KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Thank you so much, Georgie. What a delight it is to be here. We are so thrilled and honoured and, we thank you. Thanks to the department. And especially we wanted to acknowledge Uncle Tony's welcome, to us and acknowledge that we, we're gathered and we're on a place of Wurundjeri country and a place where children have been educated successfully for time immemorial and all that we have to learn from and with First Nations people our responsibility. So we hold that with us throughout our presentation today. So, as Georgie said, I'm Kirsty and honoured to be here. Really, from that place of, teaching and understanding the daily life of a classroom.
DR KARYN CARSON:
And, I'm Karyn, I'm a, speech pathologist. And I guess one of my goals in life is to teach children how to talk back. So, I'm glad that joke landed amazing. So this morning, we were, all very, very honoured to be able to listen to Professor John Spencer and professor, Deborah Phillips, providing us with some valuable insights into how children's early experiences can shape both the structure and function of the developing brain. And as many of you may already be aware, the Victorian Department of Education is currently developing a professional learning program focused on intentional teaching, which will be released later this year. And today, Kristy and I, we get to share with you, some elements of the first two modules in this upcoming, professional learning program. So today we're going to look, look at what is intentional teaching together. Then we're going to look at intentional teaching through the lens of language and literacy. And then our goal is to bring intentional teaching to life through an interactive encounter. So shall we get started, Kirsty?
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Yes, we will and have to say before we dig into it, it’s been such a joy to collaborate. And we hope that you enjoy this sort of dialogic approach, and we will stop and pause and discuss and play as well. But we've really learned through the dialog, through our collaboration about bringing our different knowledges, but also perspectives, together as you do as well. So we really, invite you as we traverse this afternoon to share those perspectives. You bring a lot of wisdom and ideas and questions and curiosities to this space. So it's such an opportunity to delve into that, particularly when we've been very empowered this morning. And it really heightens that idea of our responsibility. But that optimistic gaze that came with it, as well as the opportunities that we are afforded with the roles that we have. So we wanted to sort of begin by looking, and placing that bigger picture, that idea that we contextualise all of this information because you come from varied places, local, urban, regional context. So everything we share with you is an opportunity to bring that back to those values and beliefs that you hold. True to your context. We have a philosophy, you know, for a very good reason. And that is our compass that guides that, the decisions we make that are purposeful that are very intentional, that we've heard this morning, but also guide the responsiveness that we have, the unplanned nature of what it is to interact with children too. So you as leaders, you're here, you build those communities that rest, on those values and beliefs. And so this is an opportunity today to really listen to yourselves and those questions that are bubbling to the surface around what is it that you will explore, and what are the conditions that you will create? When we've been talking about the importance of the environment and that intentionality for childrens learning, but of course, as well for adults learning. So, as is stated in the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development framework, you know, we’re thinking about the holistic nature of learning, that learning is very interconnected and transdisciplinary. And we are, when we think about that holistic nature and we'll share some examples as we go along, we are also making choices connected to our values and beliefs about what we want children to encounter. As you heard Deb talk about, we are making choices. It doesn't happen by chance. We are making choices about what we believe is important in our context for children to encounter. So if you look at this, image, for example, and I'm grateful to Cornish College, where I taught and led for ten years, who was very generous in the way they allow me to share these stories. But you might be wondering and thinking about that intentionality. And some things are really obvious. You can imagine, the mathematical sort of thinking and spatial design, the collaboration, the communication. But then we're of course, open to the unexpected. We use, you know, intentionally open ended materials because it's inclusive in nature. Children can bring their identity to something. It's not steering it in a particular direction, but it invites connection and interpretation. So that's that identity piece honouring children's uniqueness. So that questioning and analysis, after we observe children's encounters, when we think about that planning cycle, helps us make decisions in the moment, but also afterwards as well as we progress the learning forward. So today we've been reminded of that importance of neuroscience, and it's probably confirmed some things for you, but also really reminded or put the spotlight on things that or new information. I know certainly I've taken copious notes that I'm going to revisit and come back to and that idea of the critical nature. And I think it does just remind us of the value of the work that we do. And to be in conversation with our families and the importance of our profession, the importance of this being education and care. So always thinking about what are these big ideas that we've heard today? How does this translate to daily life into daily practice? So that we hope that through our dialog today and examples that we're sharing, we've got a few videos, local videos to share with you too, that you'll, that will bring that into the daily life of the classroom in our context. So let's take a moment to pause. Let's take a moment to reflect on the morning that we've had. Let's draw on what you know already true and share as a collective. What are those phrases? What are those terms? What are those current understandings that you have around... So what is intentional teaching to you? How are you living that each day? What does that look like for you and what are your beliefs? So you have the Slido app. But this time we've turned it off. So it's anonymous okay. So what we're doing is inviting you. So everyone's going to do that now. So grab your phones. This is the first interactive little moment. And you're going to scan that and add it in. And the responses are going to come up. Because this is this beautiful opportunity where we encounter each other's knowledge, ideas and perspectives, and we grow because of the other. We grow because of the community of learners that we are. So just take a moment and you can be in conversation if you want to. You don't have to do this alone, but share your current thinking. And then we'll see this beautiful, growing, thinking together on the screen in a moment. So chat, share and just be in conversation for a while and then we'll see what comes up. And the magic at the back will happen soon where they bring up the screen. So I can see it here, which is exciting, but not up on the big screen yet. I'm sure it's coming. Oh you can see it on your phones.
R KARYN CARSON:
And on screen.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
There we go. See, we had faith we're optimistic and hopeful. Look at all of these ideas. Yeah. Wow, it's hard to keep up with them. Individualised. And I think that idea of, you know, we always see the uniqueness in children are responsive. I think Deb talked about that today, that metaphor of the orchestra. And we are in tune with the different ways and the different instruments and adjusting according to that.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Using our materials and our environment and those opportunities there.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Meaningful and purposeful. When I think that's really critical, that language about learning, not leaving it to chance that we heard this morning too, that we are cognizant of what learning possibilities exist in certain situations. And we are in tune for that. We're prepared. We prefigure, what might happen, and that happens through those relationships too. Meaningful starting points. There’s some really great ideas in here. And hopefully you get to, keep this. I'm not sure how Slido works in terms of how long you have access to this, but I think this is a really fantastic data to revisit.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Responsive teaching as well.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Yeah. Cultural that cultural responsiveness I just saw in there. And, you know, seasonal changes. And of course, we can think beyond the Western calendar in those and look at Wurundjeri seasons, for example, being responsible to place based pedagogy.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Family included I like that one.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
That intentional partnership with our families. So we're in a reciprocal relationship. And what we wanted to draw attention to in this too is, when we know this, how do we ensure that we have consistency in our contexts? And perhaps break down some of the myths. Because as leaders, you would no doubt encounter this. That people come in thinking perhaps to our teams that intentional teaching is about that direct, academic rather than that intellectual, holistic, listening. And as Deb shared, that integrated approach, the metaphor of the rope. Wow, this could keep going for the rest of our talk.
