Portfolio Page 3

Portfolio Page 3
Emma Fitzpatrick 2107606

At the beginning of this topic, I assumed that Literacy was English, writing and reading. I thought numeracy was maths and I really dislike maths so soon as I see ‘numeracy’ I am instantly not happy. I thought literacy was taught in classrooms from reading books and writing stories, and numeracy was maths lessons.

From being in this topic, my eyes have been opened into literacy and numeracy. I can now see that it isn’t just spelling, reading and counting. Literacy and numeracy is in everything we do, even when we don’t realize it. I am now beginning to recognise forms of literacy and numeracy in day-to-day life, in the kindergarten students and also myself.

By the end of this topic, I want to be able to recognise multiple different areas of literacy and numeracy through experiences at kindergarten. I also want to gather ideas about teaching literacy and numeracy in all ages of early childhood children. 

(3.3)>The readings I have done have already broadened my knowledge so much. I will keep making clear observations in centres, further my knowledge buy reading articles, journals, readings, books, frameworks and guidelines, talk with professionals in the area and document all of my literacy and numeracy experiences with the children.  I hope to be able to learn to recognise literacy and numeracy in all its different forms and be able to think of my own and teach activities relating to literacy and numeracy.

From the new knowledge I have gained, I feel as though my recognition of literacy and numeracy learning oppurtunities  has become a strength of mine. I am now able to create my own literacy and numeracy learning oppurtunities for children at my placement kindergarten. <(3.3)

The resources at my disposal are topic readings, university staff in the Early Childhood area, educators from preschool at my placement and many other publically available resources, such as books, online etc. I have family and friends in Early Childhood and schools. My uncle is a primary school principal, three of my aunties are teachers, I have a family friend that is a director of a preschool and also another family friend that is a principal of a primary school.

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

3.3 States the strengths & possible limits of your own ability to observe & offer literacy & numeracy experiences with children less than 4 years of age  

Portfolio Page 2

Portfolio Page 2 – Week 7
Emma Fitzpatrick 2107606

‘National Quality Standard, Professional Learning Program: Online Forum (NSQ PLP), ‘Play or Teaching Literacy and Numeracy – is it one or the other?’

I discovered this forum whilst browsing the National Quality Standard Professional Learning Program online forums. The question raised was ‘Play or teaching literacy and numeracy – is it one or the other?’. There are four individuals that commented in the forum, each with very valid and different ideas.

(4.1)>My ideas about play, literacy and numeracy are very similar to the ideas that the individual’s posed. My ideas are conceived through kindergarten children and that they learn best through play. Children of this age are unable to properly read and write yet, and therefore guided play is a better form of education and learning for their age. Children are unable to sit for long periods of time and concentrate on their lesson and learning.  Educators are able to set game activities up, which can be lead and directed to desired outcomes.

At the kindergarten I am currently doing placement at, each activity has been planned and worked towards gaining certain outcomes. At the moment, children are able to play with white boards, texta’s and laminated paper to trace and draw the letters of the alphabet.

Each comment on the forum, shows that play is incorporated in their centres to guide learning. Although there are only four comments on this forum, they are all very relevant and I believe that more will be added over time.

One person suggested an idea from their centre, which was very much like my activity that I planned in my last portfolio page.  ‘ChanR’ on the forum said that they have a group time mat, which includes the alphabet in upper and lower case, numbers, shapes and colours on it. They use this mat regularly for activities and often get children to find the first letter of their names or roll a dice, count the dots and then find that number. They also give children something with a number or letter on it and then the children have to find and match the number or letter together. In my last portfolio, I made pop-sticks with numbers 1-100 on them and the children had a big mat with 1-100 on it. They had to match the pop-stick to the number on their stick.<(4.1) 

I can relate to these posts through my experiences of similar activities and my ideas connecting with theirs. Placement of different activities and objects in the centre can also stimulate literal and numerical thinking. Through using these activity mats, educators can stimulate children’s thinking and ideas about literacy and numeracy. In the future, I will refer to these posts and come back to refresh ideas about learning through play.

