Portfolio #11 - 2.1

2.1 Provides a thorough account of these developmental influences, supported by key theorists, frameworks, literature &/or research

Over the past 10 weeks being enrolled in this topic, we have learnt a range of developmental influences that contribute to children's literacy and numeracy skills. Some examples of these include sensorial, memory, symbolic representation, communication and linguistic understandings. While I believe that all of these developmental influences are equally important in shaping children's literacy and numeracy development, I wanted to learn how I could fit them all into the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). In this portfolio, I use a few developmental influences as sub-headings and try to fit the appropriate EYLF outcomes with them.

Sensory Play

Sensory play refers to the way children use all their senses during play to engage with experiences and explore and make sense of the world around them (Winderlich 2012, p.4). Sensory play is in line with Jean Piaget's (1973) stages of development whereby one of the first stages involves the sensory-motor stage. In this stage, babies learn how to manipulate objects, and how to move their bodies to reach for their interests. Sensory play is important as it helps children to be confident in exploration, and also helps strengthen neural pathways when senses are stimulated (Gainsley n.d.). Sensory play fits in with EYLF Outcome 1 which allows children to have a strong sense of identity by being able to take rish and approach new safe situations with confidence. It also links with Outcome 2 which involves children connecting and contributing to their world, as children use sensory play to explore new ideas and explore relationships between living and non-living objects. Furthermore, sensory play engages children with Outcome 3 for children to be confident and involved learners. Through sensory play, children can explore their environment and manipulate objects and experiment with cause and effect. Through sensory play, children also learn to explore ideas using their own imaginations creativity and play. Some examples of sensory play include play in the sandpit, playing with paint and slime, having a big sensory tub filled with different textures and water play.

Symbolic Representation

Symbolic representation refers to how children are able to recognise symbols and make meaning of those symbols. This may include alphabets, numbers or even everyday signboards and symbols. Piaget notes that children first think in pictures and symbols. Symbolic play can also include imagining made-up functions of a particular object in place of its actual function as a child's own way of making sense of the world. Symbolic play and representation is in line with both Piaget's theory that children construct an understanding of the world before experiences come along to confirm them later, as well as Vygotsky's theory that children's experiences form their understanding of the world. With symbolic play, children first may impose difference functions as a symbol of another object, until they are later corrected be in by a teacher or by their own experiences that some things do not function the way children have thought them to be. For example. a child may pretend a wooden block is a telephone as a symbol, but later with his own experience discovers that a block is a block and not a phone. Symbolic representation is in line with many of the learning outcomes in the EYLF. Once they learn symbols such as numbers and the alphabet, children can become effective communicators by being able to convey messages and demonstrate understandings of numbers and vocabulary. They can also recognise and engage with written texts as well as use symbols to represent and make meaning. 

Communicative-Linguistic Thinking

In terms of communicative-linguistic thinking, this refers to how children communicate effectively using their acquired linguistic skills and how they logically process their thoughts. This is demonstrated when children engage in social activities with their peers and families, or when they express themselves linguistically. Communicative-Linguistic thinking is in line with Vygotsky's (1978) theory where children learn from a more knowledgable person through co-operative dialogue, as well as through the zone of proximal development where children constantly build their knowledge based on a pre-layed out foundation. In terms of language, children mostly build and expand their vocabularies based on the words they already know. They learn by communicating with their peers and sharing knowledge, and participating in discussions with others. Communicative-Linguistic thinking is in line with Outcome 2 of the EYLF that allows children to feel connected and contribute to their world. Through communication, they participate with others to solve problems and explore connections with other people. Through communicative skills, confident children are able to follow their own interests, use reflective thinking, make connections and engage in learner relationships. All of these are evidence for Outcome 4 which states that children are confident and involved learners. And clearly, children who engage with their communicative-linguistic thinking are able to be effective communicators, using their language to send clear messages across, make connections, recognise patterns and relationships, experiment with ways of self-expression and engaging in verbal and non-verbal communications. 

References

DEEWR 2009, Belonging, Being & Becoming, The Early Yearns Learning Framework for Australia. 

Mcleod, S 2007, Les Vygotsky, in Simply Psychology, accessed 25th November 2013, from <http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html>

Winderlich, K 2012, Sensory Play and Learning, in Everyday Learning Series 10 (4), Early Childhood Australia, pp. 1 - 24.

Gainsley, S n.d., Look, Listen, Touch, Feel, Taste: The Importance of Sensory Play, in Extensions: Curriculum Newsletter from Highscope 25 (5), Highscope, accessed 20th November 2013, from <http://www.highscope.org/file/NewsandInformation/Extensions/ExtVol25No5_low.pdf>

 

Portfolio #10- 4.2

4.2 Describes how parents, peers & communities may see, feel & shape young children’s early literacy & numeracy experiences

I recently came a 'funny' article on ThoughtCatalog <http://thoughtcatalog.com/jay-gabler/2013/07/stupid-questions-youre-asked-at-every-age-1-40/> which isn't exactly child-appropriate but the first few questions definitely made me consider how lowly society views children. I am not implying that society despises children or thinks lesser of them, but I do believe that the 'norm' questions posed by older members of the community tend to belittle children and underestimate children's intelligence.

I strongly believe that as an educator, as an adult, our expectations of children can highly determine their potential and their confidence and ability in learning. I have heard not just once but many times that parents disregard reading to their children or investing in books for their children because either a) The books no longer interest children, b) They have no time to read with their children, c) Children can learn to read in schools. In doing so, parents are taking away their child's biggest rights to access educational resources and to learn. Parents themselves are taking away opportunities for new literacy and numeracy experiences to be formed at a young age.