DR KARYN CARSON:
It’s amazing.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Yeah. The ZPD’s come up, the Vygotsky and yes, the scaffolding, the tuning in, the stretching children to beyond. And how children might do that with each other as well. Right I think yeah...
DR KARYN CARSON:
That's great. Yeah. Okay.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Thank you. I think we might move to the next slide and people can keep an eye on that. And hopefully, someone can get back to us if we can share this data in some way. Because I think it would be fantastic for people to have access to and to revisit. So let's let's take this to when we think about curating or designing environments for children, whether they're indoors or out or beyond. And this is an example, I'm connecting to the module that has been created around intentional teaching, the first module that is launching. And this is in a three year old setting at Cornish College Early Learning Centre. And this has been intentionally designed to connect children to the vegetable garden that's happening outside. So it's a way to to slow down and be with some ideas to further to support that inquiry learning. Now, this is where we have that content in mind, that we are very intentional about some of those concepts that we want children to encounter, such as growth and change and cycles, but it's done in an appropriate way where they can touch and feel and observe, and we're going to be intentional about the language of predicting and theorising and inviting different perspectives and time. John this morning talked about pace. You know, that pace to be that pace to sit and wonder and be curious and to share. And you can see the system that sits there to around the documentation that we know is such an important part of the planning cycle that we are intentional and purposeful about what we're documenting and why. What are we looking for? And you can see there in that environment, that little nook, there's a link to a song, a favourite song, that sung that's a connecting piece. So it's language shared in that multimodal way. Opportunities to connect to tangible objects that we know. Concrete is so important for very young children. So hopefully that gives you a bit of a sense of one way. There are, of course, many ways, of curating that very intentional environment that also creates space for responsiveness.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Amazing. Alright. Thanks, Kirsty. So we've talked a little bit about what is intentional teaching and bought all of our, ideas and thoughts together. Now, what I'd like to do is, have a look at intentional teaching through the lens of early language and early literacy development. So before we kind of move on to this part of our journey, I want you to cast your eye over the screen in front of you and just just to yourself, take a moment to self-reflect about the questions on the screen. So how do you currently feel in regards to your familiarity when it comes to how early language and literacy skills develop? Do you feel confident in knowing what types of skills I need to maybe be zooming in on a little bit? And how I might intentionally teach, observe, and program towards those? How curious do you feel about this space? So take take a wee moment just at your tables to have a wee reflection about that. Alright. How did we all go? You can give me give me a thumbs up is a win. Alright. Give me a bit of a nonverbal urr. Not so good? Good? Thank you for your feedback. Awesome. I love the area of early language and literacy development. It's a place that I'm constantly learning and navigating. Because all the children that I get to work with, they're all like all children, so individualised. So when we're looking at, intentional teaching and in our early childhood settings, how we can use our observations, our teaching approaches, our assessment and our programing, we can be guided by seven key areas of early language and literacy development. And many of these areas may already be quite familiar to you. So one important area is our oral language skills. So how well our children tracking in this space. So this is their ability to understand and use their spoken language, to communicate. And as human beings, we are hardwired to be communicators. We want to look at their expressive vocabulary. So this is the words children have and the depth and breadth of those words, when they're speaking to express their thoughts, their thinking, their feelings and their ideas. We want to look at an area that I really, really love, which is called phonological awareness. So this is a child's ability to kind of tune in and play around with the sound structure of a spoken word so we can be aware that, words might have syllables or beats. So you might see children clapping out the number of beats or syllables in their name, or in words of heard in a story or in a book. We can support children with listening to the rhyming components of words, and we also want to see how children are tracking when, when they're able to start to listen for those individual sounds and words. So for example, my name is Karyn. My sound might be ‘Ka’ for example. We also want to look at how children are going with their comprehension of spoken information and the printed world around them. So how are we going with following instructions? Are we following short, simple instructions? Can we follow instructions that have multiple steps? Are children able to make sense of a story that they've been listening to? We also want to make sure we're bridging that spoken world into the printed world. So when we're reading books, we want to make sure we're a modeling some of those print conventions. So, you know, where's the title of the book? Where's the top of the book? We read from top to bottom and left to right. With emergent reading skills we want to see how children are engaging with text. So even before children are learning how to decode words, we want to see, are they picking up those storybooks and having a go at retelling that story, using their narrative skills and using that to interact with their peers? And also, we want to have a look at how those pre-writing skills are going. So where are the opportunities for making marks, using symbols, scribbling and drawing. And as just getting my clicker working here. Now it worked, well, done me. So we've had John this morning and Deborah talk about how important, early learning experiences are and also touching on early language and, literacy experiences as well. So we want to make sure that we really are being intentional in this particular space, because we know that language is foundational for thinking and learning. So it helps children to understand and communicate concepts. To solve problems and be an active participant in the learning experience. So we know that strong oral language skills, they can help us predict early success in areas like math and science, because children are able to use those skills to follow along with the instructions and the learning content, ask questions to seek out more information, and also just participate in those conversations and be curious. Socially, we know that language development allows children to express themselves and to form relationships and really strong peer connections from a literacy perspective, we know that our spoken language system, particularly skills like phonological awareness and vocabulary, they lay that foundation for children to become successful readers as they're transitioning into that schooling journey. And we know that children who are, moving out of the early childhood phase and into more formal schooling experiences, if their language skills are strong, they have more resources to take on that classroom environment. And perhaps most importantly, we know that language skills have really strong links to lifelong outcomes. So there are more doors open in terms of where you want to go with your education. There are more doors open when we look at career opportunities and