Welcome to 2013.
I am back from leave and firstly want to update you about the professional learning planned for new EALD teachers. The full day tarining will be held at EDC on Monday 11th February. New EALD teachers can go to www.ealdteacherinduction.eventbrite.com.au for details and registration.
Term 1 will be very busy due to the implementation of the Language and Literacy Levels. A full day's training is planned for teachers with experience in assigning ESL Scales on Monday 18th February. For details and registration go to http://experiencedlevels18thfeb.eventbrite.com.au It will be repeated on Monday 25th February. For details and registration go to http://languageandliteracylevels25thfeb.eventbrite.com.au A full day's training for junior primary teachers with little or no experience of assigning ESL Scales will be held on Friday 1st March. For more details go to http://juniorprimarylevels.eventbrite.com.au
The version for primary teachers will be on Monday 4th March http://primarylevels.eventbrite.com.au and for secondary teachers on Friday 8th March http://secondarylevels.eventbrite.com.au
Country teachers who cannot attend these days will be catered for by training in several country centres during Term 1 or via Centra. The training in Port Lincoln is on Tuesday 12th March. For details go to http://languageandliteracylevelsportlincoln.eventbrite.com.au Details about other country training will become available during the first half of the term.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the significant work of Karyl Martin who is retiring on Wednesday. She has been a committed leader of ESL in South Australia for many years. At different times over recent years, Karyl has managed the work of the ESL Innovative Schools, Community Liaison Officers and ESL Consultants. She has lead the development of new resources including the new Language and Literacy Levels. In the past year, she has literally done the work of two people without the second wage so she ceratinly deserves to have some time with her family. I thank her for her wise leadership and wish her all the best for the future.
Monday, 21 January 2013
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
The consultation draft of the Language and Literacy Levels across the Australian Curriculum: EALD Students document is on the web! It will not be published in hard copy for at least the first year while it is a consultation draft. To view or download it go to www.decd.sa.gov.au/literacy/ >EALD>Lang & Lit Levels.
It describes the development of Standard Australian English required to meet the increasing demands of the Australian Curriculum across the years of schooling from Foundation (Reception) to Year 10. It is primarily an assessment, monitoring and reporting document to be used to inform programming and planning for all teachers. The document replaces the ESL Scope and Scales in use for at least the last decade.
Bronwyn Custance was the lead writer and used her substanial knowledge of language and the Australian Curriculum to complete what I am sure will be seen as a very valuable assessment and planning resource for a range of teachers. She was supported in the writing by the EALD consultants and the reference group which consisted of DECD and Catholic Education staff.
Professional Learning to support the implementation of the document is almost finalised and fliers will be distributed by the start of Term 1. Even though a significant amount of PL will be delivered by EALD consultants next term, school based literacy leaders will also be able to deliver the training by downloading PowerPoints and detailed facilitator notes from the web. More information about how to access these will also be sent to schools early next year.
I have just learnt that the EALD positions will be rolled over for Term 1. However, two of the current consultants will be moving on so there will only be six consultants during next term. Pam Boyle is retiring and Carmen Liddane has won the position of IELC coordinator at Goodwood Primary. They have both made valuable contributions to the EALD Programs team over a long period. I wish them both well.
Finally I hope you all enjoy safe and happy holidays and I look forward to adding some more posts in 2013.
It describes the development of Standard Australian English required to meet the increasing demands of the Australian Curriculum across the years of schooling from Foundation (Reception) to Year 10. It is primarily an assessment, monitoring and reporting document to be used to inform programming and planning for all teachers. The document replaces the ESL Scope and Scales in use for at least the last decade.
Bronwyn Custance was the lead writer and used her substanial knowledge of language and the Australian Curriculum to complete what I am sure will be seen as a very valuable assessment and planning resource for a range of teachers. She was supported in the writing by the EALD consultants and the reference group which consisted of DECD and Catholic Education staff.
Professional Learning to support the implementation of the document is almost finalised and fliers will be distributed by the start of Term 1. Even though a significant amount of PL will be delivered by EALD consultants next term, school based literacy leaders will also be able to deliver the training by downloading PowerPoints and detailed facilitator notes from the web. More information about how to access these will also be sent to schools early next year.
