Week Eight Readings

Week Eight’s Theme

How do very young children's semantic practices support their search for and attempts to make-meaning of the world around them through storytelling, exploration and experimentation?

This week’s theme is the same as last week’s, with the emphasis placed on children as a text participant. During the week, however, I analysed my ability to observe and offer literacy and numeracy experiences to children younger than four years of age and concluded that I needed to study more readings related to literacy and numeracy capabilities and experiences in these young children as necessary for my own development and understanding. Therefore, the readings for this week more so follow this emphasis rather than children as text participants.

Reading One

(Actually consists of the use of three texts)

Bermejo, V. (1996). Cardinality Development and Counting. Developmental Psychology, 32(2), p 263-268.

Stock, P, Desoete, A & Roeyers, H. (2009). Mastery of the Counting Principles in Toddlers: A Crucial step in the Development of Budding Arithmetic Abilities?. Learning and Individual Differences, 19, p 419-422.

Thompson, I. (2011). The Principal Counting Principles. Early Years Magazine, issue 7.

When searching for a suitable numeracy reading this week I came across the following quote by Bermejo, V (1996):

“Counting is a complex ability that requires the integration of some principles to be performed correctly. In fact, children need 2 years or more to count correctly and probably even more time to use counting efficiently (see Bermejo & Lago, 1994).” 

This quote was very important for me in understanding the development in children as babies and toddlers. As a pre-service teacher placed in a kindergarten, and an Out of School Hours Care educator, I am used to working with children who have basic counting knowledge. Understanding that this knowledge is part of a two or more year process of development was an eye-opener of sorts for me this week. 

My principal reading this week by Stock, Desoete & Roeyers, mentioned Gelman and Gallistel’s principles of counting, however, did not give a detailed or easily understandable analysis of these principles. Thompson gave a more accessible of the five counting principles. These principles are:

The one-one principle

This principle involves assigning one distinct counting word to one distinct item.

The stable-order principle

This principle involves using a repeated and stable list (at least as long as the number of countable items). This can include using a stable and repeated list that is not in the conventional sequence of numbers, such as 5, 6, 7, 8.

The cardinal principle

This principle involves the child knowing that the final number used in relation to the final object counted represents the number of items in total.

The abstraction principle

This principle states that tangible and intangible objects are able to be counted, that anything at all can be counted.

The order-irrelevance principle

This principle states that the order in which things are counted is irrelevant to the counting process.

The Stock, Desoete & Roeyers article outlines a study conducted to assess children’s mastery of the first three principles by the end of kindergarten and how this level of mastery related to arithmetic tests in the first year of school. 

Stock et al., described the last two principles as ‘unessential counting abilities’ (2009, p. 419), arguing that violation of either of these principles does not lead to incorrect counting. While I agree with this, I do not believe these two principles are ‘unessential’. Without the mastery of both of these two principles, children will not understand the basics of mathematics and numeracy. The ability to understand that counting, mathematics, and numeracy does not need to apply to tangible materials is essential to more complex learning faced in later school years. The ability to recognise that the same five objects are five objects no matter which way those objects are counted is also essential to further learning. 

Stock et al’s., first hypothesis was that most children mastered the first three counting principles by the end of kindergarten. This hypothesis was unconfirmed with only 44.2% of children mastering all three before entering schools. Before completing the article my guess was that one-one correspondence would be the most easily mastered principle, and this guess was confirmed with 95.3% of children mastering this principle before leaving kindergarten. Next, was the cardinality principle with 65.7%, and last was the stable-order principle with 62.4%, which was not against my initial predictions. 

The second hypothesis was that the better the mastery of the three principles, the better children would perform in first grade arithmetic tests, and this hypothesis was confirmed. 

The five counting principles, as well as an approximation of the age which they are mastered has furthered my understanding of counting, and early numeracy capabilities in children. The idea that learning to count properly takes at least two years, and the idea of five principles of counting made me realise how complicated counting really is, and why it is only just starting to be mastered properly at kindergarten and early primary school age levels. 