importantly, mental health and wellbeing as well. So given how important these areas are, let's take a moment to look at how we can be intentional when we're trying to support children with their early language skills. And once we've looked at some examples, then we're going to throw it over to you guys with a video to have a look at and work together at your tables. So what could intentional teaching practices look like to support language growth? We can look towards our environments. So what resources do we already have in place? So in our physical environments, for example in a sandpit we might have scoops, funnels, buckets, dump trucks, you name it. And in those contexts, we can be really intentional with teaching the language of basic concepts like, empty and full, first and last. We can teach action words like, I'm pouring, I'm digging, I'm stomping. We can also look at textures. It's soft, bumpy and smooth. We can also look towards, what opportunities are available in the materials, around our, learning spaces so we can connect spoken language to the printed world by having books in almost every space you can imagine. We could have, cooking books in the home corner. We could also have nature books out in the garden with the goal to, invite that spontaneous conversation deepen vocabulary across contexts, and also link reading behaviours as part of everyday experiences. We can also look towards our rituals and our routines to help build language. So, for example, in a morning group gathering, you might have a welcome song. And those opportunities, help children to learn language in a repetitive and predictable way. And those words have been highlighted a lot today. It also helps children who might not be feeling quite as strong in their language skills to participate, using repeated phrases and feel confident in that process. Other ways we can be intentional. And this is the next area that I absolutely love, and I hope you love it too, is how we use our interactions ourselves. So, when we are engaging in rich serve and return opportunities, that that's the basis and that's the building block. We want to get that communication going backwards and forwards, and that provides this really beautiful foundation for us to be able to model our language. So we want to do more than serving and returning. We want to think about the quality of the language we're giving back. So it might be, for example, as Deborah said, in a year we might actually have children spanning three year levels. If I was to give you the example of a very young child saying, you know, big truck and they're in the sandpit, we might modal back. Yes, it's a big yellow truck or it's a recycling truck. And sometimes we, we want to model rich language, and sometimes it might just be a couple more words than what that child has with the objective of showing them what's that next step in their language learning journey. When we're also modeling our rich language backwards and forwards, we want to be mindful of the questions that we're using as well. And this is also come up several times today, which is beautiful. So we want to be asking those open ended questions to spark curiosity, to get children thinking, and then to come back and give us more, more language in return. And we also want to be shaping our own language to support children with not only serving and returning with ourselves, but also serving and returning with each other and building that social language base. Because we are social beings and we need to have that social language to thrive throughout, throughout our life. So without further ado, we now have an interactive video. So we want to put all this information into practice, taking all the wonderful information we've learned from, John and Deborah this morning and from Kirsty and we want to watch this video of, four year olds in a kinder setting and they’re working together to make focaccias. So what we'd like you to do is use your device or have a pen and paper on the desk. And we want you to note down as you watch this video, what are the intentional teaching strategies that this teacher uses to support the children with, growing and using their language? So you might think about how the environment is set up, the types of materials the teacher has. And you might also want to think about how the teacher is adjusting their own language and going at the children's pace to model increasing, increasing language growth. And then afterwards, once we've watched this, we're going to break away for about five minutes in our tables to have a chat, and then we'll come back together. So let's see if I can make this play for you guys. Oh, I just press it again.
VIDEO BEGINS
(Description: Teacher with children in a kitchen environment teaching them how to make focaccia).
TEACHER:
You can make two things. Why are we making two focaccias today, Henry? We need enough for everyone don’t we? Alright. So we're going to start by making sure that we get some water. We're going to do two cups of water. So can we figure out where the two cup line is? You’re pretty good at this job. Do you reckon you can help us?
CHILD:
This is the two cup thing!
TEACHER:
The two cup line. Now I'm going to get some water to start us off. Alright Hazel would you like to pour that into one of the bowls? I might get Henry to pour it in too. Excellent. What was that, sorry? We’ll all take turns with all the ingredients. Don't worry you will get a turn at things too. We make sure we share the jobs don’t we?
CHILD:
Yeah we always share the jobs.
TEACHER:
We always share the jobs And Henry's right here. Ready to pour this carefully my friend. What do you think we need next? We usually put the flour in straight away.
CHILD:
Yeah.
TEACHER:
I think we might need to get some other things bubbling away. We bubbled it the other day. Was anyone there?
CHILD:
Yeah I was.
TEACHER:
What did we do? What was the bubbling? The yeast?
CHILD:
Yeah!
TEACHER:
We need the yeast in there that's right! So maybe we'll start with, these two, which are...
CHILD:
Salt and sugar!
TEACHER:
Alright.
CHILD:
We did two.
CHILD:
It’s getting all salty.
TEACHER:
It’s fun to watch it. We’ll pour it into the bowl.
CHILD:
Yeah.
TEACHER:
Why is it so fun to watch it pour into the bowl?
CHILD:
Because it gets fizzier.
TEACHER:
It's fizzier.
CHILD:
We need to make it fizzy and bubbly!
TEACHER:
Okay, let's do some some of that. Do you remember what it’s called?
CHILD:
Yeast!
TEACHER:
Yeast. What does yeast do?
CHILD:
We all get to do it!
TEACHER:
We all get to do it. There’s no mixture? Oh, it looks like there’s no mixture. We can’t see the line as well like we can on this one. Should we see if there's much bubbling going on?
CHILD:
Yeah!
TEACHER:
You seeing bubbles? Do we have a bread song? Bake the bread, bake the bread. So we need to maybe there's some words that we could have for a bread song. What words? That's good. Bake the bread. What other words would you add for baking baking a bread song?
CHILD:
The flour in!
TEACHER:
Put the flour in?
CHILD:
Put flour on top of the bread!
TEACHER:
Put flour on top of the bread, Henry any ideas?
CHILD:
The same tune as a song!
TEACHER:
The same tune as a song? Okay, we might need to write these words down to try and come up with a bread song later. But now I'm really ready to add flour. What do you think?
VIDEO ENDS
DR KARYN CARSON:
Amazing. So we'll give you about five minutes now at your tables to have a chat about the types of intentional, teaching practices that, that you think you saw in that video. And if you are online, you're going to be broken out into some online classrooms to have a chat. So we'll give you a moment to do that. And then Kirsty and I'll come together and share with you some of our thoughts around this video. Alright. So how did we all go? You can give me some feedback if it's thumbs up for good. I'm alright with this one too. Thumbs up. We got a few nonverbals thumbs up happening. Love it. Thank you. Can see one right down the back there. Epic. Alright so Kirsty what did you notice?
