Complete Conference Program

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AATE ALEA National Conference Perth 2018

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Complete Conference Program

PERTH EXHIBITION AND CONVENTION CENTRE

Sunday 8 – Wednesday 11 July, 2018

1 The Conference Organising Committee would like to acknowledge our sponsors and exhibitors. Thank you for your support; it is essential to the success of the Conference. Please visit the exhibition hall during your time at the conference. The Organising Committee hopes that conference participants enjoy the range of products displayed in the exhibition area. We remind you that AATE and ALEA do not necessarily endorse or favour any specific product, service or business.

WEL

We warmly welcome you to Perth for the 2018 AATE/ALEA National Conference. We acknowledge the atraditional owners of this land upon which we are gathering, the Wadjuk people of the Noongar nation, and we pay our respects to their elders past and present. We are grateful for their guidance and look to honour their traditions in storytelling, conversations and cultural exchange through the spirit of our conference.

This year’s conference has attracted outstanding speakers from around the world, who will present their research and ideas about the theme The Art of English: Language, Literature, Literacy. Over the days of the conference we will have 135 sessions of professional discussion with 190 different presentations led by 261 English and Literacy specialists. Sessions will explore the three strands of our theme – English as an Art, English and the Arts and English through the Arts – as well as engaging with Australia’s wide-ranging education contexts, and professional experiences.

Through the support of our principal sponsor, the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund, this year the AATE/ ALEA National Conference incorporates a ‘literary festival’ within the conference. This combined approach of literary and educational discussion replicates the important relationship between writers and teachers of English and Literacy that is fundamental to our classroom practice in all levels of education. Our collection of literary and educational keynote and concurrent sessions will address our theme and there is a variety of quality offerings in every session to meet the professional learning needs of English and literacy educators, including inspirational Australian authors and creators.

As well as the excellent keynote and concurrent sessions, we are proud to be showcasing the best that Perth has to offer in our exciting social and cultural events. We hope that you enjoy these events and take some time to network with colleagues who share your passion about inspiring confidence, excellence, creativity and a love of language, literature and literacy in future generations.

We offer sincere appreciation to all delegates for being part of the conference, as well as special thanks to our sponsors and exhibitors for supporting. We invite you all to explore what the exhibitors have to offer in the exhibitors’ hall throughout the conference, and perhaps take home some great mementos of this conference through the works of keynote presenters.

We look forward to meeting all of our delegates. Enjoy the conference!

Co-convenors Claire Jones (AATE), Grace Oakley (ALEA) and Wendy Cody (AATE).

3 ALEA/AATE Conference 2018

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Preconference Institute Sunday July 8th

Timetable Riverview 4 Riverview 5

9.30am - 12.00pm Dianne Wolfer Preconference Inst Creating Creative Writers: Teachers as writers

1.00pm Jo Jones and Claire Jones Chris Walsh (1.00 - 2.30) Reading the Region: Preconference Inst Place-based pedagogies The 'new' digital literacy of coding

3.00pm - 5.00pm Jo Jones and Claire Jones ALEA Leadership Workshop continued to 3.30pm

Time: 6.30pm Informal Opening Session Presentation and Reception Venue: Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre, Speakers' Room open for presentation uploads River View Rooms

Audience Colour Code

All Delegates

Primary/EC Education

Secondary Education

6 Creating Creative Writers: Teachers as writers – Dianne Wolfer (All teachers) In this hands-on session participants will have time to develop ideas via springboard writing activities as well as learn practical skills for editing first drafts. Dianne writes across genres and has a teaching background. During this mini Bootcamp she plans to cover multiple aspects of writing; research, shaping an idea (picture book, chapter book or novel?), developing characters and themes, plotting, editing tips and understanding the publishing marketplace. It will be fast- paced but there will also be time for questions and sharing.

Dianne Wolfer writes books across genres for teenagers and young readers. Her love of animal stories led to PhD research into Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature and novels The Shark Caller and The Dog with Seven Names. In the Lamplight is the third title in the award-winning, historical Lighthouse Girl/Light Horse Boy series. For more information visit www.diannewolfer.com

Reading the Region: Place-based pedagogies – Jo Jones and Claire Jones (Secondary/Tertiary) This workshop will take advantage of our location on the banks of the Swan River to explore place-based pedagogies. We will explore the way that geographies, built environments and memoryscapes of specific places provide encounters rich with teaching/learning opportunities. The session will show how educators can engage these complex encounters through methods that extend beyond conventional classroom-based tuition. By considering the concept of the ‘spacial turn’ we will discuss how teachers and students can draw on immediate and palpable understandings of space, and the human events that inflect them, to invoke responses that are more enlivened, relevant and authentic than established and conventional modes of literary study. The session will close with a practical example of reading the region by exploring the Swan River as a memoryscape using digital technologies that can be replicated in other regions and environment, and your classroom.

Jo Jones and Claire Jones are sisters who started their professional lives as secondary English teachers. After a number of years in the classroom, including time as state examiners of the WA English and Literature courses, they have both returned to academic research and now teach Literature and Cultural Studies at tertiary level, teaching many of our future writers, as well as graduate English teachers. Jo is a senior lecturer at Curtin University and has served on the AATE National Council. Claire teaches at the University of Western Australia and is the President of the English Teachers Association of WA.

The ‘new’ digital literacy of coding - Chris Walsh (Early Childhood and Primary) This workshop will explore how teachers can use digital literacies and hands-on inquiry-based projects to teach the Australian Curriculum: Technologies from F to 6. The workshop will also explore how design briefs can act as a catalyst for students to introduce the ‘new’ literacy of coding and robotics through play-based digital learning (PBDL). Coding and programming robots, particularly humanoid robots, provides an engaging way for primary students and educators to engage in computational thinking as they work together to solve problems. Students can draw on their experiences using technologies to create a variety of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts including recounts, procedures, performances, literary retellings and poetry.

Chris Walsh is Professor of Education at Victoria University. He is passionate about working with teachers to co-design teaching and learning to prepare all students for the future. He believes every student can engage in 'thinking in technologies’. Chris also understands that for all students to be successful participants in an economy being transformed by new technologies, they need a sound understanding of digital literacies including coding, gaming and robotics.

7 Monday July 9th

Time Theatre Meeting Room 1 Meeting Room 2 Meeting Room 3 Riverview Rooms 4/5 Monday 9 July 8.45 - 9.15 Official Opening Welcome to Country Session 1 Keynote: 9.15 - 10.15 Kim Scott NO OTHER SESSIONS

Both Trapped and Free

Morning tea: 10.15 - 10.45 Book Signing

Session 2 Keynote: Donald Keynote: Graves Address Craig Silvey 10.45-11.45 Dominic Wyse Choice, voice and process: Coming of Age how writing should be taught in the 21st century

10 min move time 11.45 -11.55

Session 3 Short Talks Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent 11.55-12.55 Marissa Price 1. IDOC - C Walsh, et al1. Susan Taylor (OUP) Millie Locke Lessons learned from Practical strategies for & Robyn Ewing Cathy Juniper the ITAP developing reading No comprehension Session Lee Barker, et al 2. Bromley & Turner 2. Manley & Martens Enriching English Unleashing the For the love of reading and literacy through Peter Ramm power of the pencil music and drama

Matthew Cotter 2x25 min 2xWorkshop 55 min

Lunch 12.55-1.40pm

1.40 - 1.50pm VALE Marion Meiers Australian Reading Hour

Session 4 Keynote: Garth Boomer Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Keynote: 1.55-2.55pm Address 1. Janice Belgrave 1. Watson & Moloney 1. Janet Hunter Dianne Wolfer Rod Quin "Can I aks you Privileging English and Writing as craft Off Site Session sumfink?" the Arts 2.10 - 3.00pm Articulate Anthropomorphism in Karen Rantissi English teaching 2. Michelle Perry & Maria Kennedy2. Shamala Ramakresinin 2. Chatto and Strudwick Children's Literature An Art Feedback that The fun way to learn Meaning: Is it the Adventure inspires writing English language missing link in our Art Gallery of spelling programs? Western Aust 2x25 min 2x25 min 2x25min

Afternoon tea 2.55 -3.25pm Book Signing

Keynote: Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Session 5 Mem Fox 1. Alexandra Newbold Matters & Verghese 1. R Vanderburg, et al. Eva Gold & Ann Small 3.30-4.30 We are all in this Inspiring art: How to together merge drawing and literacy From head to hand: 2. Helen McGrath Latin for literacy 2. Aimee Hunter Crossing over the role of poetry Using picture books, The benefits of Years 5-8 in perfecting prose. drama and cooperative recycling' language games plus ALEA Awards 2xWorkshop 55 minute 2x25 min 55 mins

Session 6 AATE Matters ALEA AGM 4.30-5.30

Social Program: Bards and Bars

Meeting Room 6 Meeting Room 7 Meeting Room 8 Meeting Room 9 Meeting Room 10

Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Ellen Rees 1. Melanie Hindley Rita Van Haren Bree Kitt 1. Nathan Lowien Stay Furiosa Design thinking Video games and values

2. Fiona Jeffries Analysing Multimodal Poetry from 2. Kellie Heintz Pedagogy of reading Texts to understand print to screen What counts for meaning point of view as reading?

