4.+Early+Years+Teaching+Practices

4. Early Years Teaching Practices:

Early years teaching practices incorporates aspects from Funds of Knowledge, Early years reading, writing, and Literacy practices. It is how one approaches teaching literacy at an early years level and what methods and strategies one can use to go about teaching such practices. Through observation of a prep class i gained an insight into certain methods and techniques towards learning literacy - both reading and writing - which i will delve into along with broadening the understanding of Early years teaching practices.

It has been discussed in the other topics of the wiki how children use independent read, shared reading,guided reading and group reading to learn. How some new literacy techniques may be to use technology or go back to the tried an tested method of 'big book'. It is important to note how these practices are taught though. Often Heterogeneous groups are used in early years learning. This gives kids an opportunity to work in different groups, often made by their teacher and classed into ability level areas (Hill 2012, p.402). Colour groups is one way, as was prevalent where i observed, are a good way to separate kids without obviously singling out the "smarter" or "more advanced" group of kids. Another way can be to have a 'North, South,East, West approach where for each activity you send a certain bunch of children to one point in the class room (you separate it into four areas) and they undergo the set task in that area; either rotating through or spending the whole session there.

To truly understand why grouping kids and co-operative work is vital in teaching literacy one must first come to realise how valuable it is for kids to learn not only from the teacher but from their peers as well. "Cooperative learning increases the amount of purposeful classroom talk, encourages reflection and deeper thinking, and promotes learning as well as increasing communication skills" (Hill 2012, p.412). This was evident within the prep area that i observed with kids often interjecting in on each other to add or further the information that was already being raised. And example of this would be the teacher asking how the spelling group went and one kid said "We did the whole thing and i found it easy" but another child who was working with that one put his hand up and said "i was with Michael and i helped him do it as it got harder". We can see how there are two perspectives but the same outcome. Perhaps the first child may not have found it so easy without the help of the second, maybe as a teacher you would never have known. It is impossible to spend every second with every different child all the time so often pairing or grouping them not only increases participation and general learning capability but allows you as the teacher to focus on kids who need specific help.

"There is no one way to teach. Every teacher is continually developing a personal approach to teaching" (Roscoe 2009, p.19). This concept that there is not one way to teach is a very strong theme amongst developing teachers. Every teacher wants to be their own teacher, teach in their own unique way and ultimately as long as VELS is followed and kids learn what they need to then most approaches are acceptable; some just work better then others. A good example of this would be the incoming use of technology to teach kids phonetics through playful games or to get them to write a blog or even just touch letters on an interactive white board. Another approach may be to focus on independent and guided learning as was described in "early years reading/writing" or perhaps go for only a shared and group reading focus. Different ways to teach the same thing.

Tying in "Funds of Knowledge" as an early years teacher is key. It is important to know your kids backgrounds, where they come from, who they are, how they will learn best. Are they a natural leader? If so should they be nominated as a 'head of the group' role? Are they silent and withdraw easily so need more teacher supervision? All these aspects are unvailed through funds of knowledge and it is an integral part in teaching practice, especial with reading and writing.

Lastly it is important to note that not all lessons and classrooms will be the same. Sometimes you may have a large parent involvement or none. Perhaps you will have a joint prep/one class or have a large group of kids or not many at all (Roscoe 2009, p.16). "The ability to adapt is one that you not only learn but never stop learning" I was told by the teacher who was teaching prep where i observed. I have learnt a lot about teaching approaches to literacy amongst other areas but that saying,I feel, sums up the whole pedagogy of teaching. There is no set way just a variety of well proven ways which can be followed either religiously or as guidelines to diversify into your own approaches.