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Well first of all, I just I mean, we were just talking about how we would have loved to have, heard your perspectives. It's such a big group. And of course, people online at home, a roaming mic would have been a little problematic. So we just want to acknowledge that we would be very interested and are interested in your perspective and what you noticed. And we were having this similar conversation up here, and we had a previous one too, of course. But the the first thing I just felt, I guess it's that felt thing is that it was just that shared humanity moment in a sense, like these were people together and this teacher and children were human beings interacting. And that I guess that honouring who children are and their competencies, it just felt that, you know, that competent, capable child, that we use that language often. But do we pause to think about what that looks like in practice? And that's part of that intentionality, how we’re honouring the beliefs about children and childhood that we have. So it felt very I’m going to sort of use the word nonhierarchical in a sense, you know, that serve and return was really going on. So that was, that's the first thing that came to mind for me.
DR KARYN CARSON:
I guess when we've got our teacher here engaging in that consistent serve and return and, and a well-balanced conversation we could see that he was supporting skills such as sequencing, eliciting language using here open ended questions linking his language to symbols. For example, when asking about can you find the two mark line? And that little learner was like, oh, I got this. Vocabulary. You know, we're pouring. We've got yeast and linking it to that sequence of, you know, a homely activity of making bread together.
And the fizzing. Did anyone talk about the fizzing? You know, that's such playful, inviting language, isn't it? That's very relatable to something that's moving and changing and so interesting for children. So yeah, you could really see them kind of light up at that.
DR KARYN CARSON:
That’s right. Exactly. You also asked lots of, factual questions, but also questions that required some inferencing as well, which I thought was beautiful. And, you know, also, making sure all the children could see the materials had access to those materials as well, and getting the children to take turns amongst themselves to build their social language as well.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Did anyone talk about the song, the song that they were creating? Yeah. You know that I get to visit a lot of different contexts, and I, I'm seeking and looking for the singing, not Spotify, not YouTube, but the singing out in the garden, the spontaneous creating songs together. You saw the creativity going on there, you know, the innovation, all interconnected. You know, we're putting a spotlight on language and literacy here, but it's interconnected with so much. And so where’s, you know, we've I feel like we've lost that art of singing spontaneously and in the moment with children, I can't sing, but I think it's such an important part of what we do. And so that's, an invitation I have to you to bring that curiosity. Where does singing, sit in your context? Because it's so relational and it's such an important strategy and we're very intentional about it. That was intentional by that teacher to invite. And that's that multi modal approach to learning.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Exactly. Wonderful. Shall we move on?
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Yeah. So we come back to that you know putting that spotlight on language and literacy and I'll say it again it's a spotlight. But it's always interconnected. And this is another example in a three year old setting. From Cornish, I was lucky enough to be a teaching director, leading. So I had that, you know, foot in both camps, in both worlds, which was beautiful. And this was an intentional, experience when we noticed children, at the painting easel really spending a bit of time inquiring into what happens when they mix colours. So that’s that observation and, thinking, what do we do with this inquiry that's going on? And so let's set up another context where they can explore this idea. And I pay attention to idea or ideas that the children are exploring of the concepts of colour, and change. So intentionally put together so that can work individually, but encounter each other's ideas and, that beautiful sort of mirroring that might go on or being inspired from each other in collaboration. But what we didn't plan for was the fact that what this became more about was children naming and being playful with the identity that they were giving the colours. And you probably encountered this too, that grassy, grassy, green, greeny, greeny green, green, green, green, grassy green. And so we respond to that moment, to see... We pay attention. I love that idea that John talked about, that we pay attention to children's attention. And those that know the work of Ann Pelo, From Teaching To Thinking. She talks about this too. Joining our attention to children's attention. And so even though the intention and it is still happening, they're still encountering, change and colour. But on top of that, and what's beautifully complex about the learning is it springboards into this language experience so we can choose to pay attention, to honour that. If you were going to name that, what would you name it? If you were going to give it a name or an identity, what would it be? So we can choose with our planning, with our observation to keep inviting children back, to that thinking. So we're listening. So that listening, seeking to understand what's going on behind the children's play, let's not take it at surface level. And that's where we bring our perspectives together, because what I see is going to be different to what Karyn sees. And so we get a richer picture of what is going on because of that collaboration. And we might do this with children too. We're inviting them to notice each other. So that expands the horizon of their learning experience. And when noticing and naming the learning. And that's part of the intentionality. And it could be that we are noticing and naming the concepts, you know, what do you see happening there? What do you think? Like we saw in the previous, teacher with the focaccia who was inviting children to, share their ideas, their knowledge, but also to predict, what do you think will happen, who's got a different idea? So we're embracing and inviting difference, which is we know such an important part of learning all in this little pocket of paint. It's right. But so much sits around that if we choose to see it. And this is such an important part of intentional teaching. We had an idea, we had an intent, but we remain open to how children respond. And we choose, and it's not a right or wrong in my opinion. We either invite children back to this because this we think it's very important to encounter, or we also make a choice in the moment or later to come back and pay particular attention to the naming. This playful, approach to naming and giving and categorising something as well. So this next bit brings in the role of documentation. And I know this is something everybody grapples with and seeks systems and looks for ways to honour the learning processes of children. This is in relation to a beautiful video that I just don't have the, permission to share with you. But I want you to imagine two four year olds, painting at the easel. So it sort of connects to this idea and they're, painting together and they're mixing their brushes together, and then they're starting to really invent and play with language as well. And you can see it up there. It's sort of circled and there's lots going on, collaboration and connection and playfulness and noticing change and someone's leading someone's following and, you know, Dash is saying darkish, darkish, darkish green. You know, please use your imagination. And so this, it starts to become contagious, this playful nature of, the language really, really, really, really greenish. And then I invite them if you were going to give... It was a beautiful masterpiece. If you’re going to name this painting, what would it be? Rainbow. Awesome. Rainbow. Really awesome. So that idea of the analysis that you can see, down the middle, I'm not a box planner, but sometimes little prompts help us to have insight into what's going on, but you can see that with the analysis here. One of the things that's really stood out to us is that playing with sounds, and so we know that sounds and playing with sounds comes up with children's playful explorations, doesn't it? Whether it's the sandpit, out in puddles, jumping in puddles, Splish, shush. But here it was happening at the painting easel. So, one of the things when we think about that planning cycle, that responsiveness, not the what's next box, but what are we thinking in response to this? What do we keep an eye on? What are we choosing to pay attention to? So we collaborate and there's many possibilities because we know learning is complex and layered and interconnected, but we make a choice. And that's in relation to the children, how we’re getting to know them, our relationships and what Deb said in terms of that, that continuum or that continuity of learning and having an understanding of what they've already encountered and how we want to stretch them, take them beyond where they are. And so that's part of that. Part of that decision making processes that we make, as a team together, when we're planning and assessing, not just children's learning, but what we're doing, as a whole.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Alright. So we've got another, I really like this video because as Kirsty was speaking about before about collaborating and have different, differing perspectives when we were watching this video together, our perspectives were, they were similar, but we saw different things as well, and we're like, oh, that's interesting. So we wanted to share this video with you as another opportunity to look at intentional teaching practices. And this time we're outside playing, and there's a lot of imaginative play coming through in this particular, situation. So this time again at your tables, as you're watching the video, just note down what you’re seeing. After this particular video, we won't break out again. But, Kirsty and I will walk through a little bit of what we saw in this particular video.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
And just before we play… I just, a thought popped into my head with intentionality. And part of my curiosity is often, where are we most intentional? And I wonder sometimes whether the outdoors and I know that's not the same in all contexts, that it becomes the place where there's less intentionality. It's seen as a space of, oh the children can run, and we have to supervise. And perhaps there's less intentionality around the design of the environments, what we're listening for, what our role is in those interactions. So it's a curiosity. There's a lot of strong practice in the outdoors. Absolutely. But it's just that point of reflection and perhaps as leaders as to assess and almost audit what is when we're planning how much attention is paid to the outdoors or the beyond when you go out in your communities as well? How much intentionality sits there in terms of learning and wellbeing?
DR KARYN CARSON:
Amazing. Alright. Are you ready to watch the video? Lets go.
VIDEO BEGINS
(Description: Children play in an enclosed outdoor environment).
CHILD:
I'm pretending that I’m at college.
CHILD:
I'm having a lollipop
TEACHER:
Are you going to be a shopkeeper? Are you going to be a customer?
CHILD:
Mmm, shopkeeper.
TEACHER:
Is that your seat? Is my…what can we use as money?
CHILD:
Uuh, a leaf?
CHILD:
A big leaf.
TEACHER:
A big leaf?
CHILD:
Like like these. Like these.
TEACHER:
Oh okay.
CHILD:
And, also like other leaves like these.
TEACHER:
Alright. What kind of things do you have available to buy?
CHILD:
Pretend to sell a real magic wand.
CHILD:
So, we have a real magic wand.
TEACHER:
Yeah. Two real magic wands.
CHILD:
And, this is a nature shop.
TEACHER:
Yes.
CHILD:
The, we have two magical wands and others, and some leaves from nature and we... And we have a bit of bark from a tree.
TEACHER:
Are you going to sell that? So that's like little chocolate pieces.
CHILD:
Cookies.
TEACHER:
Can I buy one chocolate cookie?
CHILD:
I wanna be the customer.
TEACHER:
What are you going to buy?
CUSTOMER:
I want to be the customer I'm the customer.
TEACHER:
I’m gonna buy a wand. Esme wants to buy a magic wand.
CHILD:
Okay. That will be 5 dollars, please.
CHILD:
I mean, it's two dollars. Which one would do you want, this one or this one?
CHILD:
That’s the one I want.
CHILD:
I’m the shopkeeper.
CHILD:
And also we have a rock. And some nature...
VIDEO ENDS
DR KARYN CARSON:
Alright. Given that video is pretty awesome, we're going to give you about maybe 3 or 5 minutes to have a have a wee chat at your tables about the types of intentional teaching practices you saw, and I'm really excited to, once you've had that chance to have a chat, for Kirsty and I to kind of share our lens on it. So go ahead and have a wee chat about that video and let us know your thoughts. Alright. Let's come back together again. Hopefully everyone's going well. Give me some feedback. Yes. In the front row. Anyone at the back row? Oh, well, we could almost do a Mexican wave. Oh. That would be exciting. Alright. I hope you really enjoyed that video and having a chance, to collaborate. So when we were looking at this video, I guess one thing I particularly love as a bit of a speech geek is, the way this particular educator gave that space and moved it at pace, as has been talked about earlier this morning, particularly around when you're hearing some what we call natural disfluency. So, you know, between 3 and 4 children's language systems are really growing. And it's really common to hear children almost sounding like they’re stuttering a little bit. But there are natural periods of that happening as the language system grows. And what I found really beautiful about this particular video is how the educator, kind of just gave that space because sometimes we might want to jump in and help out a little bit too early. And I guess this links back to autonomy that, John talked about earlier, but really just gave that space, let those words come out in their own time. And then off we’re going again with those rich serve and return interactions. What about you, Kirsty?
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
I...the thing that stood out to me... But also I was just thinking as I was listening to you, isn’t that so good to have someone with that expertise that we can learn from? And I know we encounter that a lot with our Allied Health, but, it's so important that we learn and develop that content knowledge, not just content, but that sort of. Yes, lean on that to expand our repertoire of understanding because it's so, so critical. So, sometimes it's a reminder of what we've encountered before. So thank you. To me, I just, love the symbolic nature of the play. You know, that idea of children's imagination and their interpretation. And look what they were playing with, wasn't toys. It was some sticks and some leaves and some tanbark and a rock. But what, you know, that educator played a very important role in down on their level interacting, responding that serve and return. But it really sustained the play. And that's what we really want to build that sustain shared not just thinking, but the interaction.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Exactly.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
That focus, that concentration and what unfolded and developed because of that. So I think the types of resources that we’re intentional about using, whether it's the cooking and seeing opportunities in those open ended materials, whether they're natural or collected. But I think all of these are interconnected parts of the environment that really support the message that we're giving here. So we're making choices. We're being really intentional about that.