I have just learnt that the EALD positions will be rolled over for Term 1. However, two of the current consultants will be moving on so there will only be six consultants during next term. Pam Boyle is retiring and Carmen Liddane has won the position of IELC coordinator at Goodwood Primary. They have both made valuable contributions to the EALD Programs team over a long period. I wish them both well.
Finally I hope you all enjoy safe and happy holidays and I look forward to adding some more posts in 2013.
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Busy, busy, busy. The regional Yr 6 - SACE genre map is complete thanks to the input of about 20 Science, Maths, History and English teachers from half a dozen schools in the region. It will now go up on the regional website. The supporting document outlining purpose, structure and key language features will soon follow.
The Literacy Leaders Network Day has come and gone. There were a lot of postive comments about the keynote speaker Jenny Hammond. I also took the chance to hear her speak to SATESOL members on the following morning about issues arising from her research into secondary transition from Intensive English Centres in Sydney. While the workshop presentations were not filmed the presenters PowerPoints or Prezis should be on the Literacy Secretariat website. If your school is looking for an example that enacts the elements of a whole school approach to literacy improvement than check out the Prezi by Alice Carter and Davide Marino from Whyalla. At three different events since their presentation, teachers from different schools have told me how much they enjoyed the presentation and that they now have a model to discuss with their own principals. Isnt this the goal of the LLN days?? Alice was also asked to speak briefly at the Eyre and Western Region's Leaders Day about the work she is leading at Stuart High. Her leadership in this area undoubtedly assisted her to win an acting assistant principal job at her school!
Last week I was able to build on the work that Davide Marino has donethis semester with his staff at Edward John Eyre High about nominalisation. Lots of heads were nodding and people were engaged in the activities so I showed me that they were starting from a reasosnably strong base.
I have also presented four hours of PD about noun groups, nominalisation and circumstances to primary teachers and secondary new arrivals teachers. The PD was over two Wednesday evenings and this allowed the teachers to trial a teaching activity and report back to the group. Their comments showed how they were able to thoughtfully modify the activities to suit their students.
My colleague, Giuseppe Mammone, has returned to the office after some leave. He was missed in the office and around the region. Yesterday we met with the IELC leaders in the region to consider the survey responses from principals about transition from IELCs to mainstream primary schools. The feedback was generally positive, but we have undertaken to develop a one page summary about each student that is sent to schools before transition and another document that clarifies the roles of IELCs, mainstream schools, parents and EALD consultants in the transition process.
Yesterday was the last Secondary ESL Teacher Network meeting for the year. Twenty-one teachers attended to hear about the main item which was the Language and Literacy Levels. Their feedback shows that overwhelmingly they appreciated the training and the consultants' delivery. More thorough PD will begin from the start of the 2013 school year.
The Levels, including an introduction and glossary are due to be completed in about a week. After that time they will be posted on the Lit Sec website. Work on the supporting moderated evidence and implementation PD is also getting close to completion , but will likely continue for the rest of the school year.
So that brings me to next year. As you can imagine I have had a number of schools or groups wanting to "book" me to deliver PD in 2013. I have been accepting these but explaining that these are tentative because the tenure of consultant positions finishes in January. At this stage we do not know how many there will be, where they will be based or indeed if the positions will exist at all. I hope to write one or two more posts before the end of the school year so hopefully the situation is clarified by then.
The Literacy Leaders Network Day has come and gone. There were a lot of postive comments about the keynote speaker Jenny Hammond. I also took the chance to hear her speak to SATESOL members on the following morning about issues arising from her research into secondary transition from Intensive English Centres in Sydney. While the workshop presentations were not filmed the presenters PowerPoints or Prezis should be on the Literacy Secretariat website. If your school is looking for an example that enacts the elements of a whole school approach to literacy improvement than check out the Prezi by Alice Carter and Davide Marino from Whyalla. At three different events since their presentation, teachers from different schools have told me how much they enjoyed the presentation and that they now have a model to discuss with their own principals. Isnt this the goal of the LLN days?? Alice was also asked to speak briefly at the Eyre and Western Region's Leaders Day about the work she is leading at Stuart High. Her leadership in this area undoubtedly assisted her to win an acting assistant principal job at her school!
