You will design and prepare an Invitation to Play and present this in-class in week 4. You are planning for independent play (ie without adult involvement). You will prepare one (1) immersive experience suitable for young children, using a range of materials you have explored throughout this unit. An invitation to play is a collection of materials/tools/resources that have been set up as a curated experienc

Overview

Document and reflect on personal learning experiences

 PURPOSE

Length or Duration

Worth Due

Part A & B: Saturday end of week 3

The purpose of this assessment task is to:

1. Showcase your own expressive processes via a curated journal presentation to the class 2. Connect this learning to readings and resources
3. Present how what you have learnt can be applied in an early childhood setting
4. Plan for observation of children’s language acquisition

5. Consider how to cater to EAL, pre-verbal or non-verbal children

The learning outcomes of this assessment are:
LO1: Articulate and explore the many and varied languages of human expression through personal,

social and philosophical perspectives

LO3: Apply the many languages of expression to create learning environments that support children’s play and exploration, showing ability to cater to linguistic diversity, including supporting learners of English as an additional language.

LO4: Make connections between place-based and First Nations perspectives, Indigenous modes of expression, and languages, literacies and the arts

 ASSESSMENT DETAILS PART A – YOUR JOURNAL

Your Journal should start with your explorations and material inquiries in the unit, and then be refined. Your final visual journal is NOT a collection of everything that you have done through the unit. It should be carefully prepared around a concept that emerged for you through the unit.

This journal needs to showcase:

1. Your personal experiences and connections with materials, artistic languages and the unit resources
2. How you connect those experiences to the unit readings and resources
3. How you will use this knowledge and apply it to an early childhood setting in your work with young children.

You will provide focus to your Digital Visual Journal by choosing a concept or idea that emerged for you throughout the unit.

Some examples of specific concepts or ideas to guide your journal might be:

The 100 languages of children Embedding First Nations perspectives Communication through materials

The Digital Visual Journal should:

use a title such as ‘An inquiry into…’ (and complete the sentence with your concept/idea)

examine this inquiry through your artistic inquiries with sound, music, movement, drama and materials.

use a range of media – photography, written or audio narratives, videos, drawings, music, sound recordings and other creative media in this journal.

include reflection on your own learning of expression through arts-based materials and discuss how this learning can be applied to your practice as an educator, making connections to the unit readings and resources.

PART B – DESIGN AND PREPARE AN INVITATION TO PLAY

You will design and prepare an Invitation to Play and present this in-class in week 4. You are planning for independent play (ie without adult involvement).

You will prepare one (1) immersive experience suitable for young children, using a range of materials you have explored throughout this unit. An invitation to play is a collection of materials/tools/resources that have been set up as a curated experience that invites children to learn and express themselves through creative exploration and experimentation. It presents a space that is an opportunity for children’s free expression and is not directed or instructed by an adult. You can set up your invitation in a space of your choice (at home, in an education setting, in-class) and take a video/photographs of your set-up as evidence. You can set up your invitation in a space of your choice (at home, in an education setting, in-class) and take a video/photographs of your set-up as evidence.

Imagine that you are working at an Early Childhood Service as an early childhood teacher. You have been asked to design and prepare an invitation to play that supports both children’s language AND communication learning. You are being asked to demonstrate your understanding of language and communication in early childhood and the importance of the role of the teacher in constructing communication-rich environments.

Design and Prepare an Invitation to Play – You will plan and prepare 1 invitation to play for a chosen age group of children with a focus on language and communication (the hundred languages of children). The Invitation must be set up for independent play by children. You will not be directly involved. It should not require verbal explanations by you. It should not require close supervision.

Important things to include for the Invitation:

1. Title of the Invitation to Play – Name your invitation to play with a title that relates to what the children might be exploring i.e. The Possibilities of Sound, A Story Begins, The Grammar of Clay, Mark Making Many Ways, The Many Traces of Children etc. The idea for this will come from your Journal.

2. Learning possibilities – Give 1-3 learning possibilities related to language and communication. What might children learn from playing here?

3. Resources and arrangement – Detail the resources you will use, and how they will be set up in this Invitation to Play. How will the environment be set up? What materials will be selected? How will the materials/resources be arranged (set-up)? How will your set-up communicate to children?

