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According to Hill (p. 72 - 89), the early years teaching approaches for literacy development include shared reading, modelled reading, guided reading and independent reading. Writing is carried out in a similiar fashion, with the addition of interactive writing.

The reading methods displayed in the classroom included modelled reading, when the teacher read the book "Be Safe at the Beach" by Bob Winters from the front of the room to the children seated on the floor. She also read using a large print classroom sized book for shared reading, so the rest of the the class could read the text with the teacher. Once the children had broken up into smaller groups, one group at a time participated in guided reading with the teacher, while the rest performed independent reading in the other small groups. The guided reading group all read individual copies of the same text, set at the groups reading level, with the teacher assisting in any problems the readers encountered. The independent reading groups involved the Hopscotch game, the memory game and the matching game all had elements of reading that was done independent from the teacher. Some of the other games such as the Story Time game, helped stimulate the children's imaginations, gave them ideas of stories to write about, and how to write about a range of different creative topics. During my discussion with the teacher, she she said the believed the most effective reading teacher approach was shared reading, including sharing strategies, letting the children talk about the text, and letting them state what they learnt in reflection.

During the writing half of the literacy block, the students participated in independent writing, and also shared and interactive writing, by writing a simple story starting with the sentence, "On the weekend I...". With the beginning sentence already on the board for the children, they both developed skills in writing in the past tense and future tense, as well learning how to write reflection pieces. The children shared their ideas with others on their table, and were allowed to use color and pictures to accentuate their meaning, something the teacher of the class felt very strongly about. After the students were finished writing, the teacher tested the students listening skills by asking them to comment on and appreciate the work of their classmates. In this they learned to use proper manners when listening to somebody elses work, and how to compliment them, and gain ideas to improve their own work.

To finish the literacy block, the teacher used flash cards containing high-frequency and basic sight words i.e. Hill: Appendix 1&2, and asked the children to read them when they were shown. This was repeated 5 times to improve the students reading and recognition of these everyday words, and also help with their recall and retention of information. The teaching approach used by the teacher was different to teaching approaches that were described in the text and demonstrated in the lectures and the tutorials, with the emphasis on younger students writing, and the abundant use of color and pictures. The teacher who's lesson we sat in on was brought into the school to boost that schools academic results, and so far with her method teaching (incorporating TRIBES), she has had great success.

I also found an excellent webpage containing resources for teaching literacy blocks to early years learners at this website [|here.]

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