Last week I was able to build on the work that Davide Marino has donethis semester with his staff at Edward John Eyre High about nominalisation. Lots of heads were nodding and people were engaged in the activities so I showed me that they were starting from a reasosnably strong base.
I have also presented four hours of PD about noun groups, nominalisation and circumstances to primary teachers and secondary new arrivals teachers. The PD was over two Wednesday evenings and this allowed the teachers to trial a teaching activity and report back to the group. Their comments showed how they were able to thoughtfully modify the activities to suit their students.
My colleague, Giuseppe Mammone, has returned to the office after some leave. He was missed in the office and around the region. Yesterday we met with the IELC leaders in the region to consider the survey responses from principals about transition from IELCs to mainstream primary schools. The feedback was generally positive, but we have undertaken to develop a one page summary about each student that is sent to schools before transition and another document that clarifies the roles of IELCs, mainstream schools, parents and EALD consultants in the transition process.
Yesterday was the last Secondary ESL Teacher Network meeting for the year. Twenty-one teachers attended to hear about the main item which was the Language and Literacy Levels. Their feedback shows that overwhelmingly they appreciated the training and the consultants' delivery. More thorough PD will begin from the start of the 2013 school year.
The Levels, including an introduction and glossary are due to be completed in about a week. After that time they will be posted on the Lit Sec website. Work on the supporting moderated evidence and implementation PD is also getting close to completion , but will likely continue for the rest of the school year.
So that brings me to next year. As you can imagine I have had a number of schools or groups wanting to "book" me to deliver PD in 2013. I have been accepting these but explaining that these are tentative because the tenure of consultant positions finishes in January. At this stage we do not know how many there will be, where they will be based or indeed if the positions will exist at all. I hope to write one or two more posts before the end of the school year so hopefully the situation is clarified by then.
Sunday, 21 October 2012
The first two weeks of Term 4 have been busy as usual. No rest for the wicked. For instance the writers of the Year 9 Science explanation document meet as a group for the last time. The document includes a teaching resource accompanied by three PowerPoints about explanation structure and language. It will be launched at EDC Hindmarsh on 21st November. Fliers will soon be distributed to all secondary principals in the region.
Bronwyn Custance and I aligned the Language and Literacy Levels to the four phases of EALD student progression across F-2, Yrs 3-6 and Yrs 7-10 in the ACARA EALD Teacher Resource. This may form part of the introduction to the Levels document.
The ERCs are well underway in their work to develop a new moderated evidence resource to accompany the Levels. This is a large chunk of our work for the next few weeks.
However, we are still finding time to help prepare for the Literacy Leaders Network meeting on 2nd November. I will be part of a panel on the day and talk briefly about the work ERCs have been doing towards the implementation of the Australian Curriculum and what we see as opportunities and challenges for EALD students posed by the new curriculum. I have also met with a couple of the groups presenting on the day. This includes a pair of literacy leaders, Alice Crater and Davide Marino, from Whyalla who are doing great things at a whole school level.
While in Whyalla I delivered some PD about nominalisation and sentence openers to staff at Stuart High. It was very well received. I also visited Hincks Ave Primary to observe their two new GI ESL students and give some recommendations for their teaching. It was wonderful to see the way in which students, SSOs, teachers and leaders were working to support these two new Filipino students. I'll be back in Whyalla on 8th November to present some grammar PD for teachers at Edward John Eyre High.
I managed to find time to attend the Western Adelaide regional leaders meeting last Friday. The table I was on gave some positive feedback about the level of advice and PD provided by Giuseppe and me. Just as importantly the leaders heard about the department's new numeracy and literacy strategy. Teachers and leaders are being encouraged to have their say about the 6 drivers for improvement.
Finally I have compiled a summary of the ERCs feedback about the plan and process for "at risk" ASSOE students during transition into mainstream. Jill Brodie-Tyrrell and I meet with ASSOE staff tomorrow to discuss in detail, but I can say that 28 transition plans were written in the first year and there was no need to write a subsequent pan for any of these students. This suggests all these students made a successful transition into mainstream high schools.
Bronwyn Custance and I aligned the Language and Literacy Levels to the four phases of EALD student progression across F-2, Yrs 3-6 and Yrs 7-10 in the ACARA EALD Teacher Resource. This may form part of the introduction to the Levels document.
