For this blog post, I will be focusing on the key finding of language and literacy. Bold Beginnings (hereby BB) reports that ‘the head teachers prioritised language and literacy as the cornerstones of learning. They ensured that sufficient time was given to developing children’s spoken language and teaching them to read and write.’ (BB 2017: 5)

Power of Reading

During SBT1, I have noticed that language and literacy is a clear priority during Reception. The pupils are taught phonics daily, and the school follows the Power of Reading scheme. This ensures that pupils have a new topic book at least once every two weeks. The children also have constant access to books from the book corner, and books are sometimes accessed during the end-of-day input. The classroom itself is covered with language and literacy e.g. displays, the alphabet, days of the week etc.

Despite this wealth of language and literacy, I am uncertain that it is being accessed appropriately by and for the children. BB lists ‘spoken language and listening to stories, poems and rhymes’ as an important feature of language and literacy. (BB 2017: 19) Stories, for example, tend to be used as a filler during the end-of-day input. Because stories are used at this time, there is little to no discussion about the language, imagery etc. The Power of Reading scheme allows the pupils to discuss and understand their topic book in depth, by re-telling the story through role play, creating story maps etc. This is good practice, but nonetheless it seems tainted by the fact that it is a whole-school scheme and therefore a form of assessment. Pupils should be exposed to books in a variety of ways e.g. reading for pleasure, reading images etc. but I feel as if stories are not being utilised in the best way possible.

For my own practice, I will ensure that books are accessed in these ways and that they are utilised for continuous provision e.g. when reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears I will ensure that there are non-fiction books on bears as well as fictional books.

Importance of ‘sounds and rhymes’

On top of this, I have yet to hear or see poems and nursery rhymes being used in the classroom. BB suggests that ‘nursery rhymes… help the children to become sensitive to the sounds and rhymes in words and gives them practice in enunciating words and sounds clearly.’ (BB 2017: 19) Considering the fact that the headteacher does prioritise ‘language and literacy as the cornerstones of learning’, it is interesting that there is a lack of nursery rhymes in Reception. If nursery rhymes help children ‘enunciate words and sounds clearly’, then they should be a dominant aspect of learning. For my own practice, I will ensure that I sing nursery rhymes with my pupils and encourage them to participate. I will ensure that nursery rhymes are played during choosing time and other intervals e.g. when tidying up.

Reading

Regarding reading, BB suggests that schools which devote a ‘considerable amount of time and effort, early on, to teaching reading systematically’ show good practice. (BB 2017: 23) My school places high importance on reading and the ability to blend, as illustrated in their use of the Read, Write, Inc. scheme. Pupils are taught phonics daily and are encouraged to blend both familiar and unfamiliar words (e.g. through nonsense words). Nonetheless, I would argue that there is not a ‘considerable amount of time’ for teaching how to read systematically. There is a focus on pace during phonics and sounds are not revisited – if a pupil is ill, for example, they just carry on with the new sound which is being taught.

On top of this, some pupils are not developmentally ready for reading systematically i.e. they may not know all their single sounds yet. In this case, some aspects of phonics teaching are not understood. This is because pupils are assessed for phonics and reading ability frequently throughout the year, and so there is no time to revisit some sounds for blending. The class teachers do allow pupils to start reading at different times. As BB suggests, successful systematic reading must occur ‘once children are confident in their decoding’. Some pupils have started to take reading books home because they know all their single sounds and can blend confidently, whereas others have not. Even so, the class teachers are aware that all pupils are expected to be reading and blending by the end of the Reception year, so there is some aspect of assessment involved which motivates the pace of learning. For my own practice, I will ensure that the pupils have plenty of time for developing their reading and blending skills.

References

• Her Majesty’s chief Inspector (2017). Bold Beginnings: The Reception curriculum in a sample of good and outstanding primary schools, London, HMSO.

The stimulus

Our current topic book is Little Red Riding Hood. I decided to use the book as a stimulus for learning and linked it with Computing. I used programmable toys (Bee Bots) to deepen the pupils understanding of the book as well as their understanding of technology. I chose to work with Bee Bots because ‘during the preschool years… children become increasingly able to think about routines and sequences.’ (Plowman 2016: 98) Bee Bots allow the children to focus on this concept of routine and sequence as Bee Bots rely on algorithms; a sequence. The focus of the activity was to understand the concept of algorithms by deepening the pupils understanding of positional language.

The activity

The activity consisted of programming the Bee Bot to follow the path in the ‘forest’ to get to Grandma. The pupils could choose which character they would like to be – Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, or the Woodcutter. Each Bee Bot represented these characters and I took small groups of 4-5 pupils, due to the limited amount of working Bee Bots and the classroom space. Plowman suggests that ‘technology should be integrated into playroom practice so that it relates to other aspects of the early years curriculum.’ (Plowman 2016: 106) By using the Bee Bots in this cross-curricular way, the pupils can see that technology can be used not only for leisure, but also for educational purposes.

Before the activity, I discovered that the children had little-to-no understanding of correct positional language. To counteract this, I ensured to model the correct use of positional language with visual cues (arrows). These visual cues were accessible throughout the whole activity.

The response

The children responded to the activity and the technology well. They were excited to get stuck in as they were all familiar with the story and found it intriguing to explore the book in a new, unfamiliar way. Some pupils recognised the Bee Bot from nursery but almost all pupils had little understanding of how to move the Bee Bot correctly. Nonetheless, they were able to do so after I had modelled how to use the Bee Bot.

Some pupils continued to struggle, so I modelled this again, encouraging them to tell me the instructions as to which direction to move next. As Plowman suggests, pupils may struggle with ‘the operational features of certain technologies but [are] capable of meaningful interaction if they benefit from guidance.’ (Plowman 2016: 98) Just become some technologies are difficult, doesn’t mean that pupils cannot achieve ‘meaningful interaction’. In fact, children should be encouraged to use technology that is unfamiliar and new as it allows them deepen their understanding of the world around them.

Strategies for supporting learning

I used a variety of strategies to support the pupil’s learning. I ensured that I repetitively used the positional language so that pupils could become familiar with it. I sat with the pupils during the activity and commented on their direction e.g. ‘I can see you turned left – be careful, the wolf is close by!’ This encouraged the pupils to use the positional language themselves. I also used lots of specific praise and encouragement, especially for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (hereby SEND) and ‘low ability’ pupils. This encouraged the pupils to keep trying to reach their goal. By having a learning objective and goal for this activity, the learning had a purpose i.e. to save Grandma from the Wolf. This ensured pupils were engaging with the task at hand.

Another strategy I used was to ensure that my approach was multi-sensory – by using Bee Bots that not only move, but make sound, the pupils were engaging with their auditory and visual senses. I also ensured that the characters pinned to the Bee Bot were textured e.g. Little Red Riding Hood’s cloak was soft so that pupils could engage with the activity via touch as I am aware that some pupils enjoy sensory objects. I built the learning on the pupils’ interests (i.e. enjoying sound, touch), which is probably why they engaged so well with the activity.

Overall, the activity was successful. All pupils were able to achieve the learning objective – to move the Bee Bot using its buttons – and some pupils were even able to recognise the new positional language I introduced to them. The pupils were self-reflective in their learning during the plenary and were able to remind me of their learning objectives and whether they completed this.

References

• Plowman L. (2016) Learning technology at home and preschool. In N. Rushby & D. Surry (Ed.) Wiley Handbook of Learning Technology (pp. 96-112), Chichester, Wiley.