Language and Imaginative Play Experience Approach to Reading: Fact or Fantasy?

This paper describes and illustrates an approach to reading which combines the language experience approach (LEA) and imaginative play. The LEA and the components of the lesson are briefly reviewed. Imaginative play and its descriptive components are identified and explained. The procedure for combining the two elements is roughly as follows: The children interact in an imaginative play situation while the teacher observes them. After the episode, the students are encouraged to verbalize their roles, and as they relate what happened, the teacher transcribes the language used by the children. The teacher then reads the story to the children and then has the children read it. Major words are reviewed, and the story is retyped into more permanent form and reviewed and reread by the children. Then another story is begun. An example is given of an imaginative play episode and its subsequent incorporation into a LEA lesson. (MS)