Off the Shelf - A Call for a New Alphabet

Hello!

This week's book to be featured is 'A Call for a New Alphabet' by Jef Czekaj. I was originally expected a run of the mill alphabet book in which the letter 'X' plays some form of commentary but I was so thankfully surprised.

I bought the book at Booktopia's Moving Sale, for $1.95, a total steal! You can view the book trailer below...

The story focuses on a class vote to change the order of the alphabet after X expressed his disdain for his placement. Along the way we learn about grammatical rules and spelling patterns while listening to how other letters feel about their place in the alphabet. The resolution of the story explains why our alphabet looks the way it does.

The book begins as a traditional picture book however transforms to take the appearance of a comic book, or graphic novel. The 'blended narrative' style of the book asks the reader to use their multi-literacy skills to interpret the dialogue on which the story rests. 

 

I absolutely loved the book and the way it incorporated the standard rules and conventions of language in a funny and relative way for children. I'm so disappointing that this will just fly over the kindergartner's heads but this is definitely one to share with your class after they have grasped the concept of alphabetical order, grammar and spelling rules and patterns. 

Outside a read aloud, the book continues to have merit with creating your own alphabet character, reordering the alphabet yourself and descriptions of what you would like to be among some of them.  This is one book to hold onto for when I start my primary school placements and one to add to your growing collection!

Grab it from Booktopia, Book Depository or Amazon!

Miss Tracy xx   

Assignment File - Sketchbook and eResource Part 2

Hello there,

As promised, here you will find part 2; the eResource. This part of the assignment asked us to create a live webpage using Web 2.0 technology, focused on a single topic relating to the visual arts. This resource would not only be for assessment but for our fellow pre-service teachers as well as teachers out there already teaching with access to the internet.

I chose the theme 'A Bug's Life' after covering a number of artists who focused on natures and the creatures in it. Since I was already extremely familiar with Blogger, I chose this as my method of presentation.

And so my discovery unit was born! Click the title to take a peek...

A BUG'S LIFE

This unit looks at the topic of bugs and insects as a stepping stone for visual art exploration and how to weave this knowledge into other aspects of curriculum and the learning environment.

One aspect of this assignment that I had a hard time working out was the lesson plans I was expected to create.  While I have done 3 curriculum based units, we have not touched on writing lesson plans yet, primarily since we are still studying early childhood. So I took to the internet and put together a template myself, which you can view  as PDFs in the appropriate sections. 

I also had many internal (and one external) debates on how these activities I had designed should be assessed or documented. In the end, I devised a simple rubric with smiley faces, which can be completed by the teacher, student or together as a reflection exercise.

I was very happy with the outcome of both pieces of work and with my hard work and perseverance, I earned myself a credit (C)!

Miss Tracy xx

Assignment File - Sketchbook & eResource Part 1

Hi all,

Here comes another post on one of my countless assignments, this one for a creative arts subject, EDAR-368.

Rather than one set task, the assignment asked us to document our leaning and changed perspective over the semester in relation to this one subject. Using an A4 sketchbook, each class we would sketch what we 'thought' and then what we 'saw' and complete a pre-planned lesson according to a given preparation sheet.

Another component of this ongoing task was looking at a specific artist. Each week, we would have a new focus, which guided our reading, research and tutorials. Depending on the style and technique of the artist, we would take part in activities, such as sketching live scorpions, sketching ourselves using a single line, drawing our tutor with our eyes closed and tearing paper into a thousand pieces.

By the end of the six week block, I had pages and pages of hard work, which I have decided to share with you!

HOWEVER...this was only part 1 of my assignment for this unit! Comeback next week for the next installment.

Miss Tracy xx