Jayden Pitt

ECL - Multiliterate Learners in Middle Years Enviornments

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ECL Prompt – 8 Having the opportunity to search the hashtag #picturebooks in the social media platform ‘Facebook’, I came across an article which acknowledged that the picture books that we love, mold the people that we become. In this article, Jenni Buchanan notes that often our favourite stories are the ones that ‘whisk us away into a far-off world.’ This got me thinking, what was my favourite picture book, and what effect has this had on my life. My favourite picture book in primary school was ‘The Very Hungry Caterpiller’ by Eric Carle. Not only do readers learn about colors and counting when reading this book, but this gave me the knowledge of the life cycle of a caterpillar. Jenni Buchanan also makes an important point in her article that "Reading picture books with beautiful illustrations does more than just entrance children when they’re young; the evocative art of picture books encourages attention to and appreciation of the world around them, and beyond that, emotional intelligence and self-reflection–qualities that stick with children for the rest of their lives. I strongly believe that you can definitely use the hashtag to research information that is relatable to what a class is doing. Using the hashtag in multiple social media platforms opens up a whole new world of information that I feel would help students become better researchers. Taking part in these Tumblr posts, and the use of hashtag’s has really opened up a whole new side of social media, and the potential benefits this can have inside the classroom.

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ECL Prompt – 7 As I conducted a search for #picturebooks in Tumblr, one thing was evident from the numerous Tumblr posts that filled the page… Bright colours! These bright colours included front covers of picture storybooks, along with illustrations, and photographs of people smiling. One thing is for sure; picture storybooks make people happy! As I scrolled through the many Tumblr posts, there was one particular post that grabbed my attention. The title of this Tumblr post read "21 Picture Books With Diverse Characters". As I read further into this post, it is mentioned how important it is to read picture books with a range of diverse characters in contemporary settings, and there has unfortunately been a real lack of diversity in children’s books. The post from cheshirelibrary contained 21 interesting books that I would love to read and find out more about. Searching for this hashtag on Tumblr provided me with some excellent sources of information, along with many different teaching ideas.

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ECL - Prompt 6

The video I watched on the ABC Splash website was called ‘Welcome to Shelly Beach, Port Lincoln’. This is video is narrated by two local Parnkalla (Barngarla) boys named Darnell and Kaiden. Throughout this video, the boys share their story about what connects their family to this particular beach, and why it is important to them. This would make for an excellent resource that can be used when frontloading a literature unit based on any Australian and Torres Strait Islander book. This video incorporates the use of indigenous words, when telling the story of how indigenous people are connected to shelly beach. This frontloading video would be excellent before reading the Indigenous book ‘Our Land’ by the National Gallery of Australia. This is a book that introduces children to aboriginal art, and the idea of caring and sharing for our land.

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ECL - Prompt 5

Part 1: Using the words provided I created a sentence: Transparent to the world, I lay in silence. I feel hollow as I have no food and no strength, I feel as though I have died. As I lay beside an old creaking tree, I await for the dark, cold night to pass me by once again. Part 2: A sentence to match the image the image: Happiness and contentment can be measured by the amount of leftovers someone sees as trash. Part 3: Here is another effective frontloading activity: A good frontloading activity for students can be the use of a K-W-L worksheet. The K-W-L worksheet stands for ‘What I know, what I want to know, and what I learnt’. Students can fill out the ‘Know’ and ‘Want’ sections of the worksheet to help activate and determine the prior knowledge of each student. Once students have completed the overall task, they can then fill out the ‘Learnt’ section, to connect their prior knowledge with their new knowledge.

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ECL - Prompt 4 Unfortunately my classroom on placement didn't really have any displays, which were seem as unusual or unique, but there were quite a few displays that I believe are extremely important to have in the classroom. The photo I have taken (as seen above) is a picture of the weekly schedule, and this is referred to every morning. Displaying the weekly schedule, allows students to understand what is coming up, and gives them the opportunity to be organised and prepared for every lesson. I noticed throughout every other classroom, that teachers would display a daily schedule, giving a run down of the lessons for the day. This display was unique in the sense that, this was the only classroom I seen which displayed the whole week. The teachers reasoning for this, was so that students can look further into the week, and understand what is required, which ultimately assisted students with their organisation. This is something I will have in my future classroom, rather than displaying just a daily schedule. 

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ECL - Prompt 3 Within the past week, I have engaged in a range of different multi-literacies. I have read, and sent emails, text messages, Facebook, and Instagram posts. I have also read university readings, along with the newspaper, and various online news sources. Currently, a lot of my reading is taking place online, or on a technological device, whether that be on my laptop, or mobile phone. I also frequently listen to e-books whilst I am driving, and currently I am listening to Rusty Young's 'Marching Powder'. I believe the down time whilst driving is a great opportunity to do something productive, and listening to e-books is something I find enjoyable and relaxing.

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ECL - Prompt 2 A prediction activity using the graphics and text from the front over of Darren Groth's 'Are You Seeing Me?' can be quite simple. Firstly, organise the students into small groups, and have them work together and share their ideas about what they believe may happen in the story. The small group of students then write down what they believe will happen in the story as a group, and each group will have the opportunity to share their thoughts to the class. Once each group has shared their ideas, the teacher can then begin to read the story. As the teacher reads to the whole class, the teacher can continually recap on the prediction thoughts, and discuss whether they want to change their predictions or keep them the same. This is a very inclusive activity, as there is no right or wrong answer, and each student regardless of his or her intellectual ability is able to positively contribute.

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ECL - Prompt 1 Throughout my days in primary school, listening to the teacher read stories was something I always enjoyed. I often found that being read to was an extremely relaxing and engaging experience. Being able to sit peacefully, and listen to the words, made for some creative thinking, and I was often able to imagine myself in the story. Only recently on placement, I also had the opportunity to read Roald Dahl's famous book, 'The BFG'. As I was reading, I noticed that students were hanging off every word, and were completely engaged in the story, just like how I was in primary school. Looking at the excited faces, and hearing the laughter throughout the story not only made for an enjoyable experience for the students, but I also had so much fun reading to them. It is also interesting to note that regardless of a students academic ability, reading to the class is an inclusive activity that accommodates for all students.