Children must first have a reasonable amount of spoken language as they need to be able to hear the word they are writing down or the full sentence, they also need to learn how to organise and communicate through writing and be able to pt the sentence in the right order. Children must master the forms of writing which are; handwriting, typing or dictation and to use these effectively they must also learn the convections of writing so that their words are understood by others. All children need to learn how to tailor their writing to what purpose it's used for e.g. learning how to write a list or a report. Most importantly, to be able to right effectively children need to learn how to structure a sentence so it is well presented and can be read easily.
E3
In my placement there is an ongoing activity called 'where oh where is Barnaby Bear?’. In this activity one child a week takes the teddy home and records what has happened with pictures, drawn or photographs, and writing. The child can stay at home or go out on the weekend with their family taking the bear with them to places, for example the cinema. The following Monday the child would read out what they have done with Barnaby Bear, not only does this activity support writing and speaking for the child giving the presentation but listening for the children on the carpet. This is fun and exciting for ages 4-6.
E4
Reading bands and records are strategically used in my placement for not only documenting the child's progress but also with a reward scheme of a sticker chart. Positive reinforcement is used on this method as when the child moves up a band or has gotten all their spellings right they receive a large sticker and a certificate to take home to the parents. Reading does not have to be done just at school but the reading record allows parents to get in and listen to their child read and document their progress and still counting towards the chance of moving up a band.
The Primary Literacy and Mathematics framework is in place for literacy and mathematics to increase children’s access to excellent teaching which leads to an exciting and successful learning.
The frame work takes has improved on the significant developments that where in place since the first publication of the frameworks at the end of the 90’s. This framework is seen as the best practice going as it is in most our successful primary schools and ensures a high achievement rate for all children.
The Rose Report (independent review of early reading) had recommended this framework and the central role of systematic phonics which are embedded within the framework.
The Primary National Strategy, schools, settings and local authorities all share the same desire that all children are supported appropriately supported to make the progress which they can achieve.
“Children deserve:
- to be set appropriate learning challenges
- to be taught well and be given the opportunity to learn in ways that maximise their chances of success
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to have adults working with them to tackle the specific barriers to progress they face.”
The Primary Framework for literacy and mathematics is designed to help practitioners, teachers, schools and settings achieve this ambition.
E5
One reasons that prior knowledge helps with planning is that you know where the children are at in the education at what they can and can’t do, for example, if the children do not know what the coins are in the English economy it would be silly to ask them to add coins together to make a certain numbers. Another reason prior knowledge helps with planning is if the children have any learning difficulties such as ADHD you would need to work with that to plan activities to include everyone and make sure all the children can join in. Prior knowledge includes knowing the children’s interests and be able to plan activities based on them so that all children are engaged and getting the best out of there education. Resources and equipment, you need to have prior knowledge when planning an activity so that you know how many children are doing it and what you need to make sure everyone is included.
E6
Practitioners communicate with parents and involve them through many different ways, the first way I will discuss is reading. Children are giving books to read specifically to their level and parents are asked to read with them and write it down in their child’s reading record. For parents with English as a second language they may be invited in and taught phonics to assist their child. Families are also invited in for Family Literacy sessions to do activities as a family. Another way to for practitioners to communicate is with resources such as flash cards, books and literacy games, story sack. Parents evening is a great way to communicate with parents as the practitioner invites the parents in to a nice warm, inviting environment to talk about their child’s progress on what they excel at and what they need to work on with information what they can do to help at home.
E7
Visual or hearing impairments are common reasons why some children do not break into reading; even the slightest impairment can cause some difficulties despite children's progress in different area's. Parents can check for impairments by visiting their local GP to be referred to specialists.
Motivation is the key to learning anything and is extremely important, for example, learning to read and write is a long process so patients are needed.
““for some children the main barrier to communication is confidence.” Tassoni et al 2007 page 550
low self-esteem and confidence are two main problems for children, for learning to communicate children need to believe that others will be interested by what they say and be given chances to talk and be listened to by adults. Another reason for a good amount of communication with adults is that gain communication skills as well as confidence.
D
There are several ways in which practitioners can provide and prepare resources to support the learning of communication, language and literacy. Flash cards are very useful as when practitioners are teaching phonics as flash cards can be used for both whole words and the sounds e.g. the sound ai in plain. The Practitioner would use these cards until he/she is satisfied that the children understand the sound, how it fits into words grammatically and if the children can use it in a sentence.
Another way is by having the alphabet around the room=, this is helpful for the younger children as the shapes of the letters are constantly reinforced. The practitioner can use these alphabetical lines for little games like finding vowels or certain letters and even what letters make a certain word.
