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Prompt 8 2018

When I searched #picturebooks I was expecting to see familiar front covers and perhaps a few popular current picture books. I did not know one single picture book! The ones I saw featured plenty of animals that could talk, robots and little children. I did not like not knowing any of them as I thought I was quite up to date with book trends! Picture books have changed a lot from when I was a child. They now all seem to be, glossy, bright colours and much more diverse with characters, culture and the content. This excites me as I can not wait to use picture books in my own classroom one day! My favourite picture book would probably have to be Mrs Wishy Washy as I remember reading that in Prep, or any Mem Fox books, especially Possum Magic. 

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ECL310 PROMPT 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfVlYztf6Rc I would play this video on mute for students whilst they are continuing on with their Koala activity. 

Attached are my notes that I would present at a PD meeting critiquing the Controlling Koalas: points of view interactive resource. 

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ECL310 Prompt 6

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PIBMLvcAzc

The following YouTube Clip is played whilst students are answering these questions which relaxes students and allows them to focus. The seminar from this week was used as inspiration to help me come up with these questions that encourage students to predict and analyse the text from only using the front cover.

The questions I would pose to a Year 6 class about to study the text Dust are;

1) Who do you think the story is about and why?

2) From analysing the cover, where and when do you think this book is set?

3) What do you think the hands represent? Why would the illustrator choose to do that?

4) I want you to create a Y chart based on the front cover. What it looks like? What it sounds like? and What it feels like? This Y chart activity can be revisited throughout the during reading time. This can be submitted as summative assessment at the end of the unit. 

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Promp 4 ECL310 2018

My placement was at a secondary college. I was teaching English to Year 8′s, 10′s and 11′s. Every day after lunch the first ten minutes of class was devoted to silent reading. I liked this initiative but found it was difficult to implement as students would come to class with no book to read and some teachers disregarded the activity altogether. 

I observed a Year 7 class and witnessed USSW (Uninterupted sustained silent writing), where for ten minutes they would write about anything they liked. This was an activity that all student’s could do and enjoyed as it gave them freedom. 

The Year 10′s were doing text response. Attached is a piece of work from one of the student’s who was quite low. I was very proud of him for doing this work as he focused on keeping his hand writing neat. The Year 11s were learning about comparing Romeo and Juliet to The Outsiders. Attached is an image of an activity I got the students to do as a whole class. It involved them placing the key events of the movie they had watched so far in order, to assist them remembering what happened. Attached is also an image of a prompt the Year 10s used that I helped them unpack. As I was teaching a lot I didn’t get to observe any ‘bad’ teaching, but I got to reflect a lot on my own which I found really insightful and beneficial to my teaching.  

Year 10 work on themes/concepts/characters in the text.

Year 10 fleshing out the prompt as a whole class.

Year 11 key events ordering task

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2018 Reply to Prompt 3

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2018 Reply to Prompt 2

Text connections are something that I love and something that every child can find! I have taught these to Year 8′s on my placement and they loved the idea of connecting something that is happening in The Hunger Games to something in their own life. I can never remember being taught these connections, it was only last year in uni when they were first brought to my attention. I find them so fascinating and a great way for children to talk about the book and engage with not only the text but their peers. Using these text connectors in reading/literacy groups is something I would love to get the chance at doing. In this weeks seminar we spoke about getting students engaged with the text they are reading and I think by opening their eyes and showing them how broad connections can be is something they find really intriguing and interesting. It can be scaffolded, as when beginning you can start with text to self connections that can be on the surface, but as you get into text to text and world, the connections become more complex and deep which require critical thinking which is an important skill for our students to possess! 

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2018 Reply to Prompt 1

Hi All,

As a child I loved being read to. I can remember my Dad would read When the Wolf Comes to Town and The King and the Cuddly every night before I bed.  This love grew as I entered school, where my lower years in primary school were spent surrounded by books like Mrs Wishy Washy and Possum Magic.

My parents prioritised reading time with me which I am very grateful for. In my seminar we discussed reading satchels and parents signing their children’s diary every evening after they’ve read together. We questioned what happens to the child whose parents don’t read to him/her and has no exposure to books at home. We linked this to having suitable parent helpers in the class to assist the teacher with reading to students, and the teacher having communication with parents being able to find a suitable solution.

As I got older, I began to prefer reading books myself instead of somehow reading them to me. I entered the teen dystopian phase of Twilight, The Hunger Games and Divergent. I now love reading historical books, and am currently reading The Secret River by Kate Grenville.