Glynis Rose & Rosemary McLoughlin Tuesday 16 February 2021, 4-5:30pm, Online event In this session, Glynis and Rosemary provided feedback on student performance in the 2020 VCE EAL exam, including…
Stephanie Georgiou & Maddy Oh Tuesday 9 February, 4-5:30 pm Online Event Presenters: Stephanie Georgiou has more than 18 years of experience in teaching EAL. She has worked in the…
Luke Treadwell & Tanja Rykovska, AMES Australia
Wednesday 18 November, 4:00-5:30pm AEDT
Online Event
This workshop was based on the premise that digital literacy is vital for living, learning, and working in contemporary Australian society and therefore needs to be a key feature as both a support and an outcome of any relevant EAL program. The session detailed the experience and learnings of one such program that was specifically designed (pre-COVID) to engage low level EAL learners in online learning. The session covered the basic course design principles of our EAL online courses, the strategies developed to engage and support the learners and their challenges and achievements learning in an online environment. Luke and Tanja’s presentation was followed by Q&A and small group discussion.
Luke Treadwell is a senior teacher with many years of program and proect management in AMES. Luke has taught EAL students for many years across many programs and has recently worked extensively with ASMES online learning program.
Tanja Rykovska is an EAL teacher with extensive experience teaching English, designing and delivering EAL programs in various settings and for diverse cohorts. She has a special interest in technology in language learning and has integrated technology in her teaching throughout her career. She has been involved in AMES online learning initiative since 2015.
If you want to find out more, here is the link to the AMES Course Taster: https://ames-sandbox.mrooms.net/course/view.php?id=51
Webinar Event – Wednesday 11th November 2020, 7-8pm AEDT
Presenter Alison Larkins was appointed in late 2019 as Commonwealth Coordinator-General for Migrant Services. Her role is to work closely within the Commonwealth and State/Territory governments, industry, and the community sector to drive improvements to employment, English language, and broader settlement outcomes, and through this work, to promote the contribution of migrants, refugees and humanitarian entrants to Australia.
Experienced AMEP teachers Jakki Cashman (Canberra) and Skye Playsted (Queensland) provided brief responses, followed by audience questions.
Thank you to everyone who attended the forum ‘English for Adult Migrants – Future Directions’ with Alison Larkins. The response to this event was overwhelming. Registrations closed at our limit of 500 and 374 people attended. Data on registrations and attendees are as follows:
REGISTRATIONS – Teaching Focus
AMEP: 328
AMEP & SEE: 106
SEE: 29
Teacher education: 18
Training to teach TESOL: 34
Other (with no other ID): 82
Note: some people listed more than 1 focus.
ATTENDEES – Locations
Which state/territory are you joining this webinar from today?
Are you based in a regional or metropolitan area?
If you attended the event, please click here to complete the evaluation survey.
Alison Larkins
Commonwealth Coordinator-General for Migrant Services, Department of Home Affairs
Jacky Springall Tuesday 10 November 2020, 4:00-5:30pm AEDT Online Workshop This practical workshop was based on the premise that EAL teachers need to be pro-active in integrating a focus…
Wednesday 28 October, 4-5pm
Panel Discussion and Q&A
Laurence Guttmann, Rosemary Abboud, Margaret Corrigan, and Julia Lippold
Some resources that were shared within this session:
LMERC information can be accessed by clicking here. Find out about the collection, services, loan periods and instructions for joining.
This presentation was delivered by Jenny Peck at the LMERC Resourcing and Networking Event on Thursday 15th October 2020.
Jenny Peck has prepared a resource sheet in response to some of the questions raised by the participants in this session:
Participant contributions are available at:
This series of professional learning events is a result of collaboration between staff from the Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre (LMERC), the School Libraries Association of Victoria (SLAV), Stella Schools, and VicTESOL.
About the Organisers:
The School Library Association of Victoria (SLAV) offers dynamic and inspiring opportunities for teacher-librarians and library teams to build their essential role in engaging and developing lifelong learners. Through leadership, advocacy and collegiality and an extensive professional learning and publications program.
