Planning in a learning through play environment

It is not easy to plan for play.  Over the last three years, I have been experimenting with different approaches to planning, here is where I am at the moment.

I love Leslie Allen's planning diagram because it shows in a picture form how many different things we have to think about as teachers.

I have been challenged over the holidays to think about learning.   Thanks, David.
What is learning?  What comes first teaching or learning?

If it is learning, how do we plan for it?

Planning for most of us was/is the thing you have to do because management wants to see it, and is what they told us makes us a 'real' teacher, and helps us to think about the really complex process of learning.  Somehow it is meant to prove we are teaching or not.  I think planning should only be done if you find it useful and if it has a purpose.

Some say teachers need to know what and why they are teaching and plan for it first, otherwise kids won't learn.  How do things change in planning when the learning comes first?  Who is the planning for? Useful planning should help us to focus on the learning relationship.

I've come to realize that learning is complex.  It doesn't happen just because I write a 3-week unit.  It doesn't mean a child has learned something or not because they could or couldn't do it on the JAM test.  Learning happens in relationship with others.  Ako describes learning as being shared among all the people involved with the learner: friends, whanau, teachers, and community.  Ako is teaching, learning and reflecting. Lorraine Sands from ELP writes recently, "This is a theory (socio-cultural), that focuses learning as the driver of development, not development driving learning."  We are so used to having a goal and planning for the learner to achieve the goal. We teach first expecting the child to learn.  Teaching isn't wrong, just maybe wrongly placed in the learning process?  I think that this type of goal learning is most effective when embedded in real life learning that is driven by the learner. 

What type of plan would be flexible enough to be useful in facilitating Ako?

I need planning tools that zoom out and see the big plan (long-term plan) and then zoom in to see the specific learning goals of each student.  I also need something which enables me to prepare for play and one which records what happened in play.  (When I use the wordplay, that for me is learning.  The question is what learning is happening?)

I continue to play with planning.  Basically, like everything in teaching it is trial and error.  I love the fact that I can play with ideas and trial different ways of recording learning.

At the moment, I use the following;

1.  Play plan (adapted from  Longworth Education)  Provides a wide zoom lens on what could/is happening overall, but also some detailed observations after they have happened.  Provides a place for reflection.  Shows the ongoing journey of learning overall.  Provides me with a list of resources that might be helpful.  I can also think about the learning in regards to different curriculums, and our overall big goals in learning.
2. Learning Story examples (Margaret Carr, ELP, local Early Childhood Centres).  These provide detail of the learning in a real-life context.  They are the most useful form of planning I do.  They are also where I intend to put most of my effort this year.   Learning stories shine a light on Ako.  They help me see myself as a teacher and a learner in the context of learners, whanau, and community.  Learning stories have been the key to my development as a teacher in play.  They really are the whole package. They include the whanau, the environment, the roles of learners and teachers.  Simply put they capture learning, making it visible.  I have found that I spend time in curriculum documents finding links to what the students have shown me.   Typically Learning stories are used to record dispositional learning, but I use them for both dispositional and academic type learning.  For flexibility in personalizing the learning journey, there is no better tool.
3.  Explicit planning for each student.  This is where I use testing to confirm what I see in the play or to give me some more explicit information. This is for me in my teacher role so I can upskill myself on different ways of planning about the best way I could help the student to learn a specific skill. I share these goals with the student if they are ready or interested.  This is also where some really specific and exact teaching can come in to help with learning if needed.  This is especially true for children with specific learning needs.

I hope this has been helpful.  The most important thing is that you continue to experiment with your planning.  I hope you can see planning as a tool for learning.   Keep it useful, keep it real.   Its all about the learning.