Broader Views of Literacy

Today I lectured a group of approximately 100, 3rd year teachers’ college students. This lecture was part of a broader view of literacy module. To demonstrate what is happening in NZ schools I utilised many of the snapshots of learning on Software for Learning.
Snapshots of Learning illustrate how software and digital content, from Digistore and/or Software for Learning, have been integrated to support teaching and learning in New Zealand classrooms. They are intended as a taster to the software and digital content – an indication of how one teacher has recognised the potential to support learning. Current Snapshots of learning are posted on the Software for Learning website
Snapshots really are a wonderful resource to support teacher professional learning; those published in the last 18months drip of effective pedagogy and are written using the teaching as inquiry framework.
Some recently published snapshots include:
Using You Tube as an interactive presentation tool - Somerville Intermediate School
Children retell their stories through animation - Onehunga-Cuthbert Kindergarten
Te Reo peer tutoring using movie-maker and skype - Melville Intermediate
Access the full (and growing)collection here.
The Changing Face of Literacy - Powerpoint used during lecture.

The Changing Face of Literacy

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NZRA- Literacy Explosion Conference

I throughly enjoyed mixing with literacy guru's at this highly-engaging event.

A highight for me was Murray Gadd’s plenary, this focused on  supporting writing in Years 5-8.

The workshop notes are beginning to be placed on the NZRA website. 

Updated Resource: Literacy Progressions and ICT

 Have you checked out the ‘Literacy Progressions and ICT’ wiki?

This popular resource has recently been updated to include a range of Digistore learning paths and further ideas including how to improve searching by using the "More tools" google search options.

Many thanks to  Jill Hammonds for her support and motivation in energizing this wiki.

Poster Sessions at ISTE -2010

Posters are informal, booth-like interactions that involve teachers sharing a specific learning experience that they have facilitated.
In viewing these through a literacy lens the following ideas caught my eye. I was impressed with the ease in which these ideas had been implemented and the positive impact that they were having on student outcomes.

Photos, Videos, and Animation to Boost Language, Writing, and Comprehension
Adina Sullivan, San Marcos Unified School District
This poster session relates well to my previous post. It focused on how visuals help students increase valuable vocabulary, especially for reluctant or struggling readers and English language learners. It is well worth taking 5minutes to flick through these slides for key points from the research and ideas and resources to support the progression from oral to written language
http://adinaeducation.wikispaces.com/Conference+Presentations


I Can See Me Read – Using webcams for reading fluency
Timothy Frey, Kansas State University with Abby Houlton
This intervention includes having the student record as they read aloud in front of a webcam. The student then uses a self-correction procedure as they play back the video clip. The teacher then conferences with the student and the process is repeated. In pilot implementations, students have benefited significantly from this approach.
Click here to see the 1page research report.

Tiny Techies: Web 2.0 in the Early Elementary Classroom
Melodie Brewer, Dysart Unified School District with Cristy Diaz
Through the use of artifacts including student work and student voice this poster demonstrated the use of several different web 2.0 resources. Each resource focused on the development of one of the following three areas: communication, collaboration, and creativity.
See this fantastic resource for an overview, teacher support material and student examples.
http://www.melodiebrewer.com/ISTE%202010.html

Thanks to all those amazing teachers who shared how they are using technology to make a difference to student outcomes.

Right On the Tip of My Tongue

I haven’t blogged for ages but I have been intending to share these valuable resources:

1. Interactive Whiteboards and Data Projectors: Deciding what to buy and how many can be a challenging task. Phil Salmon from Waihi Central School is currently completing a term on study leave exploring this very topic. He has created a wiki to share his findings including: 100 ways to use IWB and Data Projector, buying an IWB or Data Projector and readings and research. This wiki is still under-development however Phil has made a great start creating a resource to support the decision making and classroom use of these devices. Visit the wiki: http://useict.wikispaces.com/
Among the many morsels on this site I recommend the following reading: Investigation: The Educational Value of Interactive Whiteboards in the 21st Century Classroom by Allan Alach of Hokowhitu School, Palmerston North.






2. $15 for World Class Professional Learning : Judi Buckley, Pam Seath and Jamin Lietze are some of the key people who should be congratulated for taking the initiative and applying for community funding to host the recent ‘Elearn and Network Conference ’. This event was held in Tauranga on the 19th June. Over 150 teachers participated in event. Kath Murdoch proved to be a very popular keynote. See the wiki for more details including the presenters materials: http://elearnandnetwork.wikispaces.com/







3. The ‘Literacy and ICT’ wiki has recently been updated to reflect the changes in the Literacy Progressions. This resource is proving to be a popular springboard for teachers in catering for the multi-literate needs of their learners. http://elearningbop.wikispaces.com/Literacy+Progressions







4. The MADE (Movie and Digital Excellence )Awards…coming soon!
Entering this popular event is achievable for all with categories including static image and storytelling. See the website for details: http://www.madeawards.com/index.html
“The MADE Awards seeks to establish an outlet that enables students to show their work with a much wider audience, to be proud of their efforts and to share their learning. The MADE Awards, in partnership with business sponsors, seeks to reward the best efforts of entrants with fantastic ICT equipment which will further enhance the place of ICT in the learning world”.


