Volume 1, Number 2, Term 4, 2000
A newsletter for coordinators and teachers of English as a Second Language in Victorian government schools
OPEN NIGHT AT VERMONT SECONDARY COLLEGE
Each year, the ESL team at Vermont organises an activity for the college’s Open Night.
For Open Night in 1999, I invited past ESL
students to a session where they spoke about
their experiences at Vermont Secondary
College and about their tertiary studies and
career choices. Current ESL students and
visiting parents listened with great interest.
This activity was followed by supper and a
chat with friends. From the feedback, it was
clear that the session was a real success.
In 2000, one of our ESL team members, Dewi,
came up with the idea of having a dancing
demonstration. She organised an Indonesian
dance troupe and I was able to contact a
Greek dance academy, Pegasus, who were
very willing to come to our school. Through
our contacts at school, we also signed up a Sri
Lankan dance group. With the help of the
library staff we had posters, books and
internet sites about Indonesia, Greece and Sri
Lanka, ornaments and shawls for display. It The costumes were absolutely stunning and
the audience really enjoyed watching the
was a real team effort.
different dances, which included the Peacock
dance, the Tea Plucking dance and Zorba the
Greek. As for the multicultural supper – all
that was left were a few crumbs – a sure sign
of success!
We already have a plan for 2001: a Latin
American theme. If you have any ideas or
contacts who could help, please e-mail
[email protected]. I would really like a
dance group from Chile who can perform the
salsa and the cueca as our year 12 ESL
students will be studying the film, Dead
Letter Office.
Rosemary Khaw,
ESL team leader,
Vermont Secondary College
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Professional development opportunities in Term 4!
Date
Event
Venue
Details from:
October 9 – 15
Refugee week
Various
www.austcare.org.au
October 12
Video launch
See page 5
Richmond
Town Hall
www.sofweb.vic.edu.au
/lem/esl/epdact.htm
Hilton on
the Park
www.sofweb.vic.edu.au
/lem/multi/2Kconf.htm
October 15 - 16 Multicultural Eduation
Conference
October 24
Literacy across cultures: LMERC
Former Yugoslavia,
China
www.sofweb.vic.edu.au
/lem/esl/epdact.htm
October 31
Selecting texts for
secondary ESL students
LMERC
www.sofweb.vic.edu.au
/lem/esl/epdact.htm
November 14
Meeting the needs of
ESL Learners in the
Early Years
LMERC
www.sofweb.vic.edu.au
/lem/esl/epdact.htm
November 15
Best Practice Use of
ICT: ESL See below
Northcote
[email protected]
November 28
High School
Cultural background:
LMERC
Southern Sudan and the
Dinkas
www.sofweb.vic.edu.au
/lem/esl/epdact.htm
ESL and ICT
As a Navigator School in Information
and Communication Technology,
Northcote High School organises and
hosts KLA specific full day seminars.
In May, the first ESL seminar was
held. Participants from Camberwell,
Shepparton and University High
Schools and Reservoir District and
Maribyrnong Secondary Colleges were
given an overview of the way
Information
and
Communication
Technologies are used in general at
Northcote High School, and more
specifically within the ESL program.
Teachers visited classrooms around
the school and spoke with ESL
students who were using technologies
in their work. They also had the
opportunity to explore some Internet
resources for the teaching of ESL and
the use of multimedia equipment, such
as the digital camera, and software,
such as PowerPoint or Hyperstudio.
This program will be repeated on
Wednesday, November 15. The cost of
the full day program is $120, including
GST. Morning and afternoon teas and
lunch are provided.
For further
information or to register, contact
Michael Pekin at Northcote High,
phone
9488
2300
or
e-mail
[email protected].
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Low Literacy ESL Support Networks under way
At the end of 1999, Support Networks for
Teachers of Low Literacy ESL Learners
were established in each of the four
metropolitan regions. The aim of these
networks is to provide opportunities for
teachers who work with ESL learners
experiencing literacy difficulties to
discuss issues and concerns, exchange
information about successful practices
and strategies and useful services, and to
provide a focus for professional
development activities.
Above and left: Teachers at the WMR meeting
discuss approaches to teaching and learning
Southern Metropolitan Region
The SMR Support Network, with
approximately sixteen members, met
initially on August 1 to share concerns,
strategies and resources currently
being used in their schools. The issue
of
appropriate
resources
was
discussed and a further meeting held
on August 22 to look at a set of
materials called the DK Family
Learning Resources and to discuss
other possible resources to assist
teachers within the network.
Contact: Jackie Ooi
Noble Park English Language School
Phone: 9546 9578
Western Metropolitan Region
On August 22, 45 teachers attended a
professional development workshop
held at the Tottenham campus of
Western English Language School. Staff
from the English Language School
discussed differing historical and
cultural definitions of literacy, as well as
the characteristics and factors affecting
ESL students with low literacy skills. The
participants then broke into small groups
to discuss appropriate strategies and
approaches to the teaching and learning
cycle. Groups reported back and also
discussed the need to unpack the
language and literacy demands of
classroom
activities,
tasks
and
procedures, particularly for those
students who have had little experience
of schooling.
The network will meet again in term 4.
Contact: Catherine McMahon
Western English Language School
Phone: 9311 9325
Northern Metropolitan Region
Staff based at Collingwood English
Language School have applied for and
received a grant to develop a literacy
kit for ESL learners. This kit will
establish the 100 most used initial ESL
words and then devise games, spelling
and handwriting activities and
dictionaries around the most used
words. The kit will be in cursive
writing and will be able to be applied
across many levels
Contact: Caroline Clavarino
Collingwood English Language School
Phone: 9419 7633
/continued…
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Support networks under way, continued…
Parker, Monash Secondary College, on
the ESL student with a hearing
impairment. The feedback was positive.