Also another way is the dot to dot for letters, words and numbers. This helps the children with their numeracy and writing skills as they can have different worksheets for maths where they do the dot to dot and colour in the picture with the key for the colours, for example the leaf drawn by joining the number 3 dots is yellow. They can also have dot to dot sentences on holiday seasons which boost the children’s creativity and get them to form sentences and words by the practitioner asking them for the sentence then forming it with dots for the child to draw over for such things like Easter cards. Not only does it help children with understanding and knowing the order of the numbers, sentence structure and words but also dot to dot games helps with their fine motor skills of using the pencil.
Another ways are the plastic or magnetic letters, they are really useful for children as when they are having the free choice time to play the letters could be put out with words, asking the children to make the words with the colourful plastic or magnetic letters.
C
where oh where
-where oh where is Barnaby Bear
-speaking
-writing
-extending vocabulary
- patience
B
The role of the adult in contributing to the provision for learning in communication, language and literacy is to promote these areas through different ways, for example using play based mark making. Writing derives from its' first form of mark making here children are trying to write and their first word is usually their first name.
See picture on page 546 of Childcare and Education 4th edition
Mark making is very experimental at first and some adults dismiss the wild swirly and straight lined characters as scribble which is incorrect, children's mark making is their first attempt at writing. It is important to encourage mark making so that children will not fear writing.
Confidence is the key to a successful education; it is a practitioner’s job to help all children develop confidence. Noticing children who lack in confidence early is crucial as you do not know where the problem lies, for example, a Dyslexic child may fear reading out loud or to an adult due to his Learning difficulty. Although that behaviour needs to be changed so the child will develop healthily it would be better to give the child books slightly bellow their reading level to boos their confidence.
Practitioners help children with lack of motivation to become motivated as learning to read and write is a long process that requires a lot of patience and even more practice. Children become motivated to read and write when they see someone they particularly admire practising it such as parents or teachers, I purposely write in front of the children in the setting I'm at to hopefully inspire them to do the same.
Practitioners can encourage parents to help their children to learn to read and write. Practitioners send the children's reading books home with their reading record for the parents to read with their child, this hopefully will inspire the children to read knowing that their parents enjoy listening to them. Mark making including painting and drawing are useful both at home and at the setting as the children are improving their fine manipulative skills which will eventually help them to read and write.
“Children need to develop their motor skills (actions that involve the movements of muscles) in order to be able to mark make effectively.
Give your child opportunities to practise making big movements (gross motor skills) - e.g. climbing, crawling, dancing, throwing and catching balls, and carrying objects.
These activities will help develop the muscle control needed to move on to fine motor movements, such as being able to squeeze play dough into different shapes, use tweezers to pick up small objects, grasp and manipulate building bricks, or play tiddlywinks.
Aim to be a good role model for your child. Children need to see adults writing so that they can pick up on how writers behave and understand that writing is a valuable activity. In the beginning, mark making is more about motivation than ability and we want to show children that writing is fun! “
A
Some children fin it easier to learn to speak, read and write faster than others which means that practitioners need to develop ways to recognise children's needs and support them, whatever way is taken a practitioner must remember that building confidence and motivation is very important.
'Reluctant readers' are children who are described as not liking reading, some of them are aware that their classmates read a lot harder books and it may dishearten the child, this may eventually turn into a fear of reading to an adult. With a reluctant reader it is important to start to build a relationship with them by introducing books slightly bellow their level and as the child reads with ease it boosts their confidence. Reading is a difficult task as there are high levels of concentration so it may be beneficial to give the child a few breaks while you as the adult reads.
“It can also be useful to re-read what the child has decoded so they can hear the same sentence with a little more intonation.” Tassoni et al 2007 page 556
As with reading, there is a chance that the same children who struggle with reading will struggle with writing as they are closely linked at the primary stage, other children may be good readers but lack confidence to write. It is important to figure out why a child doesn't enjoy writing, for example a child may not like writing you could take turns with them to write in their book, not only to help them to enjoy writing but at the same time improve their handwriting.
A cause for both of the above could be something like dyslexia. Dyslexia is a is a term for multiple learning difficulties that may prevent a child from learning to spell and read effectively.
“Dyslexia is a common type of learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in the reading and spelling of words.
”
Dyslexia is not normally diagnosed until the age of 7 as some children take their time on progressing on reading. If the child is not linking sounds to letters by the age of 6 it is important to start investigating the possibility of your child having dyslexia as the longer it is left the more children become a lot less eager to try reading related tasks.
“Where dyslexia or a learning difficulty is suspected, children are usually referred to a child psychologist.” Tassoni Et Al 2007 page 565
There are some negative factors that effect children's learning and the ways the practitioner may overcome them.
“Normal speech disfluency happens because the mind is able to form words faster than the tongue can say them. Disfluencies happen at any age if a person is too critical of himself and fears speaking. Nine out of every 10 children have normal disfluencies as they learn to talk. These disfluencies are not bothersome to the listener. They include repeating phrases or whole words and interjecting "uh" while thinking. Often, children are not aware of normal disfluencies”
learning disabilities
- visual & hearing Impairment
Biblography
