Topic Task 1:
I believe the personal and professional role of an Australian teacher of literacy and English in primary schools covers a vastly wide range of responsibilities, as well as expectations, to which a teacher must meet.
First of all I believe it is crucial to model positive behaviors both inside and outside of the classroom, as children tend to reflect the actions and behaviors of the role models within their environment. Teachers plays such an important role in the life of young children that they must model this positive behavior and portray the behavioral expectations they expect in their classroom.
I also believe that it is an Australian teacher’s, both personal and professional role, to ensure each individual child’s learning abilities, styles and needs are catered to. This is essential as it builds positive relationships and a comfortable learning environment in which each child can thrive. A teacher must cater to their students needs by providing a wide range of easily accessible resources, as well as provide opportunities for children to further their learning, and give extra assistance for those who may require it.
I believe it is the professional role of an Australian teacher of English and literacy to cover all of the content depicted by the curriculum. This is a role that is designed by the government and ensures all Australian children receive and become competent in a set of skills and understanding of knowledge required to further their learning, becoming active, functional and contributing members of society.
First of all I believe it is crucial to model positive behaviors both inside and outside of the classroom, as children tend to reflect the actions and behaviors of the role models within their environment. Teachers plays such an important role in the life of young children that they must model this positive behavior and portray the behavioral expectations they expect in their classroom.
I also believe that it is an Australian teacher’s, both personal and professional role, to ensure each individual child’s learning abilities, styles and needs are catered to. This is essential as it builds positive relationships and a comfortable learning environment in which each child can thrive. A teacher must cater to their students needs by providing a wide range of easily accessible resources, as well as provide opportunities for children to further their learning, and give extra assistance for those who may require it.
I believe it is the professional role of an Australian teacher of English and literacy to cover all of the content depicted by the curriculum. This is a role that is designed by the government and ensures all Australian children receive and become competent in a set of skills and understanding of knowledge required to further their learning, becoming active, functional and contributing members of society.
Topic Task 2:
Language acquisition is the theory behind the process of language development, which gives humans the ability to use and comprehend language, as well as use words and sentences to communicate.
According to Halliday, children are motivated to develop their knowledge and ability to use language in order to fulfill their needs, communicate with others and gain understandings of their environment. Halliday defines 7 functions that a child develops in their early years: Instrumental (language to express needs), Regulatory (language to instruct others), Interactional (language to form relationships), Personal (language to express feelings, opinions), Heuristic (language to gain knowledge about environment), Imaginative (language to tell stories, jokes), Representational (language to convey information).
It's crucial to consider these functions when teaching English to young children. By focusing on teaching/developing the language depicted in the first 4 functions of Halliday’s theory it allows for the understanding required to develop the later three functions. These functions of language acquisition also impact the teaching of English by offering the opportunity to introduce a wide range of activities to help develop vocabulary and oral language skills, as well as their ability to comprehend and use language, building a strong foundation for future language development.
According to Halliday, children are motivated to develop their knowledge and ability to use language in order to fulfill their needs, communicate with others and gain understandings of their environment. Halliday defines 7 functions that a child develops in their early years: Instrumental (language to express needs), Regulatory (language to instruct others), Interactional (language to form relationships), Personal (language to express feelings, opinions), Heuristic (language to gain knowledge about environment), Imaginative (language to tell stories, jokes), Representational (language to convey information).
It's crucial to consider these functions when teaching English to young children. By focusing on teaching/developing the language depicted in the first 4 functions of Halliday’s theory it allows for the understanding required to develop the later three functions. These functions of language acquisition also impact the teaching of English by offering the opportunity to introduce a wide range of activities to help develop vocabulary and oral language skills, as well as their ability to comprehend and use language, building a strong foundation for future language development.
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THRASS is an Australian based phonetics teaching tool that can be used within the classroom to create a fun, multisensory, systematic and explicit linguistic teaching program. It is a whole school literacy model that focuses on teaching the teacher techniques for the whole class level rather than the individual level.
THRASS draws its phonetics based teaching program from a range of different language acquisitions, a main one of these being the phonological language acquisition theory. The forms of statistical learning described within this theory are consistent with THRASS’S belief that by explicitly teaching the 44 phonemes of the English orthography, the learner will gain the knowledge and understandings required to read and learn the spelling systems of the English language.
To implement the THRASS literacy program teachers are required to have a knowledge and understanding of literacy, as well as know how to teach the basic building blocks of English language. Teachers must have instant recall of the common graphs, diagraphs and triagraphs for each of the 44 phonemes of the English Language. THRASS is available in schools as a professional development and provides three levels of phonetics training. The three levels are:
THRASS draws its phonetics based teaching program from a range of different language acquisitions, a main one of these being the phonological language acquisition theory. The forms of statistical learning described within this theory are consistent with THRASS’S belief that by explicitly teaching the 44 phonemes of the English orthography, the learner will gain the knowledge and understandings required to read and learn the spelling systems of the English language.
To implement the THRASS literacy program teachers are required to have a knowledge and understanding of literacy, as well as know how to teach the basic building blocks of English language. Teachers must have instant recall of the common graphs, diagraphs and triagraphs for each of the 44 phonemes of the English Language. THRASS is available in schools as a professional development and provides three levels of phonetics training. The three levels are:
- Foundation Level
- Proficiency Level
- Mastery & Lead Level
Topic Task 6:
Authentic assessment is a form of student-centered assessment in which tasks and activities are intended to provide a meaningful learning experience for the learners. It offers the opportunity for learners to demonstrate and apply their knowledge and skills to real life situations. This is the opposite to traditional forms of assessment in which standardised testing is common. Other names for authentic assessment are performance assessment and alternative assessment as these both provide opportunities for students to actually perform meaningful tasks.
An authentic assessment task that I would use in a junior primary language class to monitor student’s oral language capabilities would be an oral presentation. An oral presentation works best when students are comfortable with their topic, as well as their environment and feel safe enough to speak in front of their peers. As a young child I was terrified of public speaking and resented any form of oral presentation, which is why I would ensure that this assessment would be a positive and comfortable experience for all students. I would provide students with the opportunity to perform their oral presentation to either the whole class or a smaller group of students, and those I felt necessary could perform their presentation to just myself, as it still provides an opportunity for the student to demonstrate their oral language capabilities. A method of allowing students to become comfortable with their topic would be to allow them to choose their own topic from a range of relevant and appropriate suggestions.
An authentic assessment task that I would use in a junior primary language class to monitor student’s oral language capabilities would be an oral presentation. An oral presentation works best when students are comfortable with their topic, as well as their environment and feel safe enough to speak in front of their peers. As a young child I was terrified of public speaking and resented any form of oral presentation, which is why I would ensure that this assessment would be a positive and comfortable experience for all students. I would provide students with the opportunity to perform their oral presentation to either the whole class or a smaller group of students, and those I felt necessary could perform their presentation to just myself, as it still provides an opportunity for the student to demonstrate their oral language capabilities. A method of allowing students to become comfortable with their topic would be to allow them to choose their own topic from a range of relevant and appropriate suggestions.
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Critical Learning Incident (PDF) | |
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