Tuesday, 1 October 2013

Portfolio No 4. 26/9/13 'What is a Text Participant?'


Portfolio   Week 4 -   26/9/13          Literacy and Numeracy 0-4 years      2.2          

             What is a text Participant?                                                    Cathy Stanbury                                
 This week’s workshop on ‘What is a text Participant’? challenged my own thinking. That night I continued to make my own comparison’s to our discussion even asking my husband ‘What he thought a text participant was?’ His quick reply was ‘a person who text’s on their phone.’   Could we consider the foundation for being a text participant starts with the foundation in early childhood continuing throughout life?  As an adult passionate about learning whilst facing the challenges of being a team player in a relatively new learning environment myself,  can this be seen as aligning itself with a child’s start in a  early childhood centre also  experiencing their new environment with all the challenges. 

In class we discussed text participant and its meaning with multiply lists on the ideas of what the meaning was. There was to be no right or wrong answers, which gave the group an open minded discussion on words that they thought best, described the meaning in relation to children. The words we came up with were ‘making meaning of the things a child is involved in’ supported by encouragement of parents and teachers.  

Looking at a definition of text participants: ‘someone who is active in the situation’ which brings aspects of:   interpreting, distinguishing, explanations and comparing in the environment. For the continuity of learning as a child the parent and educator need to interpret the child’s personal meaning regarding the experience for continuing scaffolded text participation.  Examples to encourage this could be:    

1.      Age appropriate resources

2.      Positive association with family relevance

3.      Familiarity

4.      Cultural relevance

5.      Child animated behaviours

6.      Childs participation in group activity
                                                                                                                          

As a text participant child or adult a key component for the user would be the use texts in real life situations:

Adults: in the workplace, leisure and social settings 

Children: in social settings, early childhood centres and schools  
 
As an educator it could easily be an option to engage children in our knowledge, skills and processes rather than using both the social practices and resources combined.

Parents and educators have the opportunity to connect and embed the real life reading practices in children regarding early stimulation for Literacy and Numeracy.


Cathy Stanbury   
http://cathysportfolio.blogspot.com.au 
References:  
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/49099/1/DOC090312.pdf
http://www.learningplace.com.au/deliver/content.asp?pid=17768 
http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&q=numeracy+text+participant+in+early+childhood&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=

No comments:

Post a Comment