Referring to a link provided in one of our tutorials as well, the Dymocks Online Bookstore <http://www.dymocks.com.au/Booklovers/childrensreading.aspx> had wrongly coded the link to view books for babies. Perhaps this is a sign of ignorance of the community, that they do not value the importance of babies learning to read. Entering a bookstore or library, one may also find that there are few 'baby books' and many are outdated. The low expectations of society clearly destroys the rich literacy and numeracy learning that should take place in the early years.

To enhance young children's literacy and numeracy experiences, parents and the entire community alike must be able to acknowledge the value of early childhood education as a strong foundation for future learning. Parents should take the initiative of reading to children, providing literacy and numeracy-rich environments even at home, participate in activities that promote literacy and numeracy with their children and also remember that it is not just the school's responsibilities to teach children, but learning should begin at home even before children start school. Members of the community must also be willing to provide opportunities for children to engage in a community that is literacy and numeracy rich. For example, the community can have a children's library, encourage children to count money at the markets, organise educational trips to the fire station and many more. If only parents and communities realised their strong responsibilities in exposing children to sufficient literacy and numeracy experiences.

Portfolio #9 - 1.1

1.1 Clearly describes how the concepts are connected to & supported by social relationships and contexts

In Week 11, I recall a discussion our class had surrounding bilingual children and how their social environments affected their language acquisition. Some of the questions posed were 'How do they not mix up the two languages?', 'How do their social environments influence their language development?', 'Do they know which language is appropriate to be used at different situations?'. As a child, I myself grew up in a trilingual environment. My grandparents spoke in chinese, my family and friends spoke in English and school lessons were taught in my home country's native language, Malay. Reflecting on this, it still intrigues me that young children can pick up so many languages at the same time. 

Many of our readings have indicated that children learn language from the language they hear around them (Bardige & Bardige 2008; Baleghizadeh & Dargahi 2010). This proves that the social environments play a big role in the child's language development. With time, children are able to recognise the environments that use specific language and hence will be able to determine which language is appropriate to use. For example, a child may speak his native language when he is around family or people in his community (say the child grew up in an area with a particular demographic), and switch the language when the child is around peers that may appear to be 'different' from the usual community. To expand the vocabulary of each different language, the child must be often spoken to and exposed to a wide range of different vocabularies at a young age. 

In line with social relationships, the time a child is exposed to a particular language social environment will also influence the more 'dominant' language. A research shown by Paola Uccelli (Fusaro 2010) showed that bilingual children who were placed in monolingual classes, excelled more in the classroom language. This may be because in schools, children interact with their peers and teachers using that 'dominant language' more than they communicate with the older members of their families who may not make as much conversation as peers. The more the child practices a certain language via communicating with friends or family, the sharper the child will be at that language. A child who consistently converses with a friend in one particular language will be able to pick up the right intonations, pronunciations, and slangs which will differ from the other language that the child uses to formally communicate with the child's family. If families want their native language to be the more dominant language, this can be done through story telling, passing down family traditions that involve that language, often engaging in conversations using the native language, and also helping the child to form connections between the native language and the other languages a child acquires. 

Ultimately, to me, while language can be developed through activities like reading and writing exercises, social relationships definitely do play the most important role in language development for a child. It is through social relationships that the child learns to express themselves through different languages and learns to effectively communicate what they really need. As educators, we also need to remember that the way we communicate and the relationships we form with children can determine how well the children learns and how confident and safe the child will be in our classroom environments. 

References

Baleghizadeh, S., & Dargahi, Z. (2010). The effect of nursery rhymes on EFL children's reading ability. New England Reading Association Journal, 46(1), 71-75,109. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/755497915?accountid=1091

Bardige, B. & Bardige, M. (2008). Talk to me, baby! Supporting language development in the first 3 years. Zero to Three, September, 4-10

Fusaro, M. (2010). Mapping the Literacy Development of Bilingual Children. Usable Knowledge. Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1st June. Retrieved from <http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news-impact/2010/01/mapping-the-literacy-development-of-bilingual-children/>

Portfolio #8 - 4.1

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

I was going through a list of apps on my iTunes for my iPhone the other day in preparation of taking care of my 3-year-old niece for a whole day. Personally, I'll admit that I tend to have a strong bias towards avoiding technology when it comes to introducing early learning, at least until the age of 5. However, my niece has had a constant exposure to technology and hence, I figured technology would only be my backup plan if all else fails. While going through the apps, I found an app that appeared to be a 'digital colouring book'. You can check it out here <https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/paint-sparkles-draw-my-first/id435539858?mt=8>. This really made me reconsider whether I wanted to use technology in teaching my niece as I instantly felt that using these apps would take away physical experiences such as holding a pencil or being able to draw on a paper without touching a screen or ensuring my niece understood that colours on paper aren't as 'bright' or vibrant as on screen. And hence, I decided to look at different perspectives on whether technology (mainly iPad/tablet applications) played a positive of negative role in children's learning.

Pros:

1. Can complement or supplement read-alouds (Dalton 2012)

2. Can supplement development of fine motor skills (Dalton 2012)

3. Provides stimulating and exciting visuals that engage children's attention.

4. Provides an opportunity for children to showcase their learning (Castek 2012)

5. Forms a foundation for future learning in a technology-rich world.

6. Allows information to be more accessible (Cambourne 2010 quotes Thompson 2010)

7. Offers more interactive options for children. (Cambourne 2010)

8. Work can be saved more easily.

9. Allows convenience of transporting multiple resources.

10. Educational games and applications may motivate children to learn. 

Cons: 

1. Discourages face-to-face interaction

2. Overstimulation can lead to low attention spans when away from technology.

3. Can take away physical experiences vital to children's development.

4. Can be an indicator of ignorance towards children of lower income groups who cannot access technology resources from home.

