Collaborative+group+10

​​My first attempt at writing something here was a failure. I will try again! Hi lindy, Bonnie and Dane. I will try (again ) to cut and paste what we have already written.

(Lindy)The positives of Kohn Whole Language approach as I see it is that it encourages independent learning and requires children to be active participants of their learning. Whole Language teaching encourages teachers to stress the important of understanding texts over phonics which is just one component of it. Kohn believes that this approach encourages children to be more creative therefore they become more avid writers and readers. Obviously through this approach Kohn believes they will eventually become more capable spellers. ​ ​ (Bonnie) Whole Language teaching also encourages a love of reading. Can you think of anyone that you know that loves reading but has failed to develop the skills to read and understand what they have read? I know I cannot think of one person. Importantly, let us not forget that Whole Language teaching does teach phonics, just not necessarily in the teacher talks/students listen format that we are traditionally used to.

(Stuart) We want our students to be able to produce, read, interpret, and understand not only the traditional texts that we all know, but also be able to do the same with texts produced by the modern communications technologies. It is our view that a narrow skills based approach to literacy will not enable students to function effectively in a future where many of their literary experiences will be through media other than words on paper. Understanding text messages, creating meaning from audio and video does not rely on a detailed understanding of punctuation and grammar. These skills are important however, but we believe that they should be taught in the context of understanding the purpose of the texts and being able to critically appraise the views of their authors. We believe teaching in this way is more likely to foster a love of reading and learning and so make literacy one of the students' favourite subjects.

( Lindy)To disagree with Kohn I believe the use of phonics in classrooms has given many children building blocks as the catalyst to approach reading and spelling with confidence. The understanding of common letter sounds gives children access to a huge vocabulary. Phonics leads from letter sounds to syllables to whole words and therefore gives the student a deeper understanding of the text. To have the keys of learning phonics whether by rote or not gives a student’s literacy skills which will endure for lifelong learning.

(Stuart) A back to basics approach, that is basing literacy teaching on skills acquisition, is the only way to improve students' literacy. Alphabetic awareness, letter sound relationships, punctuation, spelling and understanding grammatical conventions are the foundations on which successful literacy learning can be built. Students can have difficulty creating meaning from any text if they do not have the necessary decoding skills. Mastery of these skills is often inaccurately equated with rote learning (which is a term bound to get left leaning educators frothing at the mouth!) Effective mastery of these skills though is a prerequisite for lifting literacy standards in this country.

(Bonnie) Literacy levels are falling in Australian schools under the trendy Whole Language approach. Teachers need to stop dancing around with indirect methods of teaching, hoping that the children will work out the answers for themselves and start teaching the students what it is they need to know. Children are like empty vessels that teachers pour information into to give them the knowledge they need to function in today's society.

OK. If you Dane and Bonnie want to add anymore please do. If not you and I Lindy can combine our two posts.

(Bonnie) I don't know if this is an ok place to write this, but I just wanted to apologise for not being involved in this yet. I was a late enrolment and as such I am two weeks behind in four units. I'm just trying to catch up and I only discovered this today and found out I was supposed to be collaborating with you guys. I will definately pull my weight. I promise I will get to this tomorrow (Friday). I just hope that is not too late.

​ Hi everyone at last on board. What's the next stage? Can anyone fill me in. Do we eventually put our statement together in one long statement, adding our leaving out a few things, and who does that? Or is this just a little trial run for the next assessment? Sorry for all the questions. Lindy

Hi everyone, I think we need to combine our thoughts into one statement for each point of view as you mentioned Lindy. I think we will need to leave some things out though, just like you do when your editing an essay and you need to get the word count down a bit. Does anyone want to have a go at that? I hope it's ok, I deleted Cheryl and Kerryn's posts (they were meant to post on the group 16 page). Makes ours a bit less cluttered.

