Learning Through Play

Play has a significant role in language and literacy learning. However, even when valued in schools, opportunities for play are limited beyond early childhood education. This study of an after‐school program for adolescents looks closely at several forms of play that students engaged in to produce self‐portraits. The study suggests that play and experimentation with visual texts, tools, spaces, peers, and materials contributed to students’ engagement with complex visual literacy practices. Two important implications are discussed: (1) that learning through play is a participatory, inclusive approach to literacy that invites adolescent students, even those often reticent to take risks, to cultivate literacy practices and identities; and (2) that visual modes of literacy play and production enable an experiential understanding of academic literacy concepts adaptable to other modalities and contexts.