5.  Most technology/apps do not offer time for reflection (Wolpert 2009 cites Greenfield)

Reflection

Based on collective research and my own reflections of the pros and cons of technology and apps in learning, I suppose that at the end of the day, pros definitely do outweigh the cons. It was actually a lot harder to find articles and readings that had a negative view towards technology in classrooms. Perhaps it really just is a traditional and selfish bias to exclude technology from children's learning, especially in a growing society that incorporates technology into almost every aspect of life. While I believe that technology can take away the social aspect of learning, there are many articles that also indicate that social learning can also take place virtually. Many also indicate that using technology is a key in helping students express themselves by recording their own voices, making videos and rewatching these pre-recorded visuals. However, I do believe that there are many other different ways for children to express themselves such as drama, or painting or singing that do not involve technology. I suppose that, while technology should not be completely excluded from early learning, there just needs to be a balance in the amount of technology that should be incorporated in the classroom. 

References:

Cambourne, K 2010, Technology in the Classroom in The Sydney Morning Herald, January 19, accessed 21st November 2013, from <http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/back-to-school/technology-in-the-classroom-20100119-mhn3.html>

Castek, J 2012, Expressive Learning: Encouraging Students’ Multimodal Expression to Enhance Content Learning from Literacy Beat, accessed 21st November 2013, from <http://literacybeat.com/2012/05/24/expressive-learning-encouraging-students-multimodal-expression-to-enhance-content-learning/>

Dalton, B 2012, Digital technologies for literacy in early years classrooms from Literacy Beat, accessed 21st November 2013, from <http://literacybeat.com/2012/06/06/digital-technologies-in-early-years-classrooms/ >

Wolpert, S 2009,  Is technology producing a decline in critical thinking and analysis? in UCLA Newsroom, accessed 21st November 2013, from <http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/is-technology-producing-a-decline-79127.aspx>

Portfolio #7 - 3.1 & 3.2

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

3.2 Shows competence in observing & planning for literacy & numeracy experiences & environs, adapting to specific learner needs, interests & contexts

I've recently come across this video of two siblings playing together and found the children demonstrating many literacy and numeracy skills.

Here are some of my running observations while watching this video:
1. The girl's babbling demonstrates a literacy skill. She is learning to communicate and use verbal language to express herself.
2.  The boy reaches for a block first with his left hand, and then uses both hands to reach for multiple blocks. This is a great opportunity for numeracy as he may be taught the concept of left and right, and quantity awareness as he understands he can grab more if he uses both hands.
3. The girl reaches for her brother's shirt. She shows interest in something on the shirt, possibly a pattern or a texture. She demonstrates spatial awareness by properly estimating how much she needs to reach over to grab hold of the shirt.
4. The boy attempts to use his words in asking his sister to let go of his shirt.
5. The boy whines and makes crying sounds without actually shedding any tears. This may be because he assumes that he gets his way with crying or commonly uses crying as a way to seek attention.
6. The girl shows a response to her brother's whining with a look of regret. She understands that her actions have caused a negative consequence.
7. The mother's voice here does show some intentional interfering in the children's own learning which I found to be slightly unnecessary but perhaps she was just trying to help both children make sense of the situation.
8. The girl constantly reaches over for the blocks in her brother's hands while making verbal sounds to indicate her want for the blocks.
9. The boy consistently reaches for new blocks to be added on to his tower. This shows great numeracy learning as he can learn the concept of shapes, colours, joining pieces that fit together, spatial awareness, counting the number of blocks, understanding portions (fractions) by understanding each block is a part of a whole, learning about height, height and weight correspondence and many more.
10. The girl succeeds in grabbing half of the block tower, but her brother snatches half of that back and adds it back to his own tower. This definitely allows him to learn about how a whole can be broken down into various parts and sizes, and how things can be added and subtracted.
11. The boy 'hits' his sister with the tower but this may merely be accidental and he may have just wanted to show the tower to his sister but estimated wrongly how much he had to reach over.
12. The girl does show signs of hurt but stops before she could actually start crying. She understands that crying is not the only way to express herself and is not necessary in every situation.
13. The girl lifts both her hands and taps them down repetitively. From this she could actually be taught about rhythm and beat, or action songs that involve hand raising.
14. She destroys the tower again but though the boy says 'No, no', he does it with a smile. He may have  let his sister ruin the tower on purpose so he could teach her that it is wrong by saying 'No' each time she destroys it.
15. The girl reaches over and takes the tall part of the tower apart twice, but with no hesitation from her brother. He already knows that his action of putting a tall tower in front of his sister will result in her taking it apart.
16. The girl puts the blocks to her mouth but is stopped by her brother screaming 'No'. He may have done this to protect his own toys or to actually prevent his sister from doing something he knows is wrong,

Planning for Further Learning

Using the above template taken from the Australian Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), I decided to plan how I could further the boy's learning.