Stella is an organisation that champions cultural change through recognising, elevating and celebrating Australian women’s writing. It includes the annual Stella Prize award for women’s writing, the Stella Count, which examines gender bias in book reviewing and Stella Schools, which develops programs that seek to inspire and empower young people to find their own creative voices, challenge stereotypes and imagine a future not limited by their gender.
https://thestellaprize.com.au/
The Languages & Multicultural Education Resource Centre (LMERC) is for educators across all sectors K-12. LMERC provides resources in the areas of English as an Additional Language (EAL), Languages other than English, the Intercultural Capability and the cross curriculum priorities areas of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, and Sustainability. The library holds an extensive collection of over 25,000 resources in all formats for educators across all sectors and at all levels, early childhood to adult. Library membership is available free to teachers from these educational settings: early childhood centres (in receipt of government funding), schools F-12 across all sectors, pre-service teachers and lecturers (in the areas of EAL and languages), homework clubs and community language schools. Home school parents, teachers of adults and community workers in education roles are also welcome to join.
https://lmerc.softlinkhosting.com.au/oliver/home/news
Finding culturally diverse literature:
Stella has a couple of wonderful resources to support your text selection around gender diversity and writing from the intersection. If you would like to know more you can contact Lenny Robinson: schools [at] thestellaprize.com.au and visit https://thestellaprize.com.au/.
Auditing and Selection:
Wider reading:
Suggestions:
In part 2, we discussed possible ways to audit your current text lists or collections, and give resource recommendations for you to consider introducing at your school or institution.
Jennifer Peck took participants through the resources available through LMERC, including lists of culturally diverse texts.
Stella Schools Manager Lenny Robinson introduced the audience to two resources developed by Stella Schools to support diversity in text selection: The Read Up Reading Guide, developed in partnership with the Victorian Government, and the Stella Sparks Reading Guide, one of several resources included in their Resource Kit for Stella Sparks schools program.
We then split into groups facilitated by SLAV and LMERC librarians who took participants through some resource recommendations. This part of the session was not recorded.
Jennifer Peck’s presentation:
Lenny Robinson- Stella Schools Manager:
LMERC text lists:
Group Presentation Resources:
https://padlet.com/grassr/2qvzrijrajxkn8nm
Participants were asked to read the article ‘Assessing and selecting culturally diverse literature for the classroom’ by Helen Adam and Laurie Harper (2016) prior to attending this professional learning event. The article can be accessed by clicking here.
Adam, H., & Harper, L. (2016). Assessing and selecting culturally diverse literature for the classroom. Retrieve from https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013/1892
https://victesol.vic.edu.au/index.php/events/
Picture Book Showcase
8 October, 4 to 6pm
https://slav.wildapricot.org/event-3934920
Masterclass – Powering Learning – Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives
Joint event with LMERC
13 November, 9.30 to 12.30
https://slav.wildapricot.org/event-3871570
Virtual Conference – The Power of Reading
27 November, 8.30 to 3.30
ttps://slav.wildapricot.org/event-3696748
Online Presentations and Discussion Rooms, Tuesday 6 October, 4-5:30 pm
Naomi Weiler, Stephanie Georgiou, and Maria Papasotiriou
Are you preparing students for the VCE EAL exam? Get ideas and strategies from three experienced EAL teachers and join us afterwards for small group discussions.
Presenters
Stephanie Georgiou has more than 18 years of experience in teaching EAL. She has worked in the adult, Catholic and government sectors, continuing her ongoing tenure at the Department of Education and Training. She has managed and coordinated multiple programmes throughout her career. This includes setting up a government funded bridging program for refugee students and most recently as Language Centre and EAL coordinator managing the learning of international students and teaching staff within that program. She has run numerous in-house in-services for staff on teaching strategies for EAL students.
Maria Papasotiriou is the Head of EAL at Wellington Secondary College, a large government secondary school in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne. She is an experienced VCE EAL teacher and has taught local and international students from culturally diverse backgrounds, including refugees with disrupted schooling. She has previously presented at the VATE Conference and has been an English assessor for VCAA.
Naomi Weiler is the EAL Unit 1-4 Coordinator and Gifted Learners’ Leader at St Francis Xavier College. Naomi has ten-years teaching experience in English, EAL, Humanities and Accelerated Subjects. Naomi will be presenting on Section A of the exam. Her approach to the Listening Task is based on the explicit teaching of skills and knowledge to aural content.
Session Resources
Section A Resources – Naomi Weiler, St. Francis Xavier College
Section B Resources – Stephanie Georgiou, McKinnon Secondary College
Section C Resources – Maria Papasotiriou, Wellington Secondary College
