Learning Support News

EAL/D Professional Learning Day Tuesday January 30

The increasing diversity of families and students in our MCC community has signalled the need for our schools, with the support of our Diocese, to reflect on, revise and incorporate a range of practices to ensure that the needs of all our learners are being catered for.

With this in mind, last Tuesday, the staff at Marian Catholic College, as well as teachers from some our schools in the Wagga Diocese, were lucky to participate in an all-day presentation, with comprehensive hands-on workshops, facilitated by Sharon Gilbert, Leader of Learning EAL/D 7-12 in The South Region, Revesby, in the Sydney Diocese. Sharon has had experience in the area of EAL/D for over 20 years) and has been leading teachers and developing their expertise since 2010.

The purpose and pedagogical aim of the learning day included the following:

To build staff understanding of the diversity of the EAL/D learner
To explain the EAL/D Progression – a progression of English language, typical of students learning English as an additional language or dialect
To introduce the 4 phases in the EAL/D Learning Progression : Beginning, Emerging, Developing and Consolidating
To view and analyse annotated samples of current MCC students who are identified as operating in the above phases
To explain the key terms LBOTE (Language Background Other Than English), EAL/D

(English as an Additional Language/Dialect), NNP (Near Native Proficiency)

To foster the depth of skill and experience EAL/D learners bring to the classroom
To explain the role of teachers in building learning experiences for all students including EAL/D students
To discuss the benefits for all learners of visible learning and literacy practices in the classroom including different forms of scaffolding
To introduce various strategies that can be employed to build students’ expertise in discipline-related academic language
To annotate Teaching and Learning Units for Term 1 to examine key pedagogies explored
To initiate an action plan to implement 2-3 strategies with a targeted class

The feedback from participating teachers, as well as from Janice Seton and Allison Burcham, both Speech Pathologists who have recently led Language classes with targeted students from Years 7-9, has been overwhelmingly positive.

I would like to thank Marisa Hart, from the Wagga/Albury Office and Principal, Alan Le Brocque, whose vision, support and commitment to this important initiative ensures that the staff, and consequently our students, continue to develop and succeed as teachers and learners.

Rose Turunen

Learning Support Coordinator

Marian Catholic College

Rose Turunen

Learning Support Coordinator