Teacher and author Vivian Paley is highly regarded by parents, educators, and other professionals for her original insights into such seemingly everyday issues as play, story, gender, and how young children think. InThe Classrooms All Young Children Need, Patricia M. Cooper takes a synoptic view of Paley’s many books and articles, charting the evolution of Paley’s thinking while revealing the seminal characteristics of her teaching philosophy. This careful analysis leads Cooper to identify a pedagogical model organized around two complementary principles: a curriculum that promotes play and imagination, and the idea of classrooms as fair places where young children of every color, ability, and disposition are welcome.
With timely attention paid to debates about the reduction in time for play in the early childhood classroom, the role of race in education, and No Child Left Behind,The Classrooms All Young Children Needwill be embraced by anyone tasked with teaching our youngest pupils.
Patricia M. Cooperis assistant professor of early childhood education at Queens College, CUNY, and the author ofWhen Stories Come to School: Telling, Writing, and Performing Stories in the Early Childhood Classroom.
Acknowledgments
Prologue: An “Nof 1”
Introduction: Why Interpret the Clear?
Part One Curricular Matters: A Pedagogy of Meaning
Chapter One Early Literacy, Play, and a Teaching Philosophy
Chapter Two Fantasy Play and Young Children’s Search for Meaning
Chapter Three Storytelling and Story Acting: Meaning Extended lóQ