acquire a particular numeracy concept

scaffolding guiding children to acquire a particular numeracy concept
(modelling, demonstration, questioning, providing feedback); correcting
misconceptions by guiding children to clarify misunderstood concepts;
inquiry-based approaches (exploration, explanation, reflection and
recording); mathematical talk developing mathematical language; cooperative small group work and the use of assistive technologies to help individualised instruction to suit students’ needs (Kraayenoord, 2015,
pp. 282283).
In following these strategies to plan and teach all children, teachers must
find ways to connect literacy and numeracy to be learnt to the children’s
social, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This means, avoiding deficit
views of thinking which often fail to account for cultural and personal
uniqueness and differences that are represented in the educational setting
(Harris, 1990).
As points worth noting, teachers must first identify and incorporate literacy and numeracy ideas with which children are familiar and build on
those; second they must create connections between ideas that are fundamental to contemporary literacy and numeracy curriculum and children’s
prior experiences. Achieving these require knowledge of how teachers can
build on everyday practices and incorporate them into literacy and numeracy activities.
EXAMPLE LITERACY AND NUMERACY LESSONS FOR
PRESCHOOLERS
There are many formats for developing lesson plans and what is provided
in this chapter should not be considered prescriptive but as a guide
(Tables 1 and 2).
In both lessons, observation and documentation should form the major
component of assessment of learning. Teachers can write running records
on each child’s performance in whole group, small group sessions and individual sessions to summarise what children know, understand and can do
at a particular point in time, monitor what and how children learnt with
adults and peers, and identify areas for learning and development that need
to be more supported in order to plan for the next lesson (Earl, 2003;
VEYLDF, 2009).
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Table 1. Cake Maker’s Kitchen.
Lesson Literacy and Numeracy (Theme: Cake Maker’s Kitchen) Year Group Kindergarten (35 Years)
Objectives 1. To understand key vocabulary related to cake making and measurement
2. To explore cake making in real time using concrete materials to express literacy and numeracy ideas
3. To develop children’s communication skills (oral and written language and non-verbal skills)
Activities IPAA Framework
Whole Class
• Focus Book(s) (My birthday celebration with cake).
• At circle time, with the whole class, teacher reads a birthday story with cake as a
theme stressing key vocabularies (e.g. cake, mix, bake, cookbook, glance, decorate,
sugar, dough, flour, egg, yeast, safety, customers, bake, hot, oven etc.).
• While reading the story, teacher pauses and asks children one after the other about
their experiences related to the story.
• Children display their pieces of cake they brought from home and talk about it to
practice oral language skills (colour, shape, size, type cheese cake, chocolate cake,
etc.)
• Children talk with teachers key processes in making cake (e.g. mixing dough,
decorating the cake and baking in an oven).
• Finding opportunities for learners to choose
the level with which they engage in lessons.
• Activities that include all children.
• Use of language which expresses the value of
all children.
• Focus teaching and learning on what children
can do rather than what they cannot.
• Activities that include all children.
• Interdependence between teachers and learners
to create new knowledge, which in turn links
into notions of participation.
• Use of formative assessment.
• Use of language which expresses the value of
all children.
In small groups: Dramatic play stations
• Place children in small groups and allow each group to decide which type of cake to
make.
• Engage children in exploring what resources they would need to enable them make a
piece of cake (Provide following resources including, toy oven, aprons, bowls, spoons,
pans, oven mitts, picture books related to special occasions, water, scales, measuring
jars and cups, play dough, cookbooks, recipe cards, blank cards and pencils or
crayons for writing recipes, and guide children to their respective dramatic group work
stations to work on their cake).
• Finding opportunities for learners to coconstruct knowledge.
• Rejection of ability grouping as main or sole
organisation of learning groups.
• Use of formative assessment.
• Respect the dignity of learners as full members
of the community of the classroom.
36 JOSEPH SEYRAM AGBENYEGA
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• Mediate learning by encouraging group talk and division of labour (e.g. prepare a
shopping corner where children can move in and out to buy different ingredients to
make their cake (flour, dark chocolate, yeast, sugar, egg, etc.). Buying and selling
accompanied by oral language would facilitate rapid development of literacy and
numeracy skills as well as mathematical language development.
• Continue the activity during the week too with discovery and experiential learning
allowing children to experiment on making real cakes after they have completed
preliminary activities in the dramatic play. Divide children into different groups
depending on the number of teachers and parents present to assist them make different
recipe cakes after which they would come together and display their work.
• Allow children to talk about the processes they used in making the cake and their
overall experiences.
• Guide children to cut the cakes into pieces that correspond to geometric shapes to
facilitate numeracy learning before they finally taste it.
• Differentiation achieved through choice of
activities for everyone.
Individual Learners: Block Corner
• Provide opportunity for each child to share their birthday or special occasion
experience.
• Prepare a block corner with different shapes and sizes that resemble cut out pieces of
cake in different sizes which, children can match as cake shape game.
• Guide children to draw any of the materials or the cakes they have made. Children
who are advanced in writing can write the names of the various materials and cake.
• Children can use their IPad or computers to draw using paint brush or photograph
their pieces of cake and the material resources they have used during the lesson.
Plenary
• Support children to act out a birthday or a special occasion for which they are making
the cake, ensuring that children take turns being characters.

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Table 2. Shape and Size Discrimination.
Lesson: Shape and Size Discrimination Year Group: 35 Years
Objectives 1. To develop skills in sorting by shape and size.
2. To classify objects using one or two characteristics.
3. To develop social competency and oral language skills in working with others.
Activities IPAA Framework
Whole Class
• At circle time, children examine each other’s clothing to see if they have
buttons on them.
• Children discuss why dresses or shirts have buttons fitted to them.
• Teacher examines the buttons with the children during circle time.
• Children are encouraged in the circle time to name attributes that the
buttons have (e.g. elegant, plain, two holes, four holes, flat, raised,
large, small, circular, square, irregular, etc.).
• Each child may have different criteria for classification.
Finding opportunities for learners to choose the level with which
they engage in lessons.
Activities that include all children.
Use of language which expresses the value of all children.
Focus teaching and learning on what children can do rather than
what they cannot.
Activities that include all children.
Interdependence between teachers and learners to create new
knowledge, which in turn links into notions of participation.
Use of formative assessment.
Use of language which expresses the value of all children.
Finding opportunities for learners to co-construct knowledge.
In small groups
• Form small groups preferably pairs and ask each group to sort and
classify the buttons according to shapes, colour, holes and sizes.
• Ask children to use the buttons they have examined to start a pattern.
• Ask each child in their group, in turn, to add another button continuing
the pattern.
Rejection of ability grouping as main or sole organisation of
learning groups.
38 JOSEPH SEYRAM AGBENYEGA
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Individual Learners
• Place boxes containing buttons in different locations in the classroom as
individual work stations.
• Let children attempt counting the buttons.
• Ask children to move to their individual work stations.
• As the children explore the pile of buttons, help them use words to
describe the attributes they observe.
• Encourage each child to use the buttons to create their own pattern.
• Let children describe their button pattern and glue in place on the strip
of poster board.
• Let children draw the patterns they have formed.
Use of formative assessment.
Respect the dignity of learners as full members of the community
of the classroom.
Differentiation achieved through choice of activities for
everyone.
Plenary
• Use the children’s poster board strips as patterning cards in the
numeracy centre for independent learning after completion of the above
activity.

Strengthening Literacy and Numeracy in Early Childhood 39
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REFLECTION AND CONCLUSION
From the sample lessons described above, it can be argued that inclusive
pedagogy that integrates play for young learners to acquire literacy and
numeracy skills is not an easy task (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2002). It
requires a lot of preparation and deployment of teachers’ knowledge capital, which draws from their habitus. Teachers can use the following reflective questions to guide them in planning, developing and implementing
effective pedagogical strategies that respond to the literacy and numeracy
learning needs of all children.
• What are the big ideas that underpin the concepts I am seeking to teach
in literacy and numeracy, and how do these ideas connect to the cultural
and social heritage of the children represented in my educational setting?
• How do I build on everyday home and social practices of the children,
and what they know to extend their literacy and numeracy skills?
• What aspects of my teaching plan and strategies can engage children in a
variety of rich and challenging tasks such as individual and pair work,
discovery learning, problem solving, critical thinking, conversational
learning and group learning?
• How is my interaction and styles of questioning children recognising and
supporting each individual child to develop appropriate literacy and
numeracy skills needed for further learning?
• Are my pedagogical approaches inclusive and fosters communication
and mutual responsibilities, as well as creating opportunities for learning
for all?
Finally, to better support all children to learn and acquire literacy and
numeracy skill levels that are needed for effective further learning, we must
take the time,
to decide what it is that we believe education is for; not because someone tells us, or the
rules dictate, but because we believe it is right and just. Once we have an image of the
future we prefer, getting there is possible. It may be difficult; we may have to change, to
learn, to live in dissonance, and to stand firm in our beliefs. But it is possible. (Earl,
2003, p. 4)
Drawing from Earl’s statement, it can be concluded that it is by transforming our habitus and academic discourse about teaching (Bourdieu
et al., 1994) to IPAA framework we will be recognising the educational
rights of all children to have access to enhanced teaching and learning that
we all seek in children’s literacy and numeracy development.
40 JOSEPH SEYRAM AGBENYEGA
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