Portfolio 3: Action Plan: Developmental Milestones

Current Situation

An area that I think is important to get my head around is developmental milestones. Whilst I feel this on a broad level, I think that by focusing on literacy and numeracy milestones I can cover some key areas that will be of practical use as an educator.

At the moment I feel like what I know is based more on observation and general ‘rules of thumb’, and would like to have a more fact-based approach so that I become a knowledgeable and trusted educator.

Desired Outcome

The outcome I would like to achieve would be to have some key developmental milestone facts I can recall for each age from age 1-4. These facts should be for both literacy and numeracy. For example:

• When do children generally first start to count?
• When do children generally first start to understand the concept of addition and subtraction?
• When do children generally first start to connect letters with sounds?
• When do children generally first start to connect symbols with meanings?

Resources

I will primarily achieve this through desktop research of peer-reviewed journal articles. However, here is a list of other resources I can also tap into:

• Speaking with my peers (who may be able to point me towards resources they have found valuable)
• The 2421 blogger directory
• Documentaries e.g. the ABC series Life at (1/2/3/5)
• Information websites for parents
• My mentor from my placement
• List of readings for this course
• Work colleagues (I will be returning as a relief worker to my former placement site soon)
• Academic staff from the school of education
• The university library

Week 3, September 18th + Portfolio 4.1

Learning to read the world: Literacy in the first 3 years.

I chose this literacy reading as I was drawn to the practical-sounding title & dot points ‘at a glance’ section of key points on the first page.

The main thrust of the article is that the core concepts of teaching reading to the early years are ‘presence, time, words, print, and intention’. Much of this came as little surprise to me.

However, I noted two phrases in the article relating to cultural sensitivity, which was a hot topic whilst I was on placement. This first caught my eye in one of the 5 key points at the beginning of the article where:

‘Every caregiver can, in culturally appropriate ways, help infants and toddlers learn to read the world’.

The two phrases in the body of the text were:

1. Caregivers need knowledge of the cultural supports for the language and literacy learning of the children and families they are serving’
2. Caregivers share words and print … in ways that honor the cultures and languages of the families in their programs’

I can’t help but feel that, as one of the 5 key points, it is only briefly and vaguely mentioned. I understand and agree with the general ideas of knowing a child’s cultural background and being respectful of this. However, I would have liked to see these explained in more than just two sentences, ideally with practical strategies. Otherwise it could be said that this is nothing more than lip service.

For my practice as an educator, I have picked up two useful key terms from this article:

Pseudowords - This is a concept I hadn’t heard of before. I now understand it to be the transitional phase between children making sounds and speaking real words.

Social marketing – Another term that I had never heard of, despite having a marketing background. I now understand that this relates to not-for-profit marketing, which explains why it’s not used in a business context. In this case, it relates to ‘marketing’ the importance of early literacy to parents. However, as with my points about culture above, (and also with pseudowords) this was only briefly mentioned so I had to ‘read between the lines’.

Update 21/11/13

I am updating this reading reflection in order to demonstrate its alignment with Outcome 4.1: Critiques other plausible perspectives on early literacy & numeracy awareness & immersion.

I felt that this week's entry was a good example of criticism of an academic perspective, in that I found two cases of perceived tokenism within this reading. I understand that there are many contested issues within early childhood research such as social justice, assessment (a.k.a gap analyses), gun / violent play, gender issues, and so on. However, I think tokenism is worth addressing because it's an issue that I have noted that many of my peers have mentioned.

The 'social marketing' comment is less of an issue. I suspect that it may have been included without being fully fleshed out as it evokes links with social media, which would have had as much weight, if not more, than today when it was published in 2004. This is not to say that it isn't a valid point, and in fact I agree that parents should be encouraged to be involved in their child's literacy and numeracy development. My critique is only that this should have been expanded upon.

My issues with cultural sensitivity are similar, but I feel as though this is far more prevalent. That is to say, whilst I feel that there is a lot of talk around this, how cultural sensitivity should actually translate seem thin on the ground. I'd like to see more practical advice in research papers, and more action within the classroom, rather than just decorations.

To be fair, I have seen some concrete examples of culturally inclusive activities in classes, but I feel that this could be improved upon. I am also conscious that my experiences are largely at a site with a strong reputation in this regard, so I wonder how many authentic experiences are offered elsewhere.

