Hello again. Term 3 is very much under way.
Since my last post, I have finished the TESMC course with the Brompton Primary School staff. At the moment they are writing teaching and learning cycles to be implemented from the beginning of this term. The day after finishing the course at Brompton, I began a new course with 32 staff members at Kilkenny Primary. In fact, as a result of the school leadership devoting Monday to the course, we have already completed 4 of 9 modules.
Last Friday, I was fortunate to hear the Kilkenny principal, Mike Tate, talk about how his school has implemented a whole school approach to reading. It was a wonderful example of instructional leadership and appropriate use of data and resources. Mike along with his leadership team have also fully participated in the first four TESMC modules. Even when I spoke to him last term about the option of his staff doing the shorter Language for Learning course he knew what he wanted for his staff and students and decided TESMC would deliver the desired outcomes.
At the same meeting at which Mike spoke, Keith Bartley spoke about the new directions for DECD. He took questions from the audience at the end so I took the chance to ask about the Every Chance for Every Child strategy. This is aimed at making birth to five year olds "school ready". As our state is inviting more migrants and refugees to help develop the state socially and economically, I asked if there was scope to include migrant or refugee children in this strategy, because not all of our students have the same starting point. The answer was about who decided it, not why nor if it could be extended to include older students, but at least the issue had been raised. If you too feel the strategy should be offered to older students in need, you might like to have your voice heard by going to the Every Chance for Every Child website and leaving a comment.
Last week, I continued to promote and organise the launch of the Explict Teaching of Writing across the Years 8-10 Australian Curriculum: Year 8 English document. This will take place at EDC Hindmarsh from 4-6 pm on Thursday 9th August. Soon after the launch, the document and accompanying PowerPoint will be posted on the regional website so others can access it.
Today, I worked at William Light R-12 School. It was great example of the diverse work of an ESL consultant. I initially worked with Sabrina Walker, English/ESL coordinator, to give advice about upcoming learning area professional development about the Australian Curriculum. I also updated her about the regional genre map under development. We then spoke with the principal, Michele Pope, about what language choices make the most difference in senior secondary writing. This resulted in her arranging for me to return to deliver the same professional learning to her leadership team. I also worked her Sabrina and the counsellor and a year level manger to write an IELC Transistion Plan for a newly enrolled student from Adelaide Secondary School of English. I then met with a Year 12 ESL teacher to give advice about subject counselling and offerings. Finally, I read a text written by one of her students and gave her feedback about what grade I would give it and why. The rest of the week looks like it will be just as busy and varied.
In closing, thanks for those people who tell me they have read and enjoyed my blog. Dont forget you dont have to wait until you see me in person. Post a comment! The blog has now had over 300 views including at least two from the USA and Russia. These may have been the result of search or URL typos but it is gladdening to think people overseas may find my blog to be of some interest.

With the help of Erika von Aspern, I think I have solved the problem of people not being able to post comments on my blog. The default settings only allow google account holders or blogger members to post comments, but I have changed the settings so that anyone can leave a comment.
Just click on "comment" at the bottom of any of my posts and a field appears into which you can type your comment. Then click "publish". If you want your name to be recorded as the author of the comment, add your name to the comment. Otherwise I will not know who sent it, because anonymous while appear as the author.

I had three relaxing days of annual leave last week. Port Elliot and surrounds are beautiful even in mid-winter.
This week along with other regional officers I attended a meeting with Anna Lewkowicz from the group managing the Middle Years Development Instrument. It is intended that Yr 6 students will go online to complete a survey about those non-academic factors that are relevant to their learning and participation. This wellbeing data will be fed back to schools and regions so that strategies can be put in place before the students reach high school. The organisers seem to have considered the needs of ESL students who might be surveyed by translating consent forms and encouraging the use of BSSOs. The data should be disaggregated for groups like NESB students so it could make for interesting reading later this year.
Monday evening I attended the ESLE meeting to give feedback about the draft senior years EALD curriculum. The group was small but the comments and questions were very thoughtful. We felt that on some occasions it still reads like an English course and that the achievement standards assess cognitive development and not second langauge development.
On Tuesday I showed the draft Year 8 English Genre Project work to the regional director and assistant regional director. Both were impressed with the quality of the work and want it promoted through principals. They are also keen to see the accompanying PowerPoint so that teachers have a clear process for planning, teaching and assessing writing in the Australian Curriculum.
I attended the reference group meeting for the Literacy Levels on Tuesday afternoon. The draft shows progression from one Level to the next through well described indicators and good use of examples.
Yesterday, James Dekort from Le Fevre High worked with me to create the PowerPoint that will accompany the Year 8 English Genre Project. It might seem odd that an ESL consultant is putting so much energy into an English resource. However, the process will be valuable to ESL teachers as well. Later this term we will do something similar for Science. The explicit teaching of genres across the currciulum is something that ESL has always supported if not led.
I understand that people are having trouble posting comments. I am not very IT savy but will try to find a solution. In the meantime, emails are welcome ross.hamilton@sa.gov.au . I am able to track the number of views my blog gets. It is now well over 200 so I know somebody is out there!
Best wishes for term 3.