1. Analyse: Refer to the above running observations
2. Plan: The children can learn about counting, patterning, making different shapes and sizes, building, and can also learn about sharing, respecting, describing his work, making stories and even the role of community members (i.e. the architect, the builder, the engineer)
3. Act/Do: Encouraging the boy to explain his building, asking critical questions about his building, encouraging him to count the number of blocks used. Blocks of different sizes may be introduced or templates with specific patterns and colours may be provided for him to build. Writing his own story about the building and the people who work/live in it, encouraging the boy to think what else he could build with the blocks (i.e. cars, furniture), singing songs that are related to his building.
4. Reflection
From the running observations, I find that the video clearly showed many numeracy and literacy skills. In terms of literacy, both children are at two different stages of language acquisition. The boy is at the toddler stage where he is learning to string together words to make simple phrases, whereas the girl is at the babbling stage where they babble sounds of languages they have heard and unheard (Bardige 2008, p.4). They both clearly understand social cues, understanding that conversations take place between more than one person, and each should take turns in responding to each other, and with a direct purpose of who the message is indicated for. Bardige (2008) notes that to improve children's language and communication skills, it is important for the adults to constantly engage in conversations with the children, use proper language and encourageback-and-forth communication. The girl is also seen to be demonstrating self-corrective empathy whereby she shows empathy in response to her own actions (Quenn & Wien 2006, p. 4). This shows that the girl is definitely in tune with her own feelings and can understand the concept of action and consequence. In terms of numeracy, I believe that blocks are on of the best ways to introduce multiple numeracy concepts to children. As stated in the observations above, children can learn about shapes, colours, sizes, puzzles, joining pieces that fit, fractions, counting, weight, height, patterns and so many more all just from simple blocks. The boy definitely does show a key understanding in putting together pieces and always wanting to form a larger and higher tower.

References:
Bardige, B & Bardige, M 2008, 'Talk to me, baby! Supporting language development in the first 3 years' in Zero to Three, September, pp. 4 - 10.

Quenn, V & Wien, CA 2006, 'The Visible Empathy of Infants and Toddlers' in Beyond the Journal: Young Children on the Web, July, pp. 1-7. 

Week 12 readings

Literacy:
Wood, J 2005,  'Moses’s story: Critical literacy and social justice in an urban kindergarten' in Beyond the Journal: Young Children on the Web, July, accessed 6th November 2013 <http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/vop/VoicesWood.pdf>

Numeracy:
Murphy, M 2009, 'Mathematics and social justice in grade 1: How children understand inequality and represent it' in Beyond the Journal: Young Children on the Web, May, accessed 6th November 2013 <http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200905/BTJMurphy.pdf>

Why?
In line with the analyst theme for Week 12, I wanted to understand how as an educator, I could provide a socially just environment in my classroom, pedagogy and learning. As an educator, I believe it is an educator's key role to respect the rights of children to learn and explore, as well as create an environment that makes children feel respected, confident and safe.

Summary
Both the literacy and numeracy reading by Wood (2005) and Murphy (2009) specifically focus on how as educators, they could introduce social justice into classrooms through literacy and numeracy programs. Wood (2005) focused on introducing social justice by encouraging critical literacy in classrooms. Critical literacy involved discussion about the stories, asking questions about the stories (perspective, intended audience, characters, social issues etc.), and incorporating the children's own personal experiences into conversations surrounding the stories being discussed (Wood 2005, pp. 4 - 5).  Murphy (2009, pp. 3 - 5 ) on the other hand encouraged children to express their mathematical knowledge and its relations to social justice using Cuisenaire rods. Woods (2005) explains that it is important as educators to understand that social justice from a child's perspective is not limited to the social issues that we, as adults face (i.e. race, social status, politics etc.) but instead are the everyday experiences that affect children's lives such as the teardown of a playground (Woods 2005, p. 7) or the kind of friends they want to make (Woods 2005, p.8) or the language used. Woods (2005, p. 3) also notes that we introduce critical literacy to children as a form of social justice to create children who are 'biliterate' so that that may communicate effectively in their home discourse as well as other community discourses (schools, playgroups, neighbours etc.). It is important to note that critical literacy and social justice allows children to form connections between their homes and their other social realms in the community (Woods 2005, p. 4). Children's prior home experiences well-determine their perception, understanding and practices in social justice (Murphy 2009, p.5 & Woods 2005, p.3) Murphy (2009) encourages educators to allow children to fully express themselves. Murphy's (2009, pp. 1 - 5) project involved reading a book, The Rabbits by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan, and encouraging children to use Cuisenaire rods to illustrate the power relationships in the book. From this project, it could be seen that the children each expressed differently how they felt about the power inequality. They each demonstrated different understandings and illustrations of the power inequality shown in the book. Murphy (2009, p. 6) quotes 6 notes that educators should keep in mind when creating a socially just numeracy environment:

" - Challenge children to be complex in their use of manipulatives
- Ensure that conversations with the teacher or other children occur alongside manipulative use
- Establish ways of capturing manipulative representations by more abstract means sometimes
- Trust children to be clever
- Make conversation an integral part of your mathematics program
- Allow children to surprise you".

Implications

Both these readings have definitely taught me about the importance of analysing environments and lessons from the children's perspectives. Both readings stress on the importance of providing opportunities for critical conversations to take place, and opportunities for children to express their thoughts and make sense and meaning of these thoughts for themselves. In my own future classroom, I hope to be able to introduce a wide range of diverse resources that stimulate children to question how it affects their own lives. For example, a social issue could be presented each week and we can take turns discussing how we were to feel if placed in those different situations. I hope to be able to have meaningful conversations with children when reading stories, and I hope to be able to prompt children to challenge and question the dominant curriculum. I would definitely like to incorporate as much home experiences as possible into the classroom, to allow children to make connections between the different social contexts they are involved in each day. My biggest fear really is to provide an environment that only supports a specific dominant perspective, or not doing enough to allow children to develop critical thinking skills, especially when it involves social issues. Fingers crossed, that as an educator, I too will be observant to the social justice issues that affect children's lives and be sensitive to those issues, to be able to truly impart social justice to children.

