Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemTeaching genres in the primary school : what teachers know and do( 2000)In recent times in Australia much has been written and debated about what literacy is, what schools should teach in regards to literacy and how teachers should teach it. Teachers vary in their approaches to teaching literacy in the primary school, depending on many factors. One important factor is the quality of teacher knowledge of language and the associated capacity to use it to guide student literacy learning. This study focuses on teacher knowledge of genres and its relevance to the teaching of literacy in a Victorian Catholic primary school classroom with students from diverse language backgrounds. The concept of genres is clearly embedded in current curriculum documents, namely. the Curriculum and Standards Framework Il- English (Board of Studies, 2000). The explicitly stated outcomes consistently refer to students being able to use, analyse and control different genres and their related' structures and features. This implies that teachers need to have knowledge of genres as well as a range of strategies for teaching genres. In order to explore what knowledge teachers have about language and genres and how teachers teach this knowledge, this research involves a qualitative case study of an individual teacher in a Catholic primary school. The findings. suggest that the kinds of knowledge the teacher has about language and how to teach literacy is related to the practices adopted in the classroom and to the outcomes of student learning.
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ItemA report on the relationship between family literacy practices and attitudes and those of year one boys who were referred to reading recovery intervention after one year of schooling( 2007)An overview of recent research in Australia has found that boys perform lower in literacy-related areas of the curriculum and that gender is a key predict�r of literacy attainment. Specifically, boys comprise about two-thirds of all students referred to Reading Recovery Intervention in Australian schools. The purpose of this study therefore was to report on the literacy practices and attitudes of four Year One boys who were referred to Reading Recovery Intervention after one year of schooling and how these relate to the literacy practices and attitudes valued in their families. In particular, this study investigates how these boys appropriate those highly situated literacy practices valued in the home and then transfer them to the school context. This qualitative case study undertaken at an inner suburban Government Primary school in Melbourne (Victoria) is informed by a socio-cultural view of learning which acknowledges the significant role of family enculturative practices on children's literacy development. Unlike previous studies which have explored traditional variables such as ethnicity, race and poverty on literacy development, this research is significant because it specifically examines families with high levels of physical and cultural capital who initiate and participate in supportive and rich literacy practices in the home. Therefore, it was of interest to the study why some boys did not engage with reading and writing as their parents and teachers might have assumed.. Also, throughout this study the intention was to elicit the boys' `voice' to determine their perceptions of literacy and their own learning. Interview data were gathered from the boys, their parents and classroom teachers in the form of semi-structured interviews, responses to fictional scenarios and peephole observations of home literacy practices. McNaughton's (1995) Socialisation Model of Emergent Literacy incorporating issues of gendered preferences, guided participation and appropriation provided the theoretical and conceptual framework for data analysis. The research findings provided confirmation of strong enculturative literacy practices operating within families of the study. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated the notion of identity played a key role in the boys' literacy choices. The study also provided evidence of dissonance between the home and the school with regards to writing practices and highlighted the narrow definition of literacy operating in both these contexts.
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ItemAn investigation into one experienced mainstream classroom teacher's implementation of the early years literacy program( 2004)Within the last decade in Australia, there has been an increased commitment to improving literacy standards with subsequent focus towards enhancing literacy education in the early years of schooling. This has led to the development of classroom-based literacy programs designed to meet the needs of all learners, including ESL learners. The Early Years Literacy Program (EYLP), a Victorian literacy initiative, was developed and is currently used by early years educators in all Victorian Government Primary Schools as a resource to plan for a strategic and comprehensive approach to early literacy achievement in the first five years of schooling (DET 2002). The study reported in this thesis investigates how one experienced mainstream classroom teacher, who does not have ESL training or receive ESL support, caters for the needs of a group of ESL learners within the Early Years writing program. An aim of this study is to build on the existing limited body of scholarship and identify areas of future research concerning the ways in which the writing component of the EYLP can be implemented to cater for the learning needs of primary ESL learners. As such, this research investigation is significant as it specifically examines the implementation of the writing component of the EYLP and explores the needs of Year One and Two primary ESL learners who entered school with limited English. This is in contrast to recent research that has focussed attention primarily on the reading component of the EYLP and young ESL learners in the early years of schooling. This investigation adopts a case study approach that allows for an in-depth exploration of one mainstream classroom teacher's implementation of the writing component of the EYLP and the detailed investigation of the needs of a group of ESL learners. As part of this study, the mainstream classroom teacher's teaching practice was observed during ten one-hour writing sessions. Other sources of data included a semi- structured interview, stimulated recall notes and samples of ESL students' written texts produced over a ten week data collection period. The findings of the study suggest that while the teacher was able to identify her ESL students areas of weakness in relation to writing, and whilst she recognised some of her students' needs, she often struggled to cater fully and effectively for her ESL students' learning requirements within the daily one hour writing program of the EYLP.