Rethinking Recess: Boosting Students' Social Skills Through Play
For most students and teachers, recess represents a break from learning.
But, for an increasing number of school leaders and educators, recess is becoming a teachable moment. Across the country, schools are using daily play time to engage students, increase their social-emotional competencies, and even battle bullying.
Mundo Verde Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., is so serious about the learning powers of recess that it has hired a recess coordinator, Amalie Malochee. “Nobody has a break at recess,” Malochee tells Education Week in a recent video report, “we’re all playing—the teachers, the students, the coaches.”
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Mundo Verde partners with Playworks, a national nonprofit group that uses play to hone students’ social-emotional development. The group’s main focus is to engage students who feel out of place on the playground. Through non-competitive play and the recruitment of junior coaches—student peers who help lead group activities—Playworks and Malochee aim to not only improve students’ physical health, but also improve their social skills and confidence.
As one Mundo Verde junior coach, fourth-grader Reagan Young, tells Education Week, “Before I joined Junior Coach, I was really shy and I wasn’t open. After Junior Coach, I was really confident, I was a great leader.”
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As participating students grow more confident and socially adept, Playworks organizers say they also become better leaders. That confidence helps them identify problems on the playground and in school and empowers them to step in when fellow students feel left out or bullied.
The concept of recess is changing from a break period for teachers and students to a valuable opportunity to promote physical health, social-emotional wellbeing, and teamwork in school. For more on the Playworks program, watch the full Education Week video below: