Multiliteracy in Early Years - Annotated Bibliography Example

RUNNING HEAD: MULTILITERACY IN EARLY YEARS Multiliteracy in Early Years Name: Course: Institution: Date: Annotated Readings Anstey, M., & Bull, G. (2006). Teaching and learning multiliteracies: changing times changing literacies (pp. 56-81). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. The article explores how teachers can identify the characteristics of a dynamic pedagogy which would assist and ensure that their students become multiliterate. The article first explores the characteristics of a multiliterate curriculum and then identifies four areas of pedagogy (productive pedagogies) - intellectual quality, interconnectedness, supportive classroom environment and recognition of diversity- which could be improved for better learning outcomes. The article has in-depth illustrations and demonstrations of how these concepts in theory can be applied in practice and is therefore useful for a future literacies teacher in identifying the characteristics of dynamic pedagogies that would develop multiliteracies among their learners which they can use as a checklist. Bennett, K. (2011). Less than a class set. In Connelly, K (Ed) Learning and Leading in technology (pp22-23). Retrieved 8th August, 2012, from < http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20111201/#pg25> The article explores the utility of a technological innovation, the iPad, in facilitating learning in the early childhood education classroom setting. The article highlights how it can be used to improve both the instructional and learning experience owing to features such as its appeal for kinaesthetic elementary learners, its interactivity that makes it ideal for tailored instruction, its user friendliness and its potential through innovative learning-centred apps. The article essentially advocates for the creative use of the iPad and other technological innovations by future literacies teachers to support learning in the classroom, recommending that even its limitations such as cost can be offset by innovative thinking in instructional design to optimise the use of the iPads. Cloonan, A. (2005). Injecting early years teaching with a strong dose of multiliteracies, in Pleasure, passion, provocation: pleasurable learning, passionate teaching, provocative debates, Australian Association for the Teaching of English and Australian Literacy Educators' Association, [Norwood, S. Aust.], pp. 1-16. The article is a reflective account of a teacher’s experiences as she attempts to make shifts in practice to meet the challenges posed by rapidly expanding and changing literary which demands that practitioners design learning experiences which are up to date with emerging and contemporary multiliteracies. The article concludes that to remain relevant and to deliver meaningful learning experiences, language teachers have to make use of new technologies and methods to re-frame and re-organize curriculum planning and implementation for young children who are increasingly exposed to multiple literacies. The article is particularly useful for future literacies teachers as the project examined provides a working demonstration of some of the challenges they should anticipate as they apply multiliteracies theory in practice. Cook, D. (2004). Chapter 7: ICT and Curriculum Provision in Early Years. In M, Monteith (Ed.). ICT for Curriculum Enhancement (pp 100-112). Bristol, England: Intellect Ltd. This chapter examines the integration of ICT into the early childhood curriculum provision. The main argument of the chapter is that educators and adults cannot escape from the fact that young children are increasingly exposed to new literary texts due to technological changes which may impact significantly on their learning and development. Therefore, the chapter explores how ICT could be integrated into the early childhood curriculum in a manner that is appropriate for children’s learning and development. The article provides a balanced evaluation of ICT for future literacies teachers, arguing that ICT could facilitate successful learning and development but only if adults (teachers/educators included) scaffold learning by providing support and resources, challenging the learners and guiding children’s interactions with ICT. Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). Multiliteracies: New literacies new learning, Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4 (3), 164-195. This article traces the evolution of multiliteracies and the pedagogy of multiliteracies from its initial conceptions by the New London Group in the mid 1990s. The article examines how multiliteracies have changed since the original articulation by exploring how sociological and technological changes have impacted on the “why” and the “what” of multiliteracies, the increasing multimodality of meaning and the “how” of multiliteracies with respect to pedagogy which the inertia in schools is bemoaned as hindrance to successful learning. This articles’ credibility is enhanced by its extensive use of authoritative figures in multiliteracies and it provides a detailed and in depth account of the evolution of multiliteracies which future literacies teachers can use in designing and evaluating their teaching plans. Henderson, R. (2004). Recognising difference: One of the challenges