Last week was the first week of school holidays so I was able to attend to some of the work that had started to "pile up" during the term. I marked two different sorts of work. Firstly I "marked' TESMC participant reflections on Between Module Readings and Between Module Activities from the course. It is pleasing when participants see how the practical and theoretical parts of the course come together to support their teaching. I also marked some Year 12 work from Edward John Eyre High School. In one of my weaker moments I agreed to analyse the use of certain langauge features in A and C grade student texts. Art, Psychology, Chemistry and PE texts were analysed. I looked at the use of non-human foregrounding (starts of clauses), evaluative langauge and nominalisation. While foregrunding did not appear to have a significant impact on the grades, A grade texts did use more nominalisation and evaluative language and the choices were, on the whole, more sophisticated. The school can use this to help inform their decisions about what teaching they should prioritise as part of their whole school literacy agreements.

I also worked with some of the other ESL consultants to organise the trialling of the Literacy Levels next term. Nearly 40 schools have shown interest in being part of the trail. This is a wonderful response. I also spent a great deal of time coordinating the Year 8 Genre Project. It is nearing completion. It will be presented to regional English teachers on 9th August and then to staff across DECD at the Literacy Expo in late August. I have also begun my preparation for the TESMC course to be run next term at Kilkenny Primary School. There will be 30 participants so it is best to start early.

In closing, I want to acknowledge Kate Prescott whose position as an ESL Psychologist finishes at the end of this week. This is not a result of the quality of her work or a diminishing number ESL new arrivals with psychological issues. Rather it is a result of budget savings through corporate staff cut backs. Thank you Kate for your caring and expert work. Best wishes for the future.

In the last couple of weeks, I have given seven sites some intensive support to assign their ESL Scales. These schools include primary and high schools in Western Adelaide, Port Augusta and Whyalla. On most occasions I have only been making minor adjustments to some of the Scales already assigned. I think this is a sign a of the quality of the previous tarining about how to assign Scales and the professionalism of the etachers involved. Participation in voluntary regional moderation helps schools to have accurate Scales history for their students and therefore schools can have confidence in this data when tracking student improvement and prioritising resources. In addition these sites should have very few concerns if they are randomly selected for inclusion in the external moderation process. Each year 40 schools are notified which 10 sets of evidence they need to send for moderation. After moderation each school and regional office is sent the results. These show the percentage of Scales that were confirmed at each school and a comparison to the region and the state.
To coincide with Refugee Week I organised a professional learning session at the Aboriginal, Multicultural, Languages and Learning Resource Centre. The resource centre staff had a range of resources about refugees on display. After teachers had the chance to look at these, two speakers from the Australian Refugee Association spoke about the services they provide. In particular, we learnt about the expansion of homework clubs into the southern suburbs and that senior students can underatke Flexible Learning Options (FLO) through ARA as a way of completing their SACE. We also heard from Ker Wol Mading, one of the DECD CLOs, who spoke briefly about some of his personal experiences growing up in Africa and the important work of the CLOs.
Last week I attended the Settlement Council of Australia (SCoA) national conference here in Adelaide. It was sobering to hear the state minister for Multiculural Affairs deliver a very emtional and sincere speech about the plight of asylum seekers. It was also refreshing to hear from someone as eminent as Professor Graeme Hugo who presented current immigration statistics. These debunked many of the ignorant claims made in the media and general population about the negative impact asylum seekers supposedly have upon Australia. However, I felt disappointed that at a two day conference entitled "Creating our Future" very little was said about children with a migrant or refugee experience and that the important day to day role that schools play, sometimes in partnership with agencies and NGOs,  in the settlement of students and their families was not even acknowledged.