Portfolio - 2.3 and 4.1

Outcome
2.3 Sources further information; developing &/ or collecting resources for literary & numerical teaching & learning.

4.1 Critiques other plausible perspectives on early literacy & numeracy awareness & immersion 

For this week’s portfolio I have decided to search for two YouTube clips that relate to literacy and numeracy in the early years and which covers the 2.3 outcome.

Literacy

“5 Predictors of Early Literacy”

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqImgAd3vyg

In the YouTube clip Dr. Theresa Bouley, a professor in early childhood education at the Eastern Connecticut State university , stresses that best practise in early literacy instruction must involve both spontaneous and planned daily activities focused on the five areas of literacy learning that best predict children’s future reading and writing development. The five areas that were discussed include;

·         Oral language

·         Phonemic awareness

·         Alphabet awareness

·         Concepts about print

·         Early writing with inventive spelling

She argues the importance that if early childhood educators know what these five predictors are, they can not only plan daily meaningful lessons in these areas, but they can maximize their ability to catch spontaneous teachable moments throughout the day.

Numeracy

“Preschool – Kindergarten Math Numbers Song”

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WdiTtioi64

I really enjoyed this YouTube clip. It is a great song about teaching preschool to kindergarten age group the numbers one to ten. What I liked about this clip is the fact that for each different number they showed a picture and described the number. For example, number one was described as ‘being all alone’ and then it showed a picture of a face and pointed out that we only have one mouth and one nose. Having done placement at a kindy before, I found that children at that age love songs that they can interact with and doing moves. This song would be great to have children sing a long and doing the moves, and at the same time learning about the numbers one to ten.  

Week 7 reading

Week 7

19 September 2013

Reading

Tags: Emergent Literacy, Home experiences, child-initiated play, Learning through play, previous experiences

What?

The readings I chose this week were ‘From Sight Words to Emerging Literacy’ and ‘Why Play?’ The literacy reading I chose this week was from another topic. I chose this reading as I want to increase my knowledge and understanding of what emergent literacy is. I chose the numeracy reading to inform me as a future educator how to create rich and meaningful mathematical experiences through play.

So what?

Literacy

I found this reading very interesting as it gave me a greater understanding of what emergent literacy is all about. Emergent literacy can be defined as the process of becoming literate, beginning at birth, and developing throughout a lifetime (Browder, Courtade-Little, Wakeman & Rickelman, 2006). It involves the reading and writing behaviours of children that precede and then develop into conventional literacy. The reading states that some children come to school already knowing how to read as they have experiences rich activities before entering school provided by their parents, older siblings or other adults. However, there are other children that come from settings where there are few experiences in literacy and generally experience more difficulties and delay in learning to read. Although students may not learn to read they may benefit from acquiring emergent literacy skills.

Numeracy

The reading ‘Why Play?’ discusses the importance of play in young children’s learning and how particular theories of play have impacted the teaching of mathematics. The four theories of play that were mentioned were, Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner and Smilansky and Shefatya. It argues that to support mathematical development through play, play needs quality involvement of an adult at some point. Therefore teacher initiated play is just as essential as child initiated play; however, a balance between the two is important.

Furthermore, the reading points out that learning maths through play enables children to understand that maths can be useful, fun, sociable and cooperative, and is an essential part of the world. It is important to understand that mathematics through play enables young children to make meaning and connections to themselves and of what is around them. It argues that for mathematics to make sense, learning must make links with other learning experience. A quote that stood out to me was that play was not in fact ‘unimportant’ ‘but is a feature of effective early years pedagogy’ (p.6).

Now what?

It is important for us as educators to always remember that each child is unique and different and how the ability of emergent literacy develops can vary considerably. The expectation is that children will gain pre-reading skills and then move on to higher stages of literacy. Through interaction with books and participating stories, sight word drill, and some phonemic awareness, will all help to promote early reading skills.

There are many implications for practice  It is important for educator to understand the role of play in learning and to ensure they offer a play based learning pedagogy. Furthermore, the involvement of an adult is essential in supporting mathematical development for young children. Educators have to create mathematical experiences through play and demonstrate that maths is everywhere and in everything.

Reference List

Browder, D. M., Courtade-Little, G., Wakeman, S., & Rickelman, R. J. (2006). From sight words to emerging literace. In D.M. Browder & F. Spooner, Teaching language arts, math, & science to students with significant cognitive disabilities (pp. 63-91). Baltimore, MA: Paul H Brookes.

Tucker, K. (2010). Why Play? Mathematics through play in the Early Years (pp. 5-14). London: SAGE Publications. 

