‘You Can't Have a Cake Unless It's Written Down’: Semiotic Activity and Authentic Learning in Play as a Potential Tool for Analysis

Abstract

Mark‐making is increasingly seen as a means of offering insights into early literacy and to a lesser degree to early mathematical representation. Rarely are comparison made between the child's developing understandings of sign and of the symbol systems by which the adult world classifies them. To begin to consider the ways in which children learn ‘to sort it all out’ we need to focus on the contexts in which the mark making occurs and the authenticity of the learning events in which the children act as participants. The context is that of imaginative role‐play within the nursery. The central theme is that semiotic activity is a vital, but often overlooked process. This paper reflects on the practical application of the work of Van Oers and Wardekker (1999) to the analysis of early mark‐making samples. It suggests that this approach, taken with other considerations, offers a means by which comparisons might be made between samples gathered in a way that respects the integrity of the children's spontaneous play.

Key words:

• Play
• semiotic activity
• authentic learning