1xWorkshop 2xWorkshop 55 min 2 x Research

Australian Reading Hour

Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent 1. Emily Frawley Yvette 1. Lisbeth Kitson 1. L Willis & B Exley 1. Archana Sinh Teaching poetry: A Krohn-Isherwood Transposing genres Teaching early years The world of language fine art English / literacy and imagination Sci-Phi: teaching 2. Helen Poole philosophy through 2. Amy Seely-Flint 2. Hannagan and Dia Sucking imagery out science fiction Examining young The Art of Guided of your students learners' identity Reading with EALD development students 2xWorkshop 1 x Workshop 1 x 55 min 2 x Research 2 x Research

Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent 1. Jennifer Shand Larissa McLean Davies 1. Kathy Shortland-Jones1. Mavis Price 1. R.V. Sheela English in Australia Teach me something I To English from The use of translation don't know vernacular literacy as a tool in the English classroom 2. Sally Lamping AATE Journal 2. Antoinette Meade, et al2. Stacey Campbell 2. Chris Carlill, et al Literacy and art as Using case management The lost art of shared picture book readingThe writing's social practice to build teacher capacity on the wall

2xWorkshop 55 min 55 min 2 x Research 2 x research/workshop

9 Tuesday July 10th

Tuesday 10 July Theatre Meeting Room 1 Meeting Room 2 Meeting Room 3 Riverview 4 & 5 Meeting Room 6 Meeting Room 7

Housekeeping: 8.45 - 8.50 Keynote: 8.50 -9.50 Keynote: Concurrent Session 1 Nell K. Duke Duncan Driver & Tobias Wilkins Transforming Literacy Two households, both Education Through alike in dignity": Project-Based Learning Shakespeare in the English and Drama classrooms 9.50 - 10.00 Copyright Agency Announcement

Morning tea: 10.00 - 10.30

Session 2 Keynote: Terry Locke Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Keynote Workshop Concurrent Concurrent 10.30 -11.30am We are all Writers 1. Elizabeth Baker 1. Forma Gonzales Julie Shepherd Jackie French 1. Stout & Griffiths 1. K Rushton & J Dutton 2 keynote & Inquiring into language with functional grammarUtilising marine products New media: Beyond engagementTell me your story concurrents: in teaching English

2. Louise Cimetta 2. Carmel Small The art of teaching Finding the Magic 2. Susan Lazenby 2. Elena Mujkic Visual narratives Nelson Cengage spelling Book The art of letting go Differentiation: A rich in the iPad presentation on leveled (K-6 audience) collage classroom texts 2 x workshop 2 x workshop 1 x 55 min 2 x workshop 2 x workshop

10 min move time 11.30-11.40 Short talks Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Keynote Workshop Concurrent Concurrent Session 3 Clare Thomson 1. White & Bin Salleh 1. Adam Cece ALEA SIG 1 Nell K. Duke Liz Nicholls Garry Collins Reading Australia: Spark the spark 11.40-12.40 Gillian Dawn Teaching indigenous English through the Absolutely Essential literature to Primary arts – literacy across Instructional Picture this: The Some approaches to Concurrents: 60 mins Jill Colton 2. Siotis, et al 2. Denise Ritchie the curriculum Practices in Early grammar of visual teaching an Australian The art of storying The art of sculpting Literacy literacy war poem Clare Williams words for written Summers, Gill, Russo expression Layton and Kimmers 2 x workshop 2 x 25 minute Multiple papers 1 x 55mins 1 x 55mins 1 x workshop

Lunch 12.40-1.30pm Harper Collins Book Launch 1.30 - 1.45 Aiden Chambers Interview Session 4 Keynote Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent 1.45 -2.45 Allison Skerrett 1. Phillippa Statkus 1. Jo Padgham ALEA SIG 2 Part 1 Ron Gorman Cameron Hindrum 1. Adam Kealley Transnationally- Speaking their The art of leading The power of story Reading Australia: Tailored Redesigns of language literacy learning walks English and literacy tips for teaching Aust The Art of English in and talks teacher education Mentionable places: literature to secondary Response to a 2. Rodney McAllister 2. Christine Topfer as artful practice the voices of Owen Globalized World Providing effective What's essential: and Sassoon feedback to young Implementing ten essen- Manuel, Dutton, Cain readers tial instructional practices Callow and Mantei 2 x workshop 2 x workshop Multiple papers 1 x 55mins 1 x 55mins 1 x 55 mins

10 min move time 2.40-2.50

Keynote: Jackie French Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Keynote Workshop Concurrent Concurrent Session 5 Christa Balfour, et al 1. P Smith & L Harper ALEA SIG 2 Part 2 Mem Fox Erika Boas 1. Elizabeth Mountford 2.50 - 3.50 Writing for Your Life Using innovative Working at the leading Tales and dreams and pedagogies to edge in writing English and literacy shadow truths (Secondary Audience) improve literacy teacher education Choral Speaking The artful use of outcomes for 2. Samara Scharner as artful practice inquiry-based learning2. M Dixon & A Taplin indigenous students I have a story to Literacy: Adaptable or tell you! Manuel, Dutton, Cain subject-specific? Callow and Mantei 1 x 55mins 2 x workshop Multiple papers 1 x 55mins 1 x 55 mins 2 x workshop

Afternoon tea 3.50-4.20 Book Signing

Keynote Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Keynote Concurrent Concurrent Session 6 Robyn Ewing 1. J Sutton & A Kelly Summers, et al Daffern, et al Jo Jones Meaghan Hird 1. Wendy Allder Storycasts . Big Write and VCOP

2. Davidson & Read Reading-writing The art of teaching Ground Truthing: Vocabulary, verbs 2. Aiden Coleman 4.20-5.20 Using the Arts to connection transcription skills Feeling through and voice Art Made Tongue-tied inspire writing in place by Authority the early years 2 x workshop 1 x 55 1 x 55 min 1 x 55mins 1 x 55 min 2 x workshop

Social Event: Isle of Voyages and David Whish-Wilson

Meeting Room 8 Meeting Room 9 Meeting Room 10

Concurrent 1. Julie Easton The art of teaching English to Indigenous students 2. Alex Wharton Creating a culture of wide reading

Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Kristian Stewart 1. W Cave & S Bissel 1. Sam Barta Standard 2:4 is so Writing in role much more

Digital storytelling in 2. John Saunders 2. Tessa Daffern the writing classroom Literacy and drama The art of using error analysis

1 x 55 min 2 x Research 2 x Research

Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Rosie Kerin 1. B Doukas & K Baldock 1. Claire Jones Collective Action Growing engaged, Historical novels in confident, assessment- senior secondary English capable writers 2. Tamara Bromley 2. Alex Bacalja The enactment of school Understanding trends in literacy policy compulsory senior English text lists 1 x 55 min 2 x Research 2 x Research

Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent 1. Emily Gregory, et al 1. Brett Healey 1. Mary Weaven Developing powerful How children experience You do this to empty readers and writers writing (and how they the heart don't) 2. Ashley McPherson 2. Veronica Gardiner 2. Lynne Bury A gallery of ideas Escaping standardised Disciplinary literacy in and commercialised the middle years states of mind' 2 x 25 min workshops 2 x Research 2 x Research

Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Paul Sommer 1. J Scull & N Mackenzie 1. C Edwards-Groves The art of conversation: Upsetting the apple cart talking to support young The video essay for writers English teachers 2. Megan Brown & Denise Chapman2. Jeanine Wishart Investigations into The contested space of pre-service educators' teaching grammar fear of technologies 1 x 55 min 2 x Research 2 x Research

Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Kirli Saunders 1. Julian Laffan A McGraw & M Mason (Red Room) The art of illustration

Poems to Share 2. Katherine Halcrow Pedagogies A music pedagogy for teaching reading approach to the teaching of writing 1 x 55 min 2 x 25 research 1 x 55 min

Wednesday July 11th

Time Theatre Meeting Room 1 Meeting Room 2 Meeting Room 3 Riverview Room 4 Wednesday 11 July 8.45 - 8.50 House Keeping Session 1 Keynote: 8.50 -9.50 Debra Myhill Writing Aloud: Metalinguistic Modelling to Support Writing Development 9.50-10.00 Red Room Poetry Launch Morning tea: 10.00 - 10.30

Session 2 Keynote: Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent 10.30-11.30 Ambelin Kwaymullina 1. J Kelly & L McGill 1. Katina Zammit Robyn English 1. M Vandenburg, et al (secondary) Embedding the Arts Engaging the reader Three tried and true in literacy learning Beyond character, activities for Arts Indigenous Futurism: with ACTF resources plot and setting based literacy instruction YA writing and diversity 2. Jeni McCarthy 2. R Dass & T Taylor 2. K Smith & in the classroom Teaching English Review, rethink C Polubski within a two-hour and revise The art of teaching literacy block writing 2 x workshop 2 x 25 1 x 55mins 2 x 25mins

