ICT Is An Opportunity For Children To Apply And Develop Their Knowledge And Capability

Introduction:Within my setting, ICT is an opportunity for children to apply and develop their knowledge and capability. With my help, they can research, question accuracy of sites and exchange and share information together and through emails (we also share with a neighbouring school and have class blogs). Children are learning the fundamentals of research and electronic media, with support, guidance and safeguarding programs. They develop ideas using tools to refine work, enhance quality and accuracy, use spell checks and thesaurus.These are just some of the general requirements from National Curriculum 1999, published by QCA. In conversation with my teacher, we noted how technology has changed rapidly. We use ICT in Assembly, Role Play, across the curriculum and taking photos for evidence. Teachers are finding it easier to source programs that make learning more fun. An ICT program, namely, www. educationcity. com, covers Key Stage 1-4, all Curriculum areas, plus a Teacher Zone and is used across our school.We agreed, in the words of Blatchford, that we must provide activities to encourage children to explore the technologically of a variety of ICT tools and encourage them to apply these, for a range of different purposes. (Siraj-Blatchford and Siraj-Blatchford, 2006, p. 2). In line with National Occupational Standards expectations of Teaching Assistants in ICT, this ensures we get basic training to support pupils. (Block 5, Week 25, Activity 25. 3: School activity: observing ICT). Part One: Our class has been exploring seeds, so I based my Storybird book   around this.We covered topics in Maths, Science, Environment and Circle Time. These cross-curricular links were important for our class activity from sourcing the materials needed, to who would look after them and estimating their eventual height. The impact and effect flowers and bees had on our environment, and people’s feelings about this. I developed this story linking to friendships and secon d families, and in class extended the Maths talk, estimating the height they may grow, and eventual measurement to incorporate centimetres and inches, which we are covering this term.Linda Gillard and Virginia Whitby (2007) argue that the more prescriptive the curriculum, with guidance and requirements, the greater the potential influence it has on the way children’s subject knowledge is developed in schools. With this quote in mind, I will use this ICT site to benefit the children, using the pictures to help tell a story, and having ICT as a cross-curricular tool. We encourage children to use different strategies like story-mountains and mind maps but just having pictures and having to put words to them extend their thinking.My pedagogic subject knowledge helped me help them choose the pictures and I explained the concept to them in order for them to be able to understand. I knew they would then learn because they had chosen pictures that interested them. As Marianne Coulson , Combined Tutor Group pointed out â€Å"writing a story from the illustrations enabled me to experience what it might be like for a non reader trying to make sense of the story from using the pictures. We encourage children to use different strategies when reading to stop them becoming over-reliant on one strategy†.I learnt how to develop my ICT, enabling the children to better their literacy skills and to make choices. The children can let their imaginations rule the story. I will present this as a group activity and encourage the children to look at literacy through different modes of image and word. â€Å"The complex interweaving of word, image, gesture and movement and sound, can be combined in different ways and presented through a range of media† (Bearne and Wolstencroft, 2007, p. 21). Children develop their powers of thinking and understanding enabling them to be confident enough to develop.  (Michael Rosen, former Children’s Laureate, from DCSF, 2008, p. 2)(Block 3, Week 13, Study Guide: Talking and Listening)Daily writing develops technical proficiency, the ability to manipulate ideas and build a bank of possibilities to draw upon sparking fresh ideas to combine words, generate and select sentences and create from images (Pie Corbett, 2012). I have learnt that as adults, we already have the skills for reading but using illustrations, sounds and words is a multimodality tool. I tend not to use these different strategies and I think at first, this made my writing in Storybird difficult.I had plenty of ideas but had trouble finding images. I learnt children have far more of a free flowing attitude than adults do, and it took me a while to focus on writing around the images rather than finding an image to match my writing. Children already know much about multimodal texts from their home experiences. As teaching assistant’s it is our responsibility to build on these experiences and the children’s knowledge, recognisin g the relationships between different modes and use this in our teaching. The future of reading and writing is interwoven with the future of digital technology (UKLA 2005).For Show and Tell, I used the display we had put together on Planting. We planted seeds with the children as part of a Maths experiment to see how tall they would grow and be able to measure in cm's and inches. Children estimated the plants end height and recorded the information. Our Science lesson covered, talking about plants, bugs, bees and the environment. We use a similar ICT programme whereby the children send photographs and videos to a neighbouring school, and by refining and editing their work they are also meeting the National Curriculum (2005) QCA requirements.The children are aged six to seven and the intended learning outcomes were to see if their estimations were correct. For science, we were scaffolding the children to learn about discovery as well as communication, discovering if the plants would reach their estimated height, and communicating with each other to discuss expectations. To be able to distinguish the impact science and technology has on everyday life and environmental impacts on bee pollination and weather conditions (Block 4, week 18, Science and Technology).We represented the situation in maths to predict the outcome and add details to a graph, interpreting mathematical data (DCSF/QCDA, 2010:14) (Haylock with Manning (2010). Professionally, I thought it was good to share our approaches and the resources we use in our school setting. Taking note of comments in the forum, I delivered the show and tell to colleagues, explaining that we could use this in assessments for learning and received positive responses and feedback. (Word count: 1071) Part Two (a) Looking back at the Maths targets I identified and discussed in TMA01, I feel that my knowledge and progress in problem solving has developed.The challenge for me was the opportunity to understand the problem sol ving strategies and be able to use logical reasoning. The lack of this affected my mathematical investigations with the children and my confidence to represent and model situations using a range of tools and applying logic and reasoning. (cited Haylock with Manning, Chapter 2, pg. 21, DCSF/QCDA, 2010:14). I have progressed in thinking creatively and can understand, analyse and evaluate to solve problems, sharing my approach and solution effectively by re-reading the course material.I have learnt problem solving can relate to many different things within maths ranging from doing a jigsaw to reading a map { cited Study Guide, Week 26, Block 5, ICT (Ollerton, 2010, p. 84) } and the need to solve problems is the fundamental basis for the construction of maths. I have learnt, by reading Askew & Williams (1995) four areas of problem solving, being, Standard Problems, Non-Standard, Real-world and Puzzles, that to question the children on these, by using questioning that will help to develo p their mathematical thinking is of importance.In line with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA 2003, p. 8) I am now thinking about the children’s thought process, and the extent to which they will reveal their understanding and the language used. This will have a further impact on my support of them and my own knowledge and understanding. The most important thing I learnt in Block 2 (Week 8, Study Guide: Teaching for possibility thinking) related to maths being a rich context full of creative approaches to learning and how we, as teaching assistants, need to build on what we have previously learned.Using ‘what if’ and ‘as if’ thinking I will use creative questioning and support the children to explore what answers may be. Using the ‘shiny maths’ approach like line graphs, pie charts, 3D models and tessellation patterns to make maths and problem solving, more interesting. In compounding my subject knowledge for English, I ha ve found that my understanding and development has been re-enforced by re-reading Eyres (2007). My weakness as identified in TMA01, were Phonics and Word Classes and Apostrophes.By going over chapters 3, 4 and 8, I have come to make sense of phonics, graphemes, nouns, verbs, adjectives and the importance of how simple sentences are structured. How a word’s class can also be determined by its function of the role it plays in a sentence (Eyres (2007) p. 87-p. 89). Word classes, being the verbs, adjectives and nouns, describe English as being parts of speech.Assigning words to classes is more straightforward, for example, ‘the water run’s’, ‘water’ the verb and ‘run’  the noun and how an apostrophe can stand in for letters that have been dropped. For example ‘do not’ will become ‘don’t’ (Eyres (2007) p. 129). In Science and Technology, I have discovered collaboratively with our e-group, that there a re many sites we can use for investigation with the children. Useful facts and links can be used in conjunction with other classroom resources such as library books and working wall texts, with the idea that, children should do much more practical hands on experiments and be involved in the examination of scientific phenomena.When doing an experiment on germination, I learnt, after reading the article in Study Guide, Block 4 (Week 21, 2. 4 Observing Phenomena) by Karen Phethean (2008) giving the children a more ‘hands on’ and ‘minds on’ approach and allowing them to handle the seeds and Petri dishes made a great difference to their learning (topic pedagogy). I have gained knowledge that Science is a way of thinking and that it involves trial and error. I understand now that our conclusions can change during the lesson as we may make a new discovery through questioning the children.Howe et al (2009) suggest children need support to be creative and explore, p redict and observe and Vygotsky (1978) says communication in learning is important in the development of knowledge in which we have some understanding but are not fully confident. I feel a little out of my comfort zone when delivering Science and, although I have some sound knowledge, I need to develop along with the children and remember that science is not just a collection of facts. I have also realised that I need to question the children more to ensure they understand and allow them to give their ideas and interpretations.The use of online science and technology information has enhanced learning in my environment by allowing the children some independence to search for relevant information. This has helped me gather knowledge and understanding in cross-curricular ICT and be of assistance in facilitating children’s learning. Pedagogically, I can now put into practice the knowledge and experience I have gained through Block 4, Science and Technology including an understand ing of what makes the learning of specific topics easy or difficult: the conceptions and preconceptions that students of different ages have.  (Word count: 842)Part Two (b) Looking back at the English targets I recognized and considered in TMA01, I am now confident that my subject knowledge in Letters and Sounds has advanced. I have developed my knowledge of children’s literature and the linguistic terminology used, along with spending much time examining the letters and sounds in Phonics. Re-reading English for Primary and Early Years, Eyres, (2007) has helped my progression enormously, and I now know I am confident to apply my developed knowledge in a practical sense.I have reaffirmed phonics is the study of how sounds we make correspond to the written letter and fully understand now that readers of English rely heavily on their knowledge of letter-sound association, and an essential part of the reading process is decoding the letter symbols to reveal the sounds of the la nguage (Eyres (2007) p. 200). Although phonics appears hard to grasp, by using the right approach, it is possible to make this easier for the learners with worksheets and/or audio, through use of laptops.We must use well-prepared phonics plans that take in the phonics rules and patterns. I have further learnt that after introducing the learner to the letters, we must teach them the sounds. The phonics lesson plans must include sounds worksheets. These phonics sound worksheets must include all the 26 letters, 44 phonemes, and 120 graphemes and digraphs. I have also learnt that we use a combination of three criteria for determining word class. The meaning of the word, its shape, form and the position it has in the sentence.Word classes – nouns, verbs, adjectives etc are all used in describing English. A words class may also be concluded by its function, for example, the role it plays within a sentence (Eyres 2007 p. 89). Supporting the children in this complex subject, I first sourced http://www. bbc. co. uk/schools/teachers/ks2_lessonplans/english/word_types. shtml and we used the game to identify the roles of these nouns and verbs and to understand how they would fit into our literacy writing. This also helped reinforce my learning of the lesson plan.Once more this has assisted with my continuing ICT development, and how I can best support and scaffold the children. My pedagogy, subject knowledge and the curriculum in my setting have strengthened to enable me to encourage the children’s learning through better communication. My ‘how to’ knowledge is now better merged with the subject and I can now identify, as read in Block 1, the misconceptions and preconceptions the learners have and be equipped to make the topic understandable to the learner. (Archambault and Crippen,2009;Shulman,1986).I have developed and extended my literacy skills through this course and by reading Eyres (2007) and really feel I am building good literacy skills using feedback I have received from my mentor assessing my lesson plans and deliverance. I have extended my vocabulary through listening, talking, watching and further reading. I do realise that with pedagogical content knowledge, my own secure subject knowledge will not automatically result in children moving forward in their understanding. Pedagogical knowledge understands how students construct knowledge and acquire skills.The Primary and Secondary National Strategies, state that pedagogy is the act of teaching, and the rationale that supports the actions that teachers take to make effective teaching decisions. I have learnt that I must build on what the learners, and myself, already know and structure the pace of the lesson so that the whole class are able to access and understand the subject. In addition to this subject knowledge gained, I also feel I can now select all the relevant information I need to support the students and myself for different purposes.I now feel far mor e confident in organising essential information and ideas for the lesson and communicate effectively with the children. (Word count: 623) Part 3: Evaluation: I discussed with my mentor that my most important learning area was phonics and how I have come to make sense of this, along with graphemes, phonemes and phonics sounds worksheets and be able to support the children in this complex subject. I explained that I had learnt that English sounds and how they work are known as phonology and how spelling words reflects the sounds of language (Eyres (2007) Chapter 3, Understanding English at word level).We considered how I could use ICT programmes to deliver Phonics lessons to small groups, scaffolding multimodality (Study Guide Block 5 week 25: Overview of ICT) and supporting the children with accessing the phonics subject knowledge to enhance their learning and help develop skills for literacy. I would also access paper-based texts in the form of picture/word cards helping to develop the spoken word and to be able to hear, identify and manipulate the sounds (phonemes) to further engage the children in decoding new written words and be able to blend these sound-spellings.I explained how I felt word classes was more of strength now, but that I still needed to develop some areas of maths. We looked together at my blog and my Professional Development Folder and decided that my work based learning could be set out to enable me to work more with our maths co-ordinator to gain extra knowledge and confidence in maths. She will look at Continual Professional Development courses for me to attend, in house and outside school, to help me analyse and evaluate concepts, policies and practice within the maths subject area.We chatted about how the challenge for me in maths was being able to understand and tackle problem-solving strategies, using logical reasoning and how this affected my work with the children and my confidence to model situations applying logic and reasoning. (cited Haylock with Manning, Chapter 2, pg. 21, DCSF/QCDA, 2010:14). She praised me for being able to organise, communicate and progress in my own learning and seek and learn from feedback after observations to improve my knowledge and performance within the class setting.We talked about how I work well in a team and can evaluate different approaches to support the children where differentiation may be necessary within the lesson plan, thinking on my feet. I explained about the rest of my course in Primary Teaching and Learning and told her my goal was to complete the next step, (E214, Equality, Participation and Inclusion) and to gain my Foundation Degree and perhaps think about the School-centred Initial Teacher training course, for which she could accommodate me.I also discussed with her that I would like to gain further experience and knowledge in Special Needs Education as this is the route my job seems to be going. We discussed a three-year plan, as E214 will take me to May 20 14, and we will meet six monthly to look at goals achieved and still to be met and of course discuss how the E214 is progressing.