Linked to the Outcome 5 in EYLF (DEEWR, 2009), children are effective communicators, they use language and engage in play to imagine and create roles and ideas. The concept of reading provides children with a deeper understanding about their world, and they use this acquired background knowledge to make sense of what they see, hear, and read, which aids their cognitive development. 

It also states how reading can be a ‘stable source of information’ throughout a child’s life. This stability allows them to access text in a constant fashion and can be especially beneficial for children growing up in challenging circumstances (Hill,2012)

According to Mielonen and Paterson (2009),

Storybooks reading offers opportunities for children to enhance their cognitive and reading abilities through play and this related to play-based learning, which is supported by Piaget’s theory that children come to understand concepts by engaging in play. As children engage in play, they are using their memories to assist to connect their play to pre-literacy skills such as naming and symbolic thought.

Storybooks reading offers opportunities for children to develop their language skills and grasp new concepts through play and this related to play-based learning, which is supported by Vygotsky’s theory that children improve their literacy skills as they speak to and listen to each other, reading storybooks allows children to interact with parents, educators and their surroundings, these social interactions involving language that children experience during play helps construct their literacy knowledge. 

This storybook uses the visual text to convey significant information, and thus can be used to gather evidence of how the child make meaning from combinations of visual and written information in these multi-modal texts. 

Social learning theory knowledge educator’s responsibility in creating teaching content that need to be associated with student’s interests, personal aspiration and personal experience (Gredler, 2009). 

The Early Childhood Australia [ECA] Code of Ethics mentions that educators must “act in the best interests of all children” (2016), it is essential for the educator to use children’s interests as a starting point for activity planning to enhance a meaningful curriculum for each child. 

In the process of using checklist, educator can:

Observational checklist can be a basis guideline for teachers to measure the average level of children’s development in each area and at different age level and checklist can be designed to show what literacy knowledge children need to learn and understand at specific age level, which is supported by Maturational theory that children’s development can be regarded as some milestones or events which happen at particular age levels. The teaching content should be designed according to the current level of children's areas of development (Nolan & Raban-Bisby, 2015). 

 

Australia Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL, 2011) that educators should demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning. 

 

 John comes from a literate home background. On the weekend and every night before bed time, John’s father and mother will take the time to read the storybook and tell stories with John, which allows John has opportunities to:

According to the microsystem in Bronfenbrenner’s theory (Onwuegbuzie, Collins & Frels, 2013), Children’s development is inseparable from the environment in which it occurs such as social support and family support. The article which from the kitchen padlet illustrates that educator should consider the child’s interactive environment in the process of assessment, it will give useful insights about why your child is succeeding in some settings. Based on the performance of John, literate backgrounds and supports from parents allow John to be able to be a supportive model, and willing to share the process of reading storybooks.

2. The child's interests
John especially enjoys reading books related to animals, for example, books about dinosaurs, elephants, and big bears. When I talked to John's mother after this activity, she told me about the experience when John visited the zoo when he was very young. It makes me believe that when children have opportunities to see wildlife, a whole new world of wonder can open up. This experience brought a thrill to John and it also becomes his treasured memory. The outcome 2 in EYLF demonstrates that “children are connected with and contribute to their world”, children have the ability to show their innate feelings of love and concern for wild creatures (DEEWR, 2009).  (see Appendix 2)

 

3.  The child's behavior 
John was very active and sometimes lost control during the activity. It was difficult for him to sit down quietly and read books with others. John often runs in the room or jumps around. When I try to make John sit down and continue reading, he will show impatience and unhappiness. Therefore, John's educator should consider the following question in his future learning plan and practices:

(footnote: these questions are based on the document which from the kitchen padlet)

Appendix 2: Photos of John visiting the zoo

According to the Australian Curriculum（ACARA, 2015）, children with print awareness understand that print has different functions depending on the context in which it appears — for example, menus list food choices, a book tells a story, a sign can announce a favorite restaurant or warn of danger (ACELA1430).

Children begin to expressing and developing ideas (VCELA145). Children knows that print gives and contains the information and ideas, they can explore the different contributions of images to the meaning of stories. 

According to the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2016), children begin to interpret, analyze, and evaluate the texts. Children are able to understand the descriptions of the text and able to predict what might happen on the basis of experience of this kind of text (ACELY1649). 

According to the Victorian Curriculum (VCAA, 2018), children begin to respond to literature. Children are expected to identify some features of texts including events and characters and retell events from a text (VCELT150). The Australian Curriculum also demonstrates that children should be able to innovate on familiar texts through play, they can perform memorable actions or behaviors of favorite or humorous characters in texts (ACELT1831). 

Learning Objective: the student can recognize the environmental print in the “Zoo Trip” book

Procedure of the teaching activity:
Decide on the title of the book “Zoo Trip”, creating an environmental print book about animals with John. The educator can encourage and guide John picks the environmental print that he thinks will appear in the story of the zoo trip, such as the transportation that he will choose on the road, he will choose to go to McDonald's or KFC, and the animals he wants to see in the zoo, etc. Putting these on poster board, laminate them, and bind them into a book (see Appendix 9). After creating the environmental print book, the educator can read this book with John during the reading time or place the books in the reading corner for John to read on himself. 

 

Encourage John to make a Book with the title I Can Read. Create a book for the child using prints the child can read. Let the child take the book home to read to their family members (see Appendix 10). This activity can be carried out once a month, and can assess the child's awareness of environmental print within the specified time. 

 

Children’s performance on print awareness tasks is a reliable indicator of their future reading achievement. Children with print awareness understand that the printed language carries a message and is a source of both information and entertainment (Hill, 2012). According to Piaget, children begin to demonstrate the appearance of semiotic, or symbolic, function around the age of 3. Children from the ages of 3-5 rapidly develop print awareness when adults engage in activities to build their early literacy skills (Gredler, 2009). Without print awareness children will not develop letter/sound correspondence, word reading skills, or the ability to read and understand the text.

Linked to the Outcome 5 in EYLF (DEEWR, 2009), children are effective communicators. Children begin to develop an understanding that symbols are a powerful means of communication and that ideas, thoughts and concepts can be represented through them.

Learning Objective: John can use the story sequence map to help him to identify events in the story and try to retell a short story. 

Procedure of the teaching activity
1. The teacher can choose a simple and easy-to-understand Chinese story and read it with John to immerse him in the story. He will be better prepared to listen to the structure of the story

2. Then, the teacher can talk with John about the story they read and asks questions before, during and after they read the story. The teacher should provide time to talk to John about setting, plot, and characters. As we read the story, we should demonstrate and creates charts along with the child as he identifies specific story elements. Questions about story elements can be:

3.Then the teacher can model for John to use a sequence of stories to organize a way of retelling. Teachers can use a large piece of bulletin board paper to draw a path in the middle, and write "start" on one section of the path and "end" on the other. Then the teacher and the child can add some drawings along the sides according to the sequences of the story. Finally, they can take turns walking down the path and retell the story. (the example of creating a story map can be seen in Appendix 11)

Linked to the Outcome 4 in EYLF (DEEWR, 2009), children are confident and involved learner. Children are able to use play to investigate, imagine and explore ideas.