I work with this age group all the time - please remember they are only SIX
years old and are not yet independent readers or writers! They need lots of
scaffolding to help them know what to look for and what to do with it when
they find it. I aim to give the kids lots of practice in the early reading
behaviours so they can develop and consolidate those strategies, just in a
different context.
Earlier this year I worked with our Kindergarten classes on a very
successful unit about helping the animals of the ACT recover from the
bushfires - my part was to help them learn about the unique creatures that
live here and what their needs were. I started by putting up lots of
pictures (from calendars) of a koala (for instance) and we focused on using
the clues in the pictures to find out what we knew and what we could learn.
I recorded their responses on large sheets of paper for all to see as I
wrote. At first the responses were random, but over time we started to
organise our questions around the what,where,when, who, why, how format and
moved into a concept map presentation. But I still did the recording
because the modelling is critical, and my key purpose was NOT to have them
bogged down in a task that was too hard. I would probably move towards
using Kidspiration in the future because they now understand the underlying
concepts. But the LEARNING has to drive the TECHNOLOGY not vice versa.
In collaboration with the classroom teacher, the kids eventually made little
PowerPoint presentations based on a "Who Am I?" model where there is a
hidden picture of the creature and as a new clue is given on each slide, a
section of the creature is revealed. We turned our final large sheets about
each creature into a big book which is in the classroom and well-read, and a
series of webpages that they love to show their families. They were even
able to "write"(we scribed their letter) to Environment ACT and tell them
that the key thing to do was to identify what each species needed to eat and
begin replanting, putting the fast growing stuff in the ground first.
That was that - not a hint of note-taking, bibliographies etc - these kids
are too little to understand those yet, and even if they could read info
from a text they are certainly too ego-centred to be able to re-write it in
their own words. You have to keep your purpose for the task right in front
of you - and I bet it is not having some little tacker spend 45 minutes
trying to copy a sentence about a koala, which in effect, ends up being a
string of letters that have no real meaning for him anyway.
And now I shall get off my soapbox and go to school to work with another
group of littlies - today we are retelling a story about a crocodile who
puts out a bushfire and investigating how we can keep ourselves and our
environment safe as summer approaches.
Barbara
Barbara Braxton
Teacher-Librarian
Palmerston District Primary School
PALMERSTON ACT 2913
AUSTRALIA
T. 61 2 6205 6162
F. 61 2 6205 7242
E. barbara@austarmetro.com.au
W. http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-
All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation.
LM_NET Help & Information: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/
Archive: http://askeric.org/Virtual/Listserv_Archives/LM_NET.shtml
LM_NET Select/EL-Announce: http://www.cuenet.com/archive/el-announce/
LM_NET Supporters: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ven.html
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-
LM_NET
Mailing List Home