Reflection on Literacy Station 1: E-book and comprehension
Reporting
Literacy station 1 was a 15 minute activity involving the reading of an interactive e-book followed by a short comprehension activity. The e-book was viewed by a group of four Year 1 students at Duckbourne Primary School on 27/05/2015. The e-book was a story-poem about a monster who roams through their school, and illustrations were produced by manipulating photos of the school on Photoshop. The comprehension activity was based on illustration cards from the story which the children would each pull out of a bag and then answer the literal or inferential question on the back. After answering and discussing the questions, the students then sequenced the illustration cards into the beginning, middle and end.
Responding
Overall, the literacy components of the lesson were successful; however the ICT use could be improved. I was pleased to find that the children thoroughly enjoyed reading the e-book and were very enthusiastic about completing the comprehension activity. They worked very well as a group, however the ICT device was shared amongst 4 children and each child had a thirst for more independent engagement. I can see that the use of ICT can be difficult because the device used in this lesson was firstly difficult to source and then had functionality issues when playing the e-book.
Below: Images of the E-book literacy station in action. Photo credit: Author.
Relating
The delivery of Literacy Station 1 depended on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the classroom and as such, much of the lesson planning and preparation was informed by the TPASCK model. This esteemed model helps educators understand the relationship between technological, pedagogical, student and content knowledge (Mishra & Koehler 2006; Oakley, 2011).
The use of ICT in the lesson was also influenced by the Australian curriculum as it has recently acknowledged the importance of ICT in education, stating that children should be given opportunities to engage with electronic and multimedia texts for a range of purposes (ACARA, 2011). Based on the work of Sirj-Blatchford and Siraj-Blatchford (2006), ICT based learning activities should enable children to have control of the technology – as opposed to being educator-controlled –and should also be educational with clear learning aims. ICT in the classroom should also encourage student collaboration and be integrated with other curriculum learning areas. The idea of ICT use and collaboration in small groups is also supported by Diller’s (2003) work on establishing effective literacy stations.
Unfortunately the use of ICT is sometimes limited by the teacher as they – unlike the digitally native child – may be reluctant to use ICT in the classroom as they lack background knowledge of ICT use in everyday life (Prensky, 2001).
Regarding the literacy component of the lesson, the skills achieved were based on those listed on the Australian Curriculum under literacy; use comprehension strategies to understand and discuss texts listened to, viewed or read independently: ACELY 1650 (ACARA, 2015).
Reasoning
After further reflection on this lesson, I can see that in some ways my lesson supported the ICT guidelines written by Siraj-Blatchford and Siraj-Blatchford (2006) and differed from them in other ways. One of the problematic areas of my lesson was that the children did not get to use the technology independently because I seemed to take control. I feel that this reflects my own insecurities about using ICT. The lesson would have been more exciting for the children if they each had their own device with headphones to use, or at least one device between two children with shared headphones. Regarding my future teaching, how will I know if the use of ICT is distracting the students from the learning aims? How can I improve my own ICT skills and confidence to make my teaching more aligned with the T-PASCK model? How will I know that my students are ready to use ICT independently, finding a balance between exploration and competence?
Reconstructing
Given that ICT is becoming a very important part of our society, I know that as a teacher, I have a responsibility to include ICT into learning activities as much as possible. I can see that ICT is becoming more prominent in the Australian Curriculum and so I will be constantly be looking for ways to effectively link ICT with the subjects being taught. I know that the realm of ICT is one of my own personal weaknesses, but this is something that I plan to improve on through proactive professional learning both during my degree and later in my teaching career. By doing this, I hope to be closer aligned with the TPASCK model of teaching.
References
ACARA. (2011, February 27). The Australian Curriculum: English. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/English
ACARA. (2015, May 31). English. Retrieved from Australian Curriculum: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/english/curriculum/f-10?layout=1
Diller, D. (2003). Literacy Work Stations: Making Centres Work. York: Stenhouse Publishers.
Oakley, G. (2011). Preservice teachers creating digital storybooks for use in early childhood classrooms. Paper presented at the E-Learning (EL 2011) IADIS Multi conference on Computer Science and Information Systems Proceedings, Rome.
http://www.iadisportal.org/digital-library/preservice-teachers-creating-digital-storybooks-for-use-in-early-childhood-classrooms
Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2006). Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-54.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives. digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.
Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Siraj-Blatchford, J. (2006). A guide to developing the ICT curriculum for early childhood education. Stoke on Trent. Staffs: Trenham Books.