The ERCs are well underway in their work to develop a new moderated evidence resource to accompany the Levels. This is a large chunk of our work for the next few weeks.
However, we are still finding time to help prepare for the Literacy Leaders Network meeting on 2nd November. I will be part of a panel on the day and talk briefly about the work ERCs have been doing towards the implementation of the Australian Curriculum and what we see as opportunities and challenges for EALD students posed by the new curriculum. I have also met with a couple of the groups presenting on the day. This includes a pair of literacy leaders, Alice Crater and Davide Marino, from Whyalla who are doing great things at a whole school level.
While in Whyalla I delivered some PD about nominalisation and sentence openers to staff at Stuart High. It was very well received. I also visited Hincks Ave Primary to observe their two new GI ESL students and give some recommendations for their teaching. It was wonderful to see the way in which students, SSOs, teachers and leaders were working to support these two new Filipino students. I'll be back in Whyalla on 8th November to present some grammar PD for teachers at Edward John Eyre High.
I managed to find time to attend the Western Adelaide regional leaders meeting last Friday. The table I was on gave some positive feedback about the level of advice and PD provided by Giuseppe and me. Just as importantly the leaders heard about the department's new numeracy and literacy strategy. Teachers and leaders are being encouraged to have their say about the 6 drivers for improvement.
Finally I have compiled a summary of the ERCs feedback about the plan and process for "at risk" ASSOE students during transition into mainstream. Jill Brodie-Tyrrell and I meet with ASSOE staff tomorrow to discuss in detail, but I can say that 28 transition plans were written in the first year and there was no need to write a subsequent pan for any of these students. This suggests all these students made a successful transition into mainstream high schools.
Thursday, 4 October 2012
In the last couple of weeks, a major focus of my work and the other consultants has been the Language and Literacy Levels. For example, I met with my manager, Karyl Martin, and Bronwyn Custance who is the writer of the document to clarify the relationship between it and ACARA's EALD Teacher Resource.
Essentially we feel the ACARA document informs:
During the last few days, some of the consultants have started developing a set of moderated evidence to support teachers in assigning accurate and consistent Levels from 2013. This is just one aspect of the implementation planning happening in Term 4. Catholic Education have also been part of some of our implementation planning meetings and as a result there will be sharing of resources across the two systems.
In my last post, I mentioned a garmmar PD session I was going to run at the start of the school holidays. It went very well. Most participants rated the training as excellent. This is one of the reasons why I am offering it again. It will be in two parts from 4-6 pm Wednesday 31st October and 4-6 pm Wednesday 7th November. Both sessions will be held at Flinders Park. Emial me for a flier ross.hamilton@sa.gov.au
Essentially we feel the ACARA document informs:
- teachers about what each broad cohort of EALD students is likely to be able to do across the literacy macro-skills
- teachers and leaders about general teaching strategies for each cohort
- school decisions about prioritising EALD support and which students should be assigned a Language and Literacy Level.
- inform each student's EALD support category to allocate EALD funding to schools
- inform teachers of the language needed to access and demonstrate knowledge of Australian Curriculum
- provide a fine grain assessment of student writing (and oral language)
- monitor and track any student's progress especially in writing.
During the last few days, some of the consultants have started developing a set of moderated evidence to support teachers in assigning accurate and consistent Levels from 2013. This is just one aspect of the implementation planning happening in Term 4. Catholic Education have also been part of some of our implementation planning meetings and as a result there will be sharing of resources across the two systems.
In my last post, I mentioned a garmmar PD session I was going to run at the start of the school holidays. It went very well. Most participants rated the training as excellent. This is one of the reasons why I am offering it again. It will be in two parts from 4-6 pm Wednesday 31st October and 4-6 pm Wednesday 7th November. Both sessions will be held at Flinders Park. Emial me for a flier ross.hamilton@sa.gov.au
Monday, 17 September 2012
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!
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!
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
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.
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.
Thursday, 19 July 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
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.
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.
Sunday, 8 July 2012
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.
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.
Sunday, 1 July 2012
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.
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.
