Powerful and playful literacy learning with digital technologies

The increased availability of tablet technologies in many homes and early childhood educational settings has transformed play-time and the subsequent opportunities that emerge for literacy learning. What children do with the digital applications (apps) on these technologies demands our attention, particularly as we consider the ever-increasing market of apps marketed to enhance the basic literacy skills. While there are varying degrees of quality amongst available apps, some apps have potential to foster children\u27s play and language development in unexpected and interesting ways. As educators, we need to acknowledge the role \u27digital play\u27 can play in our pedagogical interactions and the possibilities these offer for literacy learning. To do this, we need to examine ways that children engage with technology as they learn to read, write, listen, and communicate. This paper argues children\u27s digital play offers teachers new opportunities to support, inform, reform, or transform the literacy with experiences we encourage children to participate

In-school professional development: supporting teachers with the inclusion of critical literacy in their classrooms

The voluminous literature within the field of teacher professional development presents varied components of what constitutes meaningful professional development experiences for teachers. The case reported herein describes how components identified from an analysis of the literature have been incorporated within an inschool model of professional development to support primary teachers as they explore their literacy teaching within their own school and individual classrooms. These ongoing, in-school professional development experiences aimed to support and encourage pedagogical change as the teachers reviewed their classroom teaching and learning practices with emphasis on critical literacy. The importance of the school professional culture, the organisation of time, professional relationships, the location for professional development, and the need for purposeful interactions will each be explored in the description of the experiences

An examination of the enablers and inhibitors surrounding the establishment of a school university partnership: The Grays Point Project

Collaboration between academics, staff and students is promoted as a way to foster professional relationships, foster change and develop common understanding across both the school and university contexts. In a time when education is under frequent criticism it is necessary to break down the barriers between the two contexts and work together collegially. It is within this climate that a small team of academics from the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong and teachers from Grays Point Public School (a southern suburb of Sydney) have launched a collaborative research project. As we begin this professional journey we have begun to identify the specific roles and responsibilities for each party. We recognise that personnel from both the school and the university contexts have tremendous knowledge they are able to share. As we embark on this partnership, it is our aim to weave value-added, mutually beneficial and collaborative relationships into our on-going professional interactions. However, this partnership has not come easily. In our articulation of our journey as we establish this professional relationship, we are able to identify a number of enablers and inhibitors that have impacted upon the experience

Qualitative process evaluation of an Australian alcohol media literacy study: recommendations for designing culturally responsive school-based programs

Background: Alcohol media literacy programs seek to mitigate the potentially harmful effects of alcohol advertising on children\u27s drinking intentions and behaviours through equipping them with skills to challenge media messages. In order for such programs to be effective, the teaching and learning experiences must be tailored to their specific cultural context. Media in the Spotlight is an alcohol media literacy program aimed at 9 to 12 year old Australian children. This study evaluates the process and implementation of the program, outlining the factors that facilitated and inhibited implementation. From this evaluation, a pedagogical framework has been developed for health professionals implementing culturally responsive programs in school settings. Methods: Process measures included: semi-structured interviews with teachers before and after the program was implemented (n = 11 interviews), program evaluation questionnaires completed by children (n = 166), lesson observations completed by teachers (n = 35 observations), and reflective journal entries completed by the researcher (n = 44 entries). A thematic analysis approach was used to analyse all of the data sets using NVivo. Inductive coding was used, whereby the findings were derived from the research objectives and multiple readings and interpretations of the data. Results: Five key pedagogical considerations were identified that facilitated implementation. These were: connecting to the students\u27 life worlds to achieve cultural significance; empowering students with real-world skills to ensure relevance; ensuring programs are well structured with strong connections to the school curriculum; creating developmentally appropriate activities while providing a range of assessment opportunities; and including hands-on and interactive activities to promote student engagement. Three potential inhibitors to implementing the alcohol media literacy program in upper-elementary school classrooms were identified. These included topic sensitivities, classroom management challenges, and fitting new programs into already busy school schedules. Conclusion: Overall, the program content and individual lessons were well received by the teachers and students. The lessons learned from the development, implementation and evaluation of this program can provide health professionals with key pedagogical strategies for designing culturally responsive educational programs. Culturally responsive programs are critical for ensuring interventions are effective for their specific context

From classroom reality to virtual classroom: the role of teacher-created scripts in the development of classroom simulation technology

This paper describes a specific kind of teacher narrative (the teacher created script) to support the design of a classroom simulation to be used in pre-service teacher education. We intend to share our experiences in exploring and developing the kind of narrative text which can be developed from a large reservoir of ethnographically generated data collected from the teachers and classrooms we have closely observed and documented over the last two decades. In particular, we explore the role which these narratives play within the development of the kind of classroom simulation we have produced. Reflection has long been acknowledged as a useful process for teachers to engage with. Also, the notion of formalising such reflections through writing has been acknowledged as a way to share, refine and articulate teaching practice. As stated by Barth (2001:66) “…with written words come the innermost secrets of schools”. This prototype simulation allows the user to adopt the role of a Kindergarten teacher using a daily literacy teaching episode we refer to as “days of the week” and encourages the user to reflect upon the decisions they make about the organisation and implementation of this recurring teaching experience. The range of options that occur in this simulation stem from the teacher-created script we developed drawing from our own teaching experiences and classroom-based research to shape this virtual classroom

Students talking about home-school communication: Can technology support this process?