Reference:

Rosenkoetter, S. & Knapp-Philo, J. (2004). Learning to read the world: Literacy in the first 3 years. Zero to Three, 25(1), 4-9

Shopping for mathematics in consumer town

I chose this reading for two reasons. Firstly, ‘consumer town’ sounded unusual and interesting. Secondly, as mentioned above I have a business / marketing background so I was interesting to see these two worlds ‘collide’.

The main argument of the reading was that it was important for maths to be taught in a realistic manner. The idea was that this helped address the ‘disconnect between real-world applications and standards-based teaching’.

The most interesting point for me was that whilst young children can often count by memorising and repeating the number order, this does not mean they understand the numbers and how they can be applied.

The main implication I saw was that, by practically applying maths, I can move beyond mere repetition to meet basic standards.

I was pleased to see that there was some self-reflection about improvements for future iterations of consumer town, particularly about connecting work with money. I have read in the past that many Australian adults lack financial literacy, and I wonder if embedding core concepts from an early age would assist with this.

Reference:

Wolff, A. L., & Wimer, N. (2009). Shopping for mathematics in consumer town. YC Young Children, 64(3), 34-38. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/197640000?accountid=10910

Portfolio 2

The resource I have chosen this week is an online ‘flash’ resource called ‘Splat Symphony’.

The link can be found here: 

http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/games/splat_symphony/splat_symphony.html

This is a resource I would recommend as a numeracy tool as, though it is more subtly educational, once you spend some time with it the number of different numeracy concepts that are involved add up. These are:

·        Numbers,

o   These appear in the bottom left on the screen and keep track of the total number of ink blots the child has placed on the virtual page

·        Number order,

o   By following along with the child as more ink blots are added, the number order can be learned

·        Sequence/patterns,

o   Children can experiment with different patterns on their own. When they click the ‘play’ button in the bottom right, the notes are played back in the same order they were put down in. This is easier to follow if it’s done earlier (with fewer ink blots), as these loop back to the start automatically.

·        Proportion/ratio.

o   This may be the most interesting tool in this resource. This small pie-chart in the bottom right of the screen keeps a running tally of the ratio of each different colour the child has added.

o   So for example, we could look at the ratio and ask the child whether there were more red ink blots or more blue ink blots. We can then check the page and count them up to confirm this.

  

The site also provides a suggestion for an extension activity about how a real life version can be played outside with chalk and the children’s voices.

Personally, I would probably use the online version, since it’s more visually engaging than chalk. If it were nice weather though, it might be nice to do the outside version as it could also be good exercise.

Week 2, 11th September 2013 + Portfolio 4.2

How Do Parents Support Preschoolers' Numeracy Learning Experiences at Home?

This reading was selected as I thought that research into children’s home lives would be a way to see (in a qualitative manner) how children use / apply numeracy concepts in their play and everyday lives.

The main argument was that the authors felt that the parents of the children in the study did not sufficiently challenge their children from a numeracy perspective. The children who were challenged by their parents with more advanced activities performed better in their ‘numeracy scores’.

A finding that connected with my previous understanding was that parents did not always know if there was a mathematical component to the activity they were undertaking, and tended to guess. The connection with an article that I had read previously (I don’t recall the name) was that whilst pre-service teachers are able to complete numeracy tasks with accuracy, they often aren’t able to discuss the numeracy concepts behind these. This could be an area of future research for me.

One criticism I have of this research is that 32% of the children surveyed had at least one parent who was a teacher. I couldn’t say with certainty but I would imagine this is higher than the average population. Therefore the research results would be biased to some degree.

The implication I think this has for me as a future educator is to be brave and challenge my students with more complex numeracy than perhaps I otherwise would have done.

Update: 21/11/2013

I have chosen to update this reading reflection in order to align it with Outcome 4.2: Describes how parents, peers & communities may see, feel & shape young children’s early literacy & numeracy experiences.

In the reflection above I note that parents & educators (the latter being part of a community of learners around the child) may be unknowingly disadvantaging children through a lack of concrete knowledge of mathematical concepts. Indeed, I think this is a challenging area as I believe we're not only looking at a basic knowledge of concepts but actually fluency. The reason for this is that these concepts are basically hidden in most cases. For example, no children's book I can think of would state on the page 'THIS PAGE INCLUDES ORDINAL NUMBERS". Thus, the parent or educator not only needs to know about ordinal numbers, but recognise that an element of the situation contains ordinal numbers.