4. Practical Set-Up with Photographic/Video Evidence Posted to a Padlet– You must present your invitation to play in the form of a photograph/s or video with you in the

photo/s/video (as a SELFIE) along with a 50-100 word (or 2-3 minute) explanation of your Invitation to Play (using the above prompts #1-#3). You will set up your invitation to play using a range of materials and photograph/video it – you need to be in the photograph/video too. You will share this with your class by adding your invitation to play in the Padlet in Collaborate and take a photograph and upload into the Dropbox along with Part A.

 INSTRUCTIONS

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on your assessment task, please follow the instructions below:

In week 1, start a Padlet  (https://padlet.com/)or similar digital tool to start collecting examples of your explorations throughout the sessions. If you are completing in-class activities throughout the unit, you will be doing a lot of the work for this assessment task as you go.

As you work through the sessions, document, document, document! You will document your activities, responses to readings, artistic explorations and material inquiries. Document your own explorations as if you would a child’s – observe yourself! This documentation will form the raw data for your journal.

Decide on a concept or idea (see list of examples in the ‘Details’ section above) that has emerged throughout your studies in this unit. Think about your journal as “An inquiry into…” that theme/concept/idea

Refine your documentation from step 1 so that it relates to this concept.

Write an introduction that outlines your concept, how it connects to the unit material and how you will explore it.

Documentation of your artistic explorations: Consider what documentation you will include, such as samples of the art you created, your documentation of your own play and experimentation and how you created it. This could be:

1. a  Sketches, plans, drawings, paintings, sound recordings, video, photographs, aural documentation
2. b  Notes about the materials, techniques and processes used

Discussion: For each entry: a written discussion making connections to early childhood education research and literature. Use the unit resources and readings to support your discussion (and your own further research, if you wish (use the VU library to research).

Implications for practice: For each entry: provide a written description (with images if appropriate) of how you could continue this exploration with children. Include what materials you would need to have and how you could create an invitation to play.

1. a  One implication must include a song that you sing live and share as a video (not recorded singing or music)
2. b  One implication must include a children’s picture book, showing how it connects to your inquiry. You must include a photograph of yourself at the library or bookshop with this book. Don’t forget to reference the book in your Reference List.

9. 9  Write a short conclusion that ties everything together.
10. 10  Ensure you have included a reference list, (check your in-text citations!) in line with

    APA7th conventions.

11. 11  Take a photograph/video of your Invitation to Play (Part B) with you in the photograph/video and your 50-100 word (or 2-3 minute) explanation of your Invitation to Play, upload into the Dropbox at the end of week 3 along with your Digital Visual Journal
12. 12  In week 4 Upload Part B to the Padlet in Collaborate – (your INVITATION TO PLAY) and review 2-3 of your peers invitation to play and provide feedback in the Padlet.

Suggested tools to present your Journal:

Keep in mind that with any tool you use, you need to be able to submit all the text-based elements as a file type that is able to be checked by the plagiarism detection software. For example, .doc, .pdf, .ppt. Submitting your journal all as one image or as an entire webpage will not work.

If you submit something that cannot be checked, you will be asked to submit in a format that can be. Use a tool that allows you to present photos, videos, audio and text seamlessly.

You can use Powerpoint, Padlet  (https://padlet.com/) or any web page/blog builder like Wix  (https://www.wix.com/).

If using Padlet or a Website/Blog:

1. Save your Padlet or Web pages as a PDF.
2. Submit the PDF file with a link to the Padlet (and a password if necessary). (Note: saving the Padlet as a pdf will mess up the formatting – don’t worry, we will be assessing the Padlet at the online link, we just need the PDF so it can be checked for plagiarism).
3. Wix PDF conversion steps  (https://www.websitebuilderinsider.com/how-do-i-save-a-wix-website- as-a-pdf/)

Help out your peers! Post on the Assessment 3 Discussion Board  (/d2l/common/dialogs/quickLink/quickLink.d2l?ou=1823511&type=discuss&rcode=VU-2241315) if you find another tool that does an excellent job with this task

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

The following levels of criteria will be used to grade this assessment task: Criterion 1: Documentation of your artistic explorations 30%
Criterion 2: Discussion 20%
Criterion 3: Implications for practice 20%