Bonnie

Hi don't mind collobrating statements. Lindy

Is this want we want to present? I've used minnmal changes in putting it together. Let me know what you think. Lindy

We want our students to be able to produce, read, interpret, and understand not only the traditional texts that we all know, but also be able to do the same with texts produced by the modern communications technologies. It is our view that a narrow skills based approach to literacy will not enable students to function effectively in a future where many of their literary experiences will be through media other than words on paper. Understanding text messages, creating meaning from audio and video does not rely on a detailed understanding of punctuation and grammar. These skills are important however, but we believe that they should be taught in the context of understanding the purpose of the texts and being able to critically appraise the views of their authors. We believe teaching in this way is more likely to foster a love of reading and learning and so make literacy one of the students' favourite subjects. The positives of Kohn Whole Language approach as we see it is that it encourages independent learning and requires children to be active participants of their learning. Whole Language teaching encourages teachers to stress the important of understanding texts over phonics which is just one component of it. Kohn believes that this approach encourages children to be more creative therefore they become more avid writers and readers. Obviously through this approach Kohn believes they will eventually become more capable spellers. Whole Language teaching also encourages a love of reading. Can you think of anyone that you know that loves reading but has failed to develop the skills to read and understand what they have read? We know that we can’t think of one person. Importantly, let us not forget that Whole Language teaching does teach phonics, just not necessarily in the teacher talks/students listen format that we are traditionally used to. Literacy levels are falling in Australian schools under the trendy Whole Language approach. Teachers need to stop dancing around with indirect methods of teaching, hoping that the children will work out the answers for themselves and start teaching the students what it is they need to know. Children are like empty vessels that teachers pour information into to give them the knowledge they need to function in today's society. A back to basics approach, that is basing literacy teaching on skills acquisition, is the only way to improve students' literacy. Alphabetic awareness, letter sound relationships, punctuation, spelling and understanding grammatical conventions are the foundations on which successful literacy learning can be built. Students can have difficulty creating meaning from any text if they do not have the necessary decoding skills. Mastery of these skills is often inaccurately equated with rote learning (which is a term bound to get left leaning educators frothing at the mouth!) Effective mastery of these skills though is a prerequisite for lifting literacy standards in this country. We believe the use of phonics in classrooms has given many children building blocks as the catalyst to approach reading and spelling with confidence. The understanding of common letter sounds gives children access to a huge vocabulary. Phonics leads from letter sounds to syllables to whole words and therefore gives the student a deeper understanding of the text. To have the keys of learning phonics whether by rote or not gives a student’s literacy skills which will endure for lifelong learning.

I wondered if we should try and make the two arguments flow a little more, so that they don’t sound like their written by three different people. I have copied and pasted the changes below so that what Lindy originally put together is still there. That way you can see the changes I’ve made and if you don’t like it we can go back to the original. Does anyone know if we are supposed to reference in this post like normal, or if because it is an argument and expressing our point of view (or pretending it is our point of view) we don’t worry about it? Also, do you think we should add some references from other sources? I notice some other groups have.

1. We want our students to be able to produce, read, interpret, and understand not only the traditional texts that we all know, but also be able to do the same with texts produced by the modern communications technologies. It is our view that a narrow skills based approach to literacy will not enable students to function effectively in a future where many of their literary experiences will be through media other than words on paper. Understanding text messages, creating meaning from audio and video does not rely on a detailed understanding of punctuation and grammar. While these skills are important, we believe that they should be taught in the context of understanding the purpose of the texts and being able to critically appraise the views of their authors. The Whole Language approach (Kohn, 2000) is likely to foster a love of reading and learning and so make literacy one of the students' favourite subjects. Can you think of anyone that you know that loves reading but has failed to develop the skills to read and understand what they have read? The Whole Language approach (Kohn, 2000) encourages independent learning and requires children to be active participants of their learning. Whole Language teaching encourages teachers to emphasise the importance of understanding texts rather than simply teaching phonics, which is just one component of it. Kohn (2000) believes that this approach encourages children to be more creative and take more risks, therefore becoming more avid writers and readers. Through this approach Kohn (2000) believes they will eventually become more capable spellers. Importantly, we should not forget that Whole Language teaching does teach phonics, just not necessarily in the teacher talks/students listen format that we are traditionally used to.

