Week 9 Readings
Emma Fitzpatrick 2107606
‘Wood, J.
(2005). Moses’s story: Critical literacy and social justice in an urban
kindergarten. Beyond the Journal:
Young Children on the Web’
‘Perry, B.,
& Dockett, S. (2008). Young children’s access to powerful mathematical
ideas.’
The literacy reading I chose for this week was
‘Moses’s Story: Critical Literacy and social justice in an urban kindergarten’.
The reason I chose this, was because I didn’t know what it was about but when I
saw kindergarten it struck my interest immediately. At this stage in my study,
I am looking at becoming a kindergarten teacher after university. I also would
like to further research teaching and recognising critical literacy and social
justice in kindergarten settings. The
numeracy reading I chose for this week was ‘Young Children’s access to powerful
mathematical ideas’.
Further down the page, I have copy/paste 9
helpful reflections that ‘Woods’ used in his teacher research. I hope to be
able to use these as a guide in the future to help me in my research.
I really enjoyed this reading, as it outlined how a particular boy in Wood’s
kindergarten, would overcome emotional problems through using literacy. The
young boy would come to kindergarten upset on many days, from home situations,
and he would write: either on paper, journals and on the computer until he felt
happier. I was also interested to find out that in Wood’s research, he was able
to find that even without guided questioning to establish certain outcomes, the
children were practicing many areas of the curriculum with their own
discussion. Sometimes this discussion would come from reading books or certain
situations.
This reading has really opened my eyes up to a whole new area that I would
really like to research further myself.
The
numeracy article I chose shows the importance of an
educator. It shows that children are mathematical thinkers and can become very
advanced in the area with correct education. Every one has strengths and
weaknesses in many different areas, although it is shown that if a mathematics
educator’s weakness is mathematics, the children can become effected.
As a person who is very under par with mathematics, I plan to provide the best
possible mathematical education to my students. As I am aiming to become an
early childhood educator, in a kindergarten, I don’t think I will struggle with
conveying mathematical education. Although in saying this, I hope to be the
best teacher I can, even if this means that other educators need to help me
pick up this area to correct standards. I believe numeracy is just as important
as any other area of a child’s learning and needs to suit every individual.
Reflections on this Teacher Research
· Wood’s project highlights several important aspects of teacher research
in early childhood education:
· Wood focuses on an important issue the literacy achievement of young
children in today’s urban classrooms that resonates with other early childhood
educators.
· Wood found a researchable question that was ‘doable’ and did not get in
the way of his teaching; rather, it enhanced it. Further, he discovered that
initial questions and lines of inquiry in teacher re- search often evolve and
change over the course of a project.
· In terms of data collection, Wood collected important vignettes,
critical incidents, anecdotes, work samples, and conversations that provide
telling examples of his teaching and Moses’s learning.
· In terms of data analysis, Wood uses selected literature on teacher
research and critical literacy as extra lenses for understanding his data.
· Wood reflects on Moses’s learning and also on his own teaching, and
makes important connections between the two effective teacher research projects
allow us to understand our children’s learning and our own learning as
educators.
· Wood uses the data from his project to consider changes in his literacy
teaching ‘both internal and external’ and to see how he can continue using
teacher research as a form of professional development in the area of literacy.
This is often the greatest challenge and reward in teacher research making
changes in one’s thinking and actions to improve children’s learning.
· Wood uses this column in the Beyond the Journal to disseminate the
findings from his teacher research project, and invites other early childhood
colleagues to continue the dialogue on the forms and functions of critical literacy
in early childhood.
· These, then, are seven key elements of Wood’s teacher research project
that we hope readers will ruminate on and consider when undertaking their own
projects
(N) Perry, B.,
& Dockett, S. (2008). Young children’s access to powerful mathematical
ideas. In L. D. English (Ed.), Handbook of international research in
mathematics education (2nd ed). NY: Routledge
