After a very nice break, I am now at the end of my first week back at work and even with schools still on holidays it has been busy. The Western Adelaide Regional Director, Brendyn Semmens, is proposing that I would be one of several people to work with a group of teacher and coordinator representatives from secondary regional schools to develop some literacy resources (eg Yr 8-10 units of work in Science and English that are aligned to the Australian Curriculum and include a focus on literacy). The project would be supported, at least finacially, by the Literacy Secretariat. If this project is approved, and it appears likely that it will in some form, I will keep you informed of it's progress during 2012.
In fact, the Australian Curriculum has been a constant theme in all my work this week. On Monday, I developed an activity to run at the end of TESMC Module 5 that allows teachers to see the links between what they have learnt in the first five modules and literacy in both the AC: English and AC Literacy General Capabilty literacy continuum.
On Tuesday, most of the ESL consultants and Bev White from Catholic Ed met again for a full day to continue the editing of the draft ESL Literacy Levels. While we made some suggestions to the writer, Bronwyn Custance, about the placement of some of the language features and examples at certain year levels, even at this stage, the document as a whole is a logical and sufficently detailed resource.  I am very confident that it will have application beyond just the teaching and assessing of ESL students. Principals doing SPALL should find it of particular interest because it uses the AC literacy continuum framework.
On Wednesday, I put together two PowerPoints that I will present at the Western Adelaide Regional Literacy Fair at AAMI Stadium on 4th May. The first topic is Functional Grammar in the Australian Curriculum and the other is The ESL Literacy Levels. The connection with AC is evident in the first title. As mentioned above the AC literacy continuum provides the framework for the ESL Literacy Levels. After the fair, I will inform you when these PowerPoints go up on the regional website.
Yesterday, I was one of about 30 tutors of TESMC and/or How Language Works to undergo a familiarisation of the new Language for Learning course. It uses many of the activities and resources in TESMC with the exception of those specifically related to ESL students and some of the work around the functional model of language, the teaching and learning cycle and the register continuum. Activities about the literacy demands in the AC have been included. Subsequently the course has only 6 modules. This is likely to have a significant impact on the future number of TESMC courses run in schools. Many schools, particulary those with few ESL students, will likely opt for the shorter L4L course.
Today, the Literacy Secretariat and QIE had a joint staff meeting. The ESL consultants appreciate these opportunities to hear from and work with staff based in Central Office. Bronwyn Parkin's session concisely explained the AC literacy curriculum and how it would influence the work of all at the meeting, because the Lit Sec has been given the brief of supporting schools to incorporate the literacy continuum into AC Phase 1 subjects and over time all AC subjects.
Finally for this post, there are a couple of personnel issues that may effect your work. Firstly Lina Scalfino will be on leave until July so enquiries about the management of the ESL Program should be directed to Karyl Martin in Lina's absence. I should soon be able to let you know who is backfilling Karyl. Also you may be aware that travel to primary IELCs has been reduced as a way of reducing expenditure. However, for very good reasons, some travel is still being funded by the ESL Program. This has meant that the projected budget savings have not been achieved so the additional savings will need to be paid for by cutting salaries in the ESL Program. These will NOT be school based salaries but rather corporate salaries (ie ESL staff in Central Office or regional offices). An outside consultant has been employed to recommend which postions will be cut. Again I will try to keep you updated about this, because it will be an enormous challenge for the ESL Program to deliver the same level of service with reduced staff.