ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE

As the foundation course at McKinnon Secondary College, Year 7 EAL (English as an Additional Language) is the first year-long course in a six-year sequential program. Core EAL is designed to assist EAL students either in preparation to continue in the mainstream English program, or for their future years in EAL, through to VCE.

Year 7 EAL students study the same texts and content as Year 7 English but are highly scaffolded and may complete alternative assessments appropriate to their skill level.

The student sample provided by new student Donna Li, was adapted to consider her familiar experiences. With reference to personal experiences, EAL learners can express themselves deeply, reducing the cognitive load required to write about an unseen prompt or topic.

All tasks completed in 7 EAL encourage the development of skills students require in their study of English/EAL throughout the six years of their secondary education.

Stephanie Georgiou

EAL Teacher

SCHOOL IN AUSTRALIA IS BETTER THAN SCHOOL IN MY HOME COUNTRY

Being my first month in Australia, I now know more about my new school than I did a few weeks ago. I really enjoy it and I think school here is even better than in my home country. I have some reasons for this. Let me tell you…

First, my new school is bigger than in China. Here, there are many different buildings. Some are small, while some are large. Every building has many classrooms which are labelled ‘A block’ or ‘B block’ and so on. On the other hand, schools at home are smaller and simpler. We only have one building and it’s not comfortable to study in a single classroom for each and every lesson, climbing up and down the many flights of stairs.

Second, this school is a multicultural school, so that means there are lots of students who make our school life more colourful because everyone has their own culture, food and language. This is opposite to where I come from, which only has Chinese students. When I first came to this school, I was very surprised and felt a little helpless because there were so many foreigners I hadn't seen before. We can sit down and talk about our countries. Interesting, isn’t it?

Third, our lockers! This is a special item and each student has their very own one. We can put heavy books and other things inside with a new combination lock. It is a great feeling because we don’t have a locker in China. We need to carry our heavy books for every subject from home, to school and back each day. That’s not convenient for students who live far away from school, like me. I want my old school to take notice: Can you guys add some lockers for students, please?

Fourth, lunch for students in China is provided, which might seem convenient, but often it is not delicious. In Australian schools, we can take our own lunch and choose what we’d like to eat. Furthermore, we can buy lunch from the school canteen. There are many popular delicious foods here for students. We can enjoy our lunch as we chat with our friends outside in the fresh air instead of in our classroom inside, which is where we have to eat in China.

Last, but not least, the teachers in China can be hard. We never see them smile. If we are interested in a subject, we sometimes give up quickly because the teacher is scary. As time passes, many students lose love and excitement for their subjects. We can sometimes hear students complain about their teachers and subjects. Everyday at school is the same. We only have one goal: to get good scores. We lose our happiness and lose interest in studying. That’s bad for us because students can stop learning and suffer boredom. This is not our true hope.

But, in Australia, some of the rules are different. For example, school is not a place where we can only study as it runs useful and eye-catching clubs. We can join our favourite activities or do some of our favourite hobbies during the school day. From these clubs we may get better at being social or gain important skills we can’t learn in classes alone. In the middle of lessons, teachers and students joke together through laughter and chatting. We treat each other like partners. We are not only silent and nervous in lessons anymore.

All in all, I can’t control myself and have written down so much. But, I think this school is what I hoped it would be! It’s just like a dream!

Run Zhi (Donna) Li

Year 7E Student

CONGRATULATIONS to March’s TOP WRITERS!

Well done to the many talented students who entered Writer of the Month in March.

HUGE congratulations to: Alyssa Nikolakopoulos (Year 12I), Kara Sak (Year 12K), Sofia Linardou (Year 11F), Amelie Hicks (Year 9N), Arnav Mahajan (Year 9I), Tristan Naidoo (Year 9B), Vincent Song (Year 9G), David Victor (Year 9I), Alex Katsonis (Year 8A), Michael Scriva (Year 8P), Rebecca Epelboym (Year 7P) and Shania Uduwela (Year 7F).

These students have each won a $50 (Senior) and $30 (Junior) voucher from Benn’s Books and gained 50 points for their house.

You can read their wonderful pieces on the ‘WOTM’ Google site HERE

Due to the school holidays there will not be a competition in April.

While Ms Pentland is on Long Service Leave (throughout Term 2) Dr Dick and Ms Matthews will be coordinating the competition.

Entries for the May competition need to be shared with your English or Literature teacher no later than 3:30pm, Tuesday 24 May.

Keep up the fantastic writing, McKinnon students!

Ms Liz Pentland

Writer of the Month Coordinator

SUCCESS STORY