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Workshop in a South African Classroom •  \nKirsty Paxton  \nThe author examines guided play among students in a South African classroom using a play-and-write workshop constructed by her and her students.  \nShe determines that the workshop displays the characteristics of playful learning, lies on the playful learning spectrum, and fits the criteria for guided play. She concludes that, given the benefits of playful learning and guided play in particular, teaching involving construction with the students and allowing student-directed activity can prove valuable and should be put to service where possible beyond kindergarten. She adds that these methods should be employed in conjunction with other educational goals in South Africa and elsewhere in the developing world to help mitigate such problems as underfunding and large class sizes. Key words: education in South Africa;  \nguided play; play-and-write workshops; playful learning  \nIntroduction  \nResearch on guided play—a kind of play directed by students but chosen and arranged by teachers (or constructed with them)—has largely focused on kindergarten and preschool classrooms in North America and Europe, and very little research covers student-directed playful learning in the higher grades, particularly in developing countries like South Africa. This article examines how students in grades five and six in a South African school interacted in a guidedplay, play-and-write workshop they constructed with their teacher (me). I aim to provide teachers and researchers a starting point for using guided play in the grades beyond kindergarten. Then I examine a longer-term intervention using a similar structure in another school in South Africa.  \nIn 2021 I had the opportunity to work in a small, bilingual school in a rural area in South Africa where I experimented with using LEGO play as a  \n149  \nAmerican Journal of Play, volume 14, number 2 © 2022 by The Strong [Contact Kristy Paxton at kristylouisepaxton@gmail.com](Contact Kristy Paxton at kristylouisepaxton@gmail.com)  \nstory starter for student writing in the senior grades. The LEGO play seemed to increase collaboration, motivation, creativity, and focus. I noticed that the workshop not only appeared to have a positive effect on the quality of writing by the students, but that they also engaged spontaneously in dramatic play with LEGO sets, taking on the roles of different characters in a story as they manipulated LEGO minifigures. This was unexpected given that most of the literature about dramatic play and literacy (Dyson 1999; Peterson et al. 2020; Jensen et al. 2019) dealt with the kindergarten and preschool years. All this prompted me to engage in a study that might help other teachers use guided play in the senior grades and provide researchers with examples of particular kinds of play found in classrooms in the developing world.  \nThose rare instances in which play beyond kindergarten becomes a subject of study usually involve forms of playful learning lying closer to the adultdirected end of the play spectrum (Zosh et al. 2017) . Additionally, although South African teachers increasingly use playful learning, very few studies of such use currently exist (Solis et al. 2019) . In my experience, a positive attitude exists toward the use of play in kindergarten (called Grade R in South Africa), but beyond this, teachers become intimidated by the demands of curriculum, and their approaches grow less playful. I see a sharp deliniation occurring between preschool and Grade R, in which play is essential, and grade one, which exchanges play for workbooks and graded readers. However, in my own work and research, I have found a playful approach valuable for learning and believe we need research and advocacy to change the attitudes of parents, teachers, schools, policy makers and nonprofit organizations working in education both in South Africa and in the developing world.  \nI propose a guided-play a","cbCaie2JvQmsyqlE","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaie2JvQmsyqlE","pdf",233659,24,"English","# Introduction\n## Literature Review\n### Guided Play and the Playful Learning Continuum","[{\"question\":\"What is the article’s focus regarding guided play?\",\"answer\":\"The article studies guided play in a South African classroom by using a play-and-write workshop built with students and guided by the teacher.\"},{\"question\":\"Which grades are involved in the workshop study?\",\"answer\":\"The workshop involves students in grades five and six.\"},{\"question\":\"What outcomes does the author associate with playful learning and guided play?\",\"answer\":\"The author highlights benefits such as enjoyment, curiosity, ownership, and improved engagement, including positive effects on collaboration, motivation, creativity, focus, and writing quality.\"}]","Play and Write - A Guided-Play Writing Workshop in a South African Classroom | PDF",1792073388]