ECL310 - 2017

Bachelor of Education (Primary)

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Prompt 8: #picturebooks

For this prompt we were asked to look up the hashtag #picturebooks on Tumblr. 

I was very surprised to see that there was only a limited number of pictures and posts on this tag. My favourite post found using this tag was from the @harpercollins page, which featured the children’s picture-book “Goodnight, Moon”. 

“Goodnight, Moon“ is a short poem, filled with goodnight wishes from a little rabbit to those around him. It indirectly references well-known children’s literature such as “Hey, Diddle, Diddle”, as depicted on the front cover. This text was referred to as “...hypnotic, bedtime litany” by the New Yorker, for being so simple yet effective as a bedtime tale for young children. 

Despite not being an incredibly dense tag, it was interesting to see what people had elected to tag as a “picture-book”  - with everything from sketches and ideas, right up to published works making the cut.

The @harpercollins page was my personal favourite on the tag, as it had such a wide range of texts and articles that were readily available. 

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Prompt 7: Bloom’s Taxonomy and “Thai-Riffic”

Your task is to use Bloom’s Taxonomy above, and create questions from the prompts on the left of the image, here they are.

CREATE - ‘How could we add to, improve, design, solve…?

EVALUATING - What do you think about….? what are you assessing?

ANALYSING - What is the evidence for?

APPLYING - What other examples are there?

COMPREHENDING - What do we mean by …..,  explain.

KNOWLEDGE AND REMEMBERING - Who? What? How? Why? When?

Try as many different types of questions as you like.

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Prompt 6: Online Materials

For this prompt we were asked to look at http://splash.abc.net.au/ for resources that could be used as a front-loading introduction activity. The video I chose looked at the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander languages. 

Video: http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/media/1916032/discover-the-diversity-of-australia-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-languages

Year Level: 6

This video showed primary school children singing songs in a variety of native languages, which I found similar to “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. I would use this video as a front-loading activity to discuss diversity, as well as similarities between cultures. Students would brainstorm songs that they may know that are similar (i.e. repetitive, using actions) and talk about why this is important for communicating with others. 

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Prompt 5: Front-Loading Activities

Task 1: Responding to the “wordle” (below) to create a sentence using all of the provided words proved to be both challenging and thought-provoking. 

The poetic phrase response that I came up with was: 

We lay in silence,

feeling so hollow and invisible it was as if we were transparent. 

We had no strength, no food.

Only the cold and the night,

‘til there we died.

Task 2: I came up with the following sentence in response to the second image (above) from the prompt.

We don’t always help those that we see, 

and often we are blind to those that we can help.

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Prompt 4: Placement Reflection

Only 6 days until I head out for placement with a Prep class for a 5-day observation round. I’m looking forward to getting involved and writing about my experiences during the week. [EDITED]

And just like that, placement is over! It was absolutely wonderful to take part in a 5-day observation placement at a local primary school. It was an incredible learning experience and I was so lucky to have the opportunity to not only observe, but also to teach and be an active member of staff. 

I thoroughly enjoyed working with the Prep students, as I am very familiar with that age-group, having worked in childcare. 

Having the opportunity to take my own guided reading groups was fantastic, and gave me a taste of what teaching with intention is like. 

*Please note the attached images have been shared with the consent of all involved parties. Each child has had a photography waiver signed through their school and I have the permission to use this photograph for my portfolio and study-related work.*

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Prompt 3: Annotating a Child’s Writing

After being very much under the weather the last few weeks, I’m thrilled to be heading out on placement at a local primary school next week. I’ll be using that time to collect and annotate a sample of writing from a child to respond to this prompt. [EDITED]

I have been on placement and I will be annotating a piece of writing which was collected as a response to a guided reading activity. 

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Prompt 2: Making a Poster

in response to this prompt I made a poster on making predictions. I chose to make my poster on predictions because I believe that is an important skill for students to learn. I also believe it is important that they can express why they think what they do, and through the students making predictions we are able to gauge their understanding and interpretation of the text or scenario. 

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Prompt 1: Memories of Being Read To

Some of my fondest memories include being read to as a child, especially during the middle and senior years of primary school. 

Being read to by my Year 6 teacher was particularly memorable; he used such wonderful voices and would even act out gestures from books! In hindsight, it was a clever tactic to “settle” us into our lessons after recess and lunchtime but it was certainly enjoyable nonetheless. 

I remember the class favourite being J. K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, the reading of even a few words of this was enough to silence and seat a whole classroom of rowdy pre-teens.  

I was also lucky enough to have reading as a cornerstone of my home-life too, with my Mother being both my favourite listener and narrator. We would take turns reading texts for as long as I can remember, and would incorporate reading into as much of our daily life as we could. Recipes were our favourite though, as they made a great excuse to spend some time in the kitchen together.