In keeping with this week’s theme, engaging with numbers, counting, and the counting principles allows children to be text participants, as counting is a skill children need to actively engage with to learn. Children need to be able to read, say, identify, make meaning and decipher distinct objects, items, numbers, ideas, and names in order to count properly, all of which involves them engaging with and participating in the learning process. 

Reading Two

Soundy, C. S. (1997). Nurturing Literacy with Infants and Toddlers in Group Settings. Childhood Education, 73(3), p 149.

This article argued the necessity for good literacy, specifically reading, experiences in childcare settings for toddlers and infants. Soundy argues that the growing amount of children spending time in, and the increasing amount of time spent in childcare settings means centres need to improve on their literacy experiences and opportunities for children. Soundy attempts to apply research based in home settings to centres, and offers suggestions for creating literacy experiences and opportunities in centre-based care. 

The article was organised under five headings after the introduction, Envisioning the Future, Guidelines for Caregivers, Physical Environment, Helping Caregivers Select Books, and Conclusions. I particularly liked the sections Guidelines for Caregivers and Helping Caregivers Select Books. 

In the Guidelines for Caregivers emphasis was placed on developing strong, positive feelings in children about books and reading. One of the most significant quotes I picked up from this reading was in this section:

Classroom story time sessions should be short, one-on-one experiences. Ideally, each adult would be responsible primarily for the care and guidance of only three, or at most four, infants. Rather than following an arbitrary schedule, caregivers should take advantage of the children’s natural, and different, sleeping and eating rhythms in order to infuse literacy experiences.

Particularly the point about not sticking to a schedule with infants and toddlers resonated with me as an important factor in letting children develop, grow, and learn at their own pace and with their own learning style.

The Helping Caregivers Select Books section has useful ideas to contemplate when choosing books for children, particularly young children. The ease of using board books, as well as cloth and vinyl books, instead of paper books is discussed, as well as the benefits of toy and interactive books.  

Again, keeping with this week’s theme, Soundy placed emphasis on allowing children to participate in the reading experience from a very young age. This participation included communicating, touching, questioning, suggesting, moving, listening, looking, and even chewing. 

This article gave me a broader understanding of what basic reading opportunities and experiences can be, or should be, offered in centres for toddlers and infants. It supported an argument found in week five by Mem Fox about the importance of reading to young children in order to develop their literacy capabilities.  

 

Outcome 3.3

 "States the strengths & possible limits of your own ability to observe & offer literacy & numeracy experiences with children less than 4 years of age."

My experience so far in my educating career has been with children four years and over. I am currently placed at a Kindergarten working with four and five year olds and I work at an Out of School Hours Care (five to twelve year olds). I have a number of second cousins in the less than four years age bracket, however, due to busy lives and the size of my family I do not see these children often. Therefore, my experience with children four years and under is limited. Additionally, my awareness of literacy and numeracy has grown considerably just in the first three to four week of this topic as my understanding and awareness of children’s literacy and numeracy was less than significant before this semester. Thus, in regards to my ‘strengths and possible limits of my ability to observe and offer literacy and numeracy experiences with children less than four years of age’ my limits are greater than my strengths. I have a number of ideas relating to my potential future career, including working special needs children, some day working with older teenagers in a mentor role, working in kindergartens, and working in early primary school years, however, I have no plans at the moment to work in childcares or with pre-kindergarten age children. Still, expanding my knowledge and observations in literacy and numeracy in these children is something I need to focus on. Just because I have no plans to work with these children does not mean I should ignore what they are capable of as an understanding of where children are coming from into my classroom or kindergarten is important. 

To do this during this topic I should focus more of my readings on experiences, studies, and observations on children younger than four.  Reading about, discussing, and focusing on the literacy and numeracy capabilities of these younger children will give me the foundation for observing and offering experiences with children. It will also give me a greater understanding of where children aged above four have come from and what they have learned, or should have learned. Understanding this will allow me to better help those children (over four) who perhaps do not have the expected capabilities and who might need to revisit literacy and numeracy understandings they learned when they were younger. Using the readings and discussion times (both on this blog and in class) during this topic will help me to achieve a greater understanding of the literacy and numeracy capabilities of children less than four years of age, and thus, expand on the foundations of my abilities to observe and offer experiences to these children.

