about 911 rescue. In a similar fashion to the children describedby Roskos (1988) the children in this scene developed a central concern that wasexplored and at least partially resolved in the dramatic play. Several differentrelated events occurred that addressed this event including the hurt boyfriend,calling 911, and the arrival of 911 and administration of treatment to the boyfriend.

Some dramatic play scenes also included elements that can be likened toprocess story writing activities including mapping and revision. Routman (1994)describes story mapping as the initial process of outlining the content of a story.In this process, children list elements of their story sometimes with the aid ofdrawings. Story revision includes such things as rethinking context, the expres-sion of and structure of content, and the addition of characters (Graves, 1983;Routman 1994).

Some children attempted to organize and outline actions and talk for the playscene as the play began. Individual children informed others through talk andaction about what roles they would assume and what activities and actions theywould undertake.

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In one scene, two children pretended to go out on a date. Julieanna, the initia-tor of the scene established the roles, setting, characters, and action in a similarfashion to the development of a map before story writing (Routman, 1994). Next,she and the other children developed and revised their characters and actions byexpanding them and adding to them during the context development. In the nextscene excerpt, the elements of the play that are similar to process writing arelabeled.

WritingElements

1. Mapping2. Mapping

3. Mapping4. Mapping5. Mapping6. Mapping

7.

8.9.

10. Writing

11. Writing

12. Writing13. Writing

14. Writing15. Revising

16. Revising17.18. Writing19.

Participants

Julieanna

JR

Children inthe Center

JRKindra

JR

Richard

Julieanna

JRJulieanna

Chelsey

JR

Verbal

You're my baby.We go out.

You have to call me.You have to go ask them.You have to go ask themCan I borrow the phone?He is in the housekeepingcenter.There is a mixed responsefrom children in thiscenter.JR walks in to take it.Hey.Uh,Uh.We said no.Ring. Ring.He picks up the phone.Richard runs over tothe centerHello.Hi. What do you want.Hi. What do you want.You want to go outtonight?Sure.O.K. Chelsey you haveto call me.O.K.Ring. Ring. Ring.Knock.Knock.

Nonverbal

They are in thebooks and com-puter center.

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20.21. Revising22.23. Revising24. Revising25. Revising26. Writing

27. Revising28. Writing

Julieanna

ChelseyJulieannaChelseyJulieanna

ChelseyJulieanna

KNOCK!Just a second.Hello.What are you doin'?I'm at home.Why?Let me get the door.Hold on a minute.Send.Hello

Playing a story 409

JR enters.

This excerpt represents only part of this scene. Initially, Julieanna maps thedramatic play in this scene excerpt by proposing actions and characters. Next,other children including JR and Richard work to realize the mapping in the play.Yet even as events are unfolding, Julieanna is revising the play to include othercharacters and actions.

On another occasion Danny initiated a play scene and explicitly providednarrative features including the setting, character, and action. Although this narra-tive was based on the movie Ghostbusters, as Kress (1990) points out, writer'stexts often reflect the multiple experiences that they have had with print. ThisGhostbusters story was not in print form but similarities existed in the borrowingof the story.

As Danny engaged in this scene another child named Walt joined him. Theystruggled to determine who would control the storyline. As the following excerptsshows, Walt attempted to add to the storyline and Danny did not accept want toaccept this. As Walt revised the play, Danny revised Walt's comments to returnback to the storyline.

WritingFeature Participants Verbal Nonverbal

55. Revision Walt

56. Revision57. Revision58. Revision59. Revision60. Revision61. Revision62. Revision

63. Revision64. Revision65. Revision

Danny

Ghostbusters in onthe rescue!Don't!GhostbustersNo!You're only onWalt!No!They don't put outthe fire.Deh bust a ghost.They bust a ghost.No.

He is givingdirections.D

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Danny did not want to include action that did not relate to the script he haddeveloped. He followed his revisions with action.

WritingFeature Participants Verbal Nonverbal

66. Writing Danny Gobustin'67. Writing wouw, wouw, wouw,

wouw, wouw, wouw

After several attempts to introduce action into the play, Walt successfullymade active the character of the Ghost.

WritingFeature Participants Verbal Nonverbal

70. Revision Walt

71. Revision Walt

72. Writing Danny73. Writing74. Revision Walt75. Writing Danny

76. Writing77. Writing78. Writing

Danny

Hey we could makeghost with this.I'm bein the bigol' ghost.Vrr . . . Wait!Look behind you.Fire it.vu, vu, vu

Walt that kill it.The ghost is dead.Stay Puff.

He is taking thisrole to playtemporarily.

This is like thesound of theghost bustingmachine in themovie.

This is the giantStay Puff figurethat appears inthe movie.It is imaginaryin the play.

Danny's strong desire to remain true to the text he is familiar with indicatesthe potential strength of story genre for children. While this story was based on amovie, it is evident that Danny scripted the story and its structure. This situationreflects the potential of children's experiences with stories to affect their creationof stories and is similar to Routman's (1994) comments that before children writethey be immersed in the genre of writing that they will later write in.

DISCUSSION

Results from this non-intervention observational study of one group of chil-dren's dramatic play indicate that the children included narrative features in their

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Playing a story 411

play such as setting, characters, and events or action. These narrative featureswere for the most part cohesive in the scenes. Some children also engaged inbehaviors similar to the process writing activities of mapping and revision duringtheir dramatic play.

Findings from this study support previous research (Roskos, 1988) findingsthat children included narrative features in their play and raise questions aboutpossible connections between dramatic play and writing including the potentiallinks between dramatic play and emerging process writing. Some children in thisstudy engaged in activities including mapping, writing, and revising their play.

Findings presented in this study cannot be generalized, however, as they areexploratory and include only one group of children. Information from this studydoes, however, provide insight, which might be useful to classroom teachersworking with young children. Children in this study initiated topics and devel-oped text for their play without the intervention of adults, and their dramatic playincluded narrative features. Perhaps providing young children regular opportuni-ties to initiate and develop dramatic play topics might foster their inclusion ofstory elements and process features in play. This could be accomplished by pro-viding children an open-ended dramatic play area within which they could selectfrom a number of props appropriate for their topic of dramatic play.

In order to determine whether or not other groups of children include narra-tive features and elements similar to process writing, children from various back-grounds and settings could be observed and data examined to gain a better infor-mation about whether or not these types of behaviors are common across groups.

Longitudinal research of children from preschool through elementary focus-ing on relationships between children's inclusion of narrative features and theiremerging process writing behaviors might also be able to establish whether or notlinks exist between dramatic play behaviors and story writing behaviors.

Additionally, examination of the relationship between children's exposure tostory through repeated reading and shared reading and their use of narrative fea-tures during dramatic play might be able to establish whether or not possible linksexist between being read to and including narrative features in scenes of dramaticplay. Future research in this and the areas described above could provide furtherinsights into this aspect of the nature of dramatic play and its relationships to chil-dren's literacy development.

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