Literacy
Newsletter
2019 Term 3 | Page 1
2019 Term 3 | Issue 3
Welcome back to Term 3. We hope the holiday break was enjoyable and you
are ready for another busy term.
First semester was busy for the literacy consultants as they continued to provide various Professional
Learning Courses both here at AISWA and at individual schools.
This newsletter provides updates of Professional Learning being offered during Term 3. Look out for the
new courses, Productive Noise: Fabulous Writers being offered in August. Also Sharp Reading and EAL/D
courses are scheduled for early in the term so you will need to visit the AISWA website very soon if you
wish to participate.
Included in this newsletter are some reflections from the consultants who recently attended the Australian
Literacy Educators’ Association (ALEA) conference held in Melbourne. There were some great sessions and
some wonderful presenters. We hope you enjoy reading
our snippets. The weather was cold but fine for our time
there – an extra bonus!
Best wishes for a great term 3.
Remember, we are here to help so do not hesitate to
contact us.
Kerry Handley [email protected]
Jill Buckrell [email protected]
Pat Kershaw [email protected]
Chris Witt [email protected]
2019 Term 3 | Page 2
AISWA PL Courses / Workshops
SharpReading Courses—Hurry Registrations Closing Soon!
Sharp Reading: Decoding Strategy Sharp Reading Comprehension Sharp Reading: Struggling Older
Instruction Strategy Instruction Readers
Monday 29 July 2019 Tuesday 30 July 2019 Friday 02 August 2019
For more information and to For more information and to For more information and to
register please click HERE register please click HERE register please click HERE
EAL/D Courses in Week 2
Guidance on what questions to ask and information to gather when enrolling a student for whom English is an
Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D).
Enrolling Students with a Supporting EAL/D Learners in the
Background Other Than English Primary Classroom & Supporting
EAL/D Learners in the Classroom
Tuesday 30 July 2019
*Repeat of sessions run in Term 1*
For more information and to
register please click HERE Thursday 01 August 2019
PRIMARY—For more information
and to register please click HERE
SECONDARY—For more
information and to register please
click HERE
AISWA Secondary English (ATAR focus) Network Meeting.
Secondary English Networking Day Secondary English Literature Secondary English Networking day
(English and Literature ATAR) Networking Day (Years 11 and 12 (General English)
ATAR)
Monday 05 August 2019 Monday 02 September 2019
Tuesday 20 August 2019
For more information and to For more information and to
register please click HERE For more information and to register please click HERE
register please click HERE
Upcoming New Workshops
Teachers will investigate various approaches and be taken through a process that will allow them to
establish talk as a strategy for writing.
Productive noise: Fabulous writers Productive noise: Fabulous writers Productive noise: Fabulous
(Talk: Essential for good writing) (Talk: Essential for good writing) writers (Talk: Essential for good
PRIMARY SECONDARY writing) PRIMARY (BUSSELTON)
Tuesday 13 August 2019 Wednesday 14 August 2019 Wednesday 18 September 2019
For more information and to For more information and to For more information and to
register please click HERE register please click HERE register please click HERE
Productive noise: Fabulous writers
(Talk: Essential for good writing)
SECONDARY (BUSSELTON)
Thursday 19 September 2019
For more information and to
register please click HERE
2019 Term 3 | Page 3
2019 Term 3 | Page 3
Other PL for Term 3
Professional Learning for Term 3, 2019
1. NEW Lead Marker Certification (Persuasive) - 9th August 2019
Here’s an overview:
• Participants will work in groups with Brightpath expert markers
The expert markers will provide detailed explanations of writing development, and how to analyse student
writing closely. They will also help you analyse the exemplars closely
• You will mark sample scripts, discuss your scores, and get further guidance
Attendees please note: In order to get the Lead Marker Certification, you will be asked to mark a common set of
performances, in your own time, and you will be given feedback on their reliability.
For more information and to register please click HERE
2. Geraldton PL Using Brightpath Data to Drive School Improvement - 19th August 2019
Presented by Dr Sandy Heldsinger, hosted at Allendale Primary School
This half day Professional Learning program is for schools that have used Brightpath at least twice to collect whole
school data. The workshop focuses on using the data to review school performance and set school targets.
For more information and to register please click HERE
3. Interpreting Brightpath data (New) - 19th September 2019
Presented by Dr Sandy Heldsinger
This full day Professional Learning is designed for schools who have signed up for the
Brightpath Advanced Reports or for those schools that are considering signing-up.
