The last couple of weeks have been very busy, but I still managed to take a couple of days off to celebrate my birthday in Sydney by climbing the bridge in 100 kph winds. I can highly recommend it.
Back in the "real world" I have had the opportunity, thanks to Jock Lawson ICAN Manager, to speak with the FLO school coordinators and FLO provider representatives about how I might assist in the teaching of literacy in FLO programs and in student transition into and out of FLO.
The latest Secondary ESL Teacher Network meeting organised by my colleagues Dick Doyle and Joan Richards took place on Thursday evening. It was useful to hear from several teachers about how their schools are using a whole school approach to literacy improvement. I dont think as many teachers would have been able to do so just a couple of years ago.
Since my last post, I have also been part of a group of IELC leaders which revisited a regional plan to improve transition between primary IELCs and mainstream schools in the region. One of the actions is to survey mainstream schools to see what they think are areas for improvement.
Yesterday was the last TESMC Module at Kilkenny Primary. One advantage of delivering the course in a Term 3 is that teachers can now apply their learning before the end of the year. However, some teacher participants think they have not been given sufficent time to trial the strategies in their classes during the course. What has impressed me so far is the perserverance many SSOs have shown to complete activities when they dont necessarily relate to how they work with students at the moment.
I have continued to work with the Science teachers to write the Yr 9 genre document. The task has had many revisions and therefore required revisions of success criteria, task process steps etc. However, when we meet for ther last time after the holidays I am confident the resource will provide teachers and their Year 9 Science students with the resources required to plan for and successfully write an expanation. The final copy will be available from the regional web site by mid next term.
Also to be completed mid Term 4 is a regional genre map aligned to SACE and the Australian Curriculum. I will be hosting several meetings with SACE English, History, Maths and Science teachers in early Term 4 to help identifty the most important macro-genres in these SACE subjects. This will then be used to decide which common genres should be explicitly taught and assessed from years 6-10 to prepare students for SACE.
The ESL consultants have also looked at the feedback from the trial of the draft 1-10 Language and Literacy Levels. It shows there is a strong correlation between the Scales and Levels. While there are some minor adjustments to be made as a result of the feedback, most of those who trialled it were happy with its organisation and content. The draft 11-14 Levels will soon be finished and trialled. The ESL consultants will spend some of the term holidays working with their Catholic Ed colleagues developing implementation resources.
Next week I will be delivering a 1/2 day PD session about noun groups, nominalisation and circumstances in the R-7 Australian Curriculum. Twenty one primary teachers have registered so it is obviously a topic of some interest at the moment. I will also deliver the PD in Whyalla next month.
For those taking holidays, I hope you enjoy them!