My views on teaching have changed since I first entered the profession and I believe they are still evolving. Most importantly I believe that children should be happy at school, as happy children learn. Learning can only take place when children feel secure in their environment and know that if they make a mistake (with their learning or behaviour) they can use it to move forward and make different decisions in the future. Using Pratts (1998) framework these beliefs fall into the nurturing perspective. Learning it most affected by a learners self-concept and self-efficacy. I see my role is to create a classroom environment that promotes children's own interests and one that develops the relationships between students and with the teacher based on mutual trust and respect.
For a writing activity in class on recounts I wanted to ensure that all of the children had an authentic experience to write about. Using Lego they were given the challenge to build the longest bridge they could. Knowing the different personalities within the class I gave them the option to construct their bridges individually or in small groups no bigger than 3. By providing this option the handful of children in the class that were not confident with the challenge were able to utilise the skills of their peers and construct the bridge together. Also the children that were extremely confident had the opportunity to embark on the challenge independently. Due to the flexibility of my classroom timetable I was able to let the class work for longer on this task and as a result the quality of writing produced was much higher than if I had asked them to recount something from the weekend (a challenging activity for 5year olds!).
Looking back on this activity it was a safe activity that allowed all of the children to have success.
Reflecting on this task using Pratts frameworks my design of this language experience falls into the developmental perspective and the nurturing perspective.