DR KARYN CARSON:
And lots of open ended questions as well. Getting the children to engage backwards and forwards so that it's not just us serving and returning, but everyone is doing it together as a team.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Yeah. And that presence, I think when we think about our, dispositions, I guess our why and we know it's hard sometimes, but the best that we can be is that being really present and certainly in my experience, I find children are so perceptive. They really know if you are present or not and they respond accordingly. So I interpreted that he was very, very present, in that moment too.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Exactly. Alright. So we've talked a lot about, language. And so now we want to kind of shift the, the lens a little bit and look at early literacy, but acknowledging that language and literacy and children's development in general are all intricately connected. So when we want to be, we want to bring in intentional teaching practices that zoom in on linking a child's spoken world to the printed world. So there's so many ways we can do this, so many opportunities in our early learning spaces. So we want to have really rich literacy environments. So what this means is surrounding children with meaningful opportunities to engage with language and print. So this could be having labels on toy baskets. It could be having lots of print on the wall. It could be, you could even have a label on a window if you wanted saying window. So think about all the opportunities that are available to kind of label the environment using symbols and text. We can also use our planned experiences. So these are really valuable times to model early literacy concepts. One of my favourites would be using shared book reading time. So I'm just going to bend down for a second because I've got something I prepared earlier. I'll get Kirsty to help me. So we've got some books. Who loves books? Yay! Amazing. I'm sure everyone has their favourite types of books. Books that I particularly love because I'm so interested in how children acquire their emergent literacy skills. I love books that not only teach children how to tell a story and be involved in the story and be an active participant, but also those stories that link playing with sounds and into print, providing that phonological awareness and that map that children will eventually use to start learning how to read and write conventionally. So some examples of some really great books if you want to focus in on, rhyming words. Who knows Llama Llama Red Pyjama? Yeah. Do you like it? Yes. Okay. Amazing. So with any of the books we have, we can read them multiple times, provide that repetition and routine. But as, what was discussed earlier today, we can be flexible in that as well. So we might read to understand the story a few times and then we might go back and hey, let's have a go at highlighting all the words that rhyme and sound a bit the same at the end. So I've got, you know, Llama Llama Red Pyjama. So nice rhyming words all throughout different types of text, text books or early, children's books as well. And then you can extend that through your planned experiences to your environment. You might have, laminated pictures from the book, for example, or some, some toy llamas with other animals, and they might be, able to act out a story using, props. Other books...
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Puppets.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Puppets, puppets I’ll go with puppets. Puppets are really good also for kids who do struggle with their speech and language, because sometimes it's it's using someone else to talk. It's not necessarily all the the pressure on them to speak. So puppets are great. Wonderful books, you can look out for books that aim to, highlight the letters, our printed letters, our alphabet letters represent our spoken speech sounds. So I particularly love Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Familiar with this one? Yes. Amazing. So we've got, alphabet letters that love to go up to the top of the coconut tree, knock each other around a little bit, and we end up with the whole alphabet that in a playful way, we're intentionally showing children that, hey, these alphabet letters, these early symbols, they create speech sounds that we use to communicate. And one of my, my all time favourites, really like this one. Did You Take The B From My _ook? It's so good. If you haven't got this one, I would recommend this one. So I'll give you a bit of an example. So what happens is it shows us a little bit of the initial sound identification. So that really important part of phonological awareness which is called phoneme or sound awareness where you can hear, start to hear those little individual sounds and words. So it says I love my ed and the kids are like, it's not an ed, it's a bed, it's the ested ed in the whole wide world. And children love it because you're drawing their attention to those first sounds and words and being really consistent with ‘B’ in this book. But it's also fun, you know, they love...
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Playful.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Playful, it's playful. So think about through your planned experiences, the types of books that, you could weave into what you already, have. We can also use our daily routines. These are powerful platforms because they allow for repetition and predictability, which is a theme that keeps, keeps coming up. So, for example, you might look at routines such as if you're moving from a small gathering to washing your hands at lunch or eating times, you might encourage children to take their turn based on the number of beats or syllables they hear in the name. And obviously, these things would need to be scaffolded to start with. We can also be intentional with how we teach our print concepts. So as I mentioned, we can read books in so many different ways. The story drawing attention to the sound structure, syllables, rhymes and phonemes. But we can also be very intentional with running our finger along under the letters. So we're showing children, hey, these are the printed words that tell the story, and the pictures help us tell the story, but these ones are the letters that also tell the story. And we can be, very clear that I'm going to read from the top up here all the way down to the bottom. We can also be intentional with how we create our mark making opportunities in our environment. So if we've got some dramatic play opportunities set up, we might have clipboards and paper and children might be able to pretend they're taking orders at a cafe, for example, using scribbling and making marks and potentially using some early letters. And when we are using our story, kind of times those shared book reading experiences, we want to think beyond the book because we want to bring books to life. They're perfect for helping us build language, build vocabulary. And also then link that language into the printed world so we can read books in multiple ways. But after reading, why not get out all those props and those puppets, the materials that might link to that book and give children the opportunity to retell that story, based on what they've heard, but also add their own spin on it. As well. So with all that in mind, we're going to now look at another, video. And this particular video again is taken outside. And what we want you to do, as we've done with the previous videos, is to have a think about the intentional teaching practices used, particularly how those intentional teaching practices help foster language growth, but also link that spoken language into the printmaking world.
VIDEO BEGINS
(Description: Teacher sits outdoors in a circle with children).
TEACHER:
Do you guys know a bit about nature watchers? Yeah. What's a nature watcher? Chris.
CHILD:
Watching nature.
TEACHER:
Watching nature, yeah.
CHILD:
Finding creatures.
TEACHER:
Finding creatures. Yeah. What kind of creatures might we find in this garden? Bugs. You have one?
CHILD:
Birds!
TEACHER:
Birds? Yeah, we have lots of birds. come and visit us. We had a really strange one come in this morning. Georgie and I saw up in a tree over there, and we'll be really lucky if it comes back. It was a kind of what’s that noise? You want to see it?
CHILD:
It's nice that one not playing in this hole.
TEACHER:
Well, I think... That might be where it lives. Or at least that's where it's hiding at the moment. That could be home. They like dark places. You had a question Maya? Why do they like dark places?
CHILD:
Why do they like dark places?
TEACHER:
Do you have any ideas for why they might like dark places? Do you have any thoughts about why they like a dark place? Can you imagine that you're a Butchy Boy and you were in a dark place. What would feel good about that? If we take a photo of the little collection of Butchy Boys and bring them back, we could look at them really closely. Should we do that?
CHILD:
Yeah.
TEACHER: Alright.
CHILD:
That's it. Like that.
