Word limit: 1800 (+/- 10%)

Due date: April  28

This assignment will be in the form of an essay. The topic of this essay is centred on the teaching of phonological awareness in support of children’s emergent and early reading and writing development.

For this essay, you are required to choose a specific group (for example, 3 to 4 year olds or 6 to 7 year olds) to focus on. In addition, references to a relevant sub-outcome under Outcome 5 from the Early Years Learning Framework or a relevant content description from the Australian curriculum: English (or a state equivalent) must also be included in your essay to contextualise your descriptions of the learning experience and the teaching resource.

Your essay must address the following components:

• Using research literature and relevant sources, critically discuss the importance of teaching phonological awareness in relation to children’s emergent and early reading and writing development.

• Describe and evaluate a learning experience that supports the development of phonological awareness in early years literacy education.

• Describe and evaluate a teaching resource that supports the development of phonological awareness in early years literacy education.

Your essay can be structured as follows:

1. Introduction (approximately 100 words):

• Introduce the topic.

• Include a thesis statement.

• Outline how you intend to address the topic in your essay.

2. Body of the essay (approximately 1600 words)

• This section will consist of a series of paragraphs through which you will address the components of the essay.

• Each paragraph in this section should begin with a topic sentence that introduces the main idea or theme of that paragraph. Typically, the topic sentence and the discussions would be supported with a reference to scholarly or professional source(s).

• It would be ideal to try and keep to one main idea or theme per paragraph. In addition, avoid writing paragraphs that only consist of one or two sentences.

• Ensure that there is a cohesive flow of ideas throughout the series paragraphs.

3. Conclusion ( approximately 100 words)

• Highlight the key points that you have covered in your essay.

• Relate your key points back to your thesis statement.

• State your concluding remarks.

Note: Your essay needs to be written in third person and you must justify your explanations and evaluations by making links to the EYLF, the Australian Curriculum, your relevant state/territory curriculum, scholarly sources and other relevant sources—at least 10 references. All references cited in your essay must be included in your reference list using the APA 7th edition style. This reference list will not be included in the word count.