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Prompt 8:

For this week’s prompt I used Facebook as the new social media platform to hashtag #picturebooks. When I made the search, again, a variety of search results appeared, the first being my friends previous posts where they have used the #picturebook in a status. As I scrolled down the page, there were ‘public posts’ where the hashtag has been used. The layout was neat and systematic. 

In comparison to last weeks Tumblr search, I found Facebook to be much easier to navigate and find the required and appropriate information. The layout of Tumblr and Facebook varies greatly, and because I use Facebook everyday, I am a lot more familiar with how to use it and find the information I need quickly.

In regards to using Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter or other forms of social media in the classroom with students to find resources, I wouldn't rule the idea out immediately, however I would approach it with great caution. While the internet can be a fantastic source of information with children using it in their everyday lives, it can also be dangerous if used incorrectly. I believe there would need to be front loading lessons into what makes a source reliable or appropriate prior to the researching things through social media and hashtags. In saying that, it’s also true that the world and technology is rapidly advancing, so if teachers can educate students about the correct use of the internet and social media through a research lesson, this knowledge can then be transferred to other areas of the students life. 

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Prompt 7: #Picturebooks

For this weeks prompt, when I searched #picturebooks on Tumblr, I found a whole variety of search results and was quite bombarded with images and information. I found people were using Tumblr as a means of advertising their new own picture books while others posted their illustrations or praise for certain books. 

A post that I quite liked was by ‘thelittlebookroom’ writing praise for a book called ‘The Bear and the Piano’ by David Litchfield. The post had a friendly tone to it as the writer described the book and its relation to music and dreams and then went on to state the ‘random things we love about the book’. 

When trying to find an appropriate hashtag that was relevant to this weeks post, admittedly, I did struggle a little bit as I'm quite unfamiliar with how Tumblr works and wasn't sure how to navigate the search. However, what I found was that by searching a general hashtag such as #picturebooks, the search results can be extensive and often irrelevant which is why I would approach Tumblr and other like sites with caution if implementing it in the classroom. 

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Week 6 Prompt Reflection

While looking through the Splash ABC Online Education website, I found a video titled ‘Governor Arthur Phillip and the Eora’ which explored the first governor of New South Wales interactions with the Australian Indigenous people at the time of white settlement. This video could be used in many ways, relating to numerous domains of the curriculum, in particular, literacy, history, geography and the cross-capabilities. 

As a front loading activity, I could get the students to complete a KWL sheet about what they want to know about the Europeans interactions with the Indigenous Peoples upon arrival into Australia. This would then flow into the introduction of an Indigenous Australian text that centres around this time of European settlement. 

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Week 5:

1. Our hollow stomachs rumbled and our strength had long since vanished. The cold night took over us and made mum and me transparent. We had no food and almost died under that twisted old tree. 

2. While the world throws their food in the bin, I sit here starving, hoping for anything to fill the ever-growing pit in my stomach but knowing it will never come.  

3. A front loading activity to do before reading the book would be to get the students to look at the front and back cover of the book. Ask them what things they notice about the illustrations and design, what colours are used? Are there any symbolic illustrations? Characters? After a discussion focused on prediction, I would give the students a variety of words from the text. Students would then be required to group the words in any way they want such as nouns, verbs, words they think will be vital to the story, alphabetical order etc. The teacher would ask the students why they decided to group the words in such manners. 

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Week 4 Prompt: Classroom Displays

On my placement there were many fun and colourful displays around the classroom. Not only did they make the room look interesting, they were also great resources for the students to learn from and use as learning tools. I was with a foundation class, so many of the displays were about sight words and ‘transport’ words as that was their current inquiry focus. 

There was a display of all the ‘Big Books’ by Joy Cowley that the class had read together including the book title and a picture of the book’s front cover. This was great as the list/display grew and grew and it was clear students were excited by this and wanted to keep reading. 

There were also many displays of students work around the classroom which gets changed monthly or so. This gave the room colour whilst also making the students feel proud as their work was on display. 

