MODULE 2 (LTS 2)

• Literacy Skills


  Literacy has been defined in various ways over the years. Previously, being able to sign your name was considered a reasonable sign of literacy. Our understanding of what it means to be literate has altered and current definitions have taken into account the literacy demands of the society we live in. A more recent definition of literacy is the understanding, evaluating, using and engaging with written texts to participate in society, to achieve personal goals and ambitions and to develop knowledge and potential.

  Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak and listen in ways that will allow us to communicate effectively to a variety of different audiences and to make sense of the world. Reading and writing, when integrated with speaking, listening and viewing and critical thinking, constitutes valued aspects of literacy in modern life. Literacy is a critical component to ensure all students have the best chance to succeed in their studies and everyday life.
• Numeracy Skills


  We are all required to be numerate to maximise our potential and to make a positive contribution to society. In our exceedingly technical world, numeracy skills, in particular the ability to interpret data, are becoming increasingly more significant and are hugely sought after by employers. An absence of mathematical confidence and poor numeracy skills are obstructions to employment as numeracy tests are increasingly becoming a routine part of the recruitment process.

  Rapidly growing technological advances are making the need for numeracy skills more critical within the workplace. With more employees engaging in more sophisticated tasks, numeracy is recognised as an essential employability skill.

  Numeracy is defined as the ability to access, use and interpret and communicate mathematical information and ideas, in order to engage in and manage the mathematical demands of various situations in adult years. To be numerate is to confidently and effectively use mathematics to meet the everyday demands of life.

  Numeracy is important for individuals to develop logical thinking and reasoning strategies in their everyday activities. We need numeracy to solve problems and make sense of numbers, time, patterns and shapes for activities like cooking, reading receipts, reading instructions and even playing sport.
• Benefits of Early Literacy Skills

  Neurological: Reading to a child helps develop their brains. The brain forms meaningful connections very early in life, and a child's brain grows at a much faster pace during their first five years than any other period. When you teach a child early literacy skills, the learning process influences the entire functioning and development of the brain.

  Educational: When a child learns a love of reading at an early age, they will have greater general knowledge and expanded vocabulary. In addition, reading builds improved attention spans and better concentration skills. Literacy opens opportunities for academic success.

  Psychological: Self-confidence and independence become rooted in your child when they learn to read. It promotes maturity, increases discipline, and lays a basis for moral literacy. Satisfy their curiosity with explanations of how things work while exposing them to problem-solving techniques. Your child's creativity and imagination will bloom, as well as their curiosity about people, places, and ideas.

  Linguistic: Your child will be exposed to the most books, knowledge, and ideas the sooner you begin reading to them. Exposure to literacy at a young age leads to improved linguistic skills, a richer vocabulary, improved grammar, higher quality writing, better spelling, and more precise oral communication.
• The power of play is the most useful tool for literacy and numeracy learning


  Educators working with children aged from birth to five years need to recognise this age group's unique stage of development. The way young children take in information, make sense of things, understand and learn is not the same as for children of older ages. Promoting opportunities for children to explore, be exposed to and participate in literacy and numeracy is an important part of the early childhood years.

  Understanding what literacy and numeracy is and what it looks like is an important first step for the early childhood educator. Literacy and numeracy is much more than the narrow view that many in the community have, of writing, reading and counting or recognising numbers and reciting the alphabet. In fact, literacy and numeracy is far broader and richer than that definition and is in just about every aspect of life. The most common approach to adult- child interaction is scaffolding. Scaffolding in its simplest form refers to the way an adult supports learning. The adult can take on three different roles during learning: the adult may model concepts to children; the adult may work together with a child on something; or the adult may encourage the child to do or demonstrate the concept on their own.
• Literacy


  What it looks like and how it develops in early childhood
• Literacy and numeracy is much more than just writing, reading and counting
• Scaffolding


  The way an adult supports learning, through modelling, working together, or encouraging the child to do it themselves
• No one theory can describe children's literacy learning, a variety of theories are needed
• Young children in early childhood services come from diverse backgrounds and speak many languages
• Literacy is more accurately described as multiple literacies within people's local, social and cultural contexts
• Cognitive development


  • How children think, explore and figure things out
  • Includes development of knowledge, skills, problem solving and dispositions
  • Helps children understand the world around them
  • Part of cognitive development is brain development
• It is essential to consider the diverse home backgrounds and lifestyles of children
• Early Years Learning Framework


