ECL310 - W6MS

[ecl310mshaana-blog]

PROMPT 8 - Hashtag reflection

In comparison to last weeks post using Tumblr #picturebooks and been shown countless ideas for teaching and using literacy texts in the classrooms, this week on facebook using the same hash tag comes up with different covers of literacy texts rather then teaching ideas.The picture below depicts how a classroom used a character in the book as a classroom icon representing the journey through the story.  The use of hash tags in a classroom context to research can be somewhat helpful if it were older children in levels 5-6 as they would know what is appropriate to look at and what wouldn't be acceptable. In some instances, children in grade 5-6 can benefit from using a hash tag to research a project topic and broaden the concept being taught. 

I believe it wouldn't be a viable alternative because it defeats the purpose of gathering information about the topic as children may get distracted by scrolling too far down through the hash tags and not finding useful information to include about the topic they are researching. 

[maxtobiaslang]

[ecl310mshaana-blog]

PROMPT 7

I believe this book ‘families, families, families’ by Suzanne Lang and Max Lang would be very beneficial to introduce to children about different family structures. It looks like a very colourful and cute book to read to children and be able to set a literature week of explicit teaching based on family and connections. 

[ecl310mshaana-blog]

Prompt 6- FrontLoading Activity Using Indigenous video

Using the video ‘Morning Star poles tell an artistic story’ as a front loading resource, children will be immersed in a discussion about the artwork of indigenous culture and how each artwork is comprised of a persons life story and how they were living in the past. Grade 5/6 students are given the opportunity to discuss the different colours, patterns and hidden meanings behind each artwork shown by Gurruwiwi. They are then given time to make their own artwork using earthy warm coloured paints and dot patterns depicting their life, their family and things that are important to them using the outline of their own hand. 

[ecl310mshaana-blog]

ECL310 Prompt #5: World Vision

1. It was a hollow, cold night filled with silence and transparent air outside that made you feel like someone had died, Inside it felt like there was no strength to go on and the waste of food filled up the bin as it was being thrown on top of an old withered newspaper.  2. There was the sound of silence in the transparent cold air as people moved on and forgot about what was most important in the world. 

3. Using the K-W-L framework, I would construct a large table on the board and allow children to write on sticky notes the ideas, predictions or events they think of regarding this book using the front cover, title and colours.  The K-W-L framework consists of columns  - What i know  - What i want to know - What i learned 

The children will begin filling in the first two columns as a class using sticky notes. When the first two columns have been filled out, there will be a discussion about what each student has written. They will then refer back to the table at the end of reading the book and fill in the column ‘what i learned’. 

[ecl310mshaana-blog]

ECL310 Prompt 4: Classroom Displays

During my practicum this round, I have come to realise this display in every classroom is very important to the teachers and students. It is called the VCOP Triangles. They are mostly used for literacy writing pieces as well as anything else the children want to write, each triangle incorporates a skill the children should be getting familiar with whilst writing their piece of writing such as an informative report. V- Vocabulary  C- Connectives O- Sentence Openers  P - Punctuation 

These 4 triangles are always mentioned whilst teaching a new writing skill or style and as of this week the teachers at my placement school have had a PD session on ways they could implement VCOP within their plans as a 5 minute warm up activity rather then just having the posters up on display. They will focus on one VCOP triangle each day of the week then recap what the children have used on day 5. 

This will further develop the children’s knowledge of learning new words, Adding correct punctuation, using different sentence openers rather than one all the time and knowing how to connect one sentence to another using the correct terms. 

[ecl310mshaana-blog]

Prompt #3 (Week 3)

The different ways I have made meaning from text this last week was by reading the Deakin University unit readings for assignments, written and read emails, communicated with friends over facebook, received and sent text messages to friends and family, read a magazine, textbooks on teaching curriculum as well as reading the novel ‘Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. 

[ecl310mshaana-blog]

Week 2 Prediction Activity - ECL310

An activity that i believe would engage the students in reading this book could be using the front cover of the book and cutting it into puzzle pieces in order to use a hands on inquiry learning approach and allow the children to put the picture back together and then write on the opposite side what they predict the book could be about using the visual imagery as well as the text. This would be a fifteen minute activity that would help the children gain an understanding and use prediction strategies before reading the text. 

Questions that can also be prompted by the teacher as students are organising the puzzle 

1. What do you notice about the imagery of the cover 

2. Why do you think there is a car there? 

3. Is there anything special about the colours the author decided to use? 

[ecl310mshaana-blog]

Week 1 Reflection - ECL310

My memories of being read too are quite vague, I remember during primary school grade 1, I had been new to the school and to the country. I was born and raised in iraq for a short time before coming to Australia and I did not know any english however my teacher did not hesitate to spend as much time with me and helping me. The one thing I remember was being read to by her every day individually and watching her sound out every word that was very unfamiliar to me, she used her hands to sign the words as well as she can and slowly began to see progression in my understanding. As I moved on to grade 2, I was able to reflect on how my teacher helped me and began to understand different words and their meanings, I remember finding it very difficult to communicate with my classmates but I had three close friends to help me along the way as well as my parents who read to me every night by instruction of my grade 1 teacher.

I hope to be able to help those english as a second language children who start fresh in my classroom some day and help them discover their potential in reading and writing english. I will use my own experiences as a child in my most difficult years to stir them in the right direction and help them feel confident in themselves and their capabilities. Marseal Shaana