Sunday, 17 June 2012
Last Wednesday, I split my time between Woodville High School and Allenby Gardens Primary. I was assisting large numbers of teachers at both schools to assign ESL Scales. It is encouraging to see this important work being shared within schools and not just considered to be the "work of the ESL Teacher". Assigning accurate ESL Scales allows the school to have confidence in this data to better allocate resources and track student progress. It also builds teacher capacity in terms of language. Typically teachers only have to be involved in the scaling process for a couple of times before they realise that this sort of language needs to be explicitly taught not just assessed. At Woodville High ESL, English and Science teachers were involved. At Allenby Gardens the whole school seemed to take part. The school has long seen the value in regularly assigning ESL Scales and not just to their ESL studnets. Each term they assign ESLScales to all their students as another way of tracking student progress.
Indicators of when scaling is working well in a school include:
I also used the time last week to continue to organise Thursday's training session about the needs of refugee students and their families and the some of the services available to them. Registrations have been slow but I am confident it will still be a valuable session for those who are able to attend.
Today, I re-worked Session 3 from Tactical Teaching: Reading so that it is more aligned to the widespread understanding of genres and text structure in DECD schools. Many DECD teachers already have a deeper understanding of the topic than that presented in the TTR course. I have also taken the opportunity to align it the Australian Curriculum Literacy General Capabiliy elements (e.g. Gramar Knowledge). This is a more rigorous and relevant framework than the one promoted in the orignal course.
Indicators of when scaling is working well in a school include:
- having an agreed and documented process
- identifiable leaders of the process
- support for staff to undertake relevant training
- release time to complete some of the scaling
- a colleagiate approach to assigning Scales
- some form of internal moderation
- an easy process for recording the Scales and sharing them with others.
I also used the time last week to continue to organise Thursday's training session about the needs of refugee students and their families and the some of the services available to them. Registrations have been slow but I am confident it will still be a valuable session for those who are able to attend.
Today, I re-worked Session 3 from Tactical Teaching: Reading so that it is more aligned to the widespread understanding of genres and text structure in DECD schools. Many DECD teachers already have a deeper understanding of the topic than that presented in the TTR course. I have also taken the opportunity to align it the Australian Curriculum Literacy General Capabiliy elements (e.g. Gramar Knowledge). This is a more rigorous and relevant framework than the one promoted in the orignal course.
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Hello again. It is nice to be acknowlegded once in a while. The Literacy Secretariat recently obtained some data about its website. It makes very interesting reading. For the year ending April 2012, the site had about 77 000 visitors who viewed 214 000 pages. 67% of the visitors were from Australia. No surprise but there were 8 000 visitors from the UK, over 2 000 from each of the USA and Japan and even 151 from Pakistan. Obviously they come for different reasons but the work of the ESL team features very highly in regards to what they took from the site. The three top downloads were all created by the ESL team! Over 6 000 visitors downloaded the Persuasive Writing resource paper. About 3 000 took the Procedural Writing and Explanation Writing papers. Many other ESL resources were also downloaded in large numbers. If you are yet to visit the site yourself go to www.decd.sa.gov.au/literacy/
Despite the work of the ESL team being in demand, corporate salary cuts have been announced. At yesterday's ESL Team meeting the recommendations of the review was presented. The review acknowledges that those positions to be cut are simply those whose tenure is first to expire. Therefore, one of the two ESL psychologist postions will finsh at the end of this school term. There has not been a 50% reduction in the number of new arrivals with psychological needs. The other recommendation is that two of the eight ESL consultant positions not be re-advertised for next year. These are primarily the people who created the most popular resources on the Literacy Secretariat site as well as other resources and training and development to meet the needs of 12% of the students in ECD schools. This is unlikely to be the end of the changes because these cuts will also be followed by a round of "1 in 7 cuts" and then another round of cuts in response to the recent state budget. The ESL team may be very small by the time all these cuts take place.
In the meantime schools are in the midst of assigning ESL Scales. It is rewarding to see so many teachers becoming more familiar with language in this process. This "backdoor" literacy training enables some teachers to then begin explicitly teaching the language that makes their students' work more written-like.
