Planning for children’s learning in language and literacy

June 14th, 2008 Filed under: Pre-School, University | Tags: children, language, learning, literacy, teaching

Kei te āro/Noticing

While I was looking for a group of children that were showing an interest in language and literacy to observe, I noticed that on a whole the girls in the class seemed to be much more interested in the topic than the boys. Most girls were trying to write their names on art work by themselves while the boys would just take it to a teacher to name. Both the sexes were interested in stories that were read by the teacher but girls spent more time looking through story books by themselves. The boys did however enjoy looking through are space book but spent their time talking about the rockets rather than trying to put a story to the pictures. It is not surprising that in the end I observed three girls. From the three observations I took, I noticed that the older two girls were more interested in individual letters, how they compared with other letters and what sound they symbolised. While discussions with the youngest child G’s step-mother revealed she was more interested in small picture/symbols like stars and bows. The older children also took great pride in their writing, showing it to parents when they were picked up in the evening. The eldest C was also able to extend her interest without the help of a teacher by using the Letter Land program on the class computer.

Kei te whakaae/ Recognising

The first thing I noticed before starting my observations was that girls seemed to be more interested in language and literacy than boys. According to Dr Sax, boy’s and girl’s brains develop differently, “In girls, the language areas of the brain develop before the areas used for spatial relations and for geometry. In boys, it’s the other way around.” (http://www.whygendermatters.com/) This was clearly seen while I was looking for a group of children to observe as almost all girls were focused around activities that had connections to language and literacy.

Observation 1 saw three girls decorating giant W’s. Although an interest in language and literacy had brought the girls to this activity one of the main skill development that was taking place was for fine motor skills, as the girls manipulated Popsicle sticks and foam animal cut outs. They girls also had to communicate and work together deciding what they were going to decorate the W’s with. Throughout the activity a teacher was also with the girls at all times. She demonstrated the sound the letter W makes a number of times but repeating “W w wa wa wa”. She then asked the girls about what words start with the letter W. This helped the girls to recognise that the picture they were working on actually represented a sound in their language and that words are made up of sounds and therefore letters. C and J seemed to already have a good grasp of this concept providing words straight away while G required a little more help from the teacher to get her correctly answering the question. The teacher showed good scaffolding techniques but not just providing an answer for G, but by providing encouragement and hints that were within her proximnal zone of development.

In observation 2 C is by herself at the computer. Without assistance from the teachers she finds the letter W in the Letter Land program. This shows that she was able to recall what she had learnt early that day during observation 1 and was able to actively seek out new information that was of interest to her without the aid of a teacher. This is a wonderful skill allowing her to take more responsibility of her own learning. She listened to the W song five times until she was confidently singing along with the computer. C must have had a great feeling of empowerment after setting herself the goal of learning the W song and achieving it. As suggested in Kei tua o te Pae “The principle of empowerment emphasises children’s rights and their need to pursue their own goals and interests as a base for developing working theories.” (2004, book 6, p. 5).

During observation 3, we find C and J playing together with peg boards. Once again the girls developing their fine motor and spacial awareness skills by placing the pegs into the board. C starts creating a W on a peg board while J watches. The two girls talk about the picture as it takes form, discussing how it looks like a V when it’s half complete. The girls are starting to recognise patterns within the alphabet which will later help them with their reading and writing. After C has completed the letter W she shows J who thinks it is a letter M since she is viewing it upside down. Showing some great problem solving skills C realises why J thinks it is an M and turns the peg board around for her to view it the apporpriate way. Both girls find this quite funny and laugh together having found another pattern within the alphabet. This is a great example of how these girls are strengthening their grasp of the alphabet in a fun and playful manner. Barbara Wasik believes that learning the alphabet through play is develpmentally appropriate for children in early childhood education “For children who do have numerous literacy experiences, alphabet activities reinforce letter learning in playful, developmentally appropriate ways.” (Wasik, 2001, p. 36) as stated in her article Teaching the Alphabet to Young Children.

While discussing C interest with her mother I found that C, who I would consider as being the most confident in both writing and reading the alphabet, is encouraged at home to practice the alphabet using writing sheets and reading books from ABC. This provides backing to the importance of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological-contexual model as stated in Kei tua o te Pae. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological-contextual model is founded on the idea that all the social worlds of children and their families are intimately connected in a number of ways. Learning is enhanced when there are connections and relationships between early childhood settings away from home and other places and spaces in the children’s lives. (Book 2, 2004, p.4) Cs mother also mentioned that she enjoyed reading (retelling in her own words) books at home. This will be helping C to develop her mastery of words and improving her vocabulary.

My co-teacher told me that C and J are both signing all their own art work in class. G, being younger than both C and J spends more time practicing to draw stars, hearts and other symbols but has started to take an interest in letters especially letters contained within her name. This is probably due to scaffolding that is taking place within her relationship with the older girls.

