Observations and reflections from working with the children.

Following the first visit to the primary school, I had apprehensions about how much the children would comprehend in terms of the apps and various technologies that would be associated with making a multimodal text. However, when working with the group of five, year one children it became apparent that the children held a significant understanding and knowledge of technology. It seems that this is a result of their teachers providing the opportunity to negotiate information in multiple modes and therefore create a high level of pupil excitement and engagement (Stafford, 2011). As stated by Versaci (2001) it is the role of the teacher to provide motivating classroom opportunities. I feel the children’s motivation was reflected in the task, through their willingness to participate and offer their ideas.

However, although motivation was a positive it also links to a challenge that myself and my colleagues faced. The children were each eager to hold the iPads and be involved with the project, which meant that it was sometimes difficult to negotiate roles with the children. Therefore, when I next work with a group of children, involving technology I will lay down ground rules and duties for the children at the very beginning so that they understand the roles they will have. This way, it will ensure each child has an equal opportunity to interact with the technology and learning opportunities.

On the other hand, having the children working in groups seemed to have a positive effect on the learning as the children were able to challenge each other and therefore promote learning. This is supported by Cohen, Manion, Morrison & Wyse (2004) who state that group learning is far more effective than child-adult learning. It was evident that the children were building on each other’s ideas and therefore provide effective ‘scaffolding’ for learning (Vygotsky, 1962).

I thoroughly enjoyed working with the year one children and I look forward to viewing the final edits of our collaborative work in week twelve.

Bibliography:

Cohen, L., Manion, L., Morrison, K. & Wyse, D. (2004) A Guide to Teaching Practice (5^th edition) London: Routledge

Stafford, T. (2011) Teaching Visual Literacy in the Primary Classroom London: Routledge

Versaci, R. (2001) How Comic Books Can Change the Way Our Students See Literature: One Teacher's Perspective, The English Journal, 91, pp.61-67

Vygotsky, L.S. (1962) Thought and language, Massachusetts: MIT Press