Dramatic play in the primary grades is one of those "good ideas" that often gets pushed aside by the deluge of mandated curriculum and the pressure to prepare students for standardized tests. However, research shows that dramatic play can be a powerful tool in increasing students' fundamental literacy skills and their motivation to read and write.
Symbolic Thinking. Literacy is all about relating symbols to ideas: letters represent sounds, and printed words stand for spoken words. A book tells a story. Dramatic, symbolic play helps students develop this important underpinning for literacy, but also their capacity for abstract thought in general (Vygotsky 1976). Teachers can help students organize their activities (such as sequencing stories), and conceptualize problems and solutions.
Social Skills. "Sociodramatic play" occurs when children put on a performance together: a perfect opportunity to practice their problem-solving and negotiation skills.
Oral Language and Vocabulary. When students perform a play or puppet show, they expand their vocabularies and practice expressing their thoughts. Discussing the story they have just performed or watched being performed offers another opportunity to introduce vocabulary and encourage oral expression.
Fluency. Teachers report that when students read and perform plays or puppet shows from scripts, they willingly read and re-read their scripts, silently and aloud, as they will never do with a fiction or nonfiction book. These voluntary multiple readings offer critical fluency practice in a pleasurable context.
Motivation. Dramatic play is fun! Children love to perform, and even a shy child is more willing to "talk" with a puppet as the mouthpiece. Performing plays or re-enacting a favorite book turns practice into a pleasurable activity, and stimulates a love of reading. Children learn to read by reading, the more the better. When children experience the pleasure reading and writing can bring, they open the door to a lifetime of literacy.
