CONTACT

The Newsletter for the ACT Modern Language Teachers’ Association

The ACT MLTA Works 4U! December 2010 President’s Report July: AFMLTA Conference in New Zealand. Dear members of the ACT MLTA, The President attended an annual AFMLTA Executive Writing my last report for the year 2010 brings me Inside this issue: meeting in and successfully bid to host a lot of joy for I can proudly say that the Executive the AFMLTA Conference in in 2013 to Committee delivered even more than what we coincide with the Centenary Celebrations. FIPLV Scholarship 2 promised in February this year in our Plan “MLTA Works 4U”. August: Event No.3 postponed until Term 4 Winners because of the two day conference ‘Intercultural Meet and Greet 2 Let me briefly remind you of some of the events: Language Teaching and Learning’ with Professor Tony Liddicoat. The ACT MLTA provided prizes and February: ‘Meet and Greet’ cocktail party at the cocktail drinks. Membership Info 2 beautiful Kurrajong Hotel attended by app. 50 teachers. Contact No 3 sent electronically to all members.

Contact No 1 out in new format, sent electronically ACT MLTA Conference 3 September/October: FIPLV Scholarship opened. As to all members. nobody applied, we extended it, targeting a specific event – the Conference in Darwin. We have Photos of Conference 4 March: A new partnership started with the five successful applicants. University of Canberra. Members delivered four lectures to university language students. We opened a direct bank deposit option for Languages Success 5 payments to make payments easier for members. The ACT MLTA represented at the Stories ‘Keys to Canberra’ event for newly appointed November/December: Conference ‘De-stressing Contact Details 7 teachers at the CTL. Assessment’ was held at the Australian Catholic University. We had three presenters and 27 May: A dinner and the Annual General Meeting participants, four of whom were students from the (AGM) held at Mecca Bah with an agreed change University of Canberra. of Constitution so that we will now hold the AGM in March each year. This was for practical reasons such Contact No 4 to be sent electronically to all Happy Holidays from as teachers changing schools, membership lapses in members. the ACT MLTA! February and appointment of the Executive Committee etc. Behind the scene, the Executives were meeting The ACT MLTA would like to wish almost once a month and exchanged endless emails you all a very relaxing and safe May/June : A three day workshop on the in between these meetings to prepare all the events. holiday and we look forward to Professional Standards Project (PSP) Stream C – on Assessment. This was a nationally coordinated seeing you again next year at our On top of this, we are preparing the 2013 national professional learning program for language conference (which we did not plan for in February). Meet and Greet in February! teachers funded by the Australian Government We contacted Mr. Andrew Barr, who congratulated Department of Education, Employment and us and offered his Department’s support. We held Workplace Relations (DEEWR). It is based on the extensive conversations with the Canberra Bureau use of the Professional standards for accomplished and they have already prepared a promotional CD teaching of languages and cultures as a framework. for us to take to Darwin in 2011. We visited The workshop was attended by 11 ACT language possible venues for the conference and are teachers. Investigations were completed and a finalising the selection of a professional agency report sent for further research and inclusion in which will help us in preparing the conference. developing National Language Polices. Wishing you lots of quality time to reenergise for Contact No 2 sent electronically to all members. the new teaching year in 2011. Happy holidays!

We created the ACT MLTA webpage which is Meri Dragicevic regularly updated, informative and well linked with all the events related to the MLTA and AFMLTA President of ACT MLTA activities: www.mltaact.asn.au December, 2010 Page 2

FIPLV Scholarship Winners Announced!

Congratulations to the following people who were awarded a FIPLV scholarship to attend the 18th Biennial AFMLTA Conference in Darwin next July.

