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Prompt 7 2018

The teaching resource I chose was ‘Dougal MacPherson on the power of illustration in storytelling’ and I wrote notes and a reflection for teachers about it. 

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Prompt 8 2018

Using the tag #picturebooks I came across a storybook posted by imageblock called 'Dreamland', by Noah Klocek. It is a story that will be coming out in the next few months. The cover shows creative and engaging illustrations of a young boy on a bed drifting in the clouds with stars surrounding it. I believe that covers of books draw readers into reading them more than the title, and that is the reason I was drawn to looking at it. I really enjoy books that revolve around imagination and being able to relate to the story. Students can relate to it because they would have a bed and have had dreams and imaginative experiences before. It would be a book that I would be interested in reading and possibly a type of book that I would bring into my teaching experiences.

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Prompt 6 2018

After watching the phonics debate, I created my own RAN chart presenting what I think I know, confirmed, misconceptions, new learning and wonderings on what they spoke about. It shows that there are many perceptions and opinions regarding teaching phonics in literacy education and how it should be done. It was interesting to watch and learn from as a preservice teacher. 

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Prompt Five 2018

This multimodal format presents five questions to ask year 6 students about the cover of the story Dust. These five questions represented in the comic strip are:

- What do you think the title ‘Dust’ means?

- How can the word ‘Dust’ relate to ‘Save the children’?

- What is in the cover?

- What could these mean?

- What does the title and the illustrations say or mean regarding what the story could be about?

The comic also represents possible thoughts and ideas on the questions which are represented in thought bubbles. 

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These images are all examples of literacy lessons I taught. The first image is based on the story I read every morning, The Princess and the Pea and their activity was to cut out the pictures and paste them in order (this was focusing on retelling the story), the follow up lesson was a big write where they had to write what happened in the story. The second image is filling in the missing words, I took a guided reading lesson and then this was their work sheet. The third image was reading and brainstorming what makes a good friend in which they had to help me sound out the words and write them on a poster that they make. The fourth image is their ‘wow words’ from the Princess and the Pea story, they had to write them in the mattresses. The final image is of one day’s schedule, they had guided reading, writing and more writing in the whole day I was teaching. 

These are all quick examples of how I incorporated literacy in my teaching, it was enjoyable and interesting. They were a prep class and I would use these activities in many year levels (including grade 6′s), because creativity in learning makes the learning enjoyable. I have not done placements above a grade two level and therefore when I do, I can bring fun and creativity into literacy lessons with using more challenging and higher content. This is something I value in learning/teaching, enjoyment and creativity with a love for learning. 

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For prompt 2: Posters, I found it challenging due to my placement experience being with Preps. Their main reading and writing (literacy) activity they do on a weekly basis is ‘wow words’, which are words that are more interesting and enjoyable to read rather than basic words, for example ‘great’ instead of ‘good’ or ‘exclaimed’ instead of ‘said’. Everyday the students are read the same story in the week and then Wednesdays they stop throughout the story to identify ‘wow words’ and sound them out to spell them as a class, which is basically guided/modelled writing and modelled reading. The image is of the teacher’s example that I observed, based on the story The Ugly Duckling and afterwards the students get a worksheet with the heading and a picture of the duck on the side. They must write the ‘wow words’ on coloured paper and cut them out to paste on their paper. All the student’s work is displayed in the room until the next week’s book is read and then they change it to their next book’s ‘wow words’ poster. They have to keep this repetitive and therefore the teacher keeps the poster basic and simple so they focus in the writing and spelling rather than decorations on the sheet, the teacher does change the poster paper every week to keep it interesting. This is the only literacy related poster that was displayed in my placement classroom. 

For the older year levels, it would be modified to more challenging topics such as adjectives, verbs, adverbs, nouns, etc. I would use this approach in my own teaching because the students seemed to enjoy it and participate. 

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Prompt One 2018

When reflecting upon my personal experiences with reading and literature when growing up, I found that I have many amazing memories, my favourite would be the story my mother read to me The Teddy Bears’ Picnic, by Jimmy Kennedy (1999 edition) where she began by reading it many times and then began singing the story. It was my favourite and I still have it to this day, I would use my teddies to re-enact the story and in kindergarten we brought out favourite teddy to have our own teddy bear picnic. My mother even has a cassette tape that plays the audio reading of the story for when my mother was busy. This encouraged my love for reading along with being introduced to The Very Hungry Caterpillar in primary school and The BFG, by Roald Dahl. I have always enjoyed reading because I had so many enjoyable experiences. 

As a teacher, I would carry on this enjoyment and experience it with the students I would have. Like many would agree, reading and reading aloud is very important and an influential writer, Mem Fox, has expressed this in her own experience and book Reading Magic (2005 edition). This is why when I will be teaching, reading would be involved. I would read what I have enjoyed, The Teddy Bears’ Picnic, The BFG, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Oh, The Places you’ll go!, and more. Using appropriate year levels and subjects to match the students ability and enjoyment.