  Emphasises play-based learning and the importance of communication, language, literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional development
• Examples of ways to promote cognitive development

  • Talking with baby and naming objects
  • Letting baby explore toys and move about
  • Singing and reading to baby
  • Exposing toddler to books and puzzles
  • Expanding on child's interests in learning activities
  • Answering child's "why" questions
  • Providing choices and prompting thoughtful decisions
  • Allowing child to explore different problem solving methods
• Literacy and numeracy for young children is not: stencilled letters, counting practice, writing, formal recognition of shapes/colours, reciting alphabet, pasting pre-drawn letters/numbers
• Early childhood educators feel pressured to provide inappropriate literacy/numeracy activities because families want to see 'learning'
• Oral language


  A significant aspect of early literacy, including speaking, conversation, chatting, listening, making up stories, nonsense rhymes, songs, poetry, finger plays
• Strategies to promote rich oral language experiences

  • Dramatic play with props
  • Fun with language - songs, rhymes, changing words
  • Reading to individual children, inviting them to say words
  • Providing a range of experiences with technology, reading, games, construction
  • Adults modelling language and conversation
  • Educators using correct grammar and introducing new vocabulary
• Written language


  Providing opportunities to recognise symbols, have stories written about experiences, be surrounded by print and language in the environment
• Skills underpinning literacy and numeracy

  • Reasoning
  • Classifying
  • Grouping
  • Sorting
  • Recognising
  • Distinguishing
  • Symbolising
  • Representing
• Examples of materials to promote literacy and numeracy skills

  • Shells, leaves, seed pods, stones
  • Water in troughs, tubs, containers
  • Sand in sandpit or trays
  • Outdoor climbing equipment
  • Wooden blocks
  • Dress-ups and dramatic play equipment
• How young children learn

  • Watch and imitate adults
  • Explore materials and make discoveries
  • Learn through trial and error, problem solving, forming and testing hypotheses
  • Learn best through active, hands-on experiences and play
  • Develop thinking, language, imagination, speaking, listening skills through creative play
  • Learn through sensory exploration of objects and materials
• Literacy and numeracy can be promoted through outdoor play and exploration
• Young children


  • Learn best through active learning and play
  • Develop thinking, language, imagination, speaking and listening skills through creative play
  • Learn a huge amount through their senses
• How young children learn

  1. Construct and test theories

  2. Make decisions

  3. Overcome challenges

  4. Foster empathy

  5. Build resilience

  6. Solve problems
• Literacy and numeracy relates to a wide range of learning experiences, including outdoor experiences
• Outdoor literacy and numeracy

  • Obstacle course
  • Digging patch
  • Gardening
• Literacy and numeracy for babies and toddlers

  • Acquisition of language, communication and comprehension
  • Recognising that symbols reflect and represent meaning
• Strategies for supporting literacy and numeracy for babies and toddlers

  1. Holding infants to watch your face when talking

  2. Singing and rocking

  3. Providing music

  4. Providing materials in languages other than English

  5. Introducing nursery rhymes

  6. Playing together

  7. Displaying posters

  8. Using routines for one on one time
• Literacy and numeracy


  Far beyond the narrow view of reading and writing
• Strategies for helping parents understand literacy and numeracy

  • Share examples of activities with literacy and numeracy
  • Use the terms literacy and numeracy and provide practical examples
  • Use posters and pamphlets
  • Encourage families to use their home languages
  • Encourage families to read, tell stories, and model reading
• Roles teachers and adults can play when interacting with children

  • Director
  • Entertainer
  • Timekeeper
  • Silent watcher
  • Rescuer
  • Responder
• Reading aloud


  • Helps students learn to use language, improves information processing skills, vocabulary, and comprehension
  • Motivates students to read
  • Supports children's emerging literacy
• Emergent literacy


  • The reading and writing experiences of young children before they learn to write and read conventionally
  • Begins at birth, regardless of disability
  • Comprises all actions, understandings and misunderstandings of learners engaged in experiences involving print
• Emergent literacy behaviours and understandings are directly related to opportunity and experience
• Sharing books without reading the words

  1. Model how to look at and talk about a wordless picture book

  2. Include books on tape

  3. Encourage families to tell stories
• Stages of drawing and writing

  • Random scribbling (15 months to 2 1/2 years)
  • Controlled scribbling (2 years to 3 years)
  • Lines and patterns (2 1/2 years to 3 1/2 years)
  • Pictures of objects or people (3 years to 5 years)