1. e - P U B L I C A T I O N
S E R I E S
Also published by ACEL
• e-Shortcuts – Wisdom for successful school leadership and management
• e-Leading – Management strategies for school leaders
• e-Technology – Technology in the classroom
• e-Early Learning – Thinking on early learning
e-Teaching April 2016 (12) –
researched and prepared for ACEL by
Marion Piper, Deputy Head of Junior
School, Shelford Girls’ Grammar,
Melbourne, Australia
Subscribe online at www.acel.org.au
APRIL 2016 (12)
“Twenty-first century literacy entails much
more than reading, writing, spelling and
comprehension” (Hopkins, Green, and Brookes,
2013).
E
xplicit teaching of skills assists in the
development of the child’s reading, writing,
speaking, listening and viewing abilities.
To assist in achieving the desired learning
outcomes that will enable children to develop and
improve communication skills, detailed literacy
Literacy Rotation Centres:
using technology to assist
young learners as they
think, create, question and
communicate
units are required. These need to reflect teaching
strategies, materials and resources. Additionally,
the units of work should indicate how the strategies
and approaches help early years learners to think,
create, question and communicate through a range
of text forms, including those that are print-based,
communicative and are ICT multimodal in nature.
In the table is a suggested Literacy Rotation
Centre model for use in Early Years education to
encourage and motivate both teacher and learner
Explicit
teaching
of skills
assists in the
development
of the child’s
reading,
writing,
speaking,
listening
and viewing
abilities

2. reading and writing’ (p. 100). Young (2009)
suggests a number of measures to ensure such
writing opportunities occur within practice, with
Ljungdahl and March (2012) identifying ways
to encourage even the reluctant writer (p. 444).
Effective Literacy Unit Planners allow for explicit
teaching of phonological awareness, phonics,
vocabulary, grammar and punctuation through a
weekly spelling focus during literacy rotations under
teacher direction. Reading and writing tasks are
scaffolded to enable the teacher to model, share,
and guide and encourage independence to further
develop skills, knowledge and confidence.
A Literacy Planner should reflect current
pedagogical theory and neuroscience research, and
provide children with opportunities to navigate and
interpret interactive digital environments that lead
to increased opportunities for language acquisition
(Hopkins, Green and Brookes, 2013). Reflected in
the Literacy Rotation Centre should be a careful
selection of a range of texts, materials, resources
and strategies, as Honan (2013) advises. This
includes the recommendations to incorporate digital
technology as part of ‘new’ literacy acquisition,
engage, motivate and promote student learning and
creativity through ‘possibility thinking’ (Burnard
et al 2006) and additional thinking routines as
suggested by Burnard et al (2006), Exley, Burton,
and Barnett, (2007), Todd (as cited in Honan, 2013),
Hesterman (2013) and Craft (2013). Integrating
the vast array of information and communication
technologies within traditional teaching strategies
provides differentiated learning opportunities
to achieve writing, reading, speaking, listening
and viewing outcomes as part of a child’s literate
identity (as identified by Hill, 2012). For the
teacher, this will mean making informed decisions
prior to planning relevant and appropriate learning
experiences through an understanding of what
existing skills the students have.
Children’s ‘funds of knowledge’ (Moll, Amanti,
Neff, and Gonzalez, 1992) and Thomson’s (2002)
metaphor of ‘virtual school bags’ encourages
educators to create literacy plans that draw on
students’ real life experiences. Unit Plans developed
from an effective Literacy Rotation Centre need to
show evidence of children’s ‘capacities, interests,
strengths and cultural investments’ through the
connections and personal experiences that Comber
and Kamler (2005) and Ollerenshaw (2012) refer
to. The teacher who is able to tap into children’s
knowledge of what is familiar to them, together with
what is personal to a child’s experiences, contributes
to successful literacy learning.
Within any classroom, there are children who
are at very different stages of literacy development
(Hill, 2012). Differentiation, as suggested by Ellis,
Gable, Gregg and Rock (2008), needs to be included
in all Unit Plans to meet student diversity. It allows
for flexibility in student performance, with literacy
rotation activities designed to enable demonstration
of learning.
Hill (2012) states that ‘the literacy program
should contain opportunities for language
experience, shared book, guided reading, modelled
writing, shared and guided writing and independent
Literacy Rotation Centres
Target Alphabet
Centre
Word Centre Writing Centre Book Browsing
Centre
Interactive
Literacy Centre
Grammar/
Punctuation/
Spelling focus
Phonogram cards
Memory game
Letter/picture
object card match
Build-a-word with
letters
Assorted tactile
letters and words
Alphabet books
Have-a-go
dictionaries
Games and cards
eg Junior Scrabble,
MIAOW cards
Word stands
Onset and rime
word cards
Cloze activities
Pocket charts with
sentence strips
Magnetic letter/
word tiles, boards
Pipe cleaners for
letter outlines
Crossword build-a-
puzzle
Paper
Pens
Crayons
Pencils
Note paper
Overhead
transparencies
Camera
Stimulus books
Email/laptops/
iPads/stand-alone
desktop computers
Response/related
tasks to books
Big books –
stimulus materials
Related books to
current planner
Independent
books for student
browsing
Topic books
related to current
units of inquiry/
study
Jingles/raps/
poems/acrostics
for reading and
illustrating
Anthologies
Listening post/
CD player with
opportunities
for music, songs,
dance, storytelling,
imaginative/
reflective play
iPad with
interactive games
and activities
Interactive
whiteboard for
stimulus pictures
and reading texts
Stand-alone
desktop computers
for pod casts
Finger Puppets
with matching
stories
Big puppets
Felt boards
Video camera
Microphones
A Literacy
Planner should
reflect current
pedagogical
theory and
neuroscience
research...

3. through each literacy rotation. By connecting to
their preferred learning style, students are able to use
this as motivation for pursuing ideas and interests,
sharing experiences and knowledge.
Hill (2012) identifies that the data for assessing the
effectiveness of children’s learning can occur in many
ways (p. 432). Assessment of learning can be achieved
through formal and informal measures and needs to
indicate the achievement of outcomes. It should be
ongoing and allow for further decisions in regard to
future planning (p. 433). Effective Literacy Unit Plans
enable the teacher to evaluate what the children have
learned, in addition to what they need to learn next, as
the unit develops throughout the term.
The Literacy Rotation Centre needs to integrate
the children’s experiences with popular culture
and new technologies, include explicit teaching,
the application of knowledge and skills through
consideration of pedagogical theory and neuroscience
research, and should be able to be modified through
differentiation and ongoing formal/informal
assessment. The literacy strategies should also
assist the learner to think, create, question and
communicate, enhancing the language acquisition
of the students in a classroom – the intention of an
effective Literacy Rotation Centre which reflects a
detailed literacy planner and confirms best practice.
References
Burnard, P, Craft, A, Cremin, T, Duffy, B, Hanson, R, Keene,
J, Burns, D 2006, ‘Documenting ‘possibility thinking’: A
journey of collaborative enquiry’, International Journal Of
Early Years Education, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 243–262.
B Comber, B Kamler (eds.) 2005, Turn around pedagogies:
Literacy interventions for at-risk, PETAA, S Newtown, NSW.
Craft, A 2013, ‘Childhood, Possibility Thinking and Wise,
Humanizing Educational Futures’, International Journal
of Educational Research, vol. 61. pp. 126–134.
De Bono, E, 1992, Six Thinking Hats for schools: Book 3,
Hawker Brownlow, Cheltenham, Australia.
Exley, B, Burton, J, Barnett, J 2007, ‘Australian children
catch the bug: Motivating young children to engage in
reading’, Young Children, vol. 62, no. 6), pp. 36–40.
Hesterman, S 2013, ‘Early childhood designs for
multiliteracies learning’, Australian Journal of Language
& Literacy, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 158–168.
Hill, S 2012, Developing early literacy: Assessment and
teaching (2nd ed.), Eleanor Curtain Publishing Victoria,
Australia.
Honan, E 2013, Thinking through new literacies for
primary and early years, Primary English Teachers
Association, (licenced with permission from PETAA)
Newtown, New South Wales.
Hopkins, L, Green, J, Brookes, F 2013, ‘Books, bytes and
brains: The implications of new knowledge for children’s
early literacy learning’, Australasian Journal of Early
Childhood, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 23–28.
Moll, LC, Amanti, C, Neff, D, Gonzalez, N 1992, ‘Funds of
knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to
connect homes and classrooms’, Theory Into Practice, vol.
31, no. 2, pp. 132–141.
Ollerenshaw, A 2012, ‘Literacy trails: A whole-of-
community program to encourage
literacy and numeracy awareness for children in preschool
and early primary’, Australasian Journal of Early
Childhood, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 147–156.
Thomson, P 2002, Schooling the Rustbelt Kids: Making
the Difference in Changing Times, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Winch, G, Johnson, RR, March, P, Ljungdahl, L, Holliday,
M, 2012, Literacy: Reading, writing and children’s
literature (4th Ed.), Oxford University Press, Melbourne,
Australia.
Young, J 2009, ‘Enhancing emergent literacy potential for
young children’, Australian
Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 32, no. 2), pp.
163–180.
I never feel lonely if I've got a book – they're like old friends. Even if you're not reading them over
and over again, you know they are there. And they're part of your history. They sort of tell a story
about your journey through life.
Emilia Fox
There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.
Ray Bradbury
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Benjamin Franklin
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Joseph Addison
Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
Mark Twain
I’ve never known any trouble than an hour’s reading didn’t assuage.
Arthur Schopenhauer
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
Oscar Wilde
Effective
Literacy Unit
Plans enable
the teacher to
evaluate what
the children
have learned,
in addition
to what they
need to learn
next, as the
unit develops
throughout the
term