2. Literacy levels are falling in Australian schools under the trendy Whole Language approach promoted by Kohn (2000). Teachers need to stop dancing around with indirect methods of teaching, hoping that the children will work out the answers for themselves and start teaching the students what it is they need to know. Children are like empty vessels that teachers pour information into to give them the knowledge they need to function in today's society. A back to basics approach, that is basing literacy teaching on skills acquisition, is the only way to improve students' literacy. Alphabetic awareness, letter sound relationships, punctuation, spelling and understanding grammatical conventions are the foundations on which successful literacy learning can be built. Students can have difficulty creating meaning from any text if they do not have the necessary decoding skills. Mastery of these skills is often inaccurately equated with rote learning. Effective mastery of these skills though is a prerequisite for lifting literacy standards in this country. The use of phonics in classrooms has given many children building blocks as the catalyst to approach reading and spelling with confidence. The understanding of common letter sounds gives children access to a huge vocabulary. Phonics leads from letter sounds to syllables to whole words and therefore gives the student a deeper understanding of the text. To have the keys of learning phonics whether by rote or not gives a student’s literacy skills which will endure for lifelong learning.

Kohn, A. (2000). The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving beyond traditional classrooms and “tougher standards”. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

I hope I haven’t offended any one with the changes I’ve made. I hardly changed anything in the second argument because the paragraphs seemed to flow together pretty much as they were. So we could stick some other references in there, especially the second argument if we think it is appropriate. What do you think? Does someone want to check that the reference is right. I think after having a semester off (just had a baby), I seem to have forgotten how to do it again.

Looks ok by me. Thanks Bonnie

Hi Bonnie and Lindy I do not check in for a while and the job is done! I deleted the bit about the lefties and slightly changed one sentence. The bit about the lefties was not meant to survive the editing process. Great job!

Now this has been done perhaps we should start talking about the last assignment. I suspect we are going to need a fair bit of time to get it all together. If we can decide what the basics are (what class/age, degree of diversity in the class, no of lessons over the two weeks, pedagogical approach?) then we can all be thinking about where we want to go with it as we are doing the course work and we can start to see where it can fit into the curriculum. It would be great if we could all fit into our own school experiences somehow. My experience has been in early childhood (with some 3/4 classes) so far which puts this a bit beyond my experience. In terms of diversity, I have some experience with students from low socioeconomic backgrounds (I live in rural Tasmania!) and a little experience with students who have challenging behaviours. I am sure you will all have ideas on what our hypothetical class should look like. It just needs someone to come up with a clear idea. Because I do not have much experience with upper primary I am quite happy to go along with whatever the rest of you decide.

In terms of the pedagogical approach we take though I think that a multiliteracies approach informed by the four resources model might be the way to go. Sue has emphasised the importance of the creation of meaning for students in this exercise and if we use a framework where we can incorporate texts created using ICT and link it back to something like the four resources model we should be able to justify what we do in terms of getting the right balance for a unit of work. What should the unit of work be about? I have no thoughts at this stage. I am sorry to bang on about this but this whole collaborative thing over the internet does my head in a bit, and to get it to work I think we need to have a frank exchange of views. We need to start a free flowing 'conversation'. I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a stupid idea, and the more ideas we throw around the easier this is going to be.

Just as a bit of background, I live near Oatlands (I gather we all live in Tasmania). If anyone is travelling through please get in touch and we can meet face-to-face. I have found this whole thing is much easier if you can put a face and a voice to what you are reading. My home phone number is 62547328. You will find me in front of laptop most evenings after 8:00. Hopefuly Dane will drop in at some stage, but I look forward to working with you both. Cheers Stuart

Hi Stuart and Bonnie,

I am happy to work from early childhood to grade 3/4 in the next assessment, I am also happy to use the four model ressources. I remember meeting you Stuart at summer school in Launceston this year. We were both at the student services early before it had opened. I informed you about parking for the summer school residents. Can you remember me? Not to worry if you don't. I am also happy to talk over the phone if necessary my home number is 62297802. I also look forward to working with you both. Lindy