Despite the work of the ESL team being in demand, corporate salary cuts have been announced. At yesterday's ESL Team meeting the recommendations of the review was presented. The review acknowledges that those positions to be cut are simply those whose tenure is first to expire. Therefore, one of the two ESL psychologist postions will finsh at the end of this school term. There has not been a 50% reduction in the number of new arrivals with psychological needs. The other recommendation is that two of the eight ESL consultant positions not be re-advertised for next year. These are primarily the people who created the most popular resources on the Literacy Secretariat site as well as other resources and training and development to meet the needs of 12% of the students in ECD schools. This is unlikely to be the end of the changes because these cuts will also be followed by a round of "1 in 7 cuts" and then another round of cuts in response to the recent state budget. The ESL team may be very small by the time all these cuts take place.
In the meantime schools are in the midst of assigning ESL Scales. It is rewarding to see so many teachers becoming more familiar with language in this process. This "backdoor" literacy training enables some teachers to then begin explicitly teaching the language that makes their students' work more written-like.
Sunday, 3 June 2012
I have started delivering what will be my last training about how to assign an ESL Scale. On Tuesday afternoon I presented the first part of this training to teachers at Underdale High. I'll finish it this Tuesday. I still have a couple of sessions to come about moderation of ESL Scales but I am very much looking forward to using the new document from next year. Ten years is a long time for any curriculum document to last. Over the next couple of weeks principals will be asked to decide if their school wants to take part in the trial of the new document in week 4 of next term.
Tuesday was also the first meeting of the writers of the joint regional and Literacy Secretariat genre project. We used a unit planner to decide what we the desired results, the links to the Australian Curriculum, what would be evidence of student learning, success criteria and how students will reflect upon their learning. As you can see from this sequence "backwards design" is one of the underpinning principles of our curriculum writing. Other resource to be developed over the next few weeks are a year planner, a teaching and learning cycle, an assessment rubric, a student checklist, an annotated model text and an example of a lesson plan. This is ambitious but the writers are keen to develop ample useful teacher-friendly resources.
Australian Curriculum was also the theme of this term's Secondary ESL Teacher Network meeting on Wednesday evening. About 20 teachers were introduced to the AC Literacy Continuum and its links to the document that will replace the ESL Scales. They also investigated the Year 7-10 part of the AELD Teacher Resource and considered its use in schools.
"Refugee Week" will be celebrated in late June so I have been organising a session for Thursday 21st June when teachers and leaders can view relevant resources and listen to a couple of outside agencies speak about what they think are the needs of refugee students and the services they provide for this group. Look out for the flyer in the next couple of days!
Thursday I was one of a dozen or more who participated in a training session with Dr Peter White from the University of NSW. The focus was conjunctions. As usual it was highly informative and has implications for how we support students to successfully compose certain genres. In the near future there may also be an announcement of a very exciting proposal involving both the university and DECD.
Tuesday was also the first meeting of the writers of the joint regional and Literacy Secretariat genre project. We used a unit planner to decide what we the desired results, the links to the Australian Curriculum, what would be evidence of student learning, success criteria and how students will reflect upon their learning. As you can see from this sequence "backwards design" is one of the underpinning principles of our curriculum writing. Other resource to be developed over the next few weeks are a year planner, a teaching and learning cycle, an assessment rubric, a student checklist, an annotated model text and an example of a lesson plan. This is ambitious but the writers are keen to develop ample useful teacher-friendly resources.
Australian Curriculum was also the theme of this term's Secondary ESL Teacher Network meeting on Wednesday evening. About 20 teachers were introduced to the AC Literacy Continuum and its links to the document that will replace the ESL Scales. They also investigated the Year 7-10 part of the AELD Teacher Resource and considered its use in schools.
"Refugee Week" will be celebrated in late June so I have been organising a session for Thursday 21st June when teachers and leaders can view relevant resources and listen to a couple of outside agencies speak about what they think are the needs of refugee students and the services they provide for this group. Look out for the flyer in the next couple of days!
Thursday I was one of a dozen or more who participated in a training session with Dr Peter White from the University of NSW. The focus was conjunctions. As usual it was highly informative and has implications for how we support students to successfully compose certain genres. In the near future there may also be an announcement of a very exciting proposal involving both the university and DECD.