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

2.3 Sources further information; developing &/or collecting resources for literary & numerical teaching & learning  

Portfolio Page 1

Portfolio Page 1
Emma Fitzpatrick 2107606

‘An Experience’

During last semester, I was doing my placement at a kindergarten. Each week the kindergarten staff would change the outside play equipment; climbing apparatus, footballs, soccer balls, netballs and this particular week, they put out a giant tarp on the lawn outside. The tarp had the game ‘Snakes and Ladders” printed on it, so numbers 1 to 100 were on the mat. During fruit time and lunchtime, students were to pick a number to sit on while they ate their lunch.

Every odd number was a white number on a black background and every even number was a black number on white background. I came up with an idea that we write the numbers individually 1 to 100, on the edge of a popsicle stick. (1.2)>At lunchtime, they then had to match their number to the number on their Popsicle stick and that is where they sat and ate their lunch. The children got over excited and this plan didn’t really work the first couple of times. Brand new shiny number mat outside, they couldn’t contain their excitement to sit on it, forgetting about their activity.

After the children ate their lunch, they went off to play. I had a few stick around counting the numbers that they could count. I decided to bring the pop sticks back into play again. I gave the children numbers and then helped them find the match number. My invented game started with 3 or 4 children, then ended up with children lining up to play!<(1.2).

I learnt that I could make learning fun. Most of the children didn’t recognise numbers over 30, so I set a real challenge having to match other numbers higher. I would help the children find the number, by telling them for example; number 56. ‘Number 56, this number begins with a 5, then has a 6 next to it’. The children would go hunting and find ‘65’ and ‘95’ until they found the ‘56’. Once they found the correct number the children would be so excited and proud of themselves for overcoming their challenge. I found it so interesting watching the children interact with each other to solve their challenge.

1.3 Specifies the teaching approaches you’ll use & the learning environs you’ll create to support the social dimensions of early literacy/numeracy    
1.2 Explains how young children’s literacy & numeracy learning can be socially conveyed through their behaviour, feelings or approach

Week 7

Readings Week 7
Emma Fitzpatrick 2107606

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

“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”

This weeks reading, I chose ‘Talk to me, baby!’ (Bardige, B. & Bardige, M, 2008) and ‘Promoting Good Beginnings’. I chose to read ‘Talk to me, baby!’ as I have always focused on children of kindergarten age, so I believe that I need to gain more knowledge in other areas. The reason I chose the numeracy reading ‘Promoting Good Beginnings’ was because I was looking to further my knowledge in numeracy.

In the numeracy reading ‘Promoting Good Beginnings’, there were 10 guidelines that teachers are able to follow in order to achieve high mathematical outcomes. These guidelines are as follows:

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.

I found these guidelines so helpful and relevant to what I was looking for. These will help me recognise children’s strength and weaknesses, and then be able to work with the students to overcome them or challenge them. I have always struggled with numeracy and mathematical areas in education, so when I become an educator, I would really like to properly understand and successfully teach numeracy and mathematics to give students the best opportunities I can.

‘Talk to me, baby!’ explained and provided overviews into infants through to toddler’s language development. It explained how communication and talking to babies could vastly improve language development. Studies showed that infants growing up in ‘verbal families’ had 25+ points higher IQ than those that grow up in ‘less verbal families’. The article provided ways to engage with infants to help enrich their language development, just a few of them were: using voice to soothe an infant, engage in frequent baby talk conversations and allow babies to listen to different sounds.

I hope to be able to work with children younger than kindergarten in the future so I will be able to make observations and apply my knowledge about literacy in the area. I will also use these guidelines stated above to be able to teach mathematics in the best way I can do.

(N) 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. Retrieved 20 July, 2012 from  http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/psmath.pdf

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