10 min move time 11.30-11.40 Book Signing

Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Session 3 1. Tracey Radbone Jennifer Crowley & John Saunders 1. J Wang & C Burton 11.40-12.40 Short talks Songwriting 101 Kathy Ferrari & Robyn Ewing Exploring the unknown: A creative Mathew Lillyst Re-framing Readers The art of using writing workshop 2. Jayne Caley & Vanessa Barber Resourcefully drama-based 2. Karen Yaher Laurie "Darian" Thrailkill The art of teaching pedagogy The artistry of English to our Primary and Secondary writing Bree Hansen youngest learners Session 2 x workshop 1 x 55mins 1 x 55mins 2 x 25mins

Lunch 12.40-1.30 Keynote: Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Workshop Session 4 Ambelin Kwaymullina 1. Moloney & Middleton Brock, et al Kylie Pedlar Terry Locke 1.30-2.30 (EC Primary) Cultivating curiosity, creativity and Indigenous Storytelling connections Book club: An Book-making, read- From event to rubric: through Picture Books 2. Kerry Gehling instructional alouds and explicit Responding to the for All Ages Comprehension: framework mini-lessons student writer A deep understanding 2 x workshop 1 x 55mins 1 x 55mins 1 x 55mins

10 min move time 2.30-2.40Plenary: Chris Walsh Handover to Melbourne Session 5 Closing and Farewell 2.40-3.40 Afternoon tea 3.40-4.20 Farewell Reception

12 Riverview Room 5 Meeting Room 6 Meeting Room 7 Meeting Room 8 Meeting Room 9 Meeting Room 10

Imelda Judge Kevin Price Exploring, creating The English teacher and assessing as writer multimodal texts

1 x 55mins 1 x 55mins Chair: Chair:

Keynote: Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Judith Rivalland Jenny Miraudo Rosie Kerin, et al 1. Rita van Haren Cumming-Potvin Robyn Henderson, et al Teaching writing and Gardiner Tenacious and Ponder the genre Better Writing digitally Opening The art of writing for Observant Literacy for all conversations ALEA's journals Teaching: Where 2. T Barrington & about LGBTQI rights have we been? J Winchester Bev Steer Where too now? Writing - a solo or Stimulating Students ensemble creation? to Write Creatively 1 x 55mins 1 x 55mins 2 x 25mins 2 x 25 mins

Workshop Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Allison Skerritt 1. Jeffrey Lewis Lefroy, et al 1. Edwards and Beck 1. Simmone PogorzelskiMargaret Merga & Multiple dimensions: Reading assessment: A tale of two Veronica Gardiner How to Artfully Science-fiction Where are we going theories Redesign Your English narratives Escape into stories / wrong? A whole-school Curriculum Using a 2. Meridie Howley Innovative partnerships2. Juliet Paine 2. Grace Oakley approach to reading Transnationally-Inclusive Using emerging Artfully thinking: The art and science engagement Framework online text types Using scaffolding and of using mobile visual cues for writingdevices for literacy 1 x 55mins 2 x 25mins 1 x 55mins 2 x workshop 2 x research 1 x 55 min research

Keynote: Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Concurrent Larissa McLean DaviesKerri-Jane Burke Lorraine McDonald 1. Hobbs & Ewing 1. Jon Callow The art of teaching The art of Oliver narrative point of Jeffers Life beyond Naplan: Writing teachers: Evidence-based view reclaiming art and A NSW experience literary appreciation 2. Peter Jones 2. Noella Mackenzie knowledge in English New media: Art I am learning to forms for millenials write, but we don't get time to draw 1 x 55mins 1 x 55mins 2 x workshop 2 x research

13 Keynote Sessions

Monday Session 1 Kim Scott Both Trapped and Free

In this session Kim Scott will discuss part of his journey as a reader and writer. His approach will be personal, and he will speaking as an enthusiastic reader and always-struggling writer. Kim will share his earliest introduction to literature, the joy of story, and consider some of the factors influencing and motivating some of his published work. He will reflect upon how stories can ensnare or liberate us, and will suggest connections between some of his novels and his continuing work with Noongar language recovery.

Kim Scott is a multi-award winning novelist. Proud to be one among those who call themselves Noongar, he is founder and chair of the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Story Project (www.wirlomin.com.au). A Companion to the Works of Kim Scott (Camden House, 2016) deals with aspects of his career in education and literature. Kim is currently Professor of Writing at Curtin University. Kim’s latest novel is Taboo (Picador, 2017)

Session 2 Dominic Wyse The Donald Graves Memorial Lecture Choice, voice and process: how writing should be taught in the 21st century

Traditional skills and drills teaching of writing was challenged in the 1980s by of ‘one of the most seductive writers in the history of writing pedagogy’. Donald Graves’ process approach to writing, as it came to be known, was popular in Australia, New Zealand, USA and the UK. At the heart of Graves’ approach was learner choice, and the development of the writers’ voice, enacted in a publication process in the classroom. However, one alleged weakness was the lack of research base for Graves’ approach. In more that 30 years of research since then we have the opportunity to re-evaluate Graves’ ideas.

This keynote talk examines research, theory, and practice in order to understand the continuing legacy of the process approach. New findings from a four year multidisciplinary study of writing are reported (How Writing Works: From the birth of the alphabet to the rise of social media: Cambridge University Press). The study included analyses of world-leading writers as well as novice writers. Creativity in writing was a major part of the study, including new empirical and theoretical findings. The originality of the study was also marked by a comparison of the composition of text with the composition of music.

The lessons from research for the teaching of writing and for curriculum policy are considered. The talk ends by addressing the implications for the process approach to writing, and hence Graves’ contribution, in the 21st century.

Dominic Wyse is Professor of Early Childhood and Primary Education at University College London (UCL), Institute of Education (IOE), and Academic Head of the Department of Learning and Leadership. Dominic is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), an elected, and now co-opted, member of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Council, and a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). A major strand of Dominic’s research is the teaching of writing. His most recent book is (How Writing Works: From the Invention of the Alphabet to the Rise of Social Media. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 14

Session 2 Craig Silvey Coming of Age

In an intimate and passionate address, Craig Silvey discusses his life in literature, as both a reader and a writer. He explores the way stories foster empathy and shape our perspectives, and strongly advocates for the development of creative skills.

Craig Silvey grew up on an orchard in Dwellingup Western Australia. He now lives in Fremantle, where at the age of 19, he wrote his first novel, Rhubarb, published by Fremantle Press in 2004. In 2005, Rhubarb was chosen as the 'One Book' for the Perth International Writers' Festival, and was included in the national Books Alive campaign. Silvey also received a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist Award. In 2007, Silvey released The World According To Warren, a picture book affectionately starring the guide-dog from Rhubarb. In early 2008, he completed his second novel, Jasper Jones, with the aid of an Australia Council New Work Grant. Outside of literature, Silvey is the singer/songwriter for the band The Nancy Sikes!

Session 4 Rod Quin The Garth Boomer Address Articulate English Teaching

Entitled ‘Articulate English Teaching’ this address will offer a vision of what it means to be an articulate English teacher. Rod Quin will argue that one of the key responsibilities of the English teacher is the art of demystifying literature, language, literacy and schooling in general. Part of this responsibility involves making the classroom a place where the processes of teaching and learning are continually made transparent to students. Another part involves telling secrets to students – exposing hidden truths about literature and language as well as testing and examination regimes, educational bureaucracies, selection processes and social class in Australia. The address will conclude with a call for English teachers to articulate truths about English more widely and more loudly – to challenge, rather than meekly submit to, educational policies and practices determined more by ill-considered, cynical political agendas than informed educational ones - and to expose and ridicule dishonest and lazy uses of language in education and the wider community.

Rod Quin taught English at twelve different high schools in country and metropolitan Western Australia and was Head of English at ten of those schools. He has been employed as a curriculum writer, consultant and policy officer for the Department of Education, as well as senior education policy adviser to two Ministers for Education. He was Supervising Examiner of the WACE English examination for six years, has been a WACE examination marker for thirty years, has worked as a private education consultant and is author or co-author of eighteen books for teachers and students of English. Rod Quin has also been employed as lecturer or tutor in education at all four public universities in Western Australia. He has recently retired from teaching but continues to be active in the English teaching community.

Session 4 Dianne Wolfer Anthropomorphism in Children's Literature

Why are animal characters an enduring element of folk tales from around the world as well as being popular heroes of contemporary children’s stories?