Portfolio - 4.3

Outcome 4.3 Shows recognition of your own potential prejudices & projections, noting ways you hope to overcome them.

Tags: work-life balance, time-management, everyday application

4.3: Experience: How literate & numerate am I?

This page lists the literacy and numeracy experiences I engaged in over a 24-hour period, to help me to reflect on how I define literacy and numeracy in my daily life tasks. The intent is to consider both my confidence as an educator in these areas (i.e. my possible biases and plans regarding the identification of and support for literacy and numeracy learning in the early years), and to consider the opportunities for such learning which are available to very young children in their daily lives as a result.

Activities from 12th September 2013

(N) Alarm goes off at 5am, I think to myself ‘can I sleep in for another 10 minutes?’ and then I decide I’d better wake up and get ready to start work at 6am.

(N & L) All dressed and in my work uniform at 5:25am, I work out how much time I have left to have a quick breakfast and to check my facebook

(N) Arrive at work at 5:55am, run upstairs to finger scan in using my 6 digit code

(L) Check the roster to see who I am working with today

(N) Work for about 3 hours before I take a quick 15 minute tea break

(L) Whilst on my tea break, I check my emails and facebook, making sure I reply to those I need to

(N) Making sure I return back to work after my 15 minutes

(L) Filling in an annual leave form before I finish my shift

(N) Running upstairs to finger scan out at 11am and then running back down to my car to make sure I can get ready and changed to be back at uni by 12pm

(L) Deciding what texts books and readings I need to take to uni

(L & N) My friend rings on my mobile. I recognized her number and I answered. She called to let me know she’s about 5 minutes away from picking me up to go to uni

(L & N) Arrived at uni just on time. Entered classroom and made sure my books and readings were all ready to go

(L & N) Had a moment in class to check my FLO, ensuring that I am still keeping on track with all the assignments and readings that needs to be done.

(N & L) Class finishes just before 3. I go home with my friend, and we decide to do uni work together for a few hours before its time to go home, have a shower and have dinner etc. 

Week 6 Reading

Week 6

12 September 2013

Tags: Mathematical development, mathematical experiences, numeracy opportunities, alphabet recognition, iPad

Readings

What?

The readings I chose to do this week include ‘Recognising Mathematical Development in Early Childhood Education’ and ‘The use of an iPad to Promote Pre-schooler’s Alphabet Recognition and Letter Sound Correspondence’. I chose the numeracy reading to increase my knowledge and understanding of numeracy in the early years from last week. The literacy numeracy I found on the database link in the flinders library and I found it very interesting. The iPad has become such a huge part of education and when I came across the reading I thought it would be great to summarise it.

So what?

Numeracy

As educators in early childhood, we need to ensure that we always keep in mind that early numeracy concepts involves more than just numbers, especially in the preschool years when children participate in practical daily activities encounter measurement, pattern, position and movement in space. For young children, numbers mean more in the context of activities. A very important quote from the readings that really stood out to me is “that becoming a mathematician starts at birth”. It is important that we provide the children with social and playful interaction and this enables adults’ understanding of the child’s viewpoint. Numeracy experiences tend to be a part of a range of activities. For example sorting and matching can exist in:

·         Singing a known song

·         Thinking about the sequence of a story in a picture book

·         Helping to put away the blocks

Literacy

The iPad is certainly starting to become a huge part of most educational settings. It is such a versatile device as it can be used in almost every part of learning across all year levels. Applications on the iPad such as the ABC Matching Game, Alphabet Learn, Alphabet Tracing, and ABC go go, etc, are all great for pre-schooler’s to use and to help promote their alphabet recognition. An example of one of the games includes ‘The ABC Matching Game’ which involves the child having a picture of something and then next to it the letters of the picture all mixed up, and then child can tap on each letter and the app will say the letter and then the child needs to put the letters in order.

Now what?

As educators we need to ensure that discussion of the mathematics involved needs to be shared in conversation with the children who should be encouraged to match practical experience with appropriate language. It is important to have numeracy-learning opportunities available across the whole day.

The use of an iPad has proven to help children, especially struggling readers, to learn independently and encouraged the development of positive attitudes such as, ‘I can do it’. Another positive point about the use of an iPad is the development of technology skills which supports young children’s early literacy development through natural movements and use of fingers to tap, swipe, drag, pinch, and stretch icons or texts. iPads not only serve as a teaching tool but also have motivating power. The iPad offers versatility with great potential for teachers who identify and make sure of multiple applications in the classroom.

Reference List

Huan, S., Clark, N., & Wedel, W. (2013). Teaching Tips: The Use of an iPad to Promote Preschooler’s Alphabet Recognition and Letter Sound Correspondence. Practically Primary, Vol. 18, No. 1, 24 – 26.

