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.