Stories are powerful. They shape the way we think about the world, ourselves and each other. The stories we choose to present to students at school, as teachers and librarians, profoundly affect how students perceive the world and their place in it. We want to help you choose culturally diverse resources that reflect students’ diverse lives, promote inclusion, challenge stereotypes, confront racism and ultimately strengthen our multicultural society.


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.

www.slav.org.au

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

 

Download (PDF, 407KB)

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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/.

In Part 3 of this Professional Learning Series (7 October 2020), groups discussed:

Auditing and Selection:

  • Have you audited your collections or text list?
  • What is your current process for selecting texts for the library or classroom study?
  • Do you have a selection policy? Is it ratified by the school administration?
  • What is included in text selection criteria?
  • What is the text selection process? How do you ensure input from all stakeholders?
  • How do you get input from students?
  • Have you set targets for the text list? What factors impedes reaching targets?
  • What changes are you considering making to your text selection process to improve it?
  • How do you make sure the texts you select are accessible to EAL learners at your school/institution?

Wider reading:

  • Beyond set texts, how do you promote diverse literature for pleasure reading?
  • Wider reading programs allow access to a wide range of resources. In what other ways can we support students to access culturally diverse literature?
  • What strategies do you have for engaging EAL learners in wider reading?

Suggestions:

  • What suggestions do you have for culturally diverse literature?
  • What suggestions do you have for finding quality, diverse literature? (eg. Suppliers, websites etc)
  • Multilingual resources – Suggestions?
  • What changes are you considering making to the texts in your collection or text lists?

In Part 2 of this Professional Learning Series (15 September 2020)

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: 

Download (PDF, 5.18MB)

Lenny Robinson- Stella Schools Manager:

 

LMERC text lists:

Group Presentation Resources:

  • 6-12 year old readers– Raff Grasso:

https://bit.ly/2RrMd6y

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

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

Download (PPTX, 604KB)

Section B Resources – Stephanie Georgiou, McKinnon Secondary College

Download (PPTX, 809KB)

Download (DOCX, 312KB)

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Section C Resources – Maria Papasotiriou, Wellington Secondary College

Download (PPTX, 202KB)

The Victorian Multicultural Awards for Excellence are currently open and taking nominations.

Proudly coordinated by the Victorian Multicultural Commission on behalf of the Victorian Government, the annual awards honour the outstanding achievements of Victorians who strengthen multiculturalism in our great state, recognising people, groups and organisations that foster cross-cultural understanding, build social cohesion and support people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to participate in all aspects of life.

Now in its 19th year, the awards feature 15 categories that recognise the many ways Victorians are supporting one another to strengthen multiculturalism. This year the awards include four education sub-categories recognising early childhood services, schools, vocational education and training settings and not-for-profit organisations.

Nominations are now open until 18 October 2020. To find out more or nominate for an award please go to https://www.multiculturalcommission.vic.gov.au/multicultural-awards-for-excellence.

The VicTESOL committee is inviting members to participate in the ratification of the revised VicTESOL constitution.

VicTESOL has undertaken a review of the constitution, assisted by an expert legal team from Clayton Utz.

The conversation started last year when we became aware that the current constitution was no longer fit for purpose and needed to be refreshed to reflect the Model Rules for Incorporated Associations, under the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012.

The legal team at Clayton Utz prepared a brief of advice, taking into account the legal requirements and the practical operations of VicTESOL. They developed a draft constitution, based on the Model Rules, as well as a document showing the differences between the existing and proposed constitutions.

VicTESOL is holding a meeting to ratify the draft constitution, to be held via Zoom at 7pm on 14th October 2020. Click here to register to attend this meeting.

The Committee urges all interested members to attend on 14th October to discuss and vote on the proposed model. If you are unable to zoom in please read the documents below and provide written feedback to VicTESOL.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Proposed new rules:

Download (PDF, 276KB)

Summary of differences against exisiting constitution:

Download (PDF, 94KB)

Tuesday 8th September 2020

Download (PDF, 2.17MB)

If you expect to work with EAL/D learners in your teaching career, then you will want to be familiar with the EAL/D Elaborations of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. In this webinar, Jenny went through some of the thinking behind the document and showed how it can serve teachers both in their preparation and their practice.  As convenor of the original writing group, she aimed to bring the EAL/D Elaborations to life, and to answer questions from the participants.

This webinar was aimed at Initial Teacher Education students and pre-service teachers.