15 Dianne loved animal stories as a child and this fascination never left. Her PhD research focused on anthropomorphism in literature. This involved compiling a listing of Australian children’s titles from 1841-2015, examining degrees of anthropomorphism and looking at ways animal characters are used as windows to war, environmental and social change. Dianne’s studies also explored emerging metaphoric trends in Australian animal characters. As part of this study, Dianne wrote The Shark Caller a quest novel linked to the ancient practice of calling sharks in PNG and recent publication The Dog with Seven Names an historical story set Australia’s north-west during WWII. Both novels feature animal characters. In this interactive session, Dianne will share her research findings, particularly in relation to these novels. Participants will be encouraged to remember and perhaps share their own favourite childhood animal characters.

Dianne writes books across genres for teenagers and young readers. Her love of animal stories led to PhD research into Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature and novels The Shark Caller and The Dog with Seven Names. In the Lamplight is the third title in the award-winning, historical Lighthouse Girl/Light Horse Boy series. www.diannewolfer.com.

Session 5 Mem Fox The Role of Poetry in Perfecting Prose

The theme of this conference is The English Language. What a superb language it is! Its rhythms and cadences, its vast choices of synonyms, its grammar (but not its spelling), and its amazing variety, world-wide, make it sensational to hear and speak, to read and write. As a writer, the choices and decisions I make in my own use of English have their foundation in my early life, in high school, at drama school, and then at university. Apart from my pre-school experiences, having been well-taught has been the key to my success. How did that effective teaching manifest itself during my education? Which methods and strategies made me able to use English correctly and creatively? And what, therefore, are the implications for teachers of English today? I will explore these questions by focussing, surprisingly, on the role of poetry in creating a love of language, and developing a sophisticated mastery of English. Along the way, I will be mourning the heart-breaking absence of poetry in many of today’s classrooms, and begging for its restoration.

Mem Fox is a retired Associate Professor of Literacy Studies from Flinders University, South Australia, where she taught teachers for 24 years. She has received many civic honours and awards, and three honorary doctorates. Mem Fox is Australia’s foremost writer of picture books for young children. Possum Magic, her first book, has become a beacon of children’s literature for millions of Australian families. She has written over 40 children’s books, which have been translated into twenty-one languages, as well as several non-fiction books for adults, including Radical Reflections on Teaching, Learning and Living; Reading Magic; and English Essentials, with Lyn Wilkinson; Her latest book: I’m Australian Too, takes her back to where she started: her passion for Australia. She hopes it will spark spirited discussions about Australian-ness, create an awareness of Australian immigration over the centuries, and begin to calm the rising racism in this country.

16 Tuesday

Session 1 Nell K. Duke Transforming Literacy Education Through Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning has been a part of the educational conversation for over a century, but never has it been more relevant. Literacy education for today’s students needs to be more engaging, more rigorous, and more multi-dimensional than in years’ past. In this presentation, Duke will demonstrate how project-based learning can live up to these demands. Duke will share specific modern-day projects that are compelling for students and teachers alike. She will discuss results of research demonstrating that such projects can increase literacy and content area achievement as well as narrow gaps in achievement by socioeconomic status. She will present a five-phrase framework for developing projects that target key informational reading and writing skills and specific research-supported strategies for enhancing project effectiveness. Attendees will leave with resources and inspiration for enacting this compelling approach to literacy education.

Nell K. Duke is a professor in literacy, language, and culture and in the combined program in education and psychology at the University of Michigan. Duke’s work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in poverty. She has been named one of the 50 most influential education scholars in the U.S. in EdWeek. She has received awards for her work from the International Reading Association, the American Educational Research Association, and others. Her Twitter handle is @nellkduke.

Session 2 Terry Locke We are all Writers

This address commences with the proposition that we are all writers. It then explains why so many teachers resist identifying as writers and modeling a writer identity to their students. It then highlights the function of writing across the disciplines, and the place of creativity and the aesthetic. In short, as teachers we are all called upon to model discipline-based writing identities with our students. So how might this be achieved?

Until his recent retirement, Terry Locke was Professor of Arts and Language Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato. His research interests over the years have included: constructions of curriculum, assessment practice, teacher professionalism and self- efficacy, the teaching of literature and the teaching of writing across the curriculum. His most recent books are: Developing writing teachers (Routledge, 2015) and (with Teresa Cremin) Writer identity and the teaching and learning of writing (Routledge, 2017).

Session 2 Jackie French Finding the Magic Book (Early Career/Primary Audience)

A book is a potion that makes kids more intelligent, literally creating new neurons. A book teaches children empathy, compassion, concentration, resilience and knowledge.

Books are also boring – unless they are the 'magic book', the ones that they cannot bear to stop reading, and that turns them into readers for life. More than 80% of the 60,000 young people I have surveyed think books are boring – as long as all adults in the room have shut their eyes.

Babies and very small kids love being read to. Why doesn't this love persist? How do you show 17 your students how to find their magic book? And why is it better to speak 'human' than 'wombat’?

Jackie was the Australian Children's Laureate for 2014/15 and the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year. She is also an historian, ecologist, dyslexic, and a passionate worker for literacy, the right of all children to be able to read, and the power of books. Jackie's writing career spans 25 years, 148 wombats, over 140 books, 36 languages, 3,721 bush rats, and over 60 awards in Australia and overseas. She is also the ACT Children’s Week Ambassador, 2011 Federal Literacy Ambassador, patron of Books for Kids, YESS, and joint patron of Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People with Susanne Gervais and Morris Gleitzman. She is also a director of The Wombat Foundation that raises funds for research into the preservation of the endangered northern hairy nosed wombat.

Jackie is a passionate advocate of help for children with learning difficulties as well as the conservation of wildlife and our planet. For nearly 40 years she has studied the species in the bush where she lives, with publications ranging from scientific articles on wombat ecology or endangered species to her ground breaking books on theories and practices for pest and weed ecology and more popular books on subjects like backyard self sufficiency.

Session 3 Allison Skerrett Transnationally-Tailored Redesigns of The Art of English in Response to a Globalized World

Transnational people are those who live their lives across two or more nations to maximize their life opportunities, while maintaining active familial, sociocultural, economic and other ties to the multiple nations they call home. Recent data releases from world migration organizations report up to 31 million school-age transnational youths. This presentation will explore the unique cross- cultural, global knowledge and literacy competencies young people develop from living transnationally as well as the educational challenges this student population faces. The talk will present curriculum and instructional approaches that English/literacy teachers, with their students, can draw upon to be more intentionally inclusive of transnationalism in the study of language, literature, reading, and composition. The presentation will also explore how English/literacy teachers can address some of the educational challenges transnationalism can present. The talk will provide insights into how transnationally-inclusive approaches to English education creates opportunities for all students, whether or not they lead transnational lives, to develop specialized and essential competencies for productive participation in an increasingly diverse and globalized world.

Allison Skerrett is associate professor of language and literacy studies in the department of curriculum and instruction within the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin, USA. Allison’s research explores the literacy practices of diverse youths, including transnational youths, and considers the implications of these practices for teaching and learning in secondary English classrooms. Dr. Skerrett directs, and teaches within, the UTeach Urban Teachers secondary English teacher preparation program in the College of Education, and a secondary line of research of hers is teachers’ preparation for teaching in urban settings and their professional development across time. Allison can be reached at [email protected].

Session 4 Jackie French Writing for Your Life (Secondary Audience)

A book can change a child's life. The teacher who gives that book can change the world. I would not have survived, much less become the writer I am now, if it weren't for my teachers. This keynote is a song of gratitude, because those teachers not only gave me books, but showed me how to find the ones I needed, intellectually and emotionally. 18

A book is the richest, most compelling way to relive 60,000 years of history; to experience anguish, ice ages or war in the safety of the pages; to teach empathy and compassion; to provide not just knowledge but its context. A book gives history voices, as well as the vision and resilience to create the future. A book is where kids can unwind their own and other's prejudices, anger or fears, as well as giving insights into who they are, and who they may become. The same techniques of clarity, pacing and language choices that students study when they read fiction can also teach them how to write essays, history, scientific articles, computer manuals, company reports or even to explain to a customer why their new front axle is necessary and will cost $2000. Words may also be weapons on survival.

This keynote will show how to use the imagination to create many kinds of narrative; which words to use and how to harness them; and how students can use those skills to create a fulfilling future for themselves, and, just possibly, to change the world.

Session 6 Robyn Ewing Embedding Arts Processes in English and Literacy Classrooms

Arts rich English and literacy pedagogies are critical for our social and emotional wellbeing as well as our academic success and readiness for creative lifelong learning. Increasingly, however, the demand for simple ‘one size fits all’ approaches to literacy learning and improved test performance threatens the expertise and professional judgement of many teachers and teacher educators. What do artful literacy experiences and practices look like in the classroom? How can achievement be assessed authentically? This presentation explores current research and contemporary examples that demonstrate how teachers’ and children’s creativities, imaginations, self-confidence and identities can be nurtured through embedding quality arts processes and experiences in the English and literacy classroom.