Carrington, A., & Feder, T. (2013). Recognising Mathematical Development in Early Childhood Education. Every Child, Vol. 19, No. 1, 18 – 19. 

Portfolio - 1.3

1.3  Specifies the teaching approaches you'll use & the learning environs you'll create to support the social dimensions of early literacy/numeracy 

Experience

One of my close friends has a 22 month old daughter (who I will call by the pseudonym of 'Sophie’). I have the privilege of looking after Sophie once a week and would like to share with you what I witnessed last week. Sophie is going through a stage where she loves music and dancing. Her mother told me that her favourite song is Bastille by Pompeii, and will start dancing every time she hears it. I decided to use this opportunity to teach Sophie the song ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’ so that she can start to engage in songs by doing the actions. To my surprise she loved the song and watched me do the actions and after prompting she was able to follow along with the actions.

I decided to stop the music and just ask her questions such as “where is your head?” and “where are your shoulders” and she was able to point to them. It was great to witness her learn this new song and especially that she loved doing the actions. I was amazed at how quickly she learned the song and actions and was so excited to share the news with her mother. I believe that Sophie now has a new favourite song!

It is important for us as early childhood educators to be aware of the learning and to build skills where we can. I believe that action songs, especially at such a young age, are a great way to teach literacy and numeracy skills. Action songs involve movement and coordination while also connecting emotionally with the music and words and in most cases the whole body and brain is engaged, which is important for a young child’s development. Action songs also encourage greater parent-child participation and interaction. 

Week 5

Week 5

4 September 2013

What:

The readings I have chosen for this week are “Young Learners: Defining literacy in the early years – a contested space” and “Numeracy in the Early Years”. I have chosen these two readings as it clearly describes what literacy and numeracy is all about when we focus on the early years. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of literacy and numeracy and describes different ways in which children use literacy and numeracy in everyday life. The readings also reviews issues surrounding early literacy and numeracy and seeks to identify a definition of early literacy and numeracy which will clarify early childhood educators’ understanding of this important areas of young children’s learning and development, and to support their practise more specifically.    

So what?

First of all we need to ask ourselves, what is numeracy? I found an excellent quote that best describes this in the reading,

“Numeracy is based on a range of skills including pattern recognition, sequencing, serration, spatial relationships, object permanence, sorting, comparing, classifying and one-to-one correspondence (Davis & Keller, 2009; Geist, 2009, p. 26; cited in Sims, 2012).”

This shows us that numeracy is so broad and skills are learnt in almost everything a child does, therefore it is important for us as early childhood educators to recognise these skills and to build from it.

I want to continue by providing an example by Sims (2012) where she explains how something as simple as meal time can teach skills in numeracy, such as;

• ·         Putting one spoon next to one plate (one-to-one correspondence)
• ·         Stacking big plates and small plates in separate piles to be washes (grouping)
• ·         Making a ‘smiley face’ sandwich (patterning)
• ·         Piling food up on the plate then spreading it out (conservation)
• ·         Working out how much food to put on each plate so that everyone gets the same amount (factions)

Sims (2012) also points out that eating a meal creates a learning environment when adults intentionally draw children’s attention to what they are experiencing. For example, we can count out loud as Johnny hands around a plate to everyone.

Next we look at literacy…

What is literacy? In the reading it provides an excellent definition of early literacy,

“Young children coming to understand the range of semiotics used to create and communicate meaning, with particular attention to the linguistically-based symbol system which supports their developing language, vocabulary and text awareness (Raban and Scull, 2013).”

Clay (1991) and Purcell-Gates (1991) states that it is very important for young children to experience literacy practises at preschool and at home before learning to read and write in a school setting, as this introduces them to the world of print and messages in texts (p.102; cited in Raban and Scull, 2013).

Now what?

The readings indicated that improving children’s numeracy and literacy requires us to be aware of the learning opportunities that are available to us in our everyday lives through play and through routines. We as early childhood educators need to use these opportunities intentionally to enhance exploration of numeracy and literacy concepts using the principles of high-quality practise identified in the Early Years Learning Framework (Raban and Scull, 2013 & Sims, 2012).

References:

Sims, M. (2012). Numeracy in the early years. Every Child, 18(1), 26 – 27. Doi: http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.flinders.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=504831332503423;res=IELHSS

Rahan, B., & Scull, J. (2013). Young learners: Defining literacy in the early years – a contested space. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 38(1), 100 – 106. Doi: http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.flinders.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=266919869288591;res=IELHSS