Here’s brief synopsis of Sandy Heldsinger's workshop:
I will begin the workshop by taking you through the WA Brightpath usage data. Whilst, it is always interesting to see
how schools are using Brightpath, the usage data has important implications for how you interpret the data. I will
show you how to use the state data as a point of comparison when evaluating your school’s performance and I will
explain important caveats.
I will:
• explain the statistics used in the advanced reports
• assist you in using the reports to evaluate the impact of your teaching programs on student learning
• explain the relationship between the Brightpath scale and the NAPLAN scale so that you can interpret your
Brightpath data relative to your NAPLAN performance
• provide several different ways of setting targets
• help you evaluate the extent to which you are using the Brightpath reports to promote effective teaching.
Please remember to bring along your NAPLAN writing data and Laptops!
For more information and to register please click HERE
2019 Term 3 | Page 4
Other PL for Term 3
2019 Celebrate Reading National Conference
Superb Presenter Line-up!
2019 Term 3 | Page 5
ALEA Reflections
Some reflections from the Australian Literacy Educators’
Association (ALEA) Conference
During the first week of the school holidays the literacy consultants attended the annual ALEA conference held in
Melbourne July 9-12. The theme was Literacy Empowering Voices.
Our reflections about some of the sessions and new products are shared here. If you would like to know more
about any of them please contact us.
Visible literacy continuum:
St Agnes Catholic High School, Rooty Hill NSW
A visible literacy continuum for students has been developed from the National Literacy Learning Progression, the
emphasis of which is on building assessment-capable learners who are invested in their own learning. Teachers act
as case managers, who support students to achieve their next lap of learning. The moral imperative is to show what
success looks like – for the students, the teachers and the whole school.
The teachers who presented at the conference kindly shared the continuum. Please contact Pat if you would like a
copy or if you would like more information: [email protected]
Why are we doing this? Empowering student voice to drive powerful learning:
Turner School, ACT
The Turner School believes in empowering students, basing much of the learning that takes place in the school on
project-based instruction. They have been guided by the work of Nell Duke and Kath Murdoch. The school believes
in engaging in a culture of collaborative inquiry between teachers and with and amongst students. Their three
cultural markers for leading personalised learning are:
• Every child matters.
• Each teacher is an inquirer and we build and test our collective expertise.
• We collaborate between and amongst students, teachers and school leaders.
Literacy through inquiry: Empowering our students through connections:
Miles Franklin Primary School (Canberra)
Similar to the other two schools, the Miles Franklin Primary School believes that students should be given a voice to
explain their literacy understandings across the curriculum. Literacy learning is embedded within inquiry units.
Teachers have been upskilled in best practice in all areas of literacy and have worked collaboratively to embed this
knowledge across the curriculum.
The teachers who presented at the conference kindly shared this Padlet link: https://bit.ly/2JrlWSH
Please attribute if you should use anything from this link.
2019 Term 3 | Page 6
ALEA Reflections
Keynote speaker
Dr Peter Bowers (founder of WordWorks Literacy Center, Ontario, Canada)
Dr Bowers presented a snapshot of his work for approaching spelling through ‘structured word inquiry’. In this
approach students are asked to think ‘like a scientist’ as they explore and investigate words through their
orthography, morphology, phonology and etymology. He argues that the linguistic content of words should be
taught early. Through investigating the linguistic content of words, and studying of related words at the same time,
students will learn more about spelling than what we can teach them. Dr Bowers goes on to say that English should
not be viewed as having an irregular spelling system, but an interrelated orthography. Working through inquiry
enables us to understand spellings rather than rely on
memorization.
http://wordworkskingston.com/WordWorks/
Structured_Word_Inquiry.html
An example of a lead into a ‘structured word inquiry’ (SWI)
could be through a picture book. After reading the text to the
students, ask the students to come up with one word that best
describes the text for them. Students use this word to initiate a
SWI, then as a class arrive at a list of related words that best
describe the story/text.
The Warp and Weft of Words: understanding English orthography
Lyn Anderson and Ann Whiting
This follow- up workshop provided a practical example for SWI For example, after reading the picture book ‘Bear
and Wolf’ by Dan Salmieri, the word ‘respect’ was raised in the workshop. The inquiry could follow the following
steps.
Respect
Now begin orthographic inquiry.
What is respect? What is respect not?
Talk to partner about these Prompt discussion- e.g ‘Can we respect someone we fear?’
Basically, unpack meaning and attitudes as to what this word means to us getting learners to notice morphological
aspects - what meaning is whispering through?
Enouncing the graphemes within the morphemes within the word- ie: not sounding out but saying the ‘writing
elements’
Identify the base element (s). Can be a combination of base elements - bound and free.
Get students to stand in a line to identify position of prefix, base elements, suffix.
