Play and literacy: six-year-old children in fundamental education

Abstract

The article discusses a curriculum practice in which playing is associated to the literacy process in the first year of the nine-year fundamental schooling at the School of Application of the University of São Paulo. A curriculum analysis grounded on the ludic as an important activity for literacy can improve the possibility of integration of six-year-olds, and help to overcome the curriculum disarray observed in public policies for the extension of fundamental education. The investigation, of a qualitative nature, was based on information collected with the five first-year classes of the nine-year fundamental education during the period from 2006 to 2010, and included the analysis of the teaching plans, children's performance charts, interviews with parents, children's verbal testimonies, teachers' records, and reports from the toy library. The data indicate that the curriculum implemented fulfils, in its structural and pedagogical aspects, the needs of the children, adjusting to the conceptions of activity, mediations and use of imaginary games with the support of signs and artifacts. It was observed that the mediations are more adequate when there are two teachers involved in developing the activities related to the pedagogy of games devoted to the literacy process. On the level of public policies, the implementation of this practice would call attention to structural and pedagogical aspects.