of using a multiliteracies approach? Practically Primary 9 (2), 11-14. The article discusses the utility of the multiliteracies approach in helping teachers to accommodate cultural and linguistic diversity in literacy learning. It uses empirical case studies of three children of Tongan descent and their experiences in literacy learning to demonstrate how better pedagogical outcomes can be realised when teachers consider children’s cultural and linguistic diversity and integrate them into planning and implementation of their teaching plans. The article’s strength lies in the use of practical and real life examples to demonstrate how theory can be translated to practice. However, the applicability of the findings cannot be generalized since the degree of variation in cultural diversity in different in different multicultural settings. Henderson, R. (2008). Mobilising multiliteracies: pedagogy for mobile students. In A. Healy (Ed.), Multiliteracies and diversity in education: new pedagogies for expanding landscapes (pp. 168-200). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press. This chapter explores the potential of a multiliteracies approach to learning literacy that could be used for both residentially stable and mobile students. The article explores the potential of a problem-based project focusing on water issues in facilitating literacy learning among both residentially stable and mobile students. The article concludes by suggesting that approaches which connect learning with real-life experiences and which consider all elements of design are more successful in providing successful literacy learning. It is very useful for future literacies teachers as it provides a practical and real life demonstration of how they can plan for successful learning for diverse student populations. Shuker, MJ., & White, J. (2010). Literacy as social practice in ECE: An overview. Retrieved 8th August, 2012, from < http://www.educate.ece.govt.nz/learning/exploringPractice/Literacy/LiteracyAsSocialPracticeInECE.aspx> The article discusses the development of literacy from its traditional conception as ability to read and write to multiliteracies which acknowledges the significance of children’s unique cultural and social skills, knowledge and meaning making systems in becoming literate. The main argument of the article is that literacy is not static and due to sociological and technological changes, has become a social practice which has evolved from traditional reading and writing. Therefore, for future literacy teachers, it suggests that the pedagogy of literacy should be redesigned to incorporate and accommodate what it means to be literate in the 21st century by generating ways of expanding literacy as a social practice and in response to children and their families in the learning community. Stariha, C. (nd). Multiliteracy in the early years: Building links between the classroom and home to benefit children's learning. Retrieved 8th August, 2012, from < http://earlyyearsmultiliteracy.blogspot.com.au/> The article presents a proposal which outlines how children’s’ multiliteracies can be enhanced by linking learning experiences in the classroom with their wider community. The article describes a project based on various theoretical frameworks such as Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives and Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory of learning and development which focuses on five design elements of multimodal experiences that link children’s classroom experience with those of their community to strengthen learning. These elements are visual, audio, linguistic, gestural and spatial elements. While the article makes selective use of learning theories and frameworks without acknowledging competing perspectives, it is useful for future literacies teachers as it illustrates how children can be made to feel comfortable in their learning environment to improve their learning. Unsworth, L. (2001). Teaching multiliteracies across the curriculum: changing contexts of text and image in classroom practice, Open University Press: Buckingham. The first chapter of this book discusses the changing dimensions of school literacies. It argues that for students to become effective participants in emerging multiliteracies (introduced mainly through electronic technological advances), they must understand how different kinds of meanings are constructed using resources of language, image and digital rhetorics by developing knowledge about linguistic, visual and digital meaning-making systems through meta-language. Useful and concise examples are provided to illustrate meta-languages. The article is useful in informing approaches that future literacies teachers can use to develop competence and identifying the kind of knowledge such a practitioner must have. Overview /Synthesis The articles reviewed all share one fundamental premise, that sociological and technological change has redefined what it means to be literate in contemporary society. As demonstrated by by Unsworth (2001), Henderson (2008) and Shuker and White (2010), literacy has evolved from simply learning to develop competence in reading and writing and now encompasses understanding how to construct different kinds of meanings from linguistic, visual and digital meaning making systems and