Robyn is Professor of Teacher Education and the Arts, University of Sydney. She teaches in the areas of curriculum, English and drama, language and early literacy development and works with both undergraduate and postgraduate pre-service and inservice teachers. Robyn is passionate about the Arts and education and the role quality arts experiences and processes can and should play in creative pedagogy to transform the curriculum at all levels of education. In the areas of English, literacy and the arts, Robyn's research has particularly focused on the use of educational or process drama with literature to develop students' imaginations and critical literacies. Her current research interests also include teacher education, especially the experiences of early- career teachers and the role of critical reflection and mentoring; and, sustaining curriculum innovation. 19

Session 6 Jo Jones Ground Truthing: Feeling through place.

GROUNDING TRUTHING: The use of a ground survey to confirm findings of aerial image or to calibrate quantitative aerial observations; validation and verification techniques used on the ground to support maps; walking the ground to see for oneself if what has been told is true. - Terry Tempest Williams.

When we consider our discipline’s history over the past five decades we have seen our subject manifest in a complex series of revisions and reinventions. In present times, teachers internalise the cumulative iterations of previous generations and identities – from the conservative idealism of Leavis, to the 1960s idealism of the socialist luminaries of the Birmingham school – snowballing into an impossibly contradictory set of expectations. Successive governments have instigated and legislated troubling statistics-based systems that is deeply incompatible with humanities subjects. So, yet again, we must ask:

Where are we now? What should we teach? How should we teach?

This address takes its impetus from Australian, British and American eco-critical movements and advocates a direction for English that stems from the “roots” of our subject and attempts to grow between the geometrical pattern of curriculum and late-modern forms of a fraught discipline. “Ground-truthing” is an approach that urges teachers towards a creative practice that operates in a separate space from hard-edges bureaucracy. It is immersed in the “ground truth” firstly, of day to day teacher-student relationships and interactions and, secondly, in the varied space (real and imagined) of the world outside of the classroom.

Vitally, this spaced-based approach is an energised and nourishing nexus between the natural world, and the creation and interpretation of literature; an intimacy that exists when we “go deeper” into the history of our subject, ducking beneath the scaffolds of current bureaucratic and academic regimes. This presentation investigates existing projects of literature and places, from the Tasmanian town of Ross, to the wilds of Scotland, to the edges of Western Australia’s Swan River. It investigates ways of using maps, literature and the ground on which we stand as the seed from which spring creativity and knowledge.

Jo Jones is a Senior Lecturer in Literary and Cultural Studies at Curtin University. She has a PhD on Australian historical novels written during the History Wars and has taught extensively, including as a high school English teacher, at the University of Western Australia and the University of Tasmania. She has a forthcoming monograph Falling Backwards: The Historical Novels of the Australian History Wars (University of Western Australian Publishing) and has recently released, with Tim Dolin and Patricia Dowsett, an edited collection of essays, Required Reading: Literature in Australian Schools from 1945-2005 (Monash University Publishing). She has been a WACE marker, examiner and reviewer.

20 Wednesday

Session 1 Debra Myhill Writing Aloud: Metalinguistic Modelling to Support Writing Development

The use of teacher modelling for teaching writing is a familiar strategy for many literacy or language arts educators. Typically, teacher modelling of writing has tended to emphasise teachers sharing their thinking about how they manage a writing task with young writers, thus revealing to young writers how more expert writers write. Theoretically, teacher modelling draws on our understanding of metacognition, and particularly in relation to writing, self-regulation, or management, of the process of writing. However, one possibility that teacher modelling offers is to make visible to learners teacher thinking about the language choices they make as writers, explaining not just what choices they have made but crucially why they have made them. Drawing on data from a three year longitudinal study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, this keynote will consider metalinguistic modelling, where teachers model their thinking, as they write, aiming to help young writers understand the linguistic decision-making and the repertoire of choices available to them. The presentation will use examples from the research classrooms to illustrate some of the characteristics of effective teacher modelling of writing and some less effective examples, and to suggest ways forward for developing practice in metalinguistic modelling.

Debra Myhill is Professor of Education at the University of Exeter, UK. She is Director of the Centre for Research in Writing, and over the past fifteen years, she has led a series of research projects investigating the grammar-writing relationship. Debra runs numerous professional education courses for teachers, examining the practical classroom implications of her research on the teaching of writing, and in 2014, her research team was awarded the Economic and Social Research Council award for Outstanding Impact in Society.

Session 2 Ambelin Kwaymullina Indigenous Futurism: YA writing and diversity in the classroom

I am an author of Indigenous Futurisms, a form of storytelling whereby Indigenous peoples use the speculative fiction genre to challenge colonialism and imagine Indigenous futures. In this session, I will talk about the subversion of genre and the elements of Indigenous past, present and future that went into my YA dystopian trilogy, including: past colonial history of physical and structural violence; the present ways in which discrimination affects the lives of young Indigenous people, and an (imagined) future where privileged and marginalised peoples come together to realise a just world. I will place this discussion in the context of the current dialogue around diversity in literature, and include pointers for teachers on speaking the language of respect when dealing with diversity in the classroom so as to create learning spaces where all students can realise their potential.

Ambelin Kwaymullina is an award winning Aboriginal writer and illustrator who comes from the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. She has written and/or illustrated over ten picture books, as well as a dystopian YA series, The Tribe. Her books have been published in China, South Korea and the United States. Ambelin is also a leading commentator on diversity in Australian children's literature, and an expert on the appropriate and inclusive teaching of Indigenous-authored texts.

Session 2 Judith Rivalland Tenacious and Observant Literacy Teaching: Where have we been? Where too now? 21

Educators across the first world have been debating methods of teaching literacy since 1955, when Rudolph Flesch wrote Why Johnny Can’t Read? However, much of this discussion has focused on methodology rather than effective teaching. In this paper, I will review the theory and practice of literacy education over the last fifty years and ask, “what have we learned?” I will then refocus teachers on their own practice by asking, ‘Where to now?” This paper will discuss the teaching of reading and writing but it will also draw attention to the underlying importance of oral language to these processes.

Professor Judith Rivalland is Emeritus Professor at Edith Cowan University. She is an ALEA Principal Fellow and has been engaged in Literacy Education across the Primary, secondary and Early Years for many years. Judith has been involved in a range of national research projects related to the teaching of reading, writing and spelling including First Steps, 100 Children Go to School and In Teachers Hands. Her current interests are in developing reading and writing skills of children in the middle years of primary and the role that oral language plays in supporting the development of those skills.

Session 4 Ambelin Kwaymullina Indigenous Storytelling through Picture Books for All Ages

Indigenous peoples have always been storytellers, and today, many of the ways in which we tell our stories are through picture books. While picture books have traditionally been viewed as being for young children, picture books by Indigenous writer/illustrators contain stories that speak to all ages. In this session, I will explore my own work and the works of other Indigenous writer/illustrators to show how Indigenous picture books open up windows into Indigenous worlds and how teachers can use these texts to create nurturing and inspirational spaces for all children in the classroom.

Session 4 Larissa McLean Davies Life beyond Naplan: reclaiming art and knowledge in English

For the past decade, quality teaching and teacher knowledge have been increasingly under scrutiny. This has been particularly the case for those teaching subject English, in Australia and internationally, as English is not like other disciplines where knowledge is sequential, fixed and without contest. As Bethan Marshall has noted, within the profession, English is often understood holistically as art (Marshall, 2011). Faced with a subject that is expansive and organic, there has been increasing effort by key stakeholders—governments, curriculum authorities and assessment boards—to define, regulate and clarify what constitutes important knowledge in English. This is evident through revised senior years assessments and the increased reach of high-stakes literacy testing. Drawing on recent research undertaken as part of the ARC funded national project ‘Investigating literary Knowledge in the Making of English teachers’, including interviews and a survey of over 700 English teachers Australia-wide, this presentation will examine alternative ways in which English teachers understand knowledge in English and the rich implications of this for practice. In light of this research, this presentation will argue that it is important for English teachers to reclaim and lead the knowledge agenda. It will explore ways in which understanding