Week 11 readings

Literacy: 

Gerde, H.K., Bingham, G.E. & Wasik, B.A. 2012, "Writing in Early Childhood Classrooms: Guidance for Best Practices", Early Childhood Education Journal, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 351-359.

Numeracy:
Zeuenbergen, R., Dole, S. & Wright, R. 2004, Early number in "Teaching mathematics in primary schools", Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, pp. 121-148

Why?
Still in line with the technician theme, I wanted to explore some of the skills that are essential to be developed in the early childhood years for children's future learning in the later years. The literacy reading addresses the importance of writing as a key skill for early literacy while the numeracy reading addresses some of the skills that are brought to school from kindergarten that help a child in developing his number sense.

Summary
The literacy reading by Gerde, Bingham and Wasik (2012), explained the importance of writing in the early years classroom and how it is a key skill that will affect a child's later learning. Gerde, Bingham & Wasik (2012, p. 351) indicate that recent research has shown that writing is barely included in many early childhood programs, and teachers fail to scaffold writing opportunities for children in early childhood programs. It is important to note that writing did not only refer to handwriting and penmanship but it was the process of communicating and expressing ideas through print. Hence, this may involve merely strokes on a piece of paper, or incompletely formed alphabets. Gerde, Bingham & Wasik (2012, p. 352) include research quotes that indicate that emergent writing in kindergarten is highly related to later literacy skills such as spelling, decoding, reading, word recognition and phonological awareness. Gerde, Bingham & Wasik (2012, p. 352) then include the phases children go through when learning to write:

1. Using small marks that do not resemble letters, or drawing pictures to communicate a message.
2. Continuous scribbles with consistent shape
3. Letter formation
4. Invented spelling (Children arrange letters in a word according to what they think it should sound like)
5. Writing accurately

Gerde, Bingham & Wasik (2012, p. 535) found that the main problem in early childhood programs was that teachers failed to incorporate writing into all other activities; only isolating writing to a writing corner. Here, they include 12 strategies to effectively and meaningfully implement writing in early childhood classrooms.

"1. Build writing into your daily schedule
2. Accept all forms of writing
3. Explicitly model writing
4. Scaffold children’s writing
5. Encourage children to read what they write
6. Encourage invented spelling
7. Make writing opportunities meaningful
8. Have writing materials in all centers
9. Display theme-related words in the writing center
10. Engage in group writing experiences
11. Make writing a way to connect with families
12. Use technology to support writing" 

 (Gerde, Bingham & Wasik (2012, pp. 353 - 357)

The numeracy reading by Zeuenbergen, Dole & Wright (2004) have a more school-based approach but also highlight some of the key numeracy skills that contribute to a child's development of 'number sense'. Number sense is referred to as 'understanding the meaning of numbers, knowing the relationships between numbers and the size of numbers and knowing the effects of operating on numbers' (McIntosh et al 1992 cited in Zeuenbergen, Dole & Wright 2004, p. 122). The main section in this chapter that is highly related to the early childhood setting is the section on 'Pre-Number'. This section highlights some of the numeracy skills young children have such as classification, patterning, group recognition, counting and one-to-one correspondence (Zeuenbergen, Dole & Wright 2004, pp. 122 - 127). They then further explain how these few skills act as the foundation to further mathematics learning. For example, the ability to detect patterns, helps children to detect the patterns later on in problem-solving activities. Zeuenbergen, Dole & Wright (2004) also emphasise on the need to provide opportunities that involve practicing this numeracy skills. For example, encourage children to count how many cups are needed for the entire classroom or presenting other daily routines that involve counting. It was also stated in the reading about the importance of introducing other cue words when referring to specific operations. For example, use 'take away' instead of subtract or 'join' instead of addition. This strategy is to encourage children not to simply look for specific labels when faced with problem-solving activities.

Implications
Both of these readings indicated the many foundation skills that appear to be the early childhood educator's responsibility to introduce to children. I feel that from this reading, I have understood the importance of providing sufficient learning opportunities and acknowledging children's efforts in engaging with literacy and numeracy learning. While we should freely allow children to participate in the activities that interest them, it is equally important for educators to lay a good foundation for other skills to develop.

Portfolio #6

2.2 Recognises subtle differences & levels in literacy & numerical learning & development according to age, ability, culture & social circumstances

Based on the many readings I have taken over this semester, as well as the discussions during our tutorials, it has donned on me that the socio-cultural aspect of development plays a key role in a child's learning. I have been privileged enough to have access to all the different age group rooms at my placement (A child care centre) which has allowed me to observe different learning styles of different children. I decided to go into placement and observe three culturally different childrenand test out my ability to observe the differences in their literacy and numerical learning.

Culturally different children
I observed three five-year-olds with three different cultural backgrounds.

Chloe*: An Australian-borned girl with an Asian background

Zara*: An Australian-borned girl from an Australian family

Mandeep*: An Indian-borned boy from an Indian family, who had recently moved to Australia

We were all at the drawing table when these observations were taken. I had given the children a photo of a rainbow that was taken at placement the day before, and suggested we all draw our own rainbow. Both Chloe and Zara had no problem drawing out the rainbow and included their own elements in their drawings such as a house, their families and a pet dog. Mandeep on the other hand had some trouble understanding English and decided to draw a building. I then asked Chloe and Zara if they could both count the number of colours in a rainbow and this conversation took place:

Chloe: My rainbow has 11 colours

Zara: My rainbow has 100 colours!

