Friday, 25 September 2015
Literacies
We would appreciate your support with our inquiry into the alphabet - its sounds and symbols.
Therefore, we are encouraging the students to bring copies of alphabets or other print code systems to share and discuss in class. The objective is to access the students prior knowledge about print. Also to observe how print is used in different contexts and languages.
During my recent studies, I became conversant with the term ‘literacies’ when described as ‘multiliteracies.’ Research by Cope and Kalantis (2012), describes there are two literacies, multimodal (words presented in different ways) and multiliteracy (more than one literacy in different context, e.g., teachers and Doctors speak and write in different ways for different purposes).
As today’s technologies and sources of information continue to expand via uncountable sources of media, it is imperative that children understand the why, what, and how of literacies.
Exploring the 'Why' of literacies helps learners to understand the purpose of communication, for example for work, play, and community life. Exploring the 'What' supports understanding the multimodal designs for making meaning. For example, linguistic, audio, visual, gestural, and spatial. Exploring the 'How' supports children's' understanding of how they think and they learn.
Thank you in advance for your continued support.
Source: Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2012). Literacies. Port Melbourne, Vic.: Cambridge University Press.
Monday, 21 September 2015
Show and Share & Snapshots of Last Week
To manage the times we have available for show and share, here is our weekly time table to show which day your child will be invited to share something.
Thank you in advance for encouraging and supporting your child with this learning experience.
Following are some links with snapshots google stories of last week Sept. 13-18th.
36secs snapshot of indoor play just after snack.
https://goo.gl/photos/JYZ1RtePufGYFsoD6
Monday -
https://goo.gl/photos/SEySytZ29CzhxEPz8
Tuesday to Thursday
https://goo.gl/photos/7WCGd1VHBXuAHruS8
Friday - Most of the day was spent working on our social and problem-solving skills while collaborating and cooperating to build a class boat.
https://goo.gl/photos/6WqVdC3UovEcr2sT7
Friday, 11 September 2015
The inquiry cycle - Where are we, where are we going?
THE INQUIRING CLASSROOM
A place where teachers support their students to investigate questions, problems, passions and interests about the world both around and within them. In an inquiring classroom, the student is researcher – both in collaboration with others and as an individual.
- Excerpt from Kath Murdoch workshop materials-
There are several different kinds of inquiry cycles; however, the inquiry cycle used at ISPP is as follows:
Tuning in - What do I think I know?
Finding out - What is new to learn?
Sorting out - How can I use my knowledge?
Going further - How can I expand my thinking?
Making connections - How has my thinking changed?
Taking action - What can I do with my learning?
The inquiry cycle is a dynamic adventure as learners (children and adults) move back and forth between the different components. In the process, the children work and play their way to construct meanings and come to new understandings.
The past two weeks have been busy in EY2 as we moved into 'finding out' more about our interests and how they help us as learners. To explore our second line of inquiry 'the inquiry process' and to capture the progress in a more formal way we have decided to use the Project Zero Think, Puzzel, Explore.
Thanks to previous learning experiences, the children were already familiar with the form and function of brainstorming. In two groups, they brainstormed what they were interested in now (after acquiring a better understanding of the word - interest) and what they want to learn more about.
The ideas flowed, princesses, books, airplanes, cars, rabbits, trucks, fairies and so on.
We collated the data to find out what we would explore as a group and used colors to categorize the ideas. We found out:
6 ideas were related to transport
5 ideas were related to animals and
6 ideas were related to imagination.
After a short conversation, and using our counting skills to determine which numbers were bigger, smaller or the same, we concluded that we would inquire into transport and imagination. (Notice how authentic mathematics is integrated).
Next the children selected what they were personally more interested in of the two choices.
We are very excited about this development as it is a great springboard for the children to dig deeper into learning with intrinsic motivation and interest - I (interest) ASK U.
Finding out - What is new to learn?
Next the children engaged in exploring the books we got from the library after informing Ms. Ann, our librarian, what we wanted. She gave us a big pile, but it was all mixed up. So including all the books we already had in the classroom, we got to work sorting them out into three categories. Transportations, imagination, and books about other things. This activity engaged the children's critical thinking and decision-making skills - sometimes challenging when the teacher asked 'what makes you think that?'
