The development of students’ skills concerning literacy can be discussed as one of the priorities set for primary education in Australia. Still, in their day to day practice, teachers can pay a limited amount of attention to developing literacy concerning interactions with peers at the Kindergarten level. As a result, there is a need for planning a programme that can address this learning opportunity for children who are enrolled in Kindergarten.
The purpose of this project is to design a learning plan related to the Communication component of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and Literacy Goals listed in the Australian Curriculum. Additional purposes for the project include the description of assessment and monitoring tools in the context of the learning programme, the discussion of the necessary adjustments to address the needs of diverse students and the critical evaluation of the learning plan with a focus on future planning.
Learning Plan: Exploring Literacy
Diversity Justification
The learning plan can be discussed as being most effective when the needs of diverse learners are addressed. The teacher’s task is to make the classroom environment comfortable for all students who study in the class (Arthur, Beecher, & Death, 2014). In the proposed learning plan, certain adjustments should be made to address the needs of two groups of diverse learners: students with disabilities and students with learning difficulties (Arthur et al., 2014; Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2014).
The needs of children with disabilities are usually addressed regarding making adjustments in the following areas: timing, instruction and activities, setting and feedback or assessment (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2014). The adjustments proposed in the learning plan for the student with visual impairment address the listed criteria.
Thus, the changes are proposed in terms of the student’s location, and the student is expected to be placed near the teacher. In this case, the teacher will be able to assist the child in working with the proposed materials. Besides, the visual cues are replaced by or supplemented with the additional audible cues that are necessary to provide the context for the student. From this point, the adjustment in terms of the instruction can be observed.
To address the needs of the student with learning difficulties, the teacher is expected to provide the child with extra time when it is needed by the student to think over questions and answers (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2014). The instruction is adjusted in terms of focusing on using illustrations that are more understandable for the child.
The assessment procedure can also be changed, because the student with learning difficulties is allowed to use short, simple sentences in his answers, and he can receive any necessary additional assistance from the teacher while responding to the questions about the discussed stories. These adjustments are necessary to make diverse children feel comfortable in the classroom and develop their skills in literacy and interactions with peers.
Effectiveness of the Learning Plan and Future Planning
The proposed learning plan can be discussed as an effective approach to develop students’ skills regarding literacy with a focus on interactions with others, as it is stated in the Australian Curriculum. While evaluating the learning programme from the perspective of the EYLF, it is possible to state that the plan provides such activities as are useful to promote the students’ communication, build connections between students, families and communities, contribute to the learning progress and develop children’s skills in reflection and peer evaluation (Council of Australian Governments, 2010). The proposed plan is based on age-appropriate activities that are important to develop students’ skills in identifying the purposes of texts, expressing opinions and interacting with other students while discussing texts.
The plan also demonstrates an effective approach to assessing the students’ knowledge and skills. Age-appropriate assessment tools and strategies are selected to evaluate the children’s progress in developing their literacy (Australian Government Department of Education, 2014; McGregor, 2013).
Records and notes made by the teacher on the students’ cards can be provided to parents to illustrate the children’s progress regarding their communication with peers, as well as concerning their interest in discussing texts. The traditional way to share the results with parents is the use of notes on paper (Arthur et al., 2014). Still, for further activities, it is important to plan the use of digital versions of records and notes that can be sent to parents with the help of e-mail.
Even though the presented learning plan is effective to achieve the set goals, more improvements are required for the future, because the current programme refers to Essential Learnings in English that are expected to be completed by the end of year 3 (Queensland Studies Authority, 2007). However, the achievements typical of children in Kindergarten and children in Year 1, 2, or 3 can differ significantly.
Therefore, the Knowledge and Understanding section of the plan also includes skills that are listed in the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline (Queensland Studies Authority, 2010). As a result, while planning other activities related to developing literacy in the future, it is necessary to refer to the standards that are presented in both of the documents that were published by the Queensland Studies Authority.
Conclusion
The project proposed in this paper presents a learning plan where the purpose is to develop skills that are associated with the Communication component of the EYLF framework. The goals of the programme are taken from the Australian Curriculum, Foundation year, to create an age-appropriate plan that can be used in the schools of Queensland.
Also, the project includes a description of the specific assessment and monitoring tools that should be used to evaluate the students’ progress. The discussion of the adjustments that are necessary to address the needs of diverse learners is also provided in the paper. The important part of the work on the learning programme is the critical evaluation of the set goals, presented activities and the listed assessment tool with the focus on future planning. Therefore, the critical assessment of the plan is also provided as a section of the project.
References
Arthur, L., Beecher, B., & Death, E. (2014). Programming and planning in early childhood settings. Sydney, Australia: Cengage Learning.
Australian Curriculum. (2016). English: Foundation year. Web.
Australian Government Department of Education. (2014). Assessing children’s learning – work in progress!
Council of Australian Governments. (2010). Belonging, being, and becoming: Educators’ Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia.
McGregor, D. (2013). Assessing children’s learning. Professional Development in Education, 39(5), 868-869.
Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (2014). Children with disability: Planning adjustments. Web.
Queensland Studies Authority. (2007). English: Essential learnings by the end of year 3. Web.
Queensland Studies Authority. (2010). Queensland kindergarten learning guideline. Web.