What?
The readings I selected for week 5 were, ‘Being numerate’ by Jenni Connor (2011) and ‘The socio-cultural context
of literacy learning’ by Caroline Barratt-Pugh (2000). I chose these two
articles in particular as I was interested in finding out how integrated
literacy and numeracy skills are as tools for everyday, contextualized
situations. These articles were interesting to read and helpful to be able to
apply and reflect on the ways in which literacy and numeracy skills are taught
and explore the practical implications of the way in which we view these
concepts and how that affects the way we design learning activities.
So what?
Both the articles had similar main arguments, that is the interconnectedness of literacy and numeracy to everyday situations and in particular learning the skills associated with being numerate and literate involves simply, ‘doing’.
The article by Connor (2011) explored the way in which we use numeracy to guide our behaviour and make sense of our world, how activities that children are exposed to on a regular basis are the foundation of numeracy learning, in doing so this article also questioned the way early educators perceive the meaning of numeracy and what it means to be numerate. Here Connor (2011) examines how we see such activities as ‘play’ involve many skills that are involved with numeracy, for example developing awareness of space and how to make sense of our physical environments, using cognitive processes that aid critical thinking and consequently being able to process and talk about what we are doing or seeing.
Similarly in Barratt-Pugh’s (2000) article looked at the practical implications of the way we teach literacy and how literacy is context dependent and should be integrated with social and cultural understandings and philosophies. Therefore by simply interacting and existing within a variety of cultural and social contexts children are beginning to build their literacy through communicating, scaffolding diverse situations to create more meaning (Barratt-Pugh, 2000).
Both the articles had similar main arguments, that is the interconnectedness of literacy and numeracy to everyday situations and in particular learning the skills associated with being numerate and literate involves simply, ‘doing’.
The article by Connor (2011) explored the way in which we use numeracy to guide our behaviour and make sense of our world, how activities that children are exposed to on a regular basis are the foundation of numeracy learning, in doing so this article also questioned the way early educators perceive the meaning of numeracy and what it means to be numerate. Here Connor (2011) examines how we see such activities as ‘play’ involve many skills that are involved with numeracy, for example developing awareness of space and how to make sense of our physical environments, using cognitive processes that aid critical thinking and consequently being able to process and talk about what we are doing or seeing.
Similarly in Barratt-Pugh’s (2000) article looked at the practical implications of the way we teach literacy and how literacy is context dependent and should be integrated with social and cultural understandings and philosophies. Therefore by simply interacting and existing within a variety of cultural and social contexts children are beginning to build their literacy through communicating, scaffolding diverse situations to create more meaning (Barratt-Pugh, 2000).
Now What?
The way we think of literacy and numeracy is vitally
important for successful teaching of these skills. It is interesting to
consider the effects of how our perceptions of the meanings of the words
‘literacy’ and ‘numeracy’ can change the way we structure activities to gain
the most beneficial learning of these skills. During early childhood, by simply
using everyday materials, situations and experiences we can enhance the way in
which children develop their ability to be literate and numerate in a range of
diverse situations.
References
Barratt-Pugh, C. (2000). The socio-cultural context
of literacy learning. In C. Barratt-Pugh & M. Rohl (Eds.), Literacy learning
in the early years (pp. 1-27). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen &
Unwin
Connor, J.
(2011). Being numerate. The Early Years Learning Framework Professional
Learning Program No. 22, Canberra: Early Childhood Australia & Department
of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)
No comments:
Post a Comment