Have fun exploring!

Breathing E-Learning Into The Draft Literacy Progressions

The e-learning BOP group met on Friday. Over 20 people packed tightly into a room at School Support Services, Tauranga. The goal of the day was reasonably bold but achievable in light of the huge amount of expertise in the group. In short, we spent the day breathing some e-learning into the draft literacy progressions. The end result was an online resource that teachers could use at all levels to support literacy in their school.
We kick started the day by creating a profile of a literate person in the 21st century.




This following clip and reading on "What's so different about multiliteracies?" helped to stimulate our thinking.



What followed was a sharing fest. as everyone collaborated to expand their repertoire of strategies, processes and ideas for using ICT to support literacy programmes. Good old –fashioned sticky notes were then used to match ideas with parts of the draft literacy progressions. We then split into three groups to synthesise the ideas and create an online resource.
Check the resources out for yourself: http://elearningbop.wikispaces.com/Literacy+Progressions+and+ICT Please join the wiki if you wish to contribute to this resource.



Feedback from those involved in the day was overwhelming positive with participants being particularly grateful for the opportunity to create a practical resource that could be used straight away.

To learn more about this group and how to be involved please visit our wiki:
http://elearningbop.wikispaces.com/

Face 2 Face : Exploring Multiliteracies with the E- learning BOP Network

The e-learning BOP network has been established to support e-learning leaders in each school so they in-turn can better support staff in their own schools

The next date tagged for this network to meet is 28th August, 9-3pm. The venue will be School Support Services, 142 Durham Street, Tauranga.


In light of the conversations from our last meeting, see past blog post for details, we are keen to go with an ‘Enhancing Literacy with ICT’ theme for the day.
The day will be characterised by exploring multiliteracies, sharing and collaboratively creating an online resource that can be used at all levels to support literacy development.


To find out more about this network please visit our wiki:http://elearningbop.wikispaces.com/


If you are keen to join us on the 28th August please email me: rjensen@waikato.ac.nz

Early Literacy Learning

One of the best parts of my job is the opportunity it gives me to get into classrooms and work with students and teachers. Today (well it was when I started this post) I worked with a bunch of new entrants and their teacher and together we became explorers. We were explorers on a mission to find letters from the alphabet in our school environment.
We had fun and found almost every letter!

literacy juniors

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I haven’t taught New Entrants before but after working with these guys I challenged myself to think about what I would do next to help them practice and transfer their learning.
This jogged my memory to a quote at a recent national standards hui, “knowing what you are aiming at and then having the signposts is half the battle”.



I had a Draft Literacy Learning Progressions (MOE, 2007) on hand. This document was useful in helping me to plan some further activities and provided me with a reference point for assessing these students’ strengths and needs. Other information I found really useful in this document was related to the cumulative nature of literacy learning and the prerequisite knowledge and skills required for further development.
Prompts re further experiences that would be appropriate for these children, gained from the progressions,included involving children in:
*Identifying letters in their name
*Pointing out the same letter in different places
*Forming letters of the alphabet
*Identify letters by name and match some letters to sound and sound to letters or identify a word that begins with that letter





A quick look online and a chat with colleague Fiona Grant also opened the flood gates for other ideas of learning opportunities that would be suitable for these children:

**Identifying letters from google maps.
**Sparkle Box, resources for teachers
Interactives:
http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/ngfl-flash/alphabet-eng/alphabet.htm
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html#2
Reference Material: http://soundsandwords.tki.org.nz/phonological_awareness/new_entrants_to_year_1


There is some amazing early literacy and ICT work going on out there.
Check out some of these examples:
Manaia Kindergarten Blog: http://manaiakindergarten.blogspot.com/
Helen Rennie-Younger shares how e-learning has been integrated to support inquiry learning in her junior classroom: http://softwareforlearning.wikispaces.com/eStory1
Judi Buckley and Pam Seath from the Waimarino cluster share their ICT, junior class experiences: http://aliveandhumming.wikispaces.com/

Enhancing Literacy with ICT

Just a reminder about the cool resources available on LookyBook.
This one sparks lots of ideas for digital camera use: