Early+Years+Teaching+Practices

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**Early Years Teaching Practices ** // " In a scaffolded approach to literacy there is a place for the teacher to model, share, and guide and encourage independence in reading and writing " // Hill p.83 2012

It is stated by Hill (2012) in chapter four, that; "support is provided to children so that they are developing in the zone of proximal development. The activities move from teacher controlled to child controlled". This statement portrays a clear message about how early years teaching practices work. It has become apparent through partaking in lectures, tutorials, readings, online discussions, school visits and placement, that the activities //are// frequently moving from "teacher controlled to child controlled" (Hill 2012, pg. 101). There are six Deakin University students contributing to this Wiki page. Between the six of us, we have witnessed all of the early years teaching approaches, as stated by Hill (2012), being put into practice. These teaching approaches are listed below :


 * Modelled reading
 * Modelled writing
 * Shared reading
 * Shared and interactive writing
 * Guided reading
 * Guided writing
 * Independent reading
 * Independent writing

Assessment task two for ECL210 asked students to observe a prep, grade one or grade two, two hour literacy block taking place. The teaching approaches observed are graphed below in a column graph.

**Graph One -** The literacy teaching approaches which were observed by the six Deakin students :

It is clear from this graph that there are numerous commonalities and differences between the six observations. Modelled reading appears to be a primary focus for these early year grades with shared and interactive reading also a priority, especially for prep and grade one. Guided and independent reading are not as frequently occuring at this stage of learning, however it is essential to implement it throughout the year. The two clear differences (reading), were that guided and independent reading did not occur as much as modelled and shared reading. As well as this, it is clear that there was not as much emphasis on writing as there was on reading. This is evident on the graph as only two Deakin students witnessed shared and interactive writing. However, four //did// observe independent writing. Overall, each Deakin student witnessed a number of reading and writing early years teaching approaches, which were performed through a range of practices.

It must be kept in mind that this graph represents only one literacy lesson for the week for each of these schools. Therefore, some teaching appraoches may seem minimal, but will in fact, take place on an alternative day. It was also observed through school placement, that each day has a different literacy focus. An example of this is tabulated below.

Developing grammar, spelling and punctuation skills || * Word Sort Using an image as a prompt for imaginative creative writing || * Look Say Cover Write Check Using computers to source information Practicing selecting important facts and information to use in report writing || * Word Sort- Phonetics Writing about the topic 'Marine Life' || * Look Say Cover Write Check
 * ** Day ** || ** Focus ** || ** Activities ** ||
 * **Monday** || **Focus:** Handwriting
 * Silent Reading
 * Teacher Model Reads
 * Teacher Model Writes
 * Handwriting
 * Literacy Groups ||
 * **Tuesday** || **Focus:** Creative Writing
 * Silent Reading
 * Interactive Whiteboard used - Reads story
 * Creative Writing
 * Literacy Groups ||
 * **Wednesday** || **Focus:** Report Writing
 * Silent Reading
 * Students research online
 * Report Writing
 * Literacy Groups ||
 * **Thursday** || **Focus:** Inquiry based writing
 * Silent Reading
 * Inquiry Based Learning Writing - Marine Life
 * Literacy Groups ||
 * **Friday** || **Focus:** Spelling || * Spelling Test
 * Silent reading
 * Shared and Interactive writing - Topic Informative ||

Furthermore, it must be noted that early years teaching literacy approaches are no longer resrticted to print based texts as technology has become an essential part of teaching approaches today. Hill (2012) describes this evolution in teaching as 'Multimodal and Multiliteracy Teaching Approaches'. These approaches were also observed on a number of occasions by all six Deakin students. Some examples were the use of musical tracks, computers, iPads, and interactive whiteboards. The frequency of these multimodal and multiliterate teaching approaches are graphed below.

**Graph Two-** A doughnut graph of the technology used in the Graph One teaching approaches :

It has become evident through lectures, tutorials, observations, group discussions, student groupings and placement that the early years literacy teaching approaches implemented in schools today are representative of Hill's (2012) listed approaches and are expanding vigorously through the utilisation of technology.

Hannah Roche 211336024