When the Screen Started Getting in the Way Over this year, I have been reflecting on my use of screens as a medium for delivering my whole-class literacy sessions. Like many of us, I got caught up in the PowerPoint wave a few years ago. It started with UFLI and slowly developed into creating my own slides, including words and sentences for children to read from the screen. Of course, I still used paper texts, books and all the other things that make up a literacy programme, but the PowerPoint gradually became the backbone of my sessions. And initially, it seemed to work. The children appeared receptive, I liked the structure it gave me, and it helped me feel organised and prepared. As a device-free class, I didn't really question the use of the screen in this way. Our Year 1–3 rooms have been device-free for a long time, with the rest of our school using devices fairly minimally. The majority of our children's day is screen-free, filled with play, conversation, hands-on learnin...
I am passionate about play and structured explicit learning, finding the best of both worlds.