Module 2

Participant

Observing/Noticing

Source: YouTube video.
Titled: '2.5 year old Reading'

Length: 3.18 mins

A 2 ½ year old girl named Fireese is standing in front of a fridge at home with colourful magnetic letters and is guided by her mother who is sitting next to her. Her mother is using the letters to set out multiple words on the fridge and asks Fireese to read the words out loud. The first word her mother sets out is the word 'cat'. Fireese takes her time by breaking down the word and by pointing and announcing every letter on its own before saying the word 'cat' in full with an excited tone. She hi-fives her mother who shows great excitement towards her daughter. She then sets out other letters, this time spelling out the word 'dog'. Fireese points to the first letter and pronounces the letter 'D', then moves her finger across to the letter 'O' and says 'O' really loudly followed by the word 'G', and screams "dog". Her mother says "hi-five" and then moves on to another word. They follow this same process with the word 'hat'. Then, her mother decides to reverse the task, and asks Fireese to put the word 'sat' together herself, using the provided letters. The letters are lined up on the fridge in alphabetical order, and Fireese sees the letter 'S' and selects it. She then goes to grab the letter 'T' and her mother says "sAt" emphasising the letter 'A' in her tone, and Fireese says "oh 'A' first". She then grabs the letter 'A' and places it next to the 'S'. She then goes back and selects the letter 'T' and places it at the end of her word. Fireese decides to use the same technique as she used before and points to the first letter saying 'S', then 'A' and then 'T' followed by the pronunciation of the word in full, and they both cheer. Her mother uses the same idea again for the word 'yes'. Fireese asks where the letter 'Y' is and her mother asks her "yes, where is it?" She suddenly finds it, picks it out and places it down, followed by 'E' and then 'S', although this time she pronounced the word in full straight away.
Fireese's mother then goes back to her original method and selects letters to make up the word 'sand', 'frog' and then 'stop', getting Fireese to spell out the words.
Her mother then gets her to display the word 'bat' and Fireese chooses the three letters from the selection of letters on the fridge. Once Fireese has the letters to the word lined up, she spells out the letters and shouts "bat". She then runs over to the camera and says "I made a word, I made a word". 

Recognise 

This 2.5 year old girl, Fireese, is a participant in rote learning as she is successfully memorising letters of the alphabet as part of her learning and literate development. Fireese is actively engaging and developing an understanding of the composition of letters and how these letters form words and meaning. This child is also actively participating in hands-on learning through exploring and touching the letters that she sees, and in putting words together from her visual memorisation and understanding of each letter. Makin & Whitehead (2012) acknowledge that hands-on experiences are a reminder that children's earliest learning is done by being as physically active as possible, moving and touching things. 

Throughout the duration of this activity the letters were jumbled in some cases, which made it harder for Fireese to find the letters she needed in order to put a word together. In other cases her mother had lined them up in alphabetical order which gave Fireese an idea of the order in which she will find certain letters, and is a contributor to rote learning. This allowed Fireese to notice the difference between letters in alphabetical order and those that are jumbled when they were harder to find. Fireese seemed to be extremely happy during this task that she was completing with her mother, and had a great sense of satisfaction after completing each word. Her tone was very excitable throughout the whole session which showed to me that this method of literacy learning was both an interactive and positive way for a child to be involved. Makin & Whitehead (2012) suggest that adults need to offer children appropriate opportunities to develop positive associations with literacy, and positive dispositions to engage in literacy experiences. In this scenario, Fireese's mother was offering an engaging activity with her daughter, to develop letter and word recognition, as well as reading skills, spelling and word pronunciation. Makin & Whitehead (2012) write that enjoyment should be paramount when children are engaging in literacy activities, which shows that learning at a young age is not necessarily as effective if it is not fun and exciting for the child.

Fireese was also recognising and gaining the concept of lining up the letters next to each other, and would often straighten the letters if they were not lined up correctly. This also shows numerate thinking as she is learning about line, structure, pattern and sequencing in the way letters are set out in order to form a word. Knaus (2013) highlights outcome 5 in his text: 'Children are effective communicators' from The Early Years Framework, which talks about children beginning to understand how symbols and pattern systems work, and for educators to provide children with access to a wide range of everyday materials that they can use to create patterns, and to sort, categorise, order and compare. In Fireese's reading activity she was sorting and comparing the letters, watching them being categorised and put in alphabetical order by her mother. Outcome 5 of The Early Years Learning Framework also discusses the importance of engaging children in discussions about symbol systems like letters, which is exactly what Fireese has beneficially experienced within this observation. 

During this video, it is clear that communication between Fireese and her mother plays an important part with the reading activity they are doing on the fridge at home, as Fireese is guided, praised and commended on her efforts. Makin & Whitehead (2012) highlight that parents can be the educators of early literacy if they make it fun and get across a sense or real communication. This is definitely evident in this activity with Fireese and her mother, as they are both enjoying the task and having fun while Fireese is positively learning and developing her literate thinking.

Responding

Fireese has begun to use images and approximations of letters and words to convey meaning (The Early Years Framework, 2009). In response to this reading and learning experience using magnetic letters and word formations, it is important to follow on from this interest by using other concepts to further learning and development in this particular area. As this observation was undertaken in a home environment, parents and caregivers can use materials and sources in the household to further literate or numerate development. This learning can be furthered by introducing Fireese to labels and words on the packaging of food in the kitchen or toy boxes while assisting her to spell the words that she sees. Another way is going outside of the house and looking at signs in the streets. Literacy used to mean just reading and writing, but now it includes listening, talking, reading, writing, viewing and critical thinking (Makin & Whitehead, 2012). It is also important for adults to let their child come in and observe what they are doing, whether it's writing a birthday card, shopping list, reading the newspaper or writing an email (Makin & Whitehead, 2012), as their child can take in what they are seeing and note that literacy is undertaken on a day to day basis. This is giving the child another way of seeing things and becoming aware of words and letters that are all around them everyday. 

This learning can also be enhanced by sitting down with a child and writing letters and words on a whiteboard, as they can watch the way a letter or word is written and set out. This follows on from the initial observation where Fireese was observing the way a certain letter appeared as a whole, but now she can be looking at the way it is constructed and written to form part of a word. Asking questions such as "what does this word spell?", "what is this letter?" "can you tell me what this word is?" all evokes literate thoughts and gets a child to become a critical thinker. Giving Fireese a chance to hold a pen and start to write letters on the whiteboard herself is a great way for a child to develop the fundamental skills of writing from an early age and follows on from the previous work of observing and manoeuvring magnetic letters. Writing the letters in alphabetical order encourages rote learning and the child becomes familiar with the correct order in which the letters occur, and can then recognise when they are not in the right sequence.

References

Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments (2009). Belonging, Being and Becoming, The Early Years Learning Framework

Knaus, M. (2013). Maths is all around you (1st ed.). Albert Park, Victoria: Teaching Solutions

Makin, L., & Whitehead, M. (2004). How to develop children's early literacy. London: Paul Chapman.

My Smart Hands,. (2008). 2.5 year old Reading. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2taSJ08Ho8w