Summary to come
Introducing a new series of three videos from VicTESOL on using Chat GPT to support EAL teaching and planning. Join us as we explore how to use Chat GPT to create a range of educational materials that are tailored to the needs of EAL learners. In these videos, we will show you how to create a worksheet, a differentiated model text, and a science unit for EAL learners on the topic of climate change. Watch and learn as we demonstrate how Chat GPT can help you to provide engaging and effective learning experiences for your EAL students.
Please note the above description was generated by Chat GPT!
LWA were pleased to share a table with LMERC (Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre) at the VicTESOL Symposium on Friday 11th November 2022. It was great to showcase with LMERC resources that related to second language acquisition and language teaching methodology for all levels, from early years to adults.
The AMEP 3 new resources: the English Ready Booklets, AMEPOnline, and the Digital Literacies Framework, Guide, and companion Teaching Resources were of great interest to symposium participants and the participants are looking forward to their publication on the Australian Department of Home Affairs website (Adult Migrant English Program page).
The Symposium provided me with a wonderful opportunity to meet so many EAL educators and the sessions were very informative. Being new to LMERC, I enjoyed chatting about what we provide and what is important to you. We appreciate any suggestions/recommendations for resources.
LMERC is a specialist resource centre for educators across all sectors with both digital and physical resources to support EAL teaching and learning. This includes academic and practical teacher resources; culturally inclusive fiction and non-fiction; games and storytelling kits and realia (puppets, masks, clothes and toys).
We regularly provide bi-lingual dictionaries and picture books, readers and other resources to support your students in schools across Victoria. If you need any resources, you can visit us in Carlton, email for suggestions or look through our catalogue and request items. We have a growing collection of ebooks and audio books that you can access through the catalogue.
We send a newsletter once a term with information about our new resources, professional learning opportunities and relevant articles. Please email if you would like to receive the newsletter.
Telephone: (03) 9349 1418
Catalogue: lmerc.softlinkhosting.com.au
Opening hours: weekdays 9am-5pm, including school holidays
How to Join LMERC and select Register in the top right-hand corner
Edwin Creely, Katrina Tour, Peter Waterhouse & Elizabeth Keenan Thursday 4 November, 4-5:30pm, online https://youtu.be/PTUJFmc2CWA During the session participants contributed to these documents in their discussions. Flipped Learning : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iINgmm2ub4pkS-nG_OsXAYP0H9r_L0GUUgvhuAirBtg/edit?usp=sharing Hybrid…
Wednesday 25 August, 2021, 4-5pm
Explore Immigration Museum’s digital resources and content that can expand learning experiences for EAL learners. Museum resources include migration stories, cultural stories, and objects, timelines and personal stories investigating a myriad of Australian identities. This professional learning program was designed for EAL and classroom teachers. Resources can be adapted to suit a variety of subjects, including Humanities, English, Civics and Citizenship. Presented by Immigration Museum Educators in collaboration with VicTESOL.
Gurmeet Kaur is the Education Program Producer at Immigration Museum and is an experienced former classroom teacher of English and Humanities. She has also worked on international programs such as Teach for Bangladesh and researched intercultural education in schools across Japan, Australia, and UK. Gurmeet studied International Relations and History at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences before completing her qualifications in Education.
VicTESOL, the state association for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) & Multicultural Education, held our annual Symposium on Tuesday 31 August. This was live online event from 4-5:30pm AEST. For this event, we had a panel of speakers, experts in TESOL and multicultural education and related fields who discussed what they see as implications of the COVID pandemic for the field of teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL) in Victoria and Australia.
They discussed what TESOL might look like in the next few years and in the longer term as a result of what we are currently experiencing. With the pausing and slowing of some programs during the pandemic, is there a chance that TESOL and other programs may change? Is there a chance that while there are no new arrivals that existing programs and services will be affected, not only in the short term, but also in the longer term? How might this look? What might be some of the advantages of possible changes? What might be some less positive consequences of change during and post COVID? What can we do to prepare ourselves for ensuring we maintain and build on the quality of EAL and associated learning and support that has been established over many, many years?
You can view the recording of the event here:
Panelists:
Jessica Bishop, Migrant Information Centre (Eastern Melbourne)
Margaret Corrigan, CEO of Carringbush Adult Education and President of the Australian Council of TESOL associations
Dr Susan Creagh, Honorary Senior Lecturer, School of Education, The University of Queensland
Associate Professor Russell Cross, Language and Literacy Education, Melbourne Graduate School of Education
Carmel Guerra, Director and Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Multicultural Youth
Mark Melican, Principal of Blackburn English Language School
Matt Rodger, Senior Schools Support Officer – RESP Education & Early Years Program Practice & Sector Development, The Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture
Chermaine Thomas, Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools Ltd (MACS)
The panel was chaired by Dr Shem Macdonald, VicTESOL President and Lecturer at La Trobe University.
