Early+Years+Teaching+Practice

=Early Years Teaching Practice =

After comparing each group member’s teacher observation findings and their approaches to teaching early years, it was found that many schools vary in the way they teach and what is taught in each literacy block on a daily basis. Three different school observations are recorded and compared in a table format below where the teaching approaches defined in Susan Hill’s ‘Developing Early Literacy’ mirror and show many similarities to that of teacher practices and approaches observed at Highton Primary School, Orchard Grove Primary School & Star of the Sea Primary school in Ocean Grove.

Is conducted to help children build fluency and motivation for reading and assists them to improve their reading skills. Independent reading is ideal as it enables the child to read and work at their own level and capacity. ‘The child is challenged and encouraged to read on their own for a sustained period of time’ (Hill, S 2006 p. 83) || **Orchard Grove Primary School -** Students were invited to read to a parent helper **Highton Primary –** Independent reading was conducted with the incorporation of guided reading where small groups would move to the floor to work with the teacher whilst other students continued quiet, independent reading. Student were also asked to note down 3 new words they came across. ||  || Teacher models how to read by reading aloud to the class from a range of text types. The text read is at a more complex level than they can read. Teacher provides information texts, vocabulary and meanings that children may not hear in everyday conversation. Encourages discussion amongst peers. || **Orchard Grove Primary –** Book on smart board “What do you like to eat?” by Sarah Rogers and Martin Clive. The children remained in a whole group. **Highton Primary -** Online e-book (over smart board) ‘Bad Bad bunny trouble’ by Hans Wilhem (shared teaching activity – 3 grade 1/2 classes came together) || Similarities – children engaged in powerful literature text (proving challenging vocabulary and unknown words) || Independent writing can be used to give children a chance to explore different text types, as well as ‘encourages children to investigate and practice a variety of written forms’ (Hill, S, Developing Early Literacy, 2006, p88), which can be the basis for fluency and motivation behind writing. || **Highton Primary –** Write anything known about animals (basic report writing – facts/knowledge on any animal) Rocket writing – writing about anything for a period of time || ** Highton Primary –** Differences – students were not motivated and interested in writing and preferred independent and guided reading Similarities – a variety of written text forms have been used over the month (according to teacher) and have now begun looking into ‘finding facts’. Facts are recorded in their writing books after reading factual books in independent reading. || Individuals/small groups of students writing a range of text types. Teacher provides short lessons to demonstrate a particular aspect of text type, grammar, punctuation or spelling. GW is linked to reading. Writing templates can be used. || **Orchard Grove primary -** Students were given a work page, instructing on the letter ‘E’ (visible on smart board also). The teacher explained to the students that they would observe her filling in the ‘E’s’ and the technique she used to complete it. Students than instructed to complete their own work page and compare it to the one on the smart board. Teachers encouraged and assisted the children in moving through the stages of total dependence at beginning of task to independence. || **Orchard Grove Primary -** Similarities- Observations are very similar to Hill (2006, p. 88). Only small differences being that the students were not broken into groups for this task, nor were they instructed to write different text types at this stage in time, which did not seem to put them at any disadvantage. Hill (2006) states that ‘activities move from teacher controlled to student controlled’ (Hill, S, Developing Early Literacy, 2006, p89) which is exactly what was observed in the lesson || Teacher working with a small group (4-6 students) reading individual copies of the same text (Hill, S 2006 p. 80). Texts selected on the basis of the students learning level || **Highton Primary –** students engage in independent reading and small groups (either one of the Lions, tigers, zebras group etc) are called to the floor to engage in guided reading with the teacher (students with independent needs have a different and adjusted text). Similarities – students engaged in guided reading in groups of 4-6. Challenges were present in each text type and the same text was used over a number of guided reading sessions according to the teacher. Differences – text was read first up, and then after attempted pronunciation of words throughout reading, discussion of meaning was conducted at the completion of the book. Picture walk through at end, where expression and emotion related to what happened in the text || Teacher writes on whiteboard/chart demonstrating how a writer uses words, sentences, text types etc. A teacher might mirror how to conduct a report, to organise points, express and idea, list ingredients or and record instructions and students are to complete their work in that modelled form/example given (Hill, S 2006 p. 87)
 * **Approaches (define using readings)** || **Evidence Examples (from teacher observations)** || **Analysis (brief comparison of similarities and differences of observation to theoretical readings – can use dot points).** ||
 * **Independent reading**
 * **Modelled reading**
 * **Independent writing**
 * **Guided writing**
 * **Guided reading**
 * 1) Picture walk through (discuss facial expressions etc)
 * 2) Scan through & identify any unknown words without reading the text
 * 3) Try find meaning of unknown words by reading the sentence it’s in
 * 4) Read text
 * 5) Return table write summary of what was read
 * 6) Continue with independent reading || **Highton Primary -**
 * **Modelled writing**

**Shared Reading** - Shared Reading isusually a whole-group activity and, although it is led by theteacher, thechildren can participate in the reading in various ways” (Hill, 2006,p.73). || ** Orchard Grove primary -** The teacher modelled two sentences for the class, to write inside the Easter cards they had previously created. **Highton Primary school –** Teacher modelled a ‘Diary entry’. Students to record what they did on the weekend in a diary entry format with ‘no boring bits’. On white board was what to include in a diary entry. Other writing tasks dependant on time which have been previously modelled to children included free writing, thank you letters, letters etc which all serve as a learning curve and purpose **Star of the Sea Primary -** Teacher wrote about his weekend on white board. What was an effective way for the class to learn how important spelling correctly is; The teacher did include spelling mistakes and errors in his writing- and so gave the students opportunity to fix and evaluatethis.

**Star of the Sea Primary - ﻿** Focus- Rhyming words The children in the class did participate, and as the teacher read students were able to come up to the book and point to rhyming words as they read. Sometimes stopped and asked questions about the rhyming words, sometimes even asking them to think of some more words that rhymed with this word (teacher and student inclusion). Surprising to see how much of a difference it made to the children’s understanding of the text, when it was read a second time. || ** Orchard Grove Primary, Highton Primary & Star of the Sea –** Similarities – work modelled on white boards, and what to include in each text type. Teacher informed students of writing purpose (Hill, S 2006 p. 87) || ﻿ ﻿What have you learnt about approaches to teaching early years literacy: After comparing and analysing the teaching approaches observed across three different schools it is evident that not all teaching approaches used at Highton Primary for example, in the two hour observed literacy block were used at Orchard Grove or Star of the Sea in there observed two hour literacy block time frames. However, across all three schools,detailed weekly planners are issued and from this, you can see where all teaching approaches are incorporated into the weekly schedule and school curriculum to enhance student learning in all areas (writing & reading). However, guided reading groups and teachers calling children down for one on one reading provides the best opportunity to assess their reading fluency. At Highton Primary, the duration of classroom activities and sessions ran accordingly to what was previously planned (on the weekly planner) which involved chunking and teaching a substantial amount of information in a short period of time. A similarity between each school was that reading comprehension was a very big focus. Instead of debunking the book by looking at pictures, the front cover and identifying any unknown words prior to the commencement of the book, Orchard Grove Primary teachers preferred their students to read the guided reading text (each child read a different page, or read to self) and then discuss the text. However, Highton Primary and Star of the Sea teachers engaged in discussion about the books cover, features, and structure and then instructed students to read the text independently and take turns in reading a page each.