Portfolio - 1.2 and 3.1

Week 9 – Portfolio

Outcome
1.2 Explains how young children’s literacy & numeracy learning can be socially conveyed through their behaviour, feelings or approach 

3.1 Offers a careful interpretation & analysis of children's early literacy/numeracy skills & interests 

On placement the other day I read the book “James and the Giant Peach” by Roald Dahl to the children. I brought the book from home as I remember as a child I used to love my parents reading it to me. I thought that there might be a few children who has never heard the story before and might enjoy it. I read the story to them through once and I could tell by their facial expressions and the behaviour that they really enjoyed the story and was intrigued by it. I decided to read it to them again but this time asking them open-ended questions. I first asked them if they have ever been inside of a peach. They all looked at me funny and said “don’t be silly, you can’t go inside of a peach.” I continued by asking them if they knew what the word ‘giant’ meant. One boy said “it means monster.” I asked him what he meant by it and he continued by saying “I have a book at home about a really, really big monster.” It was interesting to me that he was able to explain to me that the book was about a ‘really, really big’ monster, but when I asked him what ‘giant’ meant, he responded with ‘monster’ instead of saying ‘something that is really, really big’. I explained to them that giant meant it is something very big and can have many different meanings such as enormous, massive, gigantic and huge. I used this opportunity to explain to them that we are ‘giant’ compared to ants, but are not ‘giant’ compared to a tall building. I could tell by their approach towards the story that they were now clear as to what ‘giant’ meant. From this experience I have learnt that young children can make meaning of a word through pictures. It also allowed me to think that literacy and numeracy can be used together in so many learning experiences without even realising. With the explaining of the word ‘giant’ and comparing it with different things, I was able to use both literacy and numeracy together.