22 English as art might enable this endeavour and generate new understandings of the texts, genres and practices that make a difference to young people lives in the 21st century. Marshall, B. (2011). Testing English: Formative and Summative Approaches to English Assessment. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Associate Professor Larissa McLean Davies is a leading Australian academic in literary education, with her research spanning the fields of literary studies and English education. Larissa is currently Associate Professor – Language and Literacy Education and Associate Dean – Teacher Education Research at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Larissa is also the lead Chief Investigator of the ARC Discovery Project Investigating Literary Knowledge in the Making of English Teachers. Larissa’s international profile in clinical teacher education is rapidly developing as she challenges traditional disciplinary and institutional boundaries to offer innovative, collaborative and interdisciplinary solutions (e.g. between education and literary studies, or teacher education and medicine) to complex learning and teaching problems to improve student outcomes. In her previous role as Deputy Director – Learning and Teaching, she had oversight over the Master of Teaching Early Childhood, Primary, Secondary and Secondary Internship, and led the re- development of the Master of Teaching for re-accreditation in 2016. Larissa is a Senior Researcher in the International Teacher Education Effectiveness Hub, where she leads research at the interface of pre-service curriculum development and teacher education effectiveness research. In addition to frequent conference presentations, Larissa is regularly asked to talk about teaching and has given invited presentations at the House of Lords as part of the UNESCO Educational Futures Forum, at Oxford and Plymouth Universities, and for the Victorian Institute of Teaching and the Victorian Department of Education and Training. Associate Professor Larissa McLean Davies is a leading Australian academic in literary education, with her research spanning the fields of literary studies and English education. Larissa is currently Associate Professor – Language and Literacy Education and Associate Dean – Teacher Education Research at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Larissa is also the lead Chief Investigator of the ARC Discovery Project Investigating Literary Knowledge in the Making of English Teachers. Larissa’s international profile in clinical teacher education is rapidly developing as she challenges traditional disciplinary and institutional boundaries to offer innovative, collaborative and interdisciplinary solutions (e.g. between education and literary studies, or teacher education and medicine) to complex learning and teaching problems to improve student outcomes. In her previous role as Deputy Director – Learning and Teaching, she had oversight over the Master of Teaching Early Childhood, Primary, Secondary and Secondary Internship, and led the re- development of the Master of Teaching for re-accreditation in 2016. Larissa is a Senior Researcher in the International Teacher Education Effectiveness Hub, where she leads research at the interface of pre-service curriculum development and teacher education effectiveness research. In addition to frequent conference presentations, Larissa is regularly asked to talk about teaching and has given invited presentations at the House of Lords as part of the UNESCO Educational Futures Forum, at Oxford and Plymouth Universities, and for the Victorian Institute of Teaching and the Victorian Department of Education and Training.

Session 5 Chris Walsh Plenary Address

Chris Walsh is Professor of Education at Victoria University in the College of Arts and Education and the Academic Director of Victoria University Online, as well as holding the current position of Vice President for The Australian Literacy Educators’ Association (ALEA) . He is passionate about working with teachers to co-design teaching and learning to prepare all students for the future. He

23 believes every student can engage in 'thinking in technologies’. Chris also understands that for all students to be successful participants in an economy being transformed by new technologies, they need a sound understanding of digital literacies including coding, gaming and robotics.

TODAY A READER, TOMORROW A LEADER The THRASS Institute provides teachers, parents and support staff with the tools, strategies and subject knowledge to explicitly teach the phonetics and orthography of English for reading and writing.

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It provides a cost effective whole-school literacy model that is sustainable from foundation onwards and supported by a comprehensive suite of print and digital resources.

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IT IS AN ILLEGAL ACT TO REPRODUCE, PHOTOCOPY OR RE-CREATE THIS CHART Concurrent Sessions Monday

Session 3

Short Talks Marissa Price Bringing Shakespeare into the 21st Century Marissa Price, Brisbane author and teacher, discusses ways to engage teenage audiences with classical Shakespearean texts. As a required element of many Australian syllabi, Shakespeare's works are as important today as they were 400 years ago. The stories hisplays have spawned, the social commentary on the time he lived in and the oppression of his artistic licence due to monarchical influence are all fascinating aspects for teachers. But are our kids interested?

Marissa Price is a secondary English teacher who also runs The Literature Factory, a tutoring company that teaches literacy skills to kids across Brisbane. She hopes to reach out to a new generation of readers through her own stories. Marissa also wants to assist time-poor educators with quality, ready-made resources to teach Shakespearean units in contemporary classrooms.

Cathy Juniper Playing with Shakespeare Teaching a Shakespearean text to Middle School students can be a daunting task but using a variety of activities such as parodies, raps and multimedia responses can help to keep the plays fun and relevant. The plays also allow teachers to cover the Language, Literature and Literacy Strands of the Australian Curriculum for English.

Cathy Juniper is an experienced Middle and Senior School English teacher. She has taught in a range of South Australian schools and is currently working at Wilderness School, Adelaide.

Lee Barker, Caroline Abraham and Toni Popowski Middle Years Literacy in Tasmanian Schools The Middle Years Literacy Project commenced in 2017 and involved 18 schools across four associations of schools. Funding is allocated to embed quality teaching and learning in literacy. The focus is on Years 4–8 and especially the transition from Years 6–7. Schools implement initiatives to improve; teacher practice, student outcomes, student transitions. There is a strong focus on evidence based approaches, consistent approaches to literacy learning and collaborative teams. A second round of funding was advertised in July. Round 2 involves an additional 38 schools across 8 associations. Our presentation aims to show the considerable progress made in 2017 by clusters of schools spread across all parts of Tasmania; from Smithton in the far North-west to Huonville in the South. It explores the context of the schools and how they have implemented the key strategies of the project. A key theme is an emphasis on data driven practice; each association of schools began with a scan and assess process and established priorities based on need. They established baseline data sets as a way of measuring progress. Instructional leaderships, professional learning grounded in evidence based practice and student engagement have been key features of their work. A key feature of the project has been to harness the creativity of leaders in each association of schools. The project has avoided a top down, one size fits all approach. Understanding local context and working collaboratively across schools has been considered crucial to success. In addition we have been able to source both local writers and nationally renowned children's authors to work with students.

Lee Barker is the principal of Deloraine High School in the North of Tasmania. As a member of the Board of Principals for the Meander Valley association of schools, Lee has been closely involved with setting the direction for the project in this group of schools.

25 Carolyn Abraham is an experienced secondary teacher and coach. She is currently working as the Middle Years Literacy Coach for the Meander Valley association of schools. Carolyn is working closely with literacy leaders in each school to further the project goals. Toni Popowski is an experienced primary and early childhood teacher. She is currently working as the project coordinator for the Circular Head association of schools. Toni is a local with a strong commitment to educating children in one of the most picturesque areas of Tasmania.

Peter Ramm Blake and Brady Bedfellows in my Classroom Tom Brady doesn't belong in an English classroom as much as William Blake can't teach a teenage boy anything new! Brady is an artist with a football and Blake with words - and an etching tool. What can they teach young students? A lot about perseverance. This session looks at helping students deal with failure on the page and ways to give them opportunities for success. Blake might just hold the key. Too often we've heard, 'do we have to write another essay', 'what's the point of this', 'I'm just not good at English' and 'will this be on the report?' Or on the other hand, 'this student has only achieved low bands in NAPLAN.' How can we give students an insight into their potential through their writing? How can we teach self-belief even when there's a D on the page? Our words can mould champions, help them overcome obstacles and inspire them to more. As Blake suggested, "In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors." Isn't it time we unlocked some?

Peter Ramm was the winner of the Red Room Company's Poetry Object in 2017 (Teacher) and is currently the Head of HSIE at Cedars Christian College where he has been teaching for the past decade. He has written articles and resources for a number of teaching journals and publications.

Matthew Cotter Balancing Feedback for English Presentations - Teaching, Timing & Tools Mastering the art of oral presentations in English is a challenging process for second language learners. Teachers need to provide valuable feedback to not only help that process, but also motivate and foster speaking confidence. Using an approach based on Gardner's principle of assessment for learning and Wiggin's embedded assessment while learning, a teaching team at a Japanese university conducted an eight-year action research project to investigate assessment in EFL presentation classes. An online video post-assessment tool was built to measure and compare variables of post-performance self-feedback, peer-feedback and teacher-feedback. Results showed a greater student understanding of factors needed to improve their performances. However, as class assessments increased in time and number, the teaching team wondered whether simple coaching by teachers during practice and performances might be as immediately effective as post- performance feedback. Therefore, in the eighth cycle of research, the teaching team chose in-class teacher coaching as the focus of investigation making real-time and post-performance feedback more balanced. This short presentation shows how classroom trials of Japanese second-year English majors found real-time feedback immediately useful, and that post performance self-scoring and peer scoring continued to be valued by students.

Matthew Cotter, formally a primary school teacher in New Zealand is a junior associate professor at Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo, Japan. He holds a B.A (Maori Studies), B.Sc. (Psychology), Dip.Teach and a M.Ed specializing in TESOL. His research interests include TESOL, CALL and indigenous cultures.

Chris Walsh, Apolonia Tamata and Teresia Daunibau Lessons learned from the Information Text Awareness Project (ITAP) in Fiji

The International Development in Oceania Committee (IDOC) brings relevant and timely literacy teacher professional development to the Pacific Islands in collaboration with The Australian Literacy Educators' Association and the New Zealand Literacy Association (NZLA). This presentation explores the implementation of The Information Text Awareness Project, formerly as the Non Fiction Book Flood, in Fiji. ITAP is one IDOC's literacy projects. It increases teachers' understanding and awareness of information texts and teaches literacy skills to analyse and identify text content. The presentation outlines the impact of the project on literacy learning from the perspectives of teachers and how they implemented teaching the

26 genres of information texts in their classrooms. At the conclusion of the presentations, participants will have the opportunity to participate in an open forum with the presenters to discuss the actions and outcomes of the project, as well as applicability to other settings in Oceania and beyond.