Can be more than one prefix or suffix, also, a connecting vowel letter which is an element.
Respect: morphology ie, what are its relatives?
Have a selection of words and unpack to see what is in the family - what shares a common element of meaning and
structure? E.g: disrespectfully, perspective, special (not in family), spectator, pectoral (not), inspection, use blank
cards so you can add other words.
2019 Term 3 | Page 7
ALEA Reflections
Empowering teachers for the teaching of multimodal digital literature in 21st century
classrooms
Thu Ngo
Through Growth to Achievement: Report of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools
https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/662684_tgta_accessible_final_0.pdf
This workshop was developed in response to the aspirations for writing mentioned in the above report.
The workshop emphasized the important requirement to develop visual literacy skills with students. This followed
a plan that taught through a range of media in which students created movie trailers, online picture books,
podcasts and YouTube clips.
Within the teaching sequence students were introduced to literary genres and forms, literary techniques and
distinctive (technical) language for visual and sound resources. In order for students to produce texts in this
secondary context that were complex and engaging to respective audiences, teachers needed to upskill themselves
first in the respective online applications.
The left side included stimulus from a range of media- the right side is what students created themselves.
2019 Term 3 | Page 8
ALEA Reflections
Marvel Comics: the focal point to develop students’ voice and improve their writing skills
Robert Vanderburg, CQ University Queensland
Robert also had his son with him to share his experience with HASS/English projects. One of the main themes was
about students being not only learners, but also researchers in project based learning. His point being that often
students are regurgitating other people’s opinions where the focus should be about authentic research where their
voice is evident.
His son completed his first research paper on the causes of WW2. He read, researched, and then wrote a paper
similar to what others write. He was able to recall a few things about that topic but he also admitted that he had
forgotten a lot. He explained he felt like he was doing the work for somebody else, not himself.
So why Marvel? His son noticed that there were YouTube videos predicting the plot for the next Marvel Movie. This
had become quite a phenomenon so he developed a research question around this. A lot of his research was using
the Marvel App that has every Marvel comic available. His research journey had its struggles and it took a lot of
time but what he did do was read around 2300 Spiderman comics, Iron Man, Ghost Rider! Looking for origin
stories, he was able to develop theories on how Marvel characters got their power. These were categorised under
Outside Power, Taught Power and Biological Power. The key struggle but success story however, was the writing
process. His engagement in the topic maintained his perseverance as he learnt about the struggles of the writing
process. He understood that writing is about rewriting and editing. He learnt about editing from another person’s
perspective and was able to develop expert voice in his research project. The message here of course, is not about
using Marvel Comics but about motivating and engaging students in authentic research tasks. It was a delight to
hear firsthand from the student and witness his enthusiasm and drive in his research as he shared his story.
Courageous Acts of Creativity
Lachlann Carter from 100 Story Building
Lachlann shared his work in setting up and operating the 100 Story Building which supports marginalised students
to build their literacy skills. One of his ideas to encourage students to write was to have each person write:
• the name of a toy, a food and a piece of clothing, e.g yoyo, pizza, shirt
• three skills they are good at, e.g. speak clearly, run fast, ride a bike
• 3 geographic features e.g.river, mountain, cliff.
Give students the scenario of being stranded on an island. They must choose one of the 3 features as an obstacle
and create a way to overcome the obstacle using one pf their skills and the toy, food and clothing. Conference
participants had great fun and came up with some amazingly creative ways to overcome the obstacle.
Why not give it a try!
Effective benchmarking of reading
Carmel Small
This session revisited the importance of interpreting the information gained from PM Benchmarking and
showcased the new kit available (black). This new kit includes:
• 6 snapshot assessments at Pre Level 1 that cover oral literacy, phonological awareness, phonics and concepts
about print
• 60 texts for Levels 1-30 including both fiction and non fiction.
2019 Term 3 | Page 9
Other Information
Morris Gleitzman—The Australian Children’s Laureate for 2018-2019
“With brilliant illustrator Andrew Weldon I’ve put together a poster
covering the various themes and ideas I’ll be talking about on my
travels as laureate. You’ll almost certainly see the poster at school or
in your local library. Each month on the laureate website I’ll talk a bit
more about those ideas and there’ll be stuff for teachers to use in
class, plus reading lists and all sorts of other things for keen readers,
their friends and pets”. Morris Gleitzman.
For more information, please click HERE
2019 Term 3 | Page 10
Suite 3/41 Walters Drive
Osborne Park WA 6017
+61 (08) 9441 1600
[email protected]
www.ais.wa.edu.au
2019 Term 3 | Page 12