I wouldn't want to say that this situation will never change, but I believe that change in this area will be slow because, as I have heard in  'EDUC3622 Thinking and Working Mathematically', many adults have had negative experiences with mathematics in schooling and thus avoid it where possible. So, the weight on the shoulders of present educators is to provide positive experiences so that future generations may have less fear of numeracy and then gain greater fluency.

In response to the question from Jesse below, I have read (Watson, 2011) that an area that is presently underrepresented in the Australian F-2 curriculum is Statistics & Probability, currently assessed as representing only around 20% of the interest and effort invested by educators.

Looking at the EYLF, I note that statistics is not mentioned at all, whilst 'data' is mentioned once (outside of glossaries and definitions).

So, if we are to challenge young children in terms of complex numeracy, statistics and data may be a good place to start.


Key words:

Parents, home life, teachers, complex numeracy, challenge

References:

Skwarchuk, S. (2009). How do parents support preschoolers' numeracy learning experiences at home? Early Childhood Education Journal, 37(3), 189-197. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/61841932?accountid=10910

Watson, J. (2011). Professor's Page: Statistical Literacy - Connectivity for the Australian Curriculum.Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 16 (3), p. 18. Retrieved from: http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=331773981647395;res=IELHSS [Accessed: 18 Nov 2013].

Handy Manny and the Emergent Literacy Technology Toolkit

I chose this article as I was looking for information with pragmatic and practical applications for early childhood literacy.

There were a number of general findings in the article. When using larger LCD screens, it was suggested that students learned significantly more than when the same information was presented on smaller screens.

Further, the article discussed the results of a study of young children using Powerpoint. The children created a project and were able to:

§  reflect on their learning in a complex way,

§  explain their thinking and reflect on their experience, and

§  express what they had learned in multiple ways.

This was particularly interesting to me as I am a proponent of technology use in early childhood settings. This reinforces my need to encourage it as I found that many educators on my placement were not interested in this aspect of teaching, for literacy purposes or otherwise.

Reference:

Hourcade, J. J., Parette, H. P., Boeckmann, N., & Blum, C. (2010). Handy manny and the emergent literacy technology toolkit.Early Childhood Education Journal, 37(6), 483-491. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10643-010-0377-1

Portfolio 1: Bean Bag Literacy Targets

This portfolio piece outlines a resource I have developed whilst on placement. I have included this as I feel as though it was a successful session. Around 15-20 children participated during the session, and I also saw other educators at the centre repeating the session later.

I feel that this was engaging and effective because the literacy component was embedded in a gross motor activity. This is not to say that 'pure' literacy activities cannot be engaging, but that embedded activities are particularly attractive to me personally.

Activity title: Bean Bag Targets Outdoors

Date: 6^th August 2013

Time Period: Morning

Who planned for: Primary care group children’s names removed (whoever is available & interested) plus other children who want to get involved.

Expected Learning Outcomes

•       Relates to Outcome 5 - Children are effective communicators

o   Begin to understand key literacy and numeracy concepts and processes, such as the sounds of language, letter-sound relationships, concepts of print and the ways that texts are structured

•       Relates to Outcome 1 - Children have a strong sense of identity

o   Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect

•       Relates to Outcome 2 - Children are connected with and contribute to their world

o   Children become aware of fairness       

o   Waiting their turn

•       Relates to Outcome 3 -   Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing

o   Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing

•       Building gross motor skills

Context for the Session

•       Relates to ‘Let’s Get Physical’ Term 3 Plan

Session focus

•       Looking at the fundamental movement skills in throwing and catching (body & head, arms)

•       Using letters / sounds to mark targets on a net

•       Using fruit and vegetable cards to mark targets on a net

Preparation

•       Print out first 2 sets of ‘Jolly Phonics’ and laminate - s, a, t, p, i, n, ck, e, h, r, m, d.

•       Need to have a range of bean bags for the children so they can choose ones that suit them.

•       Check weather

Teaching and Learning Strategies

•       Introduction (5 minutes)

o   I will position myself outdoors and engage a group of children in my new experience. As other children approach I will encourage them to join in also.

o   I will introduce my session by asking: “I’m going to try out hitting these targets, who wants to join me?”

o   I will explain that there are two nets, one with fruit and vegetable targets, one with letter sounds.

o   I will demonstrate that when they hit the target, we need to say what the target is (or have a guess)

•       Main teaching session (20 minutes)

o   Ask each child in turn to choose a net and throw 5 bean bags.

o   I will observe each child, looking at their fundamental movement skills and helping with identifying the targets they have hit. For the very young children, the fruit and vegetables would be more appropriate. For the older children, we can also ask them what words have that sound in them.

o   I will model both the movement skills and the identification for the children and support each individual child that is engaged in this experience to practice.