However, I have expanded on my knowledge of literacy in children less than four already during this topic, by analysing weekly readings. During the first week of the topic, week five, I read and analysed a speech by Mem Fox who argued the importance of reading to children from birth to school. Stressing the importance of reading to children often before kindergarten and school age to help develop their knowledge of literacy, gave me a greater understanding of how important reading to young children is. Additionally, the reading analysed in week six showed me that the development of literacy is not always necessarily something that is done through typical literacy related activities. Developing literacy capabilities can happen through multiple types of everyday play activities as well. 

Future readings should include more practical examples of numeracy experiences in children less than four. 

“We must critically examine the egocentric notion that our teacher-posed questions and text interpretations will further students’ understandings better than letting them discuss the questions they think should be considered”

Commeyras and Sumer (1996) in Wilson, L.(2002). Text participant: Making Meaning, Reading to live: How to teach reading for today’s world (pp. 72-99). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Week Seven Readings

Week Seven Theme:

How do very young children's semantic practices support their search for and attempts to make-meaning of the world around them through storytelling, exploration and experimentation?

This week’s theme is about young children making meaning and engaging in literacy and numeracy. Thinking back to Week Five’s discussion I defined literacy as being about meaning making, about connections and understanding. The same is true for numeracy. Even in the discussion for Week Six I said that:

“Play-based learning allows this, letting children explore concepts and ideas in their own play scenarios, or teacher-initiated play settings, and creating connections between these ideas and how to use them in the real-world.” 

Creating connections and making meaning are, I believe, two of the most important ideas relating to teaching and learning about literacy and numeracy. 

An idea discussed this week was ‘what does it mean to be a text participant?’ After some thought I decided that being a text participant is much like taking notes during a lecture. Instead of passively sitting in the theatre, listening to the lecturer and walking out when he or she have finished, the decision to take notes is a conscious decision to participate. You have actively decided to listen to the lecturer, and take notes to understand and make your own meaning, connections, and understandings related to what is being taught.  I am not saying that this is the only way to actively participate in a lecture, but that this is an example of what it means to be a text participant.

Reading One

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) & National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). (2010). Position Statement: Early Childhood Mathematics: Promoting Good Beginnings. Retrieved 14 September, 2013 from  http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/psmath.pdf

During a discussion with a fellow student last week, we decided that during our university experience we feel that there is too much emphasis on the history and theory behind subjects and not enough emphasis placed on how and what we should teach in the classroom (this was in relation to a course about Teaching Indigenous Australians). As such when I came across this statement, I was interested in reading about the recommendations for high quality maths education for preschool children. 

In this joint statement by the National Association for the Education of Young Children & the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, ten things teachers should do to create high quality mathematics education for 3-6 year olds are highlighted.

 Below are the ten recommendations:

1. Enhance children’s natural interest in mathematics and their disposition to use it to make sense of their physical and social worlds
2. Build on children’s experiences and knowledge, including their family, linguistic, cultural, and community backgrounds; their individual approaches to learning; and their informal knowledge
3. Base mathematics curriculum and teaching practices on knowledge of young children’s cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social-emotional development
4. Use curriculum and teaching practices that strengthen children’s problem-solving and reasoning processes as well as representing, communicating, and connecting mathematical ideas
5. Ensure that the curriculum is coherent and compatible with known relationships and se­quences of important mathematical ideas
6. Provide for children’s deep and sustained interaction with key mathematical ideas
7. Integrate mathematics with other activities and other activities with mathematics
8. Provide ample time, materials, and teacher support for children to engage in play, a context in which they explore and manipulate mathematical ideas with keen interest
9. Actively introduce mathematical concepts, methods, and language through a range of ap­propriate experiences and teaching strategies
10. Support children’s learning by thoughtfully and continually assessing all children’s math­ematical knowledge, skills, and strategies