Chris Walsh is Professor of Education at Victoria University in the College of Arts and Education and the Academic Director of VU Online. He is passionate about working with teachers to co-design teaching and learning to prepare all students for the future. He believes every student can engage in 'thinking in technologies’. Chris also understands that for all students to be successful participants in an economy being transformed by new technologies, they need a sound understanding of digital literacies including coding, gaming and robotics.

Apolonia Tamata is a linguist and works as the Senior Language and Culture Specialist at the iTaukei Trust Fund in Fiji. Part of her current role is to promote the Fijian language and dialects and supporting curriculum for Fijian language and culture in schools and the university.

Teresia Daunibau is a senior teacher for primary schools in Fiji. She currently teaches Year 6 literacy, numeracy, science and social studies. For 10 years Teresia helped with teaching in schools and for the last 8 years she has been teaching as a qualified teacher.

Dr Tamara Bromley and Kaylene Turner Unleashing the power of the pencil: Drawing sparks creativity for the emergent writer.

This workshop will present participants with practical ideas in English pedagogy, focusing on the use of students' drawings and/or paintings to facilitate English learning in the early childhood classroom in school. Links will be made with the research and current Western Australian and Australian curriculum documents. Young children often willingly draw and paint. The workshop will discuss results of presenters' use of students' drawings and paintings to facilitate English learning in early childhood classrooms (Kindergarten and Year 1). For instance, it was found that scribing the student's oral descriptions under these visual representations both extended the student's oral language and validated for the student that the picture communicated meaning. As students moved into the Experimental and Early Phase of Writing, drawing helped to organise and extend their ideas, and developed their critical and creative thinking. This strategy was also found to be useful with the 'reluctant' learner and/or the student of English-as-a-Second-Language background.

Tamara Bromley and Kaylene Turner are both teachers at South Bunbury Primary School in the South West of Western Australia. Both are passionate about making literacy learning both fun and meaningful for young children. Tamara, whose PhD was in the areas of policy, literacy and early childhood, is an experienced early childhood teacher and Literacy Specialist Teacher. She currently teaches in Kindergarten. Kaylene, who was previously a Journalist, is an experienced junior primary teacher who is currently teaching in Year One. She also has experience in middle primary.

Susan Taylor Practical Strategies for developing reading comprehension

For students to be independent, successful readers they need the ability to decode and name words with accuracy and fluency, as well as to derive meaning from what they have read. Reading comprehension is a sophisticated, multi-dimensional skill that sets the foundation for secure and effective learning. For this to happen, students need to be taught how to activate prior knowledge, make connections, determine importance and ask questions in order to comprehend an author's message. In this session, Susan Taylor will workshop the key skills that underpin a student's ability to understand what they read, and will provide participants with practical strategies for developing their students' comprehension in the classroom.

Susan Taylor is an experienced primary school teacher currently job-sharing a Year 1 class. Additionally, she facilitates tutorials in literacy at Macquarie University for pre-service teachers. Susan has been the author for a series of textbooks for primary students in the Key Learning Area of English.

27 Bridgette Manley and Debbie Martens For the love of reading: A whole school approach to improving student reading outcomes

Our culturally diverse and low SES school has significantly improved reading data over the past 3 yrs. Our success has involved our Reading Café Program, HOT READS which provides reading time every day in every classroom and 1 on 1 Reading Intervention. Also our qualified teacher librarian promotes reading engagement in an exciting library space with resources that capture the interests of students and support curriculum teaching and learning. Our strategies have resulted in an increase in reading ability, reading engagement and improved positive attitudes towards reading across the whole school community.

Bridgette Manley has a Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship). Bridgette has transformed the reading culture of our school by providing texts and experiences that engage students and she encourages teachers to use quality literature. She also uses social media to provide Book Tips for Teachers.

Debbie Martens has a Masters of Educational Leadership and is the principal of Charnwood-Dunlop School. She has held positions as ACT State Director and President of ACT ALEA local council. Debbie has a vision for improving all student reading outcomes through fostering the will and skill to read.

Millie Locke and Robyn Ewing Enriching English and Literacy understanding through music and drama

Using a contemporary children's picture workshop as a text, this interactive workshop will explore the ways of enriching deep understanding of the text through music, movement and drama activities. Dr Locke and Professor Ewing will look at how the prosodic features of language (volume, pitch, pause, intonation, emphasis, pace) can be experienced in musical and dramatic terms. Activities will encourage participant input and opportunities for improvisation. Together we will consider the implications for the early childhood and primary classroom. No prior knowledge is expected. Participants should come prepared to have fun.

Dr Millie Locke is an experienced classroom and tertiary educator from Aotearoa, New Zealand. She has taught at all levels of schooling and has a particular interest in the role of music education in the development and wellbeing of children and young people. Her doctoral research looked at the application of the Orff approach in school contexts.

A former primary teacher Robyn is Professor of Teacher Education and the Arts, University of Sydney. Her teaching, writing and research includes a focus on the use of educational drama with literature to enhance children's literacy outcomes.

Ellen Rees Stay Furiosa: teaching dystopian fictions in difficult times

This workshop will examine teaching dystopian fictions within current political contexts. It focuses on three dystopian texts: the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the film Mad Max: Fury Road directed by George Miller & the novel The Power by Naomi Alderman. These texts are relevant for Australian senior secondary students as they portray the detention imprisonment of those who are 'different' or have 'transgressed'. As these texts explore gender representation, in particular female agency & the control of fertility they have a frightening global resonance.

Ellen Rees is a senior secondary English teacher who works at Hobart College. Ellen is an active member of the TATE executive. She has worked on developing teaching units for Reading Australia & The Garrett podcasts. Ellen is a cultural omnivore & passionate (some say obsessive) about texts.

Melanie Hindley Design Thinking: Trialling a Template for Student Feedback

This workshop maps the use of a Design Thinking process to consider the provision of quality feedback for students at Hale School. Reflecting on the work of Professor John Hattie into the impact of quality feedback on student success, the Curriculum Coordinator team were involved in a series of investigations and reflections, culminating in the development of a draft feedback template that may be used in a variety of

28 ways by educators to identify and articulate opportunities to provide quality feedback to students within teaching and learning programmes. The workshop will provide delegates with the opportunity to see Design Thinking in action and to consider ways that the toolkit may be applied to educational challenges within their own schools. The feedback template may also provide food for thought in considering how quality feedback becomes embedded into the curriculum planning process.

Dr Melanie Hindley has taught English in regional and metropolitan Western Australia for more than 25 years in both government and independent sectors. She holds a PHD based on research into curriculum leadership and enjoys sharing and growing her expertise in the teaching of English to young people.

Fiona Jeffries The pedagogy of reading for meaning using the digital tool 'Actively Learn'

Based on ongoing doctoral research with struggling Year 9 readers, conducted by Fiona Jeffries from New Zealand and Dr Paul Gardner from Curtin University, this workshop will focus on the online digital tool, Actively Learn. The workshop will look at the ways Actively Learn can be used to develop the reading comprehension skills of students, through a digital platform. It will focus on the ways this tool replicates the metacognitive processes of good readers and reflects the active, thinking behaviours required for meaning- making to take place. The workshop will explain the tools Actively Learn has available to help struggling readers, including the opportunity for students to connect with other learners in their class and tools that support learners who are dyslexic. Attendees will have an opportunity to play with the tool and develop a resource, therefore bringing a laptop would be useful.

Fiona Jeffries is a secondary school teacher at Paraparaumu College, New Zealand. After completing a Fulbright Distinguished Award for Teachers Scholarship at Indiana University in the fall semester of 2014, she is currently undertaking research towards a Doctor of Education through Curtin University investigating digital tools and their impact on literacy development.

Rita van Haren Analysing multimodal texts to understand point of view

While students generally remember the great texts they have read and studied, they do not always transfer core English concepts to their future learning. This workshop focuses on close analysis of texts in a blended learning environment to make the English Textual Concept of point of view transferable for year 9 and 10 students. We will explore strategies to analyse excerpts from a short story, videoclip, music video and lyrics, and have a go too! The texts cover themes such as freedom, growing up, Aboriginal identity and bullying, while the activities focus on students responding and connecting to texts, inferring points of view and understanding how the texts are constructed.

Rita van Haren works in schools, focusing on English, literacy, curriculum, pedagogy, blended learning and digital tools. She has masters degrees in curriculum at RMIT and "New Learning" at the University of Illinois. She has served on AATE national council and is currently ACTATE's treasurer and executive officer.

Bree Kitt Poetry from Print to Screen

Horace once claimed a 'picture is a poem without words', which raises intriguing possibilities for poetry. When we immerse ourselves in art, the images and colours come to life and feeling, much like how a poet's words conjure our imaginations. This similarity invites us to play with poetry and imagery...to consider the interpretive opportunities we have to (re)design meaning. In the 21st century digital media offers exciting possibilities for re-imaging and re-imagining texts at the heart of our literary practice. In this workshop we will delve into the innovative realm of digital tools and creatively embark on adapting poems from print to screen.

