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.