Below is a picture of a display that was about ‘Problem Solving’. There were many different suggestions of ways a students may solve a potential problem including; make a list or table, draw a picture, do I know a similar problem?, try all possibilities, try a simpler problem etc...The students were regulary asked to refer to the display when they faced a problem as opposed to the teacher explaining them all again.

In my own future classroom, I wish to create a colourful learning environment full of students work. I will encourage students to put in their best effort as their work is going on display for everyone in the class to see as well as visitors. This  will hopefully give the students a sense of pride in the work they do. Furthermore, displays are great resources for learning. As the displays would have been made as a class, students should be aware of their content. Therefore if they require information in relation to the task, students can look around at room and use information from relevant displays and assist themselves in their own learning.  

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Week 3 Prompt

Over the past week I have engaged with a wide variety of different texts both electronic and paperback. On my recent placement, I read ‘Big Book’ stories to the foundation students, worked with them on their writing tasks and used the interactive whiteboard for literacy and numeracy purposes. I attended a writing PD while on placement where the information was presented in a PowerPoint form. 

I have worked on and completed an assignment on my laptop over multiple days and needed to source information from paperback textbooks as well as online literature and articles. 

I’ve also been reading the newspaper daily to catch up on anything I missed from the Olympics and other news.

I use Facebook daily and communicate with friends overseas through Messenger. I sent and received text messages from friends and family using a a far more casual approach to grammar and punctuation than the formal emails I sent to my mentor teacher on placement. I created lesson plans everyday, which were formal documents with links to the Victorian Curriculum which I will later add to my portfolio for future job interviews. 

I’m a vivid reader and try to read a chapter or two of a novel every night to give my eyes a break from the digital world I find myself in throughout the day. I’m currently reading ‘Stoner’ by John Williams and am really enjoying it even though the leading protagonists’ life is full of sad disappointments. 

I believe it’s important to teach students how to make sense of a variety of text forms. Much of the information we need in modern society can be found online, and the world is heading towards digital media and communication, therefore it’s important to teach students understand these texts to become successful learners of the 21st century. 

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Week 1 Reflection

I love everything about books. I love how they can take you to another world as soon as you begin reading. I love how as a reader, you can relate to characters in a novel and can visualise their experiences based on your own life. I love that you can learn a lot about the world and can be taken through different periods of time and are able to gain knowledge about what life was like through history based on characters experiences or information. I think they are wonderful and I believe being read to as a child and being given books to entertain myself with from an early age, played a large role my future interest in reading and books. I remember every Friday in Grade 5 and 6 our class would go to the library and the librarian would read the ‘Book of the Week’ to us. I can’t remember which books they were exactly, but I remember the feeling of sitting in that library waiting in anticipation what the chosen book would be. Perhaps my most special memory of reading as a child would be my dad reading to me before I went to sleep. He would come home from work late as I was getting ready for bed and the the first thing he would do when he walked through the front door was put his suitcase down, take his shoes off and come to my room and read with me. If I wanted to keep reading he’d let me, it was the best. My favourite children’s book was and still is ‘The Big Big Sea’ by Martin Waddell, I think it’s amazing. I loved the story how simple but heartfelt it was, I loved the dark moody colours used to create the night sky and the dark sea and the illustrations were also incredible. What a book! 

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Week 2: Predicting Activity

Using prediction activities in literacy is a fantastic way for students to think analytically and use clues and features of the outer cover of a novel to consider what they expect this text will contain and what could potentially occur in the pages of the novel. How students develop these predictions is based on their prior knowledge of other texts. A prediction activity could be grouping students into tables and giving each table a copy of the text ‘Are You Seeing Me?’ by Darren Groth. The middle years students would then collaborate and list all the possible predictions they might have about the text and what it will be about. A sheet would be given to each group containing pointers to assist in the predicting activity such as ‘how do the colours on the front cover create mood?’ ‘how is the multiplied eyed squid-looking creature symbolic?’ ‘what about the blurb?’ ‘what about Darren Broth? what kinds of books does he write?’ etc. Students could also draw a secondary front cover based on this information. This activity should take 10-15 minutes before reading the book. One person from each table would share with the class what predictions their group made to share ideas allowing students to add to their lists any predictions they might have missed.