Me: Well, if we look in the photo, let's count how many colours there really are. *counts with the children to seven* So how many colours do rainbows have?

Chloe and Zara: SEVEN!

Me: And what if there were two rainbows ?

Chloe: *counts with her fingers* Um.. 14?

Me: Very good! Is 14 the right answer Zara?

Zara: I only have 10 fingers.

Chloe: My mummy taught me how to count more than 10 with my fingers!

I was honestly a bit startled at this because I wasn't sure where this conversation was going. Zara had also commented on Chloe's drawing as she felt that Chloe's family's hair needed to be black instead of red. I took the opportunity to explain how different people had different features but we are all still a part of the same community and should love each other anyway. Either way we further went on to discuss about the other drawing elements and we pasted both drawings on the wall. I tried to talk to Mandeep about his drawing but found there was still a communication barrier. I then proceeded to label different colours with him and he would repeat the words with me. For example, I would show him a green colour pencil and say 'Green.', and he would repeat after me. 

As you can see from my observations, I think that culture and social backgrounds definitely plays a key role in the learning abilities of children. This may be highly stereotypical but Chloe may have come from a traditional Asian family that places a high importance in numerical skills, but she is also at an advantage from Mandeep as she was born in Australia and is able to communicate in English. Mandeep may also have sharp numerical skills but may only be able to convey them in Hindi. Zara has a keen eye for colour and I believe she expresses herself very well through colour. She is observant and recognised that Chloe's hair was black, and hence assumed that Chloe's family's hair must have been black as well. Perhaps this was due to her own family background that may have been fully brunette.

While this whole observation may have indicated the differences due to culture and social background, I believe that the result may have been influenced by age. Chloe is about ready to join the December school term whereas Zara only goes to school next year. This may have influenced the difference in Chloe and Zara's counting abilities.

Overall, I think this observation has taught me so much about the importance of really planning individual lessons instead of assuming that all children are on the same level. 

*Names have been changed in respect to the children's privacy

Week 10 readings

Numeracy:

Clements, D.H. & Sarama, J. 2005, "MATH PLAY: How young children approach math", Scholastic Early Childhood Today, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 50-57.

Literacy:

Hall, N. 1998, "Young Children as Storytellers", in R. Campbell (Eds.), Facilitating preschool literacy, Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association, pp. 84 - 99.

Why?

Exploring on the theme of the 'Technician' this week, I wanted to know more about how children act out these 'technician' abilities through literacy and numeracy. Both readings I chose were mostly child-centred and explained what the children could do, instead of only focusing on what the teacher could do.

Summary

The numeracy reading by Clements and Sarama (2005) discuss on the concept of 'mathematisation' and how play promotes the foundation for early mathematical skills. 

Mathematisation refers to how everyday experiences play the role of forming the foundation for a child's development in mathematics (Clements & Sarama 2005, p.52). Clements and Sarama (2005, pp.51-52) look at different mathematical concepts that emerge during free play such as:

- Classification

- Comparison of magnitude (size)

- Enumerating (the ability of recognising numbers, counting and using the appropriate number words)

- Construction and understanding parts and whole

- The discovery of patterns and shapes, as well as rhythm

- Exploring spatial awareness and relations 

- Measurements

The reading also provides a useful table on the skills and different types of play that emerge at different ages. For example, Clements and Sarama (2005, p. 53) state that a child at 15 months begins to engage with symbolic and pretend play such as drama and dress ups, and children from ages 2 - 3 years begin to engage in parallel play where the children become more aware of playing alongside each other instead of individually. Clements and Samara (2005, pp. 54 - 56) then illustrate how resources such as water and sand play, dough, computers and drama can be used in the classroom to promote mathematics. The section that interested me the most was the section on 'Mathematical Play' which is not to be confused with mathematics concepts that emerge from play, but actual intentional learning of mathematics through play. This section included an example of how children discussed the set up for tables and how many cups were needed for a table of ten if they each needed a cup for milk and a cup for juice (Clements & Samara 2005, pp. 56 - 57). This intentionally taught children about addition OR even multiplication. The article was concluded with Clement & Samara (2005, p. 57) emphasising that it is always the teacher's responsibility to build on observations in play to further develop a child's mathematic skills.

The literacy reading by Hall (1998, pp. 84 - 99) writes about we should allow children to be storytellers and how this creates a space for children to express themselves and provide room for literacy development. Hall begins his article by explaining how one of our biggest flaws is shutting children down when they want to speak or tell a story, perhaps because as adults, we may be annoyed or are pre-occupied. He then explains that young children's storytelling is far richer than what we, adults perceive. Children's storytelling actually hold different narrative perspectives, varying linguistic competence, and creativity and imagination. Some of the techniques that can be used to encourage children to be story tellers are listed by Hall (1998, pp. 87 - 90) are allowing children to self-record stories on a tape recorder or having an adult record those stories, and later writing them down to be compiled in a classroom storybook. Hall (1998, pp. 90 - 95 then proceeds to include three examples of children who engaged in storytelling and how the stories told were literacy rich, if only they were taken notice of. Hall includes a section (1998, pp.95 - 98) on sociodramatic play and how it is important to allow children to construct their own stories and dramas instead of forcing a specific script or story on children.