This paper explores the use of technology to support communication about student learning and classroom experiences between home and school contexts. An examination of literature addressing home-school partnerships along with current thinking about the integration of this with Learning Technologies is presented. Research centred on the use of a mobile telephone as a tool to facilitate this process will be discussed. The power this ‘new’ technology brings to the students is discussed with reference to subsequent constraints. However, it is argued that students overwhelmingly perceive this tool as a valuable resource in stimulating and encouraging dialogue between the contexts and also a purposeful and meaningful classroom technology resourc

Keeping the conversation going: Creating a whole school approach to spelling

How to best teach spelling across primary classrooms has been an issue of debate for many schools and in fact, many teachers for some time. How consistent spelling practice can he best incorporated into school policy and implemented into classroom literacy experiences has resulted in much confusion and debate, and has proven to be a difficult challenge for many primary school educators. This paper describes how one school developed a whole school approach to spelling, devised supporting documentation and supported staff to develop and implement teaching and learning experiences across the grades consistent with these. The process that was engaged with by the teaching staff is examined, as are strategies employed to work towards staff ownership and understanding of adopted spelling practices

Authentic learning experiences: what does this mean and where is the literacy learning?

Teachers are challenged to adopt practices that facilitate the development of “necessary” skills and strategies for learners. For many, however, what is required in policy and curricula is increasingly obscured and even confusing as teachers are bombarded with jargon prescribing seemingly similar (yet apparently different) approaches such as “rich tasks”, “big questions” and “fertile questions” that are to be “relevant”, “authentic” and “engaging” for the learner. Barton and Hamilton (2000) argue that literacy learning should take the learner beyond the transmission of technical skills in the classroom to an understanding of its role within a community’s cultural practices. These literacy practices (Street, 1995) are mediated by literacy events (Heath, 1983) and it is engagement with these events and their diverse demands that allows learners to make strong connections to their own literacy practices. Reported in this paper are the interpretations of four experienced primary school teachers as they plan, program and facilitate authentic literacy experiences in their classrooms. These are examined within the framework of the principles of authentic learning (Herrington & Oliver, 2000), which is useful in gaining insight into the ways that experienced teachers make sense of the complex jargon associated with their profession for the development of deep and flexible knowledge that can be applied in a range of community settings. Evident in these teachers’ stories are the understandings, beliefs, contexts and competing tensions that underpin the conceptualisation, design and implementation of these experiences. The teachers’ stories reveal the complexity of teaching as they consider: - the individual contexts of their schools - their students’ own communities - the expectations of stakeholders in a child’s education - the availability of resources

Meeting pre-service teachers where they are: supporting them as literacy educators

Some media reports (Devine, 2005; Donnelly, 2005) have asserted that pre-service teachers often graduate without an understanding of how to teach children to read and write. In the current climate of professional milestones, national benchmarks and teaching standards for early career teachers, it is crucial that pre-service teacher education programs adequately prepare graduates for entry into the profession. This paper explores how we have tailored a final year literacy elective subject to meet the needs of our pre-service teachers and to support them in their final practicum and subsequent entry into the profession. In particular we report on the processes we engage with to encourage pre-service teachers to identify their own professional learning goals within literacy education and how we incorporate these within the context of the subject workshops. Throughout the session we challenge the traditional mode of a university subject as we create opportunities for pre-service teachers to network with the wider education community through attendance at local professional learning sessions and through contact with key literacy personnel across the school systems. We argue that our pre-service teachers overwhelmingly perceive this subject as a valuable way to stimulate and encourage professional learning and dialogue as they focus on their role as literacy educator

This Is Me! Empowering children to talk about their learning through digital story

The transition from pre-school to Kindergarten is an important part of a child’s learning journey. In the early childhood setting children develop interests, knowledge and learning preferences that often remain unknown in the early days of Kindergarten. We argue that from this young age children can identify and articulate learning preferences as they use their literate practices to communicate their preferences, aspirations and reflections. Digital Stories are short, personal, multimedia presentations created through image (from still and/or video cameras), which are then edited on a computer with video editing software to include a spoken narrative. In this paper we share a project where a cohort of children in transition from pre-school to Kindergarten developed personal digital stories introducing themselves and their learning preferences and interests to their future Kindergarten teacher. Learning events and practices as identified by the children will be shared as we investigate their language choices throughout these experiences. Our analysis reveals implications and makes recommendations for those working with children in the early years of schooling. In presenting the paper we will share examples, the process of construction and our reflections on the children’s use of language