Kei te anga/Responding

To help encourage G’s interest in writing I set up an activity in the sandpit outside. I emptied the sandpit of all toys and replaced them with flax. I called the girls over and asked if anyone could use the flax to write their name into the sand. C was the first to try and she did an excellent job of writing her name. J tried next and did an equally impressive job as C. When it was G’s turn she managed the first letter of her name, but had some trouble remembering the order of the other letters. I wrote her name coreectly in the sand and asked C and J to help her copy it a number of times. With the help of her friends G managed to write out her full name in the sand. She was so proud of herself that she asked me to take a photo of it so that she could show her parents. This experience links to Te Whariki’s principle Relationships by G’s development being influenced by the relationship she has with teachers and friends.

The next experience I set up was a story telling corner where I placed one chair, a bunch of pillows and a pile of picture books the children had not seen before. I asked the children to take turns being the teacher and to tell a story to the other children. I got this idea from the conversation I had with C’s mother about C retelling stories in her own words. The creative stories that the children made up while looking at the pictures of the new books was increadible. I was very surprised to see a number of boys take great interest in the experience by telling stories of space travel and pirates. I believe this helped spark and interest in words and their ability to portray thoughts and ideas amongst each other. This experience links to Te Whariki’s principle Empowerment allowing the children to become empowered by their confidence to talk and share ideas with their classmates.

Kei te hurihuri/Revisiting

The experiences I provided the children gave them more confidence in expressing themselves both verbally and in written form. G is constantly looking for new ways and materials to write her name, even using cotton balls to create letters. The children seemed to respond very positively to the story telling corner, so I will continue to offer it. I also plan on allowing the children to dramatically act out the stories for their classmates.

Observation 1

Date: 9:05 am 10/06/08

Children: C, J, G
Sex of children: Female
Age of children: 3.9 to 4.6 years
Place setting: ABC all day care. In this class room, there are 13 3.6 to 5 year old children and two teachers.
Area of Development: Language and Literacy
Area setting: All 13 children are inside having just come into the classroom from the Toddlers room at 9:00 am.

This morning my co-teacher set out three giant W’s, made from A3 sheets of paper, on the art table. Three girls quickly came over to the table and asked the teacher what they were for? “We are learning Ww in Letter Land this week and I wanted to decorate these W’s to put on the wall.” replied the teacher. “Can we help you?” asked C. “Of Course! Why don’t you girls grab some stuff from the collage shelf and I’ll get some glue.” the teacher replied. Once both parties had returned the girls quickly started gluing coloured Popsicle sticks and foam animal cut outs to the W’s, while the teacher repeated “W w wa wa wa” a number of times. The teacher then asked if the girls knew any words that started with W. “Walter Walrus” said C. “Great! Any others?” the teacher said. “Um… watermelon?” asks J. “Yes, that’s right!” “How about a colour?” says the teacher. “Red!” says G. “No, that starts with R r ra ra ra, remember we want W w wa wa wa” says the teacher. “Oh um…. white?” says G nervously. “Excellent!” says the teacher “You girls are very smart.”

Observation 2

Date: 10:45 am 10/06/08

Child: C
Sex of child: Female
Age of child: 4.6 years
Place setting: ABC all day care.  In this class room, there are 18 3.6 to 5 year old children and two teachers.
Area of Development: Language and Literacy
Area setting: 11 children are outside and 7 inside; 2 children on the computers and the 5 children at the art table.

C is playing on the computer. She starts up Letter Land and goes straight to Ww. C loves to sing songs and will quite often be seen singing while playing outside in the playground. So, it is no surprise when I see her play the W song in Letter Land 5 times in a row until she is confidently singing along with the computer. She potters around on the computer for an other minute or so before going outside to play on the jungle gym.

Observation 3

Date: 3:25 pm 10/06/08

Children: C, J
Sex of children: Female
Age of children: 4.2 to 4.6 years
Place setting: ABC all day care.  In this class room, there are 12 3.6 to 5 year old children and two teachers.
Area of Development: Language and Literacy
Area setting: 8 children are outside and 4 inside; 2 playing in  the family corner and 2 playing on the mat.

It is free play time, C and J are sitting on the mat playing with the peg boards. They start by making rainbows, comparing and complimenting each others efforts. After they have finished, C says she is going to make Walter Walrus. What she actually makes is a W. She starts and says “Hey look! It looks like a V”. J says “Yeah”. Once C has finished she shows J who is sitting facing her on the mat. J says it looks like an M. C turns the board around and they both laugh.

Discussion with Co-teacher

I discussed the three girls and their interest in language and literacy with my co-teacher. She mentioned that C and J are both signing all their own art work in class while G has only just started to sign her initials. She also mentioned that all three girls really enjoy singing, books and board stories. Especially C who will often pretend to be a teacher and read (retell in her own words) books to other kids.

I also talked with C’s mother and G’s step-mother after class about their daughters interest in Language and Literacy. C’s mother said that C’s favourite things to do at home right now are looking at books and practicing the writing sheets she brings home from ABC. G’s step-mother said that G wasn’t to interested in writing letters at home but has been practicing stars, bows and other little symbols.

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