* Kate Montgomery Canberra Girls’ Grammar School * Ludivine Le-Gal * Patricia Blumstein Telopea Park School, * Myriam Davies Aranda Primary School. * Meri Dragicevic Yarralumla Primary School

Diary Dates Membership for 2011

Your 2010 membership expires in GPO Box 989, for 2011 February, 2011. To be eligible to Canberra ACT 2601 vote at the AGM and be elected Payment by Direct Debit: to the next Executive Committee, 24 February, 2011 you will need to be a financial Acc. Name : Modern member of the ACT MLTA on or 4-4:45pm—Meet and Greet’ Cocktail Party Language Teachers before the AGM. 4:45-5:30pmAGM (Annual General Meeting) Association of ACT It is advisable to join as early as Bank: Commonwealth Membership payment is required on or before this possible so you do not miss out on day to enable members voting privileges. any of the great events organised Bank of by the ACT MLTA or any editions The AGM in February will be very important as BSB : 062 902 we will propose several changes to the ACT MLTA of Babel, the National LOTE Journal. Remember that you can Acc. No : 009 027 82 Constitution and the FIPLV scholarships. now pay your membership via Reference : MLTA direct debit using the following Remember: details. Membership + Name C h e q u e s p a y a b l e t o : Once transferred, please email our In line with the slogan ‘The ACT MLTA Works 4 U’, MLTA of ACT Inc. treasurer, Jennifer MacDonald : there will be four (4) events in 2011, one event Forward payment to: [email protected] per term. These events will be held in week 4 of each term. The Treasurer Remember to keep your receipt— it is tax deductable! MLTA of ACT Inc, December, 2010 Page 3

ACT MLTA Annual Conference Saturday, 6th November 2010

thanked Dr Carolyn Broadbent, the connected and gave us current terminology President of COACTEA, who helped greatly to describe the four types of performance with organising the venue and partially criteria (content, process, quality and result). helping with funds towards the cost of the conference. Meri invited all participants to Natalie Stewart presented teachers with actively engage in dialogue citing: several types of rubrics following the “Classroom teachers may benefit quality learning criteria emphasising that in professionally from their exposure to models her teaching practise she now spends more of good assessment practice…and from time creating rubrics with students than talking about the elements of tasks. This The Australian Catholic University - conversations with colleagues about their proves a very successful approach as Signadou Campus judgements of student work…there are probably few professional development students have much more control of their The ACT MLTA’s annual Conference titled activities more powerful than the peer learning and achievement and know exactly ‘De-stressing Assessment’ was held recently analysis and discussion of student work” (The what should they do in an effort to achieve at the Australian Catholic University. The Assessment We need, masters and Foster: the grade they aspire for. conference theme was welcomed by new as 2000). Teachers discussed rubrics appropriate to well as experienced teachers as assessment the sector in which they teach and worked in is such an important and timely issue in Meri introduced the key note speaker, Anita groups. Under Natalie’s guidance, they education. We are all aware how vital it is Patel, who presented her paper: ‘The forms developed good marking rubrics for tasks to be able to create a valuable assessment of things unknown: language and literature’. to facilitate marking and moderation task and marking rubrics to match which Anita demonstrated several activities to between teachers and enable students to allow us to mark students’ work confidently, show how language can be taught through take control of their learning. professionally and authentically. literature from very early stages in learning L2. We were all invigorated by her Meri concluded the Conference by inviting The Conference attracted language knowledge, wisdom and most certainly her teachers to register for the AFMLTA teachers from all over the ACT, including passion and enthusiasm for literature. Conference in Darwin 2011 and inviting four university students which was fantastic them to take an active role in preparing for to see. The second presenter was Margaret Bell who spoke about Assessment and Rubrics; a the AFMLTA Conference in Canberra 2013. This, in many ways, was an experimental necessary link in improving the quality of The feedback received was overwhelmingly Conference for the ACT MLTA, as we: teaching and learning in languages. positive and we look forward to planning Margaret talked about the principles of next year’s conference to cater to your organised it as a Saturday morning assessment and the Big 3s: Validity, • needs. session starting with breakfast; Reliability and Authenticity. She reinforced the notion that everything we do in class is Written by Meri Dragicevic • invited students from the University of Canberra to attend; and for the first time, used the beautiful Signadou Building and its serene gardens. ACT MLTA President Meri Dragicevic opened the Conference by thanking her Executive team for their effort in organising the invitations, certificates, evaluation forms, registrations, web page, professional DET calendar listing and catering. She also December 2010 Page 4

ACT MLTA Annual Conference Photos December 2010 Page 5

Excellence in Languages Education It is a pleasure to share the following success stories with you about languages education in the ACT. The ACT MLTA would like to congratulate all the teachers who shared their stories in this edition of Contact for inspiring their students and encouraging them to reach for the stars!

