A few weeks ago I was watching as my daughters were working through drills during their weekly tennis lessons. I observed a group of elementary kids dutifully take their places, hit the ball, and then move to the next station. It was simple, efficient, and monotonous. Though they were learning the basics of tennis, the kids simply weren't having much fun. Their coach must have noticed because he immediately changed pace and led all the kids to an adjoining field next to the courts for a lively game of freeze tag. All the kids were laughing and loving it, though I found that it bore little resemblance to anything even remotely related to tennis. I was wrong. What looked to me to be free play was really the development of skills such as acceleration, lateral speed, and footwork. This coach recognized that sometimes you can leave the court and have fun while accomplishing goals.
Imagine the transformational power of classroom teachers across the nation adopting a similar instructional philosophy. Yet so often, for the sake of comfort and convenience, teachers are focused on traditional methods and resources; and unfortunately, this means an unhealthy reliance upon textbooks. Research