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Support and Advice for Primary School Teachers of EAL Students

 

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Michelle Andrews, Giuliana Mecoli & Rebekah Jones de Villagran

VicTESOL assembled a panel of experts in primary school EAL teaching to answer your questions, offer advice and support, and discuss best practice in primary school EAL teaching. In this online Q&A session, Michelle, Giuliana and Rebekah tailored their discussion around your specific needs. They answered both live questions and questions gathered in the registration process.

Panel Members

Michelle Andrews, Preston North East Primary School
Michelle Andrews is currently working as the EAL specialist at Preston North East Primary school. An experienced Primary EAL teacher, she taught for more than 12 years in the New Arrivals program, undertaking a variety of roles including curriculum leadership. She is an active member of the VicTESOL committee, working mainly in the area of Professional Learning. Passionate about working with other teachers to build excellence in practice, her recent move back into a mainstream Primary school has reinforced her enthusiasm to support student learning and engagement through effective EAL teaching.

Giuliana Mecoli, Department of Education and Training
Giuliana is currently working as the EAL Project Officer in DET, North West Victorian Regional Office and previously was in the same role in the South West Victorian Region for a number of years. In this role she is responsible for providing EAL policy and strategic advice at regional, school and teacher level. She has extensive experience working in the EAL and Literacy fields with teachers across state and independent education sectors at primary, secondary and adult levels. She has worked as a university lecturer in TESOL, classroom teacher, EAL specialist, network leader and literacy coach/mentor at primary and secondary levels.

The key passion that has driven Giuliana’s work over the years has been her commitment to improving teacher’s knowledge about language and to build their skills and capacity to improve the English learning outcomes for EAL students in schools.

Rebekah Jones de Villagran, Blackburn English Language School
Rebekah is the Primary Curriculum Leader at Blackburn English Language School. She has been working in the New Arrivals program since 2015 where she has taught mostly in the upper primary year levels. With over 13 years of experience in primary and English language teaching and a Masters in TEFL/TESL from the University of Birmingham, she has taught over 40 different nationalities in a range of teaching and learning contexts, across Australia, Japan and Guatemala. This has given her a comprehensive understanding of the cultural, social and linguistic issues in EAL teaching and language acquisition.

VicTESOL Symposium 2019 – Bookings now open!

Sharing multiple perspectives on TESOL

Monday 19 August 2019
8:30am – 4pm
Bastow Institute, 603-615 Queensberry St,
North Melbourne, 3051

For more details about the event, please click here.

To book tickets, please click here.

– Keynote Speaker –
Dr Marianne Turner – Monash University
Exploring the ‘SOL’ in ‘TESOL’: Leveraging and developing students’ linguistic repertoire

– Panel of Experts –
Plurilingual perspectives and their implications for teaching
Dr Shem Macdonald – La Trobe University
Dr Marianne Turner – Monash University
Dr Julie Choi – University of Melbourne
Dr Howard Nicholas – La Trobe University

Click here for further information about sessions and presenters.

Free ticket offer for 5 regional EAL practitioners!
To assist EAL practitioners in regional areas to attend this event, VicTESOL is offering 5 free tickets– one ticket for each of the regional areas:
Barwon South West, Gippsland, Grampians, Hume & Loddon Mallee.
To go into the draw for a free ticket in your regional area, please email:
victesol [at] victesol.vic.edu.au by 18 July 2019.

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Reading and Comparing Face-to-Face Session – Marcellene D’Menzie

Powerpoint Presentation:

Download (PPTX, 2.04MB)

Worksheets:

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Professional Learning: Introduction to the draft English as an Additional Language curriculum

The draft EAL Curriculum has now been released for familiarisation and optional implementation. To support the release of the EAL Curriculum, the VCAA in partnership with VicTESOL, are offering a mix of face-to-face and webinar professional learning sessions over May and June 2019 beginning 16 May. For information and registration details, please go to the VCAA website: Professional Learning/English as an Additional Language.

The VCAA is also welcoming feedback via an online form which can be found here, with feedback closing on 29 August 2019.

Greens’ national plan for English language learners welcomed

The Australian Council of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Associations welcomed the Greens’ announcement of their national plan to ensure that migrants and refugees throughout Australia have access to effective English language support in the school, post-school and adult education sectors. Click here to read the full media release.

VicTESOL Research Grant 2019- applications now open!

Applications are now open for the VicTESOL Research Grant 2019.  The VicTESOL Research Grant offers funds of $10,000 in 2019 to a research team to conduct research into the TESOL field.  The project must involve researchers and practitioners as research partners.  Click here for further information.

The research team will work collaboratively with VicTESOL to report their findings in a manner that is relevant to the VicTESOL membership, other EAL/TESOL practitioners and researchers in Victoria and potentially to other members of TESOL communities nationally and internationally.

Applications close 31 July 2019.