Please click here to access the EAL/D Elaborations of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

Dr Jenny Barnett worked for many years in TESOL teacher education at the University of South Australia, offering pre-service and in-service courses with a focus on inclusive pedagogies and curriculum design. Her research interests have centred on learning and teaching English in settings ranging from multilingual city schools to remote Indigenous communities and South East Asian universities.

Click to access EALD_Learning_Area_Annotations_Maths_Revised_February_2014.pdf

Download (PDF, 348KB)

Yan Yao Choong, Department of Education and Training

Wednesday 12 August, 4:00-5:00pm

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/literacy/Pages/default.aspx

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/literacy/literacy-teaching-toolkit-map-v4.pdf

The Literacy Teaching Toolkit provides practical advice and high impact teaching practices to improve student outcomes in reading, writing and speaking and listening. In 2019, the Foundation to Level 6 Literacy Teaching Toolkit (F-6 Toolkit) was updated to include specific strategies to differentiate for EAL learners.

This webinar introduced the EAL content incorporated in the F-6 Toolkit and how it may be used to support EAL learners. The session was aimed at primary school teachers.

Yan Yao Choong is a Senior Project Officer at the Department of Education and Training (the Department) with ten years of TESOL teaching experience. She has taught English in Korea and tutored EAL students at VCE level. She has worked in Western English Language School and Blackburn English Language School teaching primary-aged migrant and refugee students. Yan Yao was a Primary Curriculum Coordinator at Blackburn English Language School before joining the Department in 2018. She now works to support teachers of EAL learners in conjunction with other areas in the Department.

In this workshop, Dr Sue Ollerhead discussed the important role that students’ home languages play in their classroom learning. She explored the rationale for using translanguaging as a pedagogical approach…

This content is available for VicTESOL members.
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The latest issue of the Association of Women Educators’ journal, Redress, is a special issue on Refugee Education.

“The edition includes insights from educators and those working with refugees as well as personal and compelling stories from refugees themselves. The impact of relocation under difficult circumstances can only be truly understood by those who have experienced it and we are grateful for the people who have been honest and open in sharing their story. The importance of education and the role it can play to bring hope and a better future to young people is a recurring theme. The role of teachers and especially their ongoing support can’t be underestimated. The contribution they make to individuals is confirmed through these personal reflections.”

Click here to visit: http://www.publications.awe.asn.au/redress-december-2019

You may also be interested in the Refugee Education Special Interest Group – For further information or to join the group (free-no fee involved) please visit: http://refugee-education.org/

The articles in Redress include-

  • COLLECTIVE ACTION FOR ADVOCATING FOR BETTER EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES AND OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS FROM FORCED MIGRATION BACKGROUNDS: EPISTEMIC COMMUNITIES AND AN IMPERATIVE TO CARE by Sally Baker, Chair, Refugee Education Special Interest Group; University of New South Wales and members of the Refugee Education Special Interest Group: Sally Morgan, Monash University; Meera Varadharajan, University of New South Wales; Lesley Cioccarelli, Canberra Institute of Technology; Elena Killiakova, Independent Researcher; Karen Dunwoodie, Deakin University
  • YOUNG PEOPLE SEEKING ASYLUM: EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITIES AND ACCESS by Sally Morgan
  • TRAPPED IN PROTECTED REFUGEE CAMPS: ‘PLEASE HELP ME TO SURVIVE’ by Suban Kumar Chowdhury, Anne Keary and Eisuke Saito
  • I WISH THEY WERE LIKE YOU: REFLECTIONS OF A STUDENT FROM A REFUGEE BACKGROUND by Ali Hazara and Karen Dunwoodie
  • GIVING BACK, PAYING FORWARD: LESSONS LEARNED FROM RESEARCHING WITH CHILDREN AND YOUTH FROM REFUGEE BACKGROUNDS by Jane Wilkinson, Faculty of Education, Monash University and Mervi Kaukko, Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University
  • ‘EVERYTHING’S ABOUT ENGLISH…’ ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE AS A DIAGNOSIS OF DEFICIT FOR STUDENTS FROM REFUGEE BACKGROUNDS by Melanie Baak and Emily Miller
  • A COHESIVE SOCIETY: OUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT by Adele Rice AM and colleagues
  • A DREAM LIFE IN MY SECOND HOME by Samira Mohammadzadegan

Plus a lot more. Click here to have a look!