Implications

From both the readings above, it really hit me on the importance of allowing children to direct their own learning. Often times, as a pre-service teacher, I feel it is my responsibility to push lessons on children and push specific learning outcomes on children, but this takes away children's rights to their own learning. From both the readings, I have learnt that sometimes the best way to teach is just to allow children to do as they wish and construct their own learning. The best we can do as teachers is to introduce elements that will build on what children have constructed themselves or let children make the rules. An interesting quote I found in Hall's (1998, p. 86) is 'Many research studies reveal that in more formal storytelling sessions... adult rules dominate and what should be a vehicle for allowing children's voices to be heard actually acts as a mechanism for teaching children the rules of engagement in classroom behaviour' (Cazden 1988 cited in Hall 1998, p. 86). This really made me think about the times I've told children during group time that we can save their stories for another day because one specific child has talked too much or we have run out of time. This honestly made me feel like the worst teacher alive, and I now am going to make it an effort to allow children to tell their stories and direct their own learning as much as possible. 

Portfolio #5 (Resource)

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

Most, if not all the readings that I have done so far state the importance of forming activities that are built on the children's prior knowledge as well as their interests. Hence, I have started to pay further attention to the toddler I'm working with, (let's name him Josh), and the activities he constantly shows interest in or how he reacts to certain activities. The warm days lately mean that we get to go outside a fair bit and the first thing Jo always reaches for is the watering can which we place on an accessible table. He runs to the tap and usually fills the can up until it is way too heavy for him to lift and spills approximately three quarters of the water while he is walking to the plants we have. Josh gets really excited and happy when he sees the soil getting flooded with the water and usually walks away with a really pleased expression on his face when he is commended on his 'gardening' skills.

I decided to look up some activities as to further build on Josh's interest in using the watering can. I then came across this website with heaps of toddler activities and I especially liked this activity that involves using a watering can:

http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2012/06/watering-alphabet-garden.html

So this activity is a simple activity that involves using chalk to draw/write lines of alphabets on the floor and having the child 'water' the correct alphabets that you call out.

I thought this was an absolutely brilliant idea as it would really help with Josh's alphabetic awareness/alphabetic recognition, plus it involved him using his favourite 'toy', the watering can! As mentioned in the website, it also said that this activity can help children to actually hold the watering can properly and manage the flow of water better. I thought this would be useful for Josh since he usually spills most of his water while walking around. I find that this activity can also be used with numbers, or drawings of fruit, shapes, and so many more!

The best part really is that this activity is something that Josh is positively inclined to. Josh doesn't exactly enjoy 'sit down' lessons and tends to walk away even when we sit down in a group to sing our ABC's. Josh can also learn spatial awareness where to walk when he wants to 'water' a specific alphabet. Josh also learns the ration the amount of water for each alphabet and learns if he needs 'more' or 'less' water to wash out an alphabet.

Ultimately, it really has been such a joy to see that Josh actually responds to this activity very well and learns from it. You know you must have done a tiny bit of something right when the child has learned something new and has actually enjoyed it and insists on doing it again. 

Week 9 Readings

Readings:
Numeracy:

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) & National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) 2010, Position Statement: Early Childhood Mathematics: Promoting Good Beginnings, accessed 14 October 2013 from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/psmath.pdf 

Literacy:

Christ, T. & Wang, C 2010, Bridging the Vocabulary Gap: What the research tells us about vocabulary instruction in early childhood in Young Children, pp. 84 - 91.

Why:
I found myself at the stage where I needed to start lesson planning for placement and realised that I was underprepared to implement lessons that were literacy and numeracy specific. I found both these articles very useful as they both included effective and research-proven teaching strategies that could be easily implemented in the classroom.

Summary:
The numeracy reading by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) & National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) discusses strategies that need to be taken by both educators (within the classroom) as well as institutions, program developers and policy makers (beyond the classroom) in ensuring a high quality mathematical teaching curriculum and environment in the early childhood setting (It is important to note that this article was based in America where a set curriculum is used even in the early childhood setting) (NCTM & NAEYC 2010, pp. 3 - 13). Below is a list of the main strategies stated in the article.

Strategies for Educators

Strategies for Institutions, Policy makers and Program Developers

1.  Enhance children’s natural interest in mathematics and their disposition to use it to make sense of their physical and social worlds 2. Build on children’s experience and knowledge, including their family, linguistic, cultural, and community backgrounds; their individual approaches to learning; and their informal- knowledge 3. Base mathematics curriculum and teaching practices on knowledge of young children’s cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social- emotional development 4. Use curriculum and teaching practices that strengthen children’s problem-solving and reasoning processes as well as representing, communicating, and connecting mathematical ideas 5. Ensure that the curriculum is coherent and compatible with known relationships and sequences of important mathematical ideas 6. Provide for children’s deep and sustained interaction with key mathematical ideas 7. Integrate mathematics with other activities and other activities with mathematics 8. Provide ample time, materials, and teacher support for children to engage in play, a context in which they explore and manipulate mathematical ideas with keen interest 9. Actively introduce mathematical concepts, methods, and language through a range of appropriate experiences and teaching strategies 10. Support children’s learning by thoughtfully and continually assessing all children’s mathematical knowledge, skills, and strategies.

1. Create more effective early childhood teacher preparation and continuing professional development 2. Use collaborative processes to develop well aligned systems of appropriate high-quality standards, curriculum, and assessment 3. Design institutional structures and policies that support teachers’ ongoing learning, team- work, and planning 4. Provide resources necessary to overcome the barriers to young children’s mathematical proficiency at the classroom, community, institutional, and system-wide levels.