Sunday, 27 May 2012
Hello again. Last week I attended the regional staff meeting. Items included a report from the Aboriginal Turn Around Team about how they work with some of the most disconnected families in the community. They are having successes with families including school aged children that the children's schools and other regional services have not been able to connect with despite their best efforts over very long periods. Some of the success is no doubt a result of the relatively small number of families the team works with and the resolve and hard work of the three team members. As I listened to them recount some cases and the plight of family members I wondered if some refugee familes might benefit from a similar approach. Perhaps the new configuration of DECD will enable a small team of social workers and CLOs to be formed to emulate the work of the Aboriginal team.
I also visited Findon High to work with the assistant principal to write IELC plans for two students who started there this term. The information that is provided by ASSOE about students deemed to be potentially "at risk" when they move into the mainstream includes their strengths and interests. At Findon HS this was helpful because it allowed us to write plans that linked students to existing school or VET courses.
On Thursday I meet with Simmone Retallick from Underdale High to plan a whole school training session about the Australian Curriculum. It appears that secondary schools are at different points along their introduction to and planning for the teaching and reporting of Phase 1 subjects next year. In UHS's case the situation is less sure because they are currently deciding if they will teach AC or IBMYP. Regardless of which they use, the school sees some value in making their staff aware of some general approaches like backwards design, identifying literacy demands in assessement tasks and explicitly teaching these as part of a teaching sequence.
The rest of my week was spent developing some resources for the upcoming secondary ESL network meeting and ESL Scaling and moderation at Underdale High and Allenby Gardens Primary. I also developed a draft primary genre map that others working with Sandy Deam, RCC, can use as part of the genre resources they are creating for the region. Never a dull moment!
I also visited Findon High to work with the assistant principal to write IELC plans for two students who started there this term. The information that is provided by ASSOE about students deemed to be potentially "at risk" when they move into the mainstream includes their strengths and interests. At Findon HS this was helpful because it allowed us to write plans that linked students to existing school or VET courses.
On Thursday I meet with Simmone Retallick from Underdale High to plan a whole school training session about the Australian Curriculum. It appears that secondary schools are at different points along their introduction to and planning for the teaching and reporting of Phase 1 subjects next year. In UHS's case the situation is less sure because they are currently deciding if they will teach AC or IBMYP. Regardless of which they use, the school sees some value in making their staff aware of some general approaches like backwards design, identifying literacy demands in assessement tasks and explicitly teaching these as part of a teaching sequence.
The rest of my week was spent developing some resources for the upcoming secondary ESL network meeting and ESL Scaling and moderation at Underdale High and Allenby Gardens Primary. I also developed a draft primary genre map that others working with Sandy Deam, RCC, can use as part of the genre resources they are creating for the region. Never a dull moment!
Monday, 21 May 2012
Hi remember me! It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted an update
of my activities. I am still enthusiastic about the blog but I am been extremely
busy. In the week starting Monday 7th May I worked with the other secondary ESL
consultants to plan the next network meeting for secondary ESL teachers. The
focus is Australian Curriculum. It will be at EDC Hindmarsh from 4-6 pm on
Wednesday 30th May. Email me ross.hamilton@sa.gov.au if you want
more details or to register. Other highlights of the week were delivering TESMC
Module 6 at Brompton Primary, running regional ESL Scales moderation and
attending the ESL consultant meeting. Along with the other members of the ESL
Program I gave my input into the corporate review of the program. In
brief, three salaries will have to go to offset the continuation of free travel
to some new arrivals students. A decision is likely in the next couple of weeks.
If I was a betting person, I would not put any money on there still being eight
ESL consultants even as early as the start of next term. The "1 in 7" cuts to
salaries that all government departments are supposed to make is still to come
so the ESL Program may be very small. I think that the consultants while perhaps
a bit unsure about their own personal circumstances are most concerned about how
the program will still deliver the same service to regions, sites and teachers
with a significant cut in salaries. Stay tuned.
Last week began with a meeting of WASMYLLN where I outlined the joint project between the region and the Literacy Secretariat. Four WASMYLLN members each representing a different secondary school were indentified to be the writers of a unit of work for Year 8 using Australian Curriculum: English. As well as a unit plan they will also produce a task sheet, assessment rubric, student checklist, annotated student text and a teaching and learning sequence. They have a busy term ahead.
