LITERACIES AND MULTILITERACIES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHING

EAB510 Assignment 2. Part 4

Rosa Saburido

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Literacy is more than just reading and writing and it takes place in many different contexts and in many different ways. Literacy is a social practice that involves a wide variety of texts used for a wide variety of purposes and in a great range of contexts.

Society is continually undergoing changes. In the past decades the globalisation of communications and technological advances, have impacted the way in which we make meaning.

Literacy has become multimodal. When we talk about multimodal we are talking about a number of modes to make meaning such as linguistic, visual, spatial, gestural and audio modes. Children experience multimodal literacy practices in their homes, communities and popular culture every day.

“Literacy is changing and young children are increasingly exposed to communication tools and situations that are multimodal rather than exclusively linguistic.” (Hill & Nichols 2006)

Hassett (2006) calls for early literacy instruction to move forward into graphics, imagery and interactive forms of communication.

As teachers we are faced with the challenge of broadening our understandings about literacy and literacy teaching in early childhood and primary settings in order to recognise and incorporate all of the modes of meaning making.

So, how do we approach the challenge of literacy teaching in an ever-changing

technologically advanced society?

In order to enrich and extend the possibilities for literacy teaching, children’s home and community literacy practices must be linked with school practices.

How do we go about doing this?

It’s as simple as building genuine partnerships with families and relationships with children by listening, observing and recording our findings. If we design meaningful learning experiences that reflect their daily practices, children are more likely to succeed in literacy as they feel they can transfer their classroom learning to real life.

Aim of the ACE

Ensure that students learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose.

If we take a close look at the following example of a digital story produced by a Year 2 student in from Glenferrie Primary School in Victoria we can see what children in early childhood are capable of producing if they are carefully instructed. This child has scripted, storyboarded, created her own artwork and produced her digital story using Photo Story 3 software.

One of the year 2 English Contents in the Australian Curriculum is to ‘create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using growing knowledge of text structures and language features for familiar and some less familiar audiences, selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose.’

This is a perfect example that reflects this content.

This piece of work also demonstrates one of the year 2 literacy indicators in text knowledge which says that in year 2, children plan, rehearse and deliver spoken presentations specific to learning areas by: adding supporting details, using notes based on a modelled structure and incorporating visual and multimodal features.

As a teacher, I believe the development of language and literacy skills in early childhood is of vital importance as it is strongly related to later academic success. If we want our students to be successful we must help students master the literacies necessary for lifelong learning and the only way to do this is by adapting our literacy instruction to the social, cultural and technological changes that are continually taking place in society. And by working hand by hand with our students families and communities.

REFERENCES

Fellowes, Janet and Oakley, Grace, (2010). Chapter 22 : Children's Literature pp. 471-487; Chapter 23 : Visual and Critical Literacy pp. 488-508. In Fellowes, Janet and Oakley, Grace, Language, Literacy and early childhood education, (p.471). South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.

Makin, L., & Jones Diaz, C. (Eds). (2006). Literacies in early childhood: Changing views challenging practice (2nd ed.). Sydney: McLennan & Petty.

http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/learning_areas/english.html

http://www.acmi.net.au/vid_edst_crickey_frogs.htm