Adapted from 'Position Statement: Early Childhood Mathematics: Promoting Good Beginnings' (NAEYC & NCTM 2010, p. 3) via http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/psmath.pdf 

Most of the strategies for educators involve building on the child's interest and prior knowledge to make mathematical concepts meaningful and for the child to be able to connect new knowledge with prior knowledge. It was also noted that it was important to understand the child's background before planning the best methods to convey new mathematical knowledge. During the lesson, the article stresses the need for mathematics to be taught across the curriculum and not just in mathematics class alone. Mathematical vocabulary can be built in any subject at all. In terms of strategies beyond the classroom, both inservice teachers and preservice teachers need to be equipped and prepared to have well knowledge of the mathematical concept as well as the best ways to implement them in classrooms. NAEYC & NCTM (2010, p. 10) note that mathematics in classrooms can only be successful if the teacher is equally positive about mathematics personally. Policy makers also need to invest in professional development of educators as well as resources and public awareness education on the important of numeracy in the early childhood setting.

The literacy reading by Christ & Wang (2010) discuss the vocabulary development in children and the importance of having effective teaching methods to constantly expand a child's vocabulary. The article begins by explaining how children develop their vocabularies. It is stated that children learn new words by being exposed to new words and through two processes, mainly 'fast mapping' and 'word consciousness' (Christ & Wang 2010, pp. 85-86). Fast mapping basically refers to the construction of a word meaning through association with prior knowledge, whereas word consciousness refers to the child's awareness of a word and his curiosity in knowing about the word (Christ & Wang 2010, p.85). The article then proceeded to include four vocabulary-teaching strategies that are:

1. Provide purposeful exposure to new words

This referred to intentionally setting an environment that is rich of new words so that children are constantly exposed to it and are able to pick up new words. This could be done through reading out stories, using appropriate terminologies and language in instructions and by use of technology and multimedia (Christ & Wang 2010, pp. 87 - 88)

2. Intentionally teach word meanings

Christ & Wang (2010, p. 88) suggest direct teaching of definitions through three methods: Asking questions, explaining definitions and extending instructions. Ask questions that encourage children to detect clues from their prior knowledge to make sense of new words. Extended instructions may refer to asking more questions about a specific word or helping the children understand the word by giving more examples of how those words fit into their surrounding worlds.

3. Teach word-learning strategies

Christ & Wang (2010, pp. 88 - 89) encourages teaching the children to use their fast-mapping skills by thinking aloud. The teacher could guide the child into associating words by pointing out clues and connecting words with different ideas.

4. Offer opportunities to use newly learned words

This refers to providing a classroom environment that has sufficient opportunities and activities that revolve around vocabulary sharpening such as categorising or word-based games.

Implications:
Both of the readings provided many teaching strategies that can be effective for teaching numeracy and literacy in the early childhood setting. I think that when lesson planning, I must be able to understand the children more and really observe and look for opportunities to build lessons surrounding that prior knowledge. I also understand that it is important to not only directly instruct the child but instead prompt the child to make connections, be it through verbal guidance or the way the classroom environment is set up. As early childhood children are at the age where they literally absorb knowledge like a sponge, it is important that we strive to constantly pose new challenges and new knowledge and new concepts to the child each day so that they can learn more and absorb more. After this reading, I headed over to placement with the intention of introducing blocks and shapes to the nursery room I'm at. I got some blocks and shape boxes and put them in front of the babies. Every time the baby touched a specific shape, I would directly tell them what shape it was. I also repeated myself a fair bit (which must have annoyed the poor child), but soon after, I realised that the older babies who were about to transition over to the toddler room begin to imitate what I was saying. They would touch a block and say 'square' or say 'triangle' every time they fit the triangle into the right shaped hole. It's amazing how quickly children learn, really. 

Portfolio #4 (Experience)

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

Today while shopping for groceries at Central Market, a five year old boy (or so he says), whom I presume was the stall owner’s son sat on the stall bench top as I was looking at some strawberries. A relatively interesting conversation took place between me and the boy after.

Boy: Those strawberries are really yummy. I like them very much.

Me: Oh, really! They seem pretty big, hey?

Boy: Yes, they are a lot bigger than normal strawberries.

Me: Are they sweet?

Boy: Of course! And because they’re bigger, I think they must be a lot sweeter.

Me: Ah that sounds about right. Can you pick two plummets for me, please?

Boy: Sure. That’s 4 dollars!

Me: Excellent counting!

Boy: That was easy. Just give me 5 dollars and I can give you a dollar change.

Me: I only have 10 dollars. Is that okay with you?

Boy: *thinks for a moment* Sure, that’s 6 dollars change… right?

Me: Exactly. You really are good at math!

I was honestly very impressed with the young boy’s counting skills and even his ability to market and promote the items at such a young age. Especially after taking part in this topic, I got pretty excited that I was able to detect the literacy and numeracy skills he showed in connecting the ideas of the bigger strawberries to be even sweeter. His numeracy skills were also clearly demonstrated as he understood the size of strawberries and how he could compare the size of strawberries according to what seems like ‘normal sized’ strawberries. His counting skills were no doubt an excellent indicator of his numeracy skills.  His understanding towards the amount of change that should be given also demonstrated his understanding in how different mathematical equations can result to the same answer.

However, I initially found myself doubting his age because of his excellent numeracy and literacy skills. I assumed he was older and suddenly realised this might be my own way of prejudicing the potential children have with literacy and numeracy skills. It’s also made me think about how the more we expose children to literacy and numeracy, the better they are at it. Clearly this young boy must be good at math and words because he is constantly exposed to it when helping at his parents’ stall. It really is quite funny to me how I have never quite realised how much numeracy and literacy are practiced in our daily routines. Before this topic, I would have honestly just shrugged this experience off as something that occurs just as a routine, but this topic has really taught me to identify numeracy and literacy skills, and use our daily routines as the foundation to building up literacy and numeracy skills in children. I can’t wait to see what further this topic is about to do to my mind!