The rest of last week I was in Whyalla. I worked with most of the staff at Whyalla Town Primary School so they could begin to assign ESL Scales to all their students. I also provided ESL Scales training to five teachers at Edward John Eyre High and between 25 to 30 teachers from seven other local primary and high schools. I also had the chance to work individually with eight EJEHS teachers to develop their ability to explicity teach some of the literacy demands in senior secondary subjects like PE, Design & Technology, Art and IT.
Last week began with a meeting of WASMYLLN where I outlined the joint project between the region and the Literacy Secretariat. Four WASMYLLN members each representing a different secondary school were indentified to be the writers of a unit of work for Year 8 using Australian Curriculum: English. As well as a unit plan they will also produce a task sheet, assessment rubric, student checklist, annotated student text and a teaching and learning sequence. They have a busy term ahead.
The rest of last week I was in Whyalla. I worked with most of the staff at Whyalla Town Primary School so they could begin to assign ESL Scales to all their students. I also provided ESL Scales training to five teachers at Edward John Eyre High and between 25 to 30 teachers from seven other local primary and high schools. I also had the chance to work individually with eight EJEHS teachers to develop their ability to explicity teach some of the literacy demands in senior secondary subjects like PE, Design & Technology, Art and IT.
Friday, 4 May 2012
Since the start of term I have delivered TESMC Modules 4&5 at Brompton Primary as well as meeting with the leadership at Kilkenny Primary to start planning the delivery of TESMC at that site during Term 3. This will allow teachers ample time in last term to implement and share their learning from the course.
This week I was part of an SSI Review Team that visited a school to provide them with some commendations and recommendations primarily about the teaching and learning of literacy. While this three day visits feel long and very intense, they do allow for opportunities to converse with and observe staff, parents and students. Part of the role of a review team member is to maintain confidentiality, but I think I can say that it was a pleasure to be a guest in a school that tries so very hard to deal with the complexities of their changing cohort. Typically some of the recommendations result in me be invited back to work more closely with the school as they begin to address those recommendations about ESL students and parents.
Yesterday I attended the region's senior years curriculum committee meeting to give an update about achievements and developments in ESL that relate to Year 10-12 students. It also gave me an opportunity to promote some of the presentations at the Regional Literacy Fair that took place today.
It was attended by about 160 primary and secondary leaders from almost every school in the region. Each school had a static display that featured at least one aspect of their literacy work. During the hour given to view these I probably saw a thrid of them. While they adressed a wide range of literacy topics and approaches typically they were evidence or research based and part of a school school approach. Many also featured the terminology, resources or processes developed by the Literacy Secretariat including the ESL Program. Those who organised the day and presented can be very proud of their part in a wonderful event.
My modest contribution was to give deliver two sessions. The first was an introduction to the ESL Literacy Levels and their alignment with the literacy continuum in the Australian Curriculum. In the other session I gathered feedback from school leaders that will help shape the development of a regional genre map and accompanying teaching resources.
This week I was part of an SSI Review Team that visited a school to provide them with some commendations and recommendations primarily about the teaching and learning of literacy. While this three day visits feel long and very intense, they do allow for opportunities to converse with and observe staff, parents and students. Part of the role of a review team member is to maintain confidentiality, but I think I can say that it was a pleasure to be a guest in a school that tries so very hard to deal with the complexities of their changing cohort. Typically some of the recommendations result in me be invited back to work more closely with the school as they begin to address those recommendations about ESL students and parents.
Yesterday I attended the region's senior years curriculum committee meeting to give an update about achievements and developments in ESL that relate to Year 10-12 students. It also gave me an opportunity to promote some of the presentations at the Regional Literacy Fair that took place today.
It was attended by about 160 primary and secondary leaders from almost every school in the region. Each school had a static display that featured at least one aspect of their literacy work. During the hour given to view these I probably saw a thrid of them. While they adressed a wide range of literacy topics and approaches typically they were evidence or research based and part of a school school approach. Many also featured the terminology, resources or processes developed by the Literacy Secretariat including the ESL Program. Those who organised the day and presented can be very proud of their part in a wonderful event.
My modest contribution was to give deliver two sessions. The first was an introduction to the ESL Literacy Levels and their alignment with the literacy continuum in the Australian Curriculum. In the other session I gathered feedback from school leaders that will help shape the development of a regional genre map and accompanying teaching resources.
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