           

Beyond the classroom the joint statement concludes that policy makers, institutions, and program developers should:

1. Create more effective early childhood teacher preparation and continuing professional development
2. Use collaborative processes to develop well aligned systems of appropriate high-quality standards, curriculum, and assessment
3. Design institutional structures and policies that support teachers’ ongoing learning, teamwork, and planning
4. Provide resources necessary to overcome the barriers to young children’s mathematical proficiency at the classroom, community, institutional, and system-wide levels

One of the key quotes I picked up from the reading:

“The process of making connections deserves special attention. When children connect number to geometry (for example, by count­ing the sides of shapes, using arrays to under­stand number combinations, or measuring the length of their classroom), they strengthen concepts from both areas and build knowledge and beliefs about mathematics as a coherent system. Similarly, helping children con­nect mathematics to other subjects, such as science, develops knowledge of both subjects as well as knowledge of the wide applicability of mathematics. Finally and critically, teaching concepts and skills in a connected, integrated fashion tends to be particularly effective not only in the early childhood years but also in future learning.” (p. 6)

Reading Two

Wilson, L. (2002). Text participant: Making Meaning, Reading to live: How to teach reading for today’s world (pp. 72-99). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

In line with this week’s theme, this article was chosen to further understand what a ‘text participant’ is. Wilson argues that text participation happens throughout the reading event, and is not something done when the text is finished. Participating in a text can start before the reading event though.

A significant point I picked up from the reading was the idea of children formulating their own questions, with Wilson arguing that if children are the ones making meaning and bringing understanding to texts, they must create their own questions so their interpretation can grow. This particular quote, taken from Commeyras and Sumer (1996) was used to highlight this point, “We must critically examine the egocentric notion that our teacher-posed questions and text interpretations will further students’ understandings better than letting them discuss the questions they think should be considered” (p. 75). I think allowing children to create and ask their own questions is the best way to further their learning, because that way they are receiving answers to things that interest, excite, or concern them, or are related to their own lives. I think by relating texts to children’s own world and interests allows children a greater understanding and ability to make meaning from texts. This is not to say teacher-posed questions are not important. Teacher-posed questions have the ability to direct conversation and discussion into particular learning areas teachers may wish to focus on, to prompt other questions or discussion by children, or to help children understand certain concepts and ideas. 

The reading then described a number of strategies for text participation including activities

·         in which children’s questions are discussed and answered by other children

• where children are asked what this text makes you feel, encouraging participation through natural emotions
• where children are encouraged to give advice to a character in the story
• or to listen, write, speak as if they were a certain character in the story

I believe you can be a text participant before, during, and after a reading event. For example, showing a book to young children and discussing the title, cover art, and maybe even author is a way of participating before the reading. Reading the story in a way that allows for easy listening, asking questions and making comments, and adequate viewing of pictures, all helps children participate in the story. After the event children could ask more questions, answer questions, discuss the story or related subjects, write their own story, draw a picture, or participate in a related activity, which allows for further text participation. 

An example I saw recently involved the story Wombat Stew by Marcia K. Vaughan and Pamela Lofts. During morning group time throughout the week, the children were read this story with discussion and question time before, during, and after the reading. Later in the week, a table was set up with a pot, all the ingredients involved in making wombat stew, toy versions of all the animals, and the book. Children were able to create their own wombat stew with the book as a guide if they wished. One boy showed me how to make the stew, as I held the book and turned the pages he recited the general story from memory and created the stew along with some help from two other children. This is an example of text participation after the reading event, with children engaging in and making meaning from a story. 

I think that learning to be a text participate is an important part of early childhood learning. By learning to be a text participant early in life, children will be able to actively engage in a range of texts throughout their schooling, social, work, and home lives. Being able to actively participate in texts is one of the steps to becoming a critical thinker and a lifelong learner.