The High-Performing Preschool: Story Acting in Head Start Classrooms

The High-Performing Preschool: Story Acting in Head Start Classrooms Gillian Dowley McNamee Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2015. Foreword, preface, references, and index. 200 pp. $22.50 paper. ISBN: 9780226260952In The High-Performing Preschool: Story Acting in Head Start Classrooms, Gillian Dowley McNamee uses Lev Vygotsky's social learning theories to invite readers to think critically about early literacy through Vivian Gussein Paley's practical curriculum on dramatic play and storytelling. McNamee, a Paley apprentice, describes her own research observing urban Head Start children and their teacher, and she illustrates the reciprocity of teaching and learning between child and adult. She tells Paley's story, her own, and that of many teachers who invite children into "a very important space for teaching and learning: the line between our real individual lives and thinking on the stage-the shared space inside the square" (p. 122). In the preschool classroom, this space may be physically constructed of masking tape, but it represents an important space where children can find their public voice among peers within focused zones of proximal development. These public voices are part of school performance.Equipped with the tools of creative learning, McNamee specifically and rightly addresses urgent educational challenges, asking "How can classroom teachers enhance the oral-language foundations of children who are growing up in communities experiencing economic hardship" (p. xxi). She also ponders, "What curricular approach will initiate them into active verbal participation in a community of learners ready for the full breadth of educational opportunities school has to offer" (p. xxi).Besides these central questions, additional queries at the end of each chapter entice readers to consider using storytelling and drama within standardized educational constructs. McNamee explains how Paley, framed in Lev S. Vygotsky's theories, provides children from disadvantaged backgrounds who are learning English the opportunity to share their often-overlapping worldviews.Children in Paley and McNamee's world are empathetic and intelligent actors valued for their perspectives. For instance, in the book, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Mrs. Miller asked why the troll is mean? Chantell (a child in the class) responds "His mama dead." Carlos responds "Yeah. She dead," and all the children begin to argue over the troll's past, (p. 17). After some reflection, the teachers admit feeling uncomfortable with the discussion, but they discover these children are considering possibilities adults have missed, such as finding empathy for the homeless and orphaned troll.In chapter 3, titled "Doing Stories," children begin telling stories about topics spanning from Batman and princesses to angels and death. Here and throughout the book, readers can see how short scaffolded moments-in which children tell their stories, have them written down, and then act them out in the classroom-can support emergent literacy. The practices promote ethics of inclusion (p. ix), nurture children's ownership over language, and require teachers to become leaders in careful observation and assessment for the students' next developmental steps.McNamee does not expect immediate mastery and uses her own orderly and messy moments, implementing Paley's curriculum in the classroom to encourage early-childhood educators to give it a try. Michael Cole's thoughtful foreword illustrates the author's commitment to passing knowledge onto others simply and caringly. …