TEACHER:
So you're thinking about how it was born or how it started as an egg.
CHILD:
Yeah.
TEACHER:
Oh. You do?
CHILD:
Yeah.
TEACHER:
Sure I'd love to see your egg.
VIDEO ENDS
DR KARYN CARSON:
Amazing. What did you think? Good, good. Amazing.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
It really is a beautiful moment isn't it, I... Something that I just wanted to share straight away. It just made my heart sing just that beautiful invitation. Imagine, you know, step into that place of the slater. And why it's good to be in the dark or, you know, that sense of empathy.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Yep.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
I know we're talking about mark making here and symbols, but you can see it's interconnected. But, I just, just that presence and that invitation to to think in that way and be in that way just sets the scene for that meaningful context for what then unfolds.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Yeah. And them being able to take some of those, mark making opportunities and look at all what, how are we going to, cross those, I guess, trajectories. So what are those scribbles perhaps representing? Have we got some maybe early letters or number attempts coming through. What is the directionality children are taking with their mark making as well? They're using, what does their drawing look like too? Yeah.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
I can imagine that, you know, we know that the graphic mediums, graphic representation is, you know, this is children's documentation and this is their mark saying this is important to me. And I made that. And this represents something that matters to me. And I think this is all part too of that identity and how I feel as a learner that that's honoured but it was given such a meaningful context. It's not just mark making, I mean mark making for that pure joy and exploration and pleasure is just as important. But here was this invitation to also help you to think I know that mark making helps you to generate or perhaps give pause to those ideas as well.
DR KARYN CARSON:
And working together, the kids were working together and bringing that information together as a team. Yeah, yeah. Amazing.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
So as, as leaders, this is, you're going to have many questions that we talked about in response to what you've heard today. And it's fantastic. And we agree with you. We're pretty lucky to be in a place that invites us to grow and, learn and a profession that really is so supportive. And the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development framework does invite us individually and collectively, that we're more effective when we do have that idea of learning that we are learning and growing and developing, that culture of professional inquiry that we have questions. I'm sure you have many after today questions that you grapple with, questions that you're critically reflecting around, that provide a pathway. And perhaps it's around early literacy, language, perhaps it's around where did the singing go? And what if we brought singing back? What impact would that have? Not just on language, but on joy or connecting or whatever it may be. So, and that playfulness or perhaps how we design environments intentionally to invite. I mean, you were talking about the rituals before here. This is an image here of the ritual where at Cornish, when spending time on country, and there was always that time together to come back at the end to sing, a song to Bunjil and to, a moment of gratefulness, to country, for the encounter that had happened, for that day. So that ritual of singing and connecting, but also that broader gratefulness, and that reciprocal relationship, with the land that we're on. So that we're curious, about perhaps some of those questions that you have when you as leaders, what might you take back in terms of that opportunity to delve a bit deeper with practice? And perhaps it's around the interconnection between play and language that we've been talking about, today often. And we wanted to share this video. Well, it was actually me, but, Karyn agreed. You actually meeting my daughter in this moment. But, it's a video that reminds me of, I guess that serve and return, but also how we can learn from children. When we listen, and we listen to their cues and clues about how to respond. But we've got that content in mind, you know, we know and understand what is important for children to encounter. So just enjoy this little moment that is at a home, but could be in any one of our contexts. She's three and a half here.
VIDEO BEGINS
(Description: Kirsty’s daughter sits at a table drawing, we hear Kirsty talking to her as she draws).
CHILD:
It can giggle and squiggle and wiggle and giggle.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
So what do you call it?
CHILD:
The squiggly-giggly.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Squiggly-Giggly. It’s a real original. Don't think I’ve seen anything like it.
CHILD:
That's because I've never drawn one.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
I don't think I've ever seen anyone draw one.
CHILD:
Squiggly-Giggilies are really hard to draw. You just do a sort of S like, and then you do squiggle, squiggle, a-wiggily-biggily. And then you do Squiggly-Giggily.
VIDEO ENDS
DR KARYN CARSON:
Beautiful.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
So you know that that idea of what did you notice in that that serve and return, process? And these idea of the conditions that we've been talking about today. What are those conditions that you believe are really important to encourage that language play? You know, that's part of, a culture where we can take risks, where we're not worried about being right. We've heard that earlier this morning. It's not about right and wrong, but a playful approach. There's a playfulness in the environment that we create. And how are we intentionally tuning in to these moments. And these are conversations I used to have with families as well. When you're in the car, how do you play games? How do you invent? How do you? Because these are opportunities in just daily life, we can be sitting, having a meal with children. It can be at lunch, morning tea. When we're gathered in these little in-between moments that are just as important, learning happens from the moment learning happens at home all day, every day. But in terms of our responsibility from the moment children walk across that threshold. So how intentional are we looking for those moments, tuning into children's play with sounds, you know, with speech and language? Certainly. When I was at, Cornish, we, we did, in terms of professional inquiry, I noticed as a leader that when we're looking at early literacy development that, the team sometimes struggle when parents said down the road, they're learning jolly phonics. What's your approach to literacy? And I go, oh, we learn through play. And you'd see parents sort of look a little bit dazed and confused. And as a leader, you know, you listen and you're curious to go. Is, is that about not having the confidence? Is it not the understanding? Do we understand well enough to confidently share? And to me, that's a little moment of perhaps we can delve into this. And so we did that. That's that thing of research, a professional inquiry in every day. You're here learning today and these moments of learning a fantastic but what you do every day, that's what the... is asking. This is a culture of professional inquiry. We're inquiring into how children learn learning, and we put a spotlight on certain things that we want to delve deeper into. And it could be because we're curious, or it could be a problem we're trying to solve in terms of pedagogy and practice. So these are some of the ideas that we drew out looking at pre conventional writing. The role of imagination sounds that idea of children reinventing and that quality exploration connected to play, you know, as part of children's contexts indoors and out time given to children. So that pace John talked about role of play and of course that broader aspect of communication and looking at multimodal learning. Now, our intent, after many months of exploration, was to create a beautiful piece of documentation that would be a place of exchange in our community to share beliefs, to share our understandings, not to educate families, but to be in dialog with our families because we all bring a part of our own experience of schooling to our encounters. Whether it's families, teachers, educators. So what we ended up creating with children's photos of what the data we gathered over time of children's play indoors and out. But the centrepiece of this documentation was a place of beauty. And it was children's theories. As three year olds, three and a half year olds of what is writing. And we wanted this to be eye catching, which we think it is, and I'm not going to read them all