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 It will not be published in hard copy for at least the first year while it is a consultation draft.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.
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