What else have we been up to?
Alongside developing our conceptual understandings of the unit, we continued to work on strengthening the children's skills, attitudes and attributes of the learner profile. Learning centers are set up for the children to explore. Some stations are assisted by an adult.
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| Art and craft to develop our small motor skills. |
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Practicing letter forms while constructing our names with toys.
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| We use our knowledge to create. "I made a dog." |
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| Show and tell - Silouan talks about his custom made shirt. "I'm interested in shirts; my daddy has 100." |
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| Ivy shared her soft toy puppy. "I'm interested in soft toys; it feels like a real one." |
Also these past two weeks, we have introduced the children to perceptual-motor exercises to help with gross motor development, directionality, spatial awareness and hand-eye coordination.
Where-to next?
Next week, we will continue with the THINK PUZZLE EXPLORE routine.
Some children have already shared their wonderings from our initial narrow reading activity, for example, Edward wondered, how does the dragon make fire?
And Chinsiv asked, how can he ride the bike like that?
Silouan is wondering about the bugs that fly at night. "In Kep I see a lot a lot a lot of bugs at the night time!"
These inquiries are available for the children to explore during our choice time, and we will revisit the questions after the group inquiry into imagination and transport.
Things to remember this week
- Early dismissal at 11:30 am on Tuesday and Wednesday
- This week is lunch menu #3
Tuesday, 1 September 2015
The five essential elements - what are they?
Concepts, knowledge, attitudes, approaches to learning, action - As a student or a parent, you will hear of these words throughout your journey of learning at ISPP repeatedly. As a PYP accredited school, teaching and learning are concept-driven with a focus on developing the whole child.
In Early Years, we play our way to acquiring new understandings. During the curriculum planning process (written, taught, and assessed curriculum), the five essential elements are consistently referred to guide and structure the learning experience offered to the students. A healthy balance is sought between acquiring skills and knowledge while developing conceptual understandings, providing proof of positive attitudes and taking responsible action.
The table below is an excerpt from Making the PYP happen - A curriculum framework for international primary education, page 10, (2009).
When planning learning engagements (including structured and free play time) the elements are reflected on through questioning.
Knowledge: What do we want the children to know?
Concepts: What big ideas do we want the children to understand?
Approaches to learning (skills): What do we want the children to be able to do?
Attitudes: What do we want the students to fee, value and demonstrate?
Action: How do we want the students to act?
On a practical level and easy to remember, I like to reference to the 'I ASK U' acronym, a model developed by BeConWiz as a support to ensure students are engaged in authentic learning opportunities.
I = Interests - The who of learning
A= Attitudes - The who of learning
S= Skills - The how of learning
K= Knowledge - The what of learning
U= Understanding - The why of learning
Let's review our past week. Our current central idea is: Our interests and abilities inform our learning.
The children have been encouraged to reflect on what kind of things they like, things they might be interested in and things they do.
After emailing the parents for support, some children brought in items to share. Prior to our first 'show and tell' session, we talked about what being a presenter and being in the audience should look like and sound like, (concepts: form, function, responsibility - learner profile: risk-taker, communicator - attitudes: confidence).
Giving the children the stage for the purpose of sharing their interest is aimed at helping them make connections and develop their understanding of the vocabulary and phrases frequently used in class relating to the unit. As such, we are deconstructing the central idea. An added value is to support their developing understanding of questioning and the difference between a question and a comment.
The children viewed two short clips about 'hobbies and think I like' and were asked to reflect on the things that they do. With enthusiasm, they got to work on their section of the poster to 'jot' down what they know about the things they do. Teachers seated at each of the groups encouraged the students to talk about their work and annotated their illustrations. These posters and comments will be referred to later as the unit progresses.
To introduce the related concepts of cooperation and collaboroation, the students browsed a selection of non-fiction books and tagged things they found interesting. Over the next few days, we will revisit the tagged pages and prompt discussions to elicit their wonderings. Furthermore, we will explore the ways we can find answers to our questions, which will include a few extra small group trips to the library.