out, but, there were some theories were, I know ninja writing. They just scribble. Ninja writing says ninja go. Writing is names and kisses. It could be monsters. I'll just do some words. Two words. Well, I look in books and notice the writing. I think that's what I know. I see words on statues, airport statues I see writing in newspapers. Remember those days? I can write tate. He has an E like me. The dots are magical dots. They make it go on the paper. The child on the autism spectrum. Ta da. Writing is drawing. Writing. You can do anything. You can do anything with drawing. So for us, one of our intentions was for children to build their identities as writers, that those marks meant something, that this honours who I am and how I'm expressing myself. But I'm expanding what I know. And so this became a continual place of growth and exchange as a community. As we delved in and got deeper with our understanding of, how children develop their identities, as writers, as authors, as well. So now we want to give you a chance to pull some of this together and get a little bit playful, get a bit about interactive and get hold of those materials that you're probably curious, what are we going to be doing with that wire that's sitting in the middle of the table? So you might want to find that unravel it a little and grab a piece or two. And what we know is that play and experience and active engagement is a springboard for language.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Exactly.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
So what you're going to do, and this is really, you are going to play, but we're very intentional with what we're inviting you to do here. We want you to explore and experiment with what this wire can do, not necessarily make something symbolic straight away. Get to know this material. Who uses wire in their settings by the way? Just give a quick show of hands. Yeah, quite a few of you are familiar. Some of it will be new experience, which is fabulous. So as you're playing, as you're discovering, be mindful of the words or the phrases that come to mind. So not now. We're going to give you some time and you might write it down. Share it out loud. Just let it sit with you. What are the verbs, so the doing words, What are the adjectives, the describing words,- that are coming to mind as you're playing? Okay, but be playful. Get it out, have some fun with it, and then we'll give you about five minutes to do that. You might use 1 or 2. You might join together. You don't have to work individually. If you're feeling like connecting, making some sort of group exploration, please do. And in about five minutes we're going to invite you to add those words to Slido. So sort of talk and think out loud as you're playing and enjoy it. Wire is so pleasing and interesting to play with? Okay now it's a chance. Keep playing, but grab your phones again and Slido. It's always a bit of fun to do this and add in some of those words, that were evoked through the play with the material. Was is twisty? Was it hard? Was it frustrating? You know, anything? There's no right or wrong here, but let's bring together, some of the collective ideas from the experience of building a relationship with material. But what was a vote? The emotion, the process, anything that comes to mind. Once again, it's anonymous. So have a go. Grab your phones, grab the QR code, and let's see what verbs or adjectives you add to describe, your experience with encountering the wire. And of course, keep playing. And there was some beautiful exploration down here with the shadows. Look at this already. Wow.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Pliable. Windy.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Windy.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Windy! Being creative. Coiling.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Stress relief I like that.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Yeah nice.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
It's very therapeutic isn’t it? Calming, pliable.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Springy. Malleable. Imagination.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Spirally. I like that line. That's prime. And when we're interacting with children, let's imagine we're inviting children to describe or we notice and name, that's an intentional teaching strategy. Oh, it looks to me like, well, the way I would describe or for me it's…
DR KARYN CARSON:
Exactly. And building those I guess vocabulary and like linking that back to John's presentation this morning where we saw, you know, it was the myelin, the myelin in the brain and exposure to words. Shiny.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Squiggly. Twisty. Yes.
DR KARYN CARSON:
I like therapeutic.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Yeah. Malleable, springy.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Satisfying.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
It really is.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Yeah.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
We were just talking to about how these open ended materials like this the, do we need, it's a question. Things like fidget toys when we've got materials that provide the same idea. But for some of you who felt it was therapeutic, it's a wondering.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Exactly, exactly. Pokey, that's the first thing I thought of was like, it's a sword or like, is it expect us petroleum? That's the one. Yep. Cold. Yeah.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Yeah, it's a metal.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Yeah, exactly. Now I've got the periodic table coming to mind. Yep.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
You can see bend. Bendy is the most,
DR KARYN CARSON:
Yeah.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
The words get bigger the more often it's contributed. So thank you for your participation as we bring our presentation to a close. Thank you. We’ll bring the other slides back up. Thank you. We wanted to, I guess, finish by paying attention. We've zoomed in on language and literacy, but we come out again with that idea of, learning being holistic and the importance of multi-modal learning. And something like, wire, it's not just about The Wire, and it's not just what you make, but it's what sits around that. And we wanted to pay attention to the definition of literacy. From the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development framework, which it includes a range of modes of communication, including music, movement, dance, storytelling, visual arts, media, drama, talking, viewing, reading, drawing, writing, and and and. We don't need our literacy corner, but we need to be intentional about the many ways that children can encounter, literacy. And this is such a nourishing way or description. In this story of the why you can see underneath is from a three year old setting where children were encountering snails outside. And they were fascinated about the movement of snails. And so this educator invited the children... These children know... it's not the first time they've encountered it, but how might you show how the snail is moving through wire? And look at how this one child has represented the movement of snails through wire. So we've got this symbolic representation. which we know is such an important part of literacy, but connected it's got its meaningful, it's connected to their world. But we see this beautiful, competent, capable child.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Exactly.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
So we hope that, that many, many ideas and connections have been made today. We invite you as leaders to think about really, individually, what has sparked your curiosity today. Also, how might this inform that idea of professional inquiry to really strive for deepening practice, for that teaching excellence in your context? And we know we have a responsibility, when we encounter a day of learning like this, it's about the action that happens afterwards, not just to have a beautiful networky day out, and a change of scenery, but it's that commitment to action. What do you take from this and what will you, what idea will you bring back to your teams and inspire them to delve into with that professional inquiry mindset from this conference? So, thank you for your energy and presence and participation. It's been fantastic. And also, thank you to you, Karyn, for your collaboration.
DR KARYN CARSON:
Thank you. Kirsty. And I just want to, I guess, say something like, I think you're all amazing as Deborah and John have mentioned, and I really hope you have a like take the information from this conference and become those amazing brain builders, which I think is a beautiful way to conceptualise the work that you all do. So thank you.
KIRSTY LILJEGREN:
Thank you everyone. Amazing.
Updated