To view the collated comments of participants from the registration process, see below. Participants were asked to identify one positive and one negative coming out of their experience of working in the TESOL field during the pandemic. .
During the session there was great engagement in the chat and Q&A. We have collated and edited the responses which can be viewed here:
The recent issue of TESOL in Context contains an editorial related to the topic covered in today’s session. It is referred to within the symposium event.
Teaching and learning English in the age of COVID-19: Reflecting on the state of TESOL in a changed world
To access this, click here:
https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/tesol/article/view/1427
Many thanks to all who were involved in this event.
A lot of professional learning quite rightly focuses on the global, big-picture ideas of teaching and learning, but what about a small, everyday practice of successful teaching. In this series of vignettes, EAL teachers showcase a single activity, idea or resource that they find to be effective in the EAL classroom, and discuss how and why it works. This vignette is generously contributed by Stephanie Georgiou, Mckinnon Secondary College. It focuses on a Membership Grid activity which she uses with secondary-aged EAL students. We thank Stephanie for donating her time and expertise.
There is a wealth of EAL expertise out there! Why not share it with the EAL community? We are keen to showcase this practice of teachers in primary, secondary and adult sectors. If you would like to contribute a vignette about an activity, idea or resource you find to be effective in the classroom, please email plcoordinator[at]victesol.vic.edu.au
A lot of professional learning quite rightly focuses on the global, big-picture ideas of teaching and learning, but what about a small, everyday practice of successful teaching. In this series of vignettes, EAL teachers showcase a single activity, idea or resource that they find to be effective in the EAL classroom, and discuss how and why it works. This vignette is generously contributed from Rosemary Abboud, Dandenong North Primary School. It focuses on an Arrange and Describe activity which she uses with primary-aged EAL students. We thank Rosemary for donating her time and expertise.
There is a wealth of EAL expertise out there! Why not share it with the EAL community? We are keen to showcase this practice of teachers in primary, secondary and adult sectors. If you would like to contribute a vignette about an activity you find to be effective in the classroom, please email plcoordinator[at]victesol.vic.edu.au
Please note that this arrange and describe activity is widely and freely available from a variety of online sources.
Dr Anne Keary has generously shared a number of recordings used in the education of pre-service primary school teachers at Monash University.
They cover topics including advice for planning and programing, getting to know learners, behaviour management and how schools have adapted to remote learning.
Michelle Andrews, EAL Teacher Preston North East Primary – Planning
Michelle shares with us an insight into the planning of teachers at Preston North East Primary School. She shows the viewer her school’s Individual Learning Improvement Plan document, highlighting the importance of setting goals and planning lessons in a way that involves students and families.
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Mairead discusses the processes in place for getting to know newly-arrived students at Collingwood English Language school. She takes the viewer through the student profile documents used, highlighting information that can be useful to gather, such as: socio-lingual context, language background, visa codes, nationality, cultural group, position in family, siblings, religion, prior learning, settlement services involvement, and well-being. Mairead also reflects on the need for teachers to not assume anything about their learners and emphasises the need to ask questions to get as good a picture of the student’s prior learning as possible.
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Rosemary Abboud, Dandenong North Primary School, Developing Programs
Rosemary describes the range of programs running at Dandenong High School, including the EAL program and the transition program.
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David Rothstadt, Principal, Noble Park Primary School
David talks about how he and the staff at Noble Park Primary School have adapted to remote learning over the last 18 months. He highlights the flexibility and sheer hard work of teachers to get online programs up and running in a short amount of time, and how teachers supported each other in the transition. David concludes that one of his key learnings from these uncertain times is that the value of face-to-face teacher/student relationships cannot be underestimated or replaced by technologies.
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Various Presenters on Behaviour Management (edited version)
VicTESOL acknowledges and thanks the Faculty of Education, Monash University, for providing these videos.
Thursday 3 June, 2021, 4-5pm
Online Event – Presentation and Conversation Rooms
This was an opportunity for teachers who are at a similar stage of their careers to share practice with teachers from other schools and institutions. A big part of this session was EAL resource sharing with Jennifer Peck from the Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre (LMERC) and and Eileen Wan (Blackburn English Language School). They presented on LMERC’s online and physical resources. This session was for pre-service teachers and early-career teachers (0-2 years) of EAL students, and teachers who are new to teaching EAL students.
Click here to access LMERC’s website.
Some suggested resource links from participants in this session included:
