Since my last post I have spent a bit of time working with the other consultants planning our work for 2013 and the program for the Literacy Leaders Network meeting on 2nd November. Fliers will be distributed in the usual manner. We have secured Jenny Hammond as the guest speaker. She was the edior of Scaffolding: teaching and learning in language and literacy education published by PETAA.
I also visited ASSOE to help in their deliberations about curriculum and pedagogy renewal. It was pleasing that my advice was echoed in the draft paper being developed by primary IELP leaders on the topic. I worked with this group to revise the IELP Transistion Report in light of the Lanaguage and Litercay Levels. The report is completed by IELP teachers about each student before they move into the mainstream.
During this last week I have also been able to attend the latest PD session run by Dr Peter White from UniNSW. We looked at a set of texts written by the same student over several years. Her improvement in recount writing was clearly demonstrated. She used language to engage the reader about one or two main events rather than just trying to recount a bland series of events. The role of the teacher and task design was key to the student's progress.
I also attended the Literacy and Numeracy Expo for two days. Highlights were the presentation of the executive summary of the Adolescent Literacy Project undertaken by the SA secondary principals' association. Recommendations included more literacy PD specific to the secondary years. I suggest all secondary teachers and leaders make themselves aware of the report. It will be intersting to see the DECD response.
However, the most outstanding presentation came from Priyanka Sharma from The Pines IELC. She demonstrated that the teaching of functional grammar within a teaching and learning cycle can be fun and contribute to students making extraordinary progress. All of what she showed is achieveable in IELPs or mainstream classes. Hopefully the ESL consultants can arrange for her to repeat her presentation and to have it filmed so as many teachers as possible can view it. I think a number of doubters in school and corporate leadership positions should also see the evidence.

In the last couple of weeks I have worked with my colleague, Giuseppe Mammone, and two primary teachers to develop an R-7 Australian Curriculum Genre map. A draft has now gone out to schools for feedback. I have also developed a similar map for Years 8-10 and one  page overviews for each genre. Each overview outlines the purpose, structure and language of that genre. The language is linked to the headings in the Aust Curriculum literacy continuum (e.g. text knowledge). The 8-10 materials have also gone to schools for comment.
I was filmed last thursday doing a very brief introduction to two ESL Moodle courses. One is ESL Leadership 101 and the other is ESL Teaching Resources. Both can be accessed via the Literacy Secretariat site. The short vidoes were aimed at giving ESL teachers who had registered for the latest Literacy Leaders Network online conference some suggestions about which of the online Moodles they might find most useful.
I also spent a morning with staff from the Australian Red Cross and Australian Federal Police hearing about the dreadful situation often desperate people find themselves in as a result of people trafficking. These people are often duped into coming to Australia and then exploited for profit or sex. While the numbers are relatively small in South Australia these two websites may be of interest www.antislavery.org.au/resources/fact-sheets.html and www.ag.gov.au/Peopletrafficking/Pages/default.aspx
Yesterday I was invited to speak with the leadership team at William Light R-12 School about what language choices make the biggest differences in student writing. Reports from the school are positive and a couple of faculties may work with me about this later this year. I am more than happy to discuss this with other site leaders with the view of discussing it further with their learning area coordinators
Today I started working with three Science teachers to develop a Year 9 Science genre document. It is the next step in the regional project about the explicit teaching of genres across Years 8-10 Aust Curric. The first document and accompanying PowerPoint are on the regional website www.decd.sa.gov..au/westernadelaide/pages/Curriculum > Literacy.

This week I have visited three more schools to write new IELC Transiton Plans for students enrolling in mainstream from ASSOE or to review plans written last term. I believe these plans are working well because there have been some good news stories as a result of schools focusing upon these "at risk" students. Once a school is made aware of the student they have used a variety of existing processes or programs to monitor and engage students. I am yet to have to write a plan for the second term that any of the students have been at their new school.
While mentioning ASSOE, the staff there was kind enough to let me trial the Year 8 English genre document with them. From their point of view, they gained more insight into the structure of the Australian Curriculum: English and the standard of work in the mainstream. I gained some useful feedback about the draft resources.
Last Thursday, I attended some very informative professional learning about creating and composing factual multimodal texts. This PETAA training was run by Michele Anstey and Geoff Bull. One of the highlights for me was a very clear definition about what is a multimodal text. We also started to learn and apply some of the grammar of other semiotic systems apart from linguistics. While much of the day was aimed at primary students, I think the information about the inquiry model is also applicable to older students. The presenters have written a text on the topic and it is available from the PETAA. PETAA have also produced twelve free online units of work from Years 3-8. They are aligned to the Australian Curriculum: English and available from www.globalwords.edu.au
Over the last few weeks as schools start to come to terms with the implementation of the Aust Curriculum, three secondary schools have asked how they should plan for and assess ESL students when students study ESL as a subject instead of or as well as English. Teachers are allowed to assess students with disabilities against a lower year level, but there is no guidance about ESL students. It is an agenda item for this Friday's meeting of the ESL Regional Consultants, but I would love to hear other people's opinion on this.
Advance Notice! The next Secondary ESL Teacher Network meeting is from 4-6 pm on Thursday 13th September at Adelaide High School. Flyers will be sent to the normal email lists.