Playing a story: Narrative and writing-like features in scenes of dramaticplay

This paper describes the ways in which one group of Head Start children inc luded narrative features in their naturally occurring dramatic play and eng aged in behaviors similar to process writing. Young children can initiate a nd develop unassisted dramatic play and communicate with peers during this process (Allgeier, 1991; Roskos, 1988; Walker, 1992; Weinberger & Starkey, 1994). Young children can also include narrative features in their play (Ro skos, 1988). This paper extends information about narrative features by des cribing play behaviors similar to mapping and revision (Graves, 1983; Routm an, 1994). Findings presented are part of a larger non-intervention observa tional study that focused on the nature of the children's play and its cont exts for literacy development.