Please visit the Research Grant page on our website or contact grants[at]victesol.vic.edu.au for further information.

 

Previous Grant Recipients

2018 VicTESOL Research Grant Recipients

Developing and implementing effective language and literacy pedagogies for low language and literacy learners through collaborative engagement between teacher educators and teachers

Research Team Members: Dr. Julie Choi, Dr. Yvette Slaughter & Hayley Black

2017 VicTESOL Research Grant Recipients

When numbers count: Addressing EAL learners’ needs in regional areas through mainstream teacher professional development

Research Team Members: Dr Melissa Barnes, Dr. Seham Shwayli & Pamalee Matthews

2016 VicTESOL Research Grant Recipients

Improving refugee students’ access to digital literacies: integrating transmedia storytelling in an EAL (Year 7) classroom

Research Team Members: Dr Katrina Tour & Dr Maria Gindidis

 

English as an Additional Language (EAL) F–10 Curriculum update

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) has released the draft EAL curriculum.  The revised full consultation draft of the new English as an Additional Language (EAL) F–10 curriculum is now available on the VCAA website.

The curriculum is available for schools and teachers to review and provide feedback.  Schools can also now choose to trial implementation of the new curriculum.

Feedback on the draft EAL curriculum should be provided via an online link on the VCAA website.  Feedback can be submitted from 23 April 2019 and will close on 29 August 2019.

A final version of the EAL curriculum will be published on the Victorian Curriculum F–10 website in December 2019, with full implementation of the curriculum expected to commence from Term 1 2020.

The new EAL curriculum is intended to be used by all teachers with EAL students in their classrooms from Prep to Year 10.  Resources to support the new curriculum include resources to support EAL provision across all curriculum areas, a diagnostic assessment tool and guidance on how to determine the most appropriate pathway for each EAL learner.  Teachers and schools are encouraged to provide feedback on these resources as well as the curriculum itself.

For further information, please visit:

www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/foundation10/viccurriculum/eal/intro.aspx

Renew your VicTESOL Membership for 2019

Thank you to everyone who has been a member of VicTESOL throughout 2018/19- we hope this has provided you with opportunities for professional learning, networking and access to information & resources relating to the TESOL sector.  As all 2018/19 memberships will expire today (31 March 2019), we encourage you to renew your membership!

Thank you to members who have already renewed their membership for 2019! VicTESOL appreciates your ongoing support.

Click here to renew your VicTESOL membership!

VicTESOL has recently made some changes to the membership system-
  • Automatic membership renewal is now available.
  • FREE membership for pre-service & recently graduated teachers is now available- click here for details.

Benefits of VicTESOL Membership-

  • Discounted rates to all paid VicTESOL Professional Learning events, including the upcoming VicTESOL Symposium to be held in Melbourne (Monday 19 August 2019).
  • Access to all of VicTESOL’s Member Resources found on our website.
  • Support the ongoing advocacy and development of your local Victorian TESOL/EAL organisation.

If your need to update your membership details before you renew please click here. If you have any further questions please email VicTESOL.

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Australian Council of TESOL Associations (ACTA) Annual General Meeting

ACTA is holding its annual general meeting on Thursday 18 April, 7pm. Please contact the ACTA secretary if you wish to participate.

Email: Secretary@tesol.org.au

Website: http://www.tesol.org.au/About-ACTA/ACTA-Meetings

ACTA is the national coordinating body for all associations of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) across Australia. Membership of ACTA comes automatically through membership of one of its constituent associations.

All members of TESOL associations are welcome to attend the AGM.

ACTA is made up of councillors from each state and territory association. Councillors, need to be nominated by state and territory TESOL associations. Only TESOL association councillors or their designated proxies are entitled to vote at the AGM.

ACTA Objectives

  • to represent and support the interests of teachers of English to speakers of other languages and dialects and their students
  • to ensure access to appropriate English language instruction for speakers of other languages and dialects
  • to encourage implementation and delivery of quality professional programs at all levels
  • to promote study, research and development of TESOL at local, regional, national and international levels.

Please click here for further information.

Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre (LMERC)

Click here to view the LMERC video!

The Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre (LMERC) is a Department of Education and Training specialised library for teachers.  LMERC provides resources in the areas of English as an Additional Language (EAL), Languages other than English, Intercultural Capability; and the cross-curriculum priorities 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 30,000 resources in all formats for educators across all sectors and at all levels, early childhood to adult.

A video was produced recently providing a snapshot of the library from the point of view of teachers and pre service teachers who use LMERC. The video looks at the range of the collection,  how teachers and pre-service teachers access and use the resources and the library services available.

Library membership is available free to teachers from all educational settings: schools across all sectors, university pre-service teachers and lecturers (in the areas of EAL and languages), homework clubs and community language schools. 

Please visit the LMERC library homepage.

 Further information is available on the DET website.