Bree Kitt is a lecturer at Central Queensland University. Bree's particular research interests include literature, English language and literacy education. Her passion for researching and lecturing in these fields is inspired by the extensive years she enjoyed teaching English subjects in schools.

29 Nathan Lowien Videogames and values: a social semiotic informed pedagogy for the interpretation of gameplay

Video games are a popular form of entertainment in the 21st century. Curriculum documents such as the New Queensland Senior English Curriculum and the Australian Curriculum: Media Arts recognize the use of video games as a digital text, however there are concerns over the values represented in video games. These concerns surround the violent, racial and gender depictions in Action Adventure video games. Given the initial inclusion of video games in curriculum documents and the concerns over the values represented in video games, their use for classroom learning is potentially problematic. If there is educational merit in video games a pedagogy that enhances students' critical interpretation of represented values is warranted for critical literacy learning in the 21st century. This paper will propose a pedagogy for the critical interpretation of gameplay informed by a systemic functional semiotic analysis of ethical game dilemmas in the Action Adventure video game Batman Arkham Asylum. Preliminary findings from the analysis will be discussed as an example of how teachers can critically deconstruct the value positions of characters in video games. Implications for the use of video games within education contexts will also be canvased.

Nathan Lowien is a Lecturer in English Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of Southern Queensland. He is interested in multimodal discourse analysis, systemic functional semiotics and educational pedagogies. Nathan's research into the values represented in video games has been published in the journal English in Australia.

Kellie Heintz What counts as reading? Investigating students' experiences of 'reading' literature in senior secondary English classrooms in the 21st century

The development of new technologies and the increase in the digitisation of texts has radically altered the ways that we source, consume and interact with texts. To some extent, these new ways of 'reading' have impacted on English teaching pedagogy and the range of texts for study in English classrooms. Despite these shifts in both content and practice, the reading of literary texts remains central to the study of subject English. This is particularly evident in senior English curricula where end-of-year examinations and mandated texts lists dictate the works to be read by students. This proposed project will investigate the reading experiences of Year 12 English students within the high stakes testing context of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). This study aims to address the following questions: What are the different ways that students 'read' the set texts? How does text selection impact on students' reading experiences of literary texts? How does high-stakes testing influence the ways students read texts in English? It is anticipated that this study will illuminate the complexities around text selection, and the variety of ways that students 'read' literature in their final year of secondary school.

Kellie Heintz is an experienced senior English teacher who is currently employed as a lecturer in Secondary English Education at the University of Melbourne. She is also a PhD candidate.

Session 4

Janice Belgrave “Can I aks you sumfink?”: How Spoken Dialects of English Impact on Literacy Learning

Based on two years of research in Christchurch, New Zealand, this workshop will explore common characteristics of spoken English Dialects and how they have been found to impact on children's literacy learning. Throughout the research process, it was discovered that there are many similarities between Dialects spoken in New Zealand and those documented as being typical in Australia and other parts of the world. Given this association, teaching methods and strategies, based on the intervention programmes used in the research, will be discussed and demonstrated, with the opportunity for audience participation. These practical ideas may subsequently enable teachers and other educators to improve outcomes for children, who speak oral Dialects of English that are different to the English encountered in books and expected in their writing.

Having completed a PhD in Education in 2016, Janice now works as a Resource Teacher of Literacy in the eastern suburbs of Christchurch, New Zealand. In this role, she provided professional development for 30 Teachers and Teacher Aides, as well as working with small groups of children who are struggling to attain age appropriate literacy skills.

Michelle Perry and Maria Kennedy Feedback that inspires writing

This workshop aims to give teachers a practical guide in introducing a whole school approach to effective student feedback in writing. John Hattie research found that feedback had more impact on student results than any other teaching strategy. This workshop will explore the practical details of the 'how and why' of descriptive, targeted and timely feedback to improve student literacy outcomes in the area of writing. These pedagogical practices are the foundation for inspiring our students to become more confident and creative writers. This evidence-based workshop will also outline the professional learning the presenters found most successful within their two schools, that saw a measurable improvement in pedagogical practices and student achievement.

Michelle Perry is Assistant Principal at St.Patrick's Catholic Primary School, East Gosford. Michelle has been a teacher for over 20 years and had several leadership positions including a role as a Literacy Leader and Literacy Coach.

Maria Kennedy is Assistant Principal at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School, Wyoming. Maria has been a teacher in the Broken Bay Diocese for over 20 years and has held a variety of leadership positions including Literacy Coordinator and Literacy Coach.

Robyn Watson and Sharon Moloney Privileging English and the Arts through a whole school Artists and Writers Festival

This workshop will outline how Turner School (ACT) has worked with the whole school community over 6 years to celebrate the collaboration of English and the Arts in a biannual 10 day Artists' and Writers' Festival. Turner School will share the processes, practices and impact of 3 bi-annual festivals. Each festival has been themed to maximize different aspects of the Australian Curriculum featuring the cross- curriculum perspectives, the General Capabilities and Visual and Performing Arts with English. The festivals build teacher and student identities as artists, readers and writers and provide authentic purposes, audiences and responses to writing. They foster a vibrant learning community where creativity flourishes and the power of the image and word is cultivated.

Robyn Watson is deputy principal and professional learning coordinator of Turner School (ACT). Robyn has a focus on developing teachers through Action Learning and cycles of inquiry to support them in differentiating literacy learning and aligning practices across the school. Robyn presented Turner's literacy journey at the ALEA AATE National Conferences in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 as well as locally in the ACT.

Sharon Moloney is an executive teacher and literacy and inclusion coach at Turner School (ACT) teaching in both mainstream and special education classes. Sharon is passionate about providing a rich curriculum and high expectations for all learners in our schools. Sharon has presented at a number of conferences including the ALEA AATE National conferences in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, the Asia-Pacific Congress on Creating Inclusive Schools in 2016 as well as other forums within the ACT, including ALEA ACT Classroom Chats.

Shamala Ramakresinin The fun way to learn English Language: greater student interest in English Lessons

Singapore’s performance in international literacy assessments attests the solid foundation laid by the English Language curriculum developed by Ministry of Education (Singapore). In 2001, Singapore was ranked 14th internationally in literacy assessments like Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Subsequent PIRLS assessments showed an encouraging and positive trend. Both in 2005 and 2011 PIRLS assessments, Singapore progressed from 14th position to 4th positions on a global level. Recent 2016 PIRLS assessment produced astounding results – Singapore occupied 2nd position for conventional PIRLS assessment and top position for e-PIRLS assessment. A probable reason for its outstanding achievement in literacy could be attributed to the way English Language is taught in Singapore

31 schools. According to Dr Pang (2010), Programme Director for Literacy Development at Ministry of Education (Singapore), “We use enjoyment to drive learning, so that children are motivated and want to read and learn long after school is over.” This workshop will share with you some strategies used to teach English Language in Singapore classrooms: strategies that enabled students to enjoy English lessons and improve their literacy skills.

Shamala Ramakresinin graduated from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with a Doctor of Philosophy degree, and is interested in children’s reading practices. Currently, she teaches undergraduates Communication Skills at National University of Singapore (NUS), and is an external consultant with National Institute of Education International (NIEI).

Janet Hunter Writing as Craft: The Creative Cauldron

Writing is an art form, and writing of high quality therefore needs to be crafted, not simply produced. Just as an artist uses a variety of techniques to bring a painting to life, a writer draws on a range of techniques to do the same with a piece of writing. This crafting of text is part of the writing process, and the techniques need to be explicitly taught. Fletcher and Portalupi (2016 p.3) suggest that '[c]raft is the cauldron in which the writing gets forged'. However, they also claim that the crafting stage of the writing process receives little, if any attention. If we are to support our student writers, we need to provide them with supported opportunities to identify how the exemplar texts they read have been crafted for effect, and to encourage them to try out and to hone these techniques for use in their own writing. This workshop will share and demonstrate ideas for teaching craft techniques and processes to student writers in the middle (middle to upper primary/lower secondary) years. The activities are designed and presented as 'low risk' and aim to spark students'™ interest in and enthusiasm for writing.

Janet Hunter is a lecturer in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, where she teaches in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses and supervises research students. Her research interests focus on literacy education, particularly pedagogy of writing instruction and teacher knowledge and professional learning.

Helen Chatto and Kate Strudwick Meaning: is it the missing link in our spelling programs?

The ability to create texts for a range of audiences relies to an extent on the ability to use vocabulary effectively. Students who struggle with spelling are often reluctant writers and will write 'safe' texts using a limited vocabulary. Building word conscious classrooms and helping students build their knowledge of spelling strategies and how words work will free them up to express themselves more fully.

Helen Chatto is the principal of Girraween Primary School, a large rural school 40 km from Darwin. She is an ALEA principal fellow and has a passion for helping teachers reach their full potential as they provide meaningful learning for their students.

Kate Strudwick is a senior teacher in Early Childhood at Girraween Primary. She is currently studying a masters in literacy and works with her team of teachers to ensure that all children