Pre-numeracy and pre-literacy skills are being developed on a continuous basis in the most authentic ways as possible. For example, counting students in the morning line up, how many are boys/girls, focuses on 1:1 correspondence while counting each friend only once. Of course playing games and singing number-songs are also fun ways to learn these skills.
This week we have begun inquiring into letters and sounds to support the children who are using experimental writing to annotate their work. Among others resources, we will be using Jolly Phonics as a tool to support the learning. The letters in the first set are S, A, T, I, P, N.
You may hear your child singing songs we have learned in class, using the melodies and using their words or wanting to repeat an activity they had experienced at school. These are some of the ways this age group may be seen taking action from their learning.
In a previous blog post, we highlighted a learning engagement connected to the story 'Mouse Paint.' This week we received the following photo.
Gabe took action - using what he had learned from the story about how colours change when mixed, he was motivated to experiment with this concept at home.
Please do share your stories with us! We love to hear about how knowledge is being transferred or implemented in a different context outside of school.
Have a great rest of the week!
P.S. Please note that Friday, September 4th, is a half day - SCHOOL ENDS AT 11.30am
And - last but not least :)
Happy Birthday Anna!
The table below is an excerpt from Making the PYP happen - A curriculum framework for international primary education, page 10, (2009).
When planning learning engagements (including structured and free play time) the elements are reflected on through questioning.
Knowledge: What do we want the children to know?
Concepts: What big ideas do we want the children to understand?
Approaches to learning (skills): What do we want the children to be able to do?
Attitudes: What do we want the students to fee, value and demonstrate?
Action: How do we want the students to act?
On a practical level and easy to remember, I like to reference to the 'I ASK U' acronym, a model developed by BeConWiz as a support to ensure students are engaged in authentic learning opportunities.
I = Interests - The who of learning
A= Attitudes - The who of learning
S= Skills - The how of learning
K= Knowledge - The what of learning
U= Understanding - The why of learning
So what does it all look like in an Early Years classroom?
Let's review our past week. Our current central idea is: Our interests and abilities inform our learning.
The children have been encouraged to reflect on what kind of things they like, things they might be interested in and things they do.
After emailing the parents for support, some children brought in items to share. Prior to our first 'show and tell' session, we talked about what being a presenter and being in the audience should look like and sound like, (concepts: form, function, responsibility - learner profile: risk-taker, communicator - attitudes: confidence).
A quick reflection after the presentations helped the students assess for themselves on how they think they did as a presenter or as an audience member.
The children viewed two short clips about 'hobbies and think I like' and were asked to reflect on the things that they do. With enthusiasm, they got to work on their section of the poster to 'jot' down what they know about the things they do. Teachers seated at each of the groups encouraged the students to talk about their work and annotated their illustrations. These posters and comments will be referred to later as the unit progresses.
Pre-numeracy and pre-literacy skills are being developed on a continuous basis in the most authentic ways as possible. For example, counting students in the morning line up, how many are boys/girls, focuses on 1:1 correspondence while counting each friend only once. Of course playing games and singing number-songs are also fun ways to learn these skills.
This week we have begun inquiring into letters and sounds to support the children who are using experimental writing to annotate their work. Among others resources, we will be using Jolly Phonics as a tool to support the learning. The letters in the first set are S, A, T, I, P, N.
Action
During one of the above learning experiences, Hifumi expressed an interest in big buildings, he drew with detail and coloured with diligence. Once finished, without prompting he when straight to work on constructing a tower of blocks in the classroom.
The Days of the Week song we sing in class
We modify the second verse as follows:
"Start each morning with a smile... - Say "arun suasudai" to your friends..."
You may hear your child singing songs we have learned in class, using the melodies and using their words or wanting to repeat an activity they had experienced at school. These are some of the ways this age group may be seen taking action from their learning.
In a previous blog post, we highlighted a learning engagement connected to the story 'Mouse Paint.' This week we received the following photo.
Gabe took action - using what he had learned from the story about how colours change when mixed, he was motivated to experiment with this concept at home.
Please do share your stories with us! We love to hear about how knowledge is being transferred or implemented in a different context outside of school.
Have a great rest of the week!
P.S. Please note that Friday, September 4th, is a half day - SCHOOL ENDS AT 11.30am
And - last but not least :)
Happy Birthday Anna!
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