meta-language. Therefore, early childhood learners need to be multiliterate as sociological and technological change has increasingly exposed young learners in the early childhood education context to multiliterate texts- new forms of literary texts beyond the classroom in the children’s environment. This consequently necessitates a redesign of pedagogical approaches to literacy that not only acknowledges and accommodates the changing landscape of literacy but also supports meaningful learning and development for children (Anstey and Bull 2006). Multiliteracies theory is consistent with various theoretical frameworks such as Lev Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory which emphasizes on literacy as a social practice and one which acknowledges the role of children’s unique cultural and social skills, knowledge and meaning making systems in becoming literate (Stariha 2012, Unsworth 2001). Therefore, adults such as literacies teachers have a significant role to play in developing multiliteracy among early childhood learners. Schools and other learning institutions need to overcome inertia in literacy instruction to develop competence in multiliteracies for their learners by shifting to more dynamic pedagogies (Ansteyand Bull 2006, Cope and Kalantzis 2009). The instructional strategies and methods used should have the objective of enabling students to understand how different meanings are constructed using resources of language, image and digital rhetorics (Unsworth 2001). Particularly, teachers as educational instructors must redesign their approaches to literacy learning by prudently incorporating and linking literary experiences found in the child’s community to those in the learning context to enhance literacy learning and overall development (Stariha 2012). In the process of redesigning pedagogical approaches, they should also factor in considerations of diversity-how a child’s social and cultural skills and realities impact on their competency and learning of multiliterate texts (Henderson 2004). This includes exploring both challenges to learning and instruction such as students’ mobility or proliferation of new literary texts and identifying how this can be integrated into the planning and implementation of teaching plans to achieve better outcomes (Henderson 2008, Cloonan 2005 ). The articles reviewed have also highlighted the fact that educators cannot escape the impact of new technologies on children’s learning (Shuker and White 2010, Cook 2004). Cook (2004) and Bennett (2011) have advocated for the integration of ICT and other technological innovations to support learning in the early childhood education setting. However, they have cautioned that the introduction of ICT into the early childhood curriculum must be preceded by careful consideration of their impact on children’s learning and development and that it must be introduced based on sound knowledge frameworks and only in a manner that supports children’s learning and development. The role of the adult (or instructor) in this case is to scaffold learning by providing support, resourcing learning and guiding interactions. Bennett (2011) advocates that teachers can use technological innovations such as the iPad in a creative way to deliver more interactive learning experiences. References Anstey, M., & Bull, G. (2006). Teaching and learning multiliteracies: changing times changing literacies (pp. 56-81). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Bennett, K. (2011). Less than a class set. In Connelly, K (Ed) Learning and Leading in technology (pp22-23). Retrieved 8th August, 2012, from < http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20111201/#pg25> Cloonan, A. (2005). Injecting early years teaching with a strong dose of multiliteracies, in Pleasure, passion, provocation: pleasurable learning, passionate teaching, provocative debates, Australian Association for the Teaching of English and Australian Literacy Educators' Association, [Norwood, S. Aust.], pp. 1-16. Cook, D. (2004). Chapter 7: ICT and Curriculum Provision in Early Years. In M, Monteith (Ed.). ICT for Curriculum Enhancement (pp 100-112). Bristol, England: Intellect Ltd. Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). Multiliteracies: New literacies new learning, Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4 (3), 164-195. Henderson, R. (2004). Recognising difference: One of the challenges of using a multiliteracies approach? Practically Primary 9 (2), 11-14. Henderson, R. (2008). Mobilising multiliteracies: pedagogy for mobile students. In A. Healy (Ed.), Multiliteracies and diversity in education: new pedagogies for expanding landscapes (pp. 168-200). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press. Shuker, MJ., & White, J. (2010). Literacy as social practice in ECE: An overview. Retrieved 8th August, 2012, from < http://www.educate.ece.govt.nz/learning/exploringPractice/Literacy/LiteracyAsSocialPra cticeInECE.aspx> Stariha, C. (nd). Multiliteracy in the early years: Building links between the classroom and home to benefit children's learning. Retrieved 8th August, 2012, from < http://earlyyearsmultiliteracy.blogspot.com.au/> Unsworth, L. (2001). Teaching multiliteracies across the curriculum: changing contexts of text and image in classroom practice, Open University Press: Buckingham. Read More