James Cook University Subject Handbook - 2000

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ED2192:04

Teaching English in Primary School

Townsville, Cairns

Prerequisites: (ED1402 or ED1421) LD1020
Inadmissable Subject Combination: ED2101

26 lectures, 13 workshops. Second semester.

Available to all students specialising in the Primary education area at the Bachelor and Graduate Bachelor of Education level, including BEd Services (General) and BEd Professional Development (Upgrading) degree programs.

Staff: Dr G Ward (Townsville campus); Mr E Wilson (Cairns campus).

The basis for this subject is teaching children in the Primary school within subject English across the areas of listening, speaking, reading, writing and viewing, with particular reference to the Queensland syllabus in English in Years 1 to 10. Topics include a critique of several models of instruction which influence teaching across the language/literacy area, with a view to maximising learning opportunities for all children in today’s classroom; review of children’s literature; investigation of a variety of text forms; issues of language diversity and learning styles and their impact on best teaching practice; and a variety of means for assessing and reporting such learning are among the themes covered in this subject. There is a focus on meaning and relevance within the schooling and other contexts, as the basis for selecting literacy instructional techniques and materials to be used. Consideration of the profound changes in literacy demands for children today and the major role media and technology play are featured.

Learning Objectives:

  1. be familiar with the English in Years 1 to 10 Syllabus for Queensland and a range of instructional models for achieving the outcomes set out for children in the Primary shcool years;
  2. use this knowledge to build on a personal theory of English language and literacy that will inform the future classroom praxis for the teacher, including planning, assessment and reporting strategies;
  3. use materials in motivating young learners to build new knowledges in age-appropriate ways and contexts;
  4. demonstrate an awareness of the diversity in classrooms and develop ways of accommodating such diversity in the Primary English teaching and learning classroom context;
  5. highlight the use of children’s literature within a variety of genres, incorporating these in teaching across the five major elements of the subject English;
  6. develop skills at modelling how reading, writing, listening, speaking and viewing have important roles to play in life in and out of school in a variety of contexts;
  7. show an understanding of the changing nature of literacy demands today and means of teaching, assessing and reporting these dynamics.

Assessment by:

Townsville

Planning activity (30%); self-assessment (10%); two hour examination (60%).

Cairns

Writing folio (40%); workshop presentation (25%); two hour examination (35%).


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