•       Conclusion (5 minutes)

o   I will ask each child in turn to tell me their favourite part of the session.

o   I will ask each child to tell me which part of the course they found the most difficult.

o   I will share with the children that they can set up a similar experience for themselves using the equipment / materials available and the ideas from today.

Note - There was also a reflections / evaluation section here but I have removed it due to space constraints.

Week 1, 4th September 2013 + Portfolio 1.2

Noticing and naming as social practice: Examining the relevance of a contextualized field-based early childhood literacy methods course


I chose this reading for a number of reasons. Firstly, I was interested in investigating early childhood literacy from a social perspective. Also, because it observed pre-service teachers, which is a situation I can clearly relate to. Finally, because the concept of deliberately ‘noticing and naming’ children’s feelings and actions was something that I was introduced to at the Milne Centre (Name changed) whilst on placement.

The authors contended that ‘noticing and naming’ was an essential practice for teachers, as it encouraged children to be aware of their own learning in a broader way. It also highlighted to others what the pre-service teachers thought was relevant.

Similarly to my experiences with the ‘Marte Meo method’ at the Milne Centre, the article highlighted some specific positive outcomes of using the method, such as ‘Preservice teachers notice and name the social nature of learning’ through children having different ‘literate identities’ based on who they were interacting with.

However, the article departed from my experiences in that it offered cautionary advice, such as warning against institutional labels. I feel this will assist me in my future teaching career, for example avoiding labels like “struggling” “nonreaders” and “English language learners” and instead focus on creating competent readers, writers, and multilingual learners.

Update 21/11/13:

I have tagged this reading reflection in the title as relating to Outcome 1.2: Explains how young children’s literacy & numeracy learning can be socially conveyed through their behaviour, feelings or approach.

I understand that this may be contested if an educator believed more in a Piagetian approach rather than a Vygotskyan one, that is to say, feeling that peers play a greater role in development than adults, such as an educator. Whilst I believe both are important, I believe that generally speaking, adult interaction may have a greater impact on development.

I wanted to respond to Jesse's comment here as I felt the answer should be in the body of the text. I can see a common strand between the readings. I think that noticing and naming could also be utilised in a modified way to suit a numeracy context. That is to say, rather than noticing and naming children's behaviours and feelings, we would be naming numeracy concepts as we notice them. To be honest, I was thrown for a moment as I think you mean 'labelling' in place of 'naming', whereas the reading uses labelling in a pejorative context.

Note - All comments now have replies

Additional note:
Hi Jesse! Contrary to your comment in class, the numeracy reading was originally first in this week's entry! I have now reversed it however as the latter reading reflection had a clearer social focus. So, you're right now.


References:

Krieg, S. (2013). Lecture Week 4: Putting Theory to Work. EDUC 1221. South Australia, Australia.

Laman, T. T., Miller, E. T., & Lopez-Robertson, J. (2012). Noticing and naming as social practice: Examining the relevance of a contextualized field-based early childhood literacy methods course. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 33(1), 3-18. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/968108894?accountid=10910

Marte Meo International (n.d.). Retrieved September 4, 2013, from http://www.martemeo.com/

The role of pictures in picture books on children's cognitive engagement with mathematics


I chose this article for two reasons. Firstly, because I was interested in learning more about children’s engagement with mathematics. Secondly, because I am personally interested in and enjoy reading picture books to children.

The article cites the positive impacts picture books with mathematics themes have, not only on children’s academic performance but also on their attitudes towards maths. Further, they also mention that children can be mathematically engaged even when the book is not written for the purpose of teaching maths, and the teacher only reads the book (without additional prompts).

The authors felt that their data supported the conclusion that picture books were a powerful tool particularly when used in tandem with appropriate questions based on individual children’s needs and book’s characteristics.

From a practical perspective, I feel that I should be building a repertoire of early childhood picture books with mathematics as a focus. Further, given the above results, I will also be looking for possible questions to ask whilst reading non-maths books in order to embed incidental numeracy learning in that experience.


Reference:

Elia, I., van, d. H., & Georgiou, A. (2010). The role of pictures in picture books on children's cognitive engagement with mathematics. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 18(3), 125-147. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/757167209?accountid=10910