Hi Lindy and Stuart, Just thought I’d let you know I emailed Dane to see if he was withdrawing from the unit or if he wasn’t aware of the task. He said he’s just getting himself organised and will participate in the post soon. Haven’t had much of a chance to look at the assignment yet, so I can’t really add much to your conversation. I’m happy to go along with what you have discussed. My phone number is 6428 6848. Cheers Bonnie

Lindy, I certainly remember you. You have a great memory! I will give both you and Bonnie a ring sometime in the next week or so just to say hello. It is probably just me but as I said I certainly find this collaborative thing a lot easier if we can talk in the old fashioned way as well. I am sure we can do pretty much everthing online so when I do ring up for a chat just humour me! I do appreciate that the first assignment is still hanging over our heads and we all have different ways of studying so when you start thinking about the one we do together, let me know. I hope your summer school went well. Mine was the usual "I am pretty much over it" by the end, but they are always great learning experiences. Talk to you soon. Cheers Stuart

Well, it doesn't look like Dane is going to add anything here, so will we just post our response?

Might just as well. Could you do the honours Bonnie? (Stuart)

Done

Hi everyone, I suppose we will be in contact again in regard to the next assignment once we have sent our first assignment off on Wednesday? (Lindy)

__This is where the google docs stuff starts__ **
 * __Hi Lindy__**

Bonnie - Apparently this is meant to be easier to use than the Wiki page. I don't know if anyone has looked at it, but I thought I would write something here and see if anyone replies. Already seems easier than Wiki. Might be better for Assignment 3.

Hi Bonnie, It took me a while to work out how to get logged in, but I think you are right. This might be an easier tool to use to do the last assignment. The first one is just about out of the way (which I can't say that I really enjoyed!) so we probably should start talking about this one. I know that I wrote some stuff on the wiki about it, but if we can come up with the basics (class, cohort, and approach) fairly quickly I think that will make it easier. I tend to struggle towards the end of term so the more I get done early on the happier I am-plus most of the work for the other two units I am doing falls is due in May. I will try to check in her once a day. I know I said I would give you and Lindy a ring. If you can make a note of a suitable time for me to do that [I know (from your profile) that you have a young family] I will get in touch. I tend to think that the initial planning will be easier and quicker if we can talk (rather than type) about it. Thanks for emailing me about this I have been a bit slack about looking at it. Cheers, Stuart

Hi guys,My initial thoughts for this assignment were that we could maybe look at a 5/6 grade? - I have found that using a split grade level for assignments can give you a little bit more scope for the learning sequences and also when it comes to the marking I have found it easier to have it split so that the person marking the assignment doesn't mark against for having lessons that are too hard or easy for the grade. Also considering this needs to be a unit plan we need to make sure that we have a proforma that we are happy with, I have a good one that I can put up on here over the next few days for you guys to have a look at, I have used it for many other unit plans and had great success with it. I also feel we need to think about some topics that we are going to cover.. I feel we should be able to really nail this assignment considering the work you guy put in on the wiki! I will get that proforma up on here over the next few days.Regards, Dane.

Hi everyone i thought I might throw in a few ideas about the unit of work we have to do. I am fine with a 5/6 focus. I have not looked at the curriculum docs, but I have been thinking about something I found on teachers TV. The URL is []. There are seven clips that can act as story starters, things that fire up the imagination. Using a video means we are getting students to use visual literacy as well as their listening skills. We could get them to brainstorm the type of language they would use to write a story based on one of the video clips (Code breaker). Using a video clip (with audio) brings in multiliteracies. If the students then in groups decided what the story could be that the clips introduced it would be possible to then ask them to write a story (as a group or individually?) from the perspective of one of the characters (text analyst). If you are doing Teacher as Leader as well at the moment you will have seen the graphic organiser from Billmeyer about thinking from different perspectives. I have it as PDF so I will not be able to post it here, but I can email it too you all if you are interested. This could provide a basis for developing the story line. They then write the story colaboratively or individually, edit it then have a lesson(s) where each group (or individual) reads out their story. This covers multiliteracies, writing, speaking and listening and is collaborative. Could viewing the video be seen as reading ? If you think any of this is feasible, check out the video and see what you think. I look forward to reading your ideas.CheersStuart