Many primary teachers felt they
needed more professional development
on the way a second language is
learned and a workshop on this topic
was held for 30 people on August 24.
A workshop for secondary teachers is
planned for term 4.
Contact: Rosalie Brennan
Blackburn English Language School
Phone: 9803 4022
Eastern Metropolitan Region
On June 7 the EMR Support Network ran
a low literacy network forum which was
attended by 32 people, mostly primary
teachers from the region. The title of the
forum was "Barriers to Learning and
Literacy for ESL Students". The speakers
were Wendy Bort from Western English
Language School on the topic of the ESL
student and learning difficulties, Geoff
Marshall, Blackburn English Language
School, on the topic of how trauma
interferes with learning and Madeleine
Text selection for VCE ESL
Well it is here again! Time to select next year’s texts for VCE. What will work? What
will be difficult to teach? How do I go about selecting the most suitable texts?
If you want the answer to these or similar questions then have a look at the new
page on the LOTE, ESL and Multicultural Education Branch web site:
http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lem/esl/evce.htm. This is a page devoted to issues
regarding the selection of VCE texts. Part of the page is concerned with issues
involved in the selection of texts. The remainder is the result of a survey sent to a
group of teachers asking them to comment on the texts they are teaching this year
which remain on the text list in the year 2001. Their comments are very interesting
and give insights into what texts are successful and what aspects of the texts may
cause difficulties for ESL students. This is a very interesting read for anyone who is
selecting a text for next year.
Kris Allen
Annotations complete
In the first edition of ESL-informed, a
project to annotate and provide
bibliographic information about texts
being used in secondary schools was
included. The annotations have been
completed and are now available at
www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lem/esl/ecurric.htm.
A list of further suggestions available
from the library at LMERC, including
general resources for the teaching of
literature to ESL learners, novels and
picture books suitable for secondary
students is at
www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lem/lmerc/lcollect.
htm#lists
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Refugee Week Video Launch, Art and Photography Exhibition
The LOTE, ESL and Multicultural
Education Branch of the Department of
Education, Employment and Training is
currently developing a video designed
to help school administrators and
teachers understand the difference
between refugees and migrants, the
contributions refugees make to our
community, the special needs of both
adult and child refugees, and how
schools can make a difference to the
lives of their refugee students
Austcare, as well as footage of local
community members with refugee
backgrounds.
Local students and
teachers also feature in the video.
The video highlights the importance of
the teacher’s role in helping refugee
students and their families to develop,
rebuild and establish the direction of
their lives in the Australian community.
Highlights of the video include
interviews with Ida Kaplan from the
Victorian Foundation for Survivors of
Torture and Kate Ramsey from
This event will be held from 5.30 pm to
7 pm on Thursday 12 October at
Richmond Town Hall. Bookings are
essential. For further information or
bookings see www.sofweb.vic.edu.au
/lem/esl/epdact.htm or contact Pam
Luizzi or Chris Finch on 9429 6699.
During Refugee Week, there will be a
launch and viewing of this video. There
will also be an exhibition of artwork
from children in City of Yarra schools
and an exhibition of Mick Toal’s
photographs of the Dinka people from
southern Sudan.
curriculum@work: A quick reminder
All teachers should receive the curriculum@work CD-ROM early in Term 4.
Units of work in the eight KLAs, as well as ESL units for primary Stages A2, B2, B3
and secondary Stages S1 to S4, are provided on the CD’s interactive database.
If you wish to print out some, or all, of a particular ESL unit, it is best to download
the unit as a three column Word document (by clicking on the appropriate icon) and
then printing out the parts you want. The printout of the Word version should be
easier to read than the database version.
Relocation of LMERC
The date for the relocation of the Languages and Multicultural Education
Resource Centre to Carlton Primary School, Neill Street is not yet firm. When the
relocation does occur, the Centre will retain its central telephone (9429 6699) and
fax (9428 4601) numbers. Once available, schools, teachers and library users will
be informed of the timing of the move.
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The closing of the ACTA-QATESOL conference in Brisbane in July 2000
featured the following contribution (with many more verses) from Lyndal
Reid, a QATESOL member, to the tune of ‘I am Australian’.
This is a song dedicated to all those people who, like me, have stood in
a queue at the bank or the post office and watched while at the head of
the queue one of our students or someone very like him has a
breakdown of communication. Don’t you feel like tapping them on the
shoulder and saying, “Excuse me, can I help? I speak ESL!”
I come from the primary schools, I visit ten each day,
I only see them once a week, I hope they’re not away.
The classroom teacher’s harried, Mums and Dads are all confused.
At least they know this is a school where ESL is used.
Chorus:
We are one, but we are many,
And we try to teach our students well.
We share a dream, and sing with one voice,
“I speak, you speak, we all speak ESL!”
I come from the high schools, my kids might sound OK,
But normal adolescent problems plague them night and day.
And teenager bravado makes like everything is cool,
But teachers know, and help them show, behind the mask at school.
Chorus:
We are one, but we are many,
And we try to teach our students well.
We share a dream, and sing with one voice,
“I speak, you speak, we all speak ESL!”
Feedback and contributions
Feedback on this edition of ESLinformed and contributions for future
newsletters are very welcome.
Contact
[email protected].
Further information
For further information about ESL
support in Victorian government schools,
including contacts and an electronic
version of this newsletter, visit
www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lem/esl/index.htm.
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