Early+Years+Teaching+Practice+(Integrating+Theory+and+Practice)

= = = =
 * //What have you learnt about approaches to teaching early years literacy through your observations of classroom activities and students organisation?//**

= = = =
 * //Approaches, Evidence Examples and Analysis//**

= = Through observing classroom activities and students organisation, the assessors saw a range of scaffold approaches to teaching literacy. These were the techniques used by the teacher during the Literacy block to help create ‘a place for the teacher to model, share and guide and encourage independence in reading and writing’ (Hill 2006, p. 72). = =

= = Trudie and Georgie’s observations were very similar as they viewed a program in the same room, with two different teachers at once. They observed that independent reading was greatly encouraged as the teachers set aside 15 minutes each morning for children to read silently which they would be asked questions about. The girls also observed that during guided reading the interactive whiteboard was used with several strategies to engage the children in the reading. In summarising their observations of the teachers approaches, Trudie stated that: ‘Mrs welsh had a varied class comprised of two different age grades and also several children with special needs and managed to tailor her approach to suit everyone in the class’ (Johnston 2011). This was very similar to how Georgie concluded her observations as she stated that: 'Every activity that was completed had a reason, and Sarah was careful to explain that reason to the children, to give them an understanding of why they were doing things' (Parker 2011). = =

= = Jennifer’s experience of guided reading was different from Trudie and Georgie's, as she noticed that children doing independent reading, were ‘the child is challenged to read on their own for a sustained period of time’ (Hill 2006, p. 83), seemed to be very easily distracted. The teacher did however have very good approaches when teaching children hand writing. She modeled all her examples on the white board at the front of the classroom and taught at a pace that catered for all the children’s learning abilities. Overall Jennifer observed that the teaching approaches used in the 'group activities were highly effective, but perhaps not so successful in some areas of individual tasks such as independent reading' (Cock 2011). = =

= = Kendall's experience of the approaches to teaching was different again, as she observed that shared reading was a priority. This supported Hill's theory of 'eye to eye and knee to knee' (2006, p.239 ) as the teacher paired students in reading pairs based on their abilities. Kendall also observed that the teacher used various techniques to engage the students learning once the pairs were set up. Her summary of the literacy observation was that the teachers main approaches reflected that 'high level students used modeled behaviour to demonstrate different ways to read and engage with the texts' (Doenau 2011). = =

= = In summary all observations made by the assessors showed that the different teaching approaches were adapted by the teachers to suit the class situations at the time. In many ways it was a positive that not all assessors observed the same teaching approaches in practice, because as a whole the groups shared experiences provided a broader understanding of what works and what doesn't in a classroom setting. = =