This week for my portfolio I have completed my second draft
of my literacy and numeracy continuums.
For the numeracy continuum, I have proceeded as planned.
That is, to follow the original source of the Geist continuum and then to
summarise key aspects of it to complete my remaining two sections, which were
the 36-42 months and 42-48 months sections.
In doing this, I grappled with the ideas of what ‘some’
children can do and the ‘average’ child is able to do at that age, references to
which are used heavily in the PBS source. In the end, I was able to use the ‘average’
metric for much of my continuum, which I was pleased with.
The second major change came after discussion with
colleagues and also my tutor. That is, how to reconcile the central scale on my
numeracy continuum with the literacy one, as the numeracy used ages and the
literacy used generalised developmental stages, ‘Awareness’, ‘Exploration’ and
so on.
The conclusion we came to was that, given that individual children
can vary so markedly in their development, the developmental stages would be a
more appropriate model. I probably wouldn’t have come up with this solution on
my own, so I was grateful for the collaboration.
However, I needed to work out the implementation on my own.
The original 5 stages represented a child’s development from birth-8.
Numerically, the first issue is that it doesn’t divide neatly! The second issue
is that, even if I were to divide it down the middle (for birth to age 4), this
would mean that my scale would end halfway through the ‘Inquiry’ stage. ‘Inqu’
just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
However, my numeracy reading reflection this week stressed
the importance of having high expectations for students. With this in mind, I made
the decision that not only could (some) children complete the ‘Inquiry’ stage
by 48 months, they could also be utilising their knowledge as well, e.g. using
a map to locate an object in a room.
As such, I have applied the first 4 of the 5 developmental
stages to both of my continuums. Both are available below. Please note, you need to click on them to view the high resolution versions.
Numeracy Continuum:
Literacy Continuum:
Sources:
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ReplyDeleteDear James,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your Continua! The continuum for numeracy which you have developed is well designed and very easy to follow. I especially appreciate the way you have clearly outlined different mathematical concepts and given examples. I found it very useful. With regards to the challenges you faced when developing your continua, I agree that developmental stages rather than ages provide more scope when using them as tools, making the continua fit in with the child in question rather than the child fit in with the continua. I have also found collaboration in workshop a valuable resource with regards to my learning for this topic!
Thank you again, Hester
James! This has been really useful to read. I have been struggling with detailing my continuum and I have found yours easy to follow. The format you have used is adaptable, yet, full. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteWow James! What a great literacy and numeracy continuum! I have been struggling with mine, especially the first draft but want to thank you for providing such useful resources and references, throughout this draft and your first. I like how you have broken them up into categories, and instead on just listing words for literacy, you have written exactly what you mean. Great job!
ReplyDelete