#ecl310deakin2018
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Prompt 8
ECL310 Prompt
When I type in #picturebooks there were a lot of great suggestions of picture books to read that would provide educative value in the classroom. A text I found popular in the search was called ‘Cloud Country’ this text has amazing illustrations that create a sense of comfort and softness to the text. This text emphasizes the importance of illustrations and inspires imagination which would be a great text to introduce to the younger year levels but also extend to the middle year students where students would discover the great links between texts and imagery.
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PROMPT 8 (RESPONSE) 2018
After searching through the #picturebooks hashtag, it was interesting to note just how man picture books I recognised. However, it what was more surprising how many I had never seen before! I also noticed a lot of stories that I had grown up reading as a child, but forgot about (e.g. Clifford the Big Red Dog).
It was also really surprising to see so many peoples’ drawings of picture book characters and settings, and it made me think of how I can get my students to draw their own versions of characters from picture books from descriptions alone.
There were also some funny little observations that people had shared. For example, one post something along the lines of ‘ducks are always yellow in picture books but I have never actually seen in real life’.
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Prompt 8
This author talks about human compassion through her creative books. This book is written and illustrated by Beatrice Alemagna. In her books she uses animals to metaphorically talk about human compassion and other hard topics that some students might find confronting. Her illustrations are kid like but have meaning in order to defuse any kind of tension the students might feel about certain topics. I found that a lot of the Tumblr posts on picture books were an expression of creativity trying to convey a certain meaning. The artwork on some of the pictures were amazing and meaningful, I found it interesting how art can play such a big role in literacy through both words and pictures.
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Prompt 6
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Handwriting - Prompt 3
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PROMPT 4 2018
Reading
I loved on placement that my mentor teacher loved incorporating picture storybooks daily in the classroom (would get to read at least 3-4 a day!). These were used in the morning before we started work, as tuning in for reading and writing, for calming down after recess/ lunch or to finish the day. I got to read multiple books and the kids loved them, we had a list in the classroom and would jot down every book if they liked it or didn’t like it and why. Questioning was used throughout every book to look at inferring, making connections, predicting, about the text to stimulate the student’s thoughts. Also, every morning for 10 minutes was 10 to 9 reading time where students would come into the class and read independently and silently to start off their day which worked really well.
However a whole school approach was used called ‘fab vocab’ which I did not like as it was basically working as a group on the floor looking at one word in the book such as ‘ambled’ talking about the definitions, synonyms, antonyms, writing It is a sentence which the students would then go back to their tables and copy. I felt no real learning was done they were just copying off the board and they were not engaged at all.
Writing
The writing was good as my mentor teacher used differentiation well in her lesson she did not change the set task, just adapted it to suit the needs of the children which I used in my lessons. Students who were seen as enablers concentrated on writing 1-2 sentences on landscape paper with bigger line space, while extender students had the paper with more lines and were expected to write 3-4 sentences as a minimum and include wow words and higher vocabulary. They were writing ‘special man’ pieces for a fathers day competition when I was there which was really nice to get to know the kids and a little bit about them.
However once again with the team planning during my teaching week, we were looking at informational reports and every day was expected to be a new report topic where the kids were expected to copy down facts we had found. I originally planned for them to research and find their own animals so it could be more engaging and personal to them but due to time restrictions, this was not possible.
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PROMPT #4
Reflecting on placement from a literacy perspective:
As my first week comes to an end of my two week placement, as i reflect I discover that I’m having an amazing time. During this placement i am taking all the literacy lessons over the two weeks for my grade 5/6 class. Following the english planner that is already written, my mentor teacher Ben has given me freedom to use any resources i want and to take the class with out him stepping in at all. Due to this trust from Ben, i have discovered a genuine love for literacy. I have never been good at numeracy in my life, from all levels of school, but i’ve always throughly enjoyed reading, writing, editing and story telling in my life.
Working on procedural texts and recounts over the past 5 days has helped me understand so much more. My teaching style is starting to develop and i am loving the chances i have to build relationships with the students in my class.
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Prompt 5 Post
The cover of a picture book is a crucial element in attracting students to select a picture book. Covers draw in a reader, enticing them to open the book and delve in. When implementing front loading pedagogy, the cover is the first element used by a reader to form a prediction regarding the context and inference of a picture nook.
Dust (Thompson C 2007) has an amazingly evocative front cover! At the commencement of the lesson based on Dust (Thompson C 2007) I would highlight four elements of the cover, representing them as single images to establish inference. Scaffolding four images from the cover entices students to analyse one focused point to develop a deeper understanding of inference.
Students responses to the four images taken from the cover of Dust, (Thompson C 2007) and the inquiry questions will be outlined on a brain storm map.