Goethe Film Festival 2010 Mount Rogers Primary School was a great way of practising spoken entered 12 movies into an interstate German and many students were Mount Rogers Primary film festival organised by the delightfully confident with speaking and School gets second place for Goethe Institute. Two of the Mount even singing in German while being a short German movie! Rogers movies were shortlisted and filmed! The Mount Rogers winning movie one came second. We were very was called "Super Kartoffel." It was pleased because this was the first about a potato that educated an apple, time we entered the competition. broccoli and bean on how to be more The theme was environment and our energy efficient, save water and use place in the environment. Three less fuel. classes created 12 movies which In spite of the noise, headaches and meant that about sixty students chaos the movie making was great fun were involved and worked in groups and the range of scripts the students ranging from 4 to 8 students per produces was impressive. I'd encourage group. They learnt the skills of everyone to have a go at it. storyboarding, script writing, team-

work, filming and digital editing. It Written by Lee-Anne Grunwald

Red Hill School three national variations on the me her crêpe kits, and the Friendly th humble pancake. Grocer Red Hill for their donation of Celebrates 50 ingredients for La Petite Crêperie stall Other stalls included products made Anniversary with – I’m still having flashbacks of pouring by students, Year 5 businesses and turning! International Fête (from their Inquiry earlier in the year) and calendars featuring The fête proved a great success, On Saturday 27 th November, Red Hill Kindergarten artwork. raising significant funds towards new School, the ACT’s first International playground equipment. Baccalaureate World School, held a fête Entertainment included the school’s to coincide with its 50 th birthday. The very own African Drumming group, Written by Tim Ward-Harvey fete was led by the P&C committee and Wassa Wassa, who performed some had an international theme to reflect the titillating rhythms as well as our diverse backgrounds of students at the school bands and choir and a gospel school. choir.

It was a food fair of sorts, ranging from Thanks to Jenny MacDonald from German sausages, Indonesian satays to Hawker Primary for kindly lending December 2010 Page 6

Excellence in Languages Education

students entering and learning than 90 people were gathered to The ACT Primary different poems according to celebrate the wonderful their year level. Forty finalists, achievement of these young French Poetry (francophone and non learners of French! Every single francophone) from over 10 winner attended the ceremony Competition is a different schools were selected and received their certificates by their teachers. A jury formed and book prizes. The first prize Success! of the French Network Leader winners recited their poems with (Ludivine Le-Gal) and the a very impressive confidence Linguistic Cooperation Attaché at and beautiful French. During second semester, the the French Embassy (Virginie ACT Department of Education Dourlet) met to view the videos of This first edition of the Primary and Training with the support the finalists and selected the French Poetry Competition was a of the French Embassy, winners. great success thanks to the hard organised a French Poetry work of French teachers and competition for Primary school The prize ceremony was held on organisers and we all look pupils learning French. It was a Thursday 25 th November at the forward to doing it again next great success with over 100 Alliance Française with all the year. winners and their families. More Written by Ludivine Le-Gal The ACT MLTA Contact Details ACT MLTA Executive 2010 Postal Address: President GPO BOX 989 Civic Meri Dragicevic ACT Vice-President

Email: Natalie Stewart Meri Dragicevic [email protected] Treasurer Website: Jennifer Macdonald http://www.mltaact.asn.au/ Membership Secretary THE ACT MLTA WORKS 4 U! Tim Ward-Harvey Minutes Secretary AFMLTA Kratai Visityuthasart Publicity Officer/Contact Editor For further reading about languages teaching in Australia, please visit the following website: Shannon White

http://www.afmlta.asn.au/ Please send all submissions for Contact to [email protected]

Are you doing something interesting at your school with your languages teaching? We would LOVE to hear about it!

We have so many experienced and dedicated language teachers in the ACT and they should definitely be promoted and acknowledged for their amazing work! If you are doing something special at your school, the members of the ACT MLTA would love to hear about it. You might even inspire someone to have a go at something different too. You might like to ask a student to write a review of their learning in class! We would love to hear about any schools going overseas this year also. Please forward all anecdotes and photographs to the Contact editor: Shannon White [email protected] We look forward to hearing your stories!

The ACT MLTA Works 4u!