As I was not on placement during weeks four and five of trimester 2 2018, I have used prompt four to reflect upon my literary experiences during previous practicum opportunities. Of these experiences, I can recall many positive situations in which I observed high levels of student engagement. I found that many of these occurrences were during whole-class lessons, whereby the class were participating in comprehension lessons or listening to modelled reading. In particular, modelled reading has been a common theme throughout most of my practicum experiences, with ‘class novels’ or ‘story-books’ often being allocated time throughout the week. Having placements in a variety of years levels, including years one, three, four and five, I have always found modelled reading to stimulate student interest, for a variety of reasons. I have summarised these reasons in the below dot-points:
Generally, the teachers I have worked with, have selected novels or books appropriate for the set of students in the class in terms of their interests and abilities
allows opportunity for students to observe their teacher performing activities that they also do
Can often provide students with time to focus on listening and comprehension strategies or skills without having to demonstrate graphophonic awareness
Provides opportunity for reading and comprehension practice that is not fully independent
In my two most recent placement experiences I was placed in year three and four, where both teachers had been reading David Walliams novels to the class. These included his 2013 novel Demon Dentist, and the 2011 novel Gangsta Granny. Both classes responded positively to the novel, obvious through their reactions to events that frequently included laughter and shock. This demonstrated the positive impact that modelled reading has on students and how this can influence and encourage a positive attitude towards reading amongst students.
Amongst all the positive lessons I have observed during placements, there have also been unsuccessful ones. The ones most significant and engrained in my memory, include those which aimed to prepare students for NAPLAN testing. These lessons often saw students working from booklets with a text on one side and comprehension questions on the other. Whilst NAPLAN is a compulsory task and process to which teachers have no control over, I have often found that the preparation is disconnected to the beliefs or attitudes of the teacher. By this, I mean that the teachers I have worked with during NAPLAN years have frequently commented on the negative aspects of NAPLAN, but during times of preparation have often followed in the footsteps of these testing routines. Whilst readiness is important, I question whether the comprehension skills and strategies can be developed by students in environments other than testing conditions and during interactive activities, to still prepare students with the knowledge required to perform these tests. The reason I question this is because, during those unsuccessful lessons, I observed disengaged students, who, whilst attempting to perform the tasks asked of them, were still not developing the skills that the lessons were trying to achieve, purely because they were not interested or stimulated with the material in front of them.
In sum, I hope that as an educator, I will know my students well enough to be able to incorporate activities and content that will interest and engage my students. Additionally, as a curriculum worker I hope that I will be able to enact the material or tasks that are already set out, to ensure that they suit the needs of my students and their interests. Finally, I believe that fostering an environment that encourages a positive attitude in all disciplines including literacy is highly important and critical in assisting students to become executive readers.
I have attached images below that provide inspiration to me as a preservice teacher, and to students. They depict environments which value literacy and encourage this in all students. These images are not my own but were taken from the Internet.
Mrs.Wills kindergarten 2016, ‘New Bulletin Boards for a New Year!’, Mrs.Wills kindergarten, Pinterest, 8 August, retrieved 17 August 2018, <https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/100768110392844635/>.
Santos, L 2014, ‘Implementing the Daily 5- read to self’, Core Inspiration, Weblog post, 29 October, retrieved 17 July 2018, <http://thecoreinspiration.com/2014/10/implementing-daily-5-read-to-self.html>.