1. How could the use of the title Dust and the images contained in this section of the cover help us make a prediction about this title?
2. Can the second image help us ascertain more meaning regarding the context of Dust?
3. Do the two medals represented on the cover of Dust provide us with further information regarding the inference of this title?
4. What could we deduce from the lack of certain information on the Dust front cover?
5. When we examine the front cover of Dust in its entirety and compare this with our brain storm map, are there any indicators that we missed that could help us predict the context of the story?
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PROMPT 5: Dust- Frontloading
Firstly, before showing the students the front cover, I would tell them that the book we will be exploring is called ‘Dust.’ Therefore my first question is: ‘what could this book be about?’
I would encourage students to think about their answer, and then share with the person next to them. If any students wanted to share their answers, I would allow them to.
Then, I would show them the front cover and ask the students if their idea of what the book could be about has changed or stayed the same? I would get them to discuss this with the same person.
Thirdly, I would prompt students to discuss in small groups the third question: ‘what is in the foreground of the front cover?’ I would chose one or two groups to share their observations, and prompt students in discussing what things may symbolise. For example, in the foreground there are hands that look like they are hanging on before falling into the ground, what might this represent?
I would then do the same activity, just focusing on the background. ‘What is in the background of the front cover?’ Students would discuss in groups and share with the class. I would ensure the tree is discussed, and I would prompt students to assess the illustration of the tree deeply.
Finally, as my 5th question, I would engage students in a word cloud activity. This is an online activity through ‘mentimetre.com’ which students do not need an account for (only the teacher does). Students just need to access the website, type in a unique code, and they will see the question:
‘After assessing the front cover, what are some words you may expect to see in the text?’
Students then will have time to fill in their answers. They can add at least 10 words to the word cloud. As students submit their words, they will appear on the screen at the front of the room, and the most common words get bigger and bigger on the screen. For example, using the image below, the teacher can see that ‘desert’ was the most common word submitted by the students. This is a great multimodal activity that students enjoy and is a great method of getting students to predict, based on their observations of the front cover, what the book may be about.
This is a link to the website of the word cloud :https://www.mentimeter.com
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Prompt 5
ECL310 Prompt
1. Using the See, Think and Wonder chart. What do you see, think and wonder?
2. Who is being effected and what are the characters being effected by>
3. Create a mind map. What do you think the hands symbolise?
4. Complete this Inference table
What do you see?
What do you infer?
Questions that arise?
5. Have you seen this something like this before? If yes, explain
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PROMPT 7 (RESPONSE) 2018
This resource was a particularly interesting and informative and it is definitely a resource that I would consider bringing into the classroom if I was teaching either grade 5 or grade 6.
In particular, this resource can be used by both teachers and students to help guide story writing as it gives clarification and strategies for how to develop characters, plots, genres/setting, choice of vocabulary and use of emotion to engage readers.
This mind map is representation of my reflections on the resource and the notes I took that I would share with fellow teachers.
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Prompt 7
Australian Olympic sprinter, Cathy Freeman Resource ABC
This Video of Cathy Freeman is inspirational and relevant to the Australian Curriculum. This resource relates to the code ACHHK116. It incorporated both English and History into the video. Cathy Freeman’s story is a great way to link English, sport and history together. Students may take inspiration from this video and relate it their own lives. It also incorporates the Indigenous community into the video, creating a starting point for talking about aboriginal culture which is something that has been decided throughout he ecl310 lectures and seminars. I feel this video could be very helpful in a number of ways in literature and other subjects.
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Placement - Prompt 4
Placement is an interesting part of becoming a teacher. These are the experiences that control your motivation and strive to become a teacher, as they provide you with an idea of what you will be doing for the rest of your life (ideally). As this was my 2nd experience at this particular school, teaching middle years science, it was comforting returning to the same teaching environment. But what was discomforting was how drastically low the students literacy skills were. With children in year 9 still not being able to read or comprehend text was confronting. Being a science teacher, this was an issue, as most words are detrimental to the text/ sentence/ instruction or question.
Being placed in a low SES school was challenging but a rewarding experience. I believe teaching something to a student in a low SES community is more rewarding than if they are from a high SES environment.
Hopefully I made a difference.
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PROMPT #3
HANDWRITING:
When it comes to handwriting, i have never really been exposed to a great amount of work that focuses on improving handwriting. Although, during my 2 week placement last year I was placed in a foundation (prep) class. I was completing my placement at the beginning of the year so i got to observe the students practice writing each letter. This process involved doing both the lower and upper case versions of each letter.
I have also experienced teachers allocating ‘pen licences’. A pen licence is awarded when a student succeeds a certain expectation of neatness. This is usually done for students in grades 3-6.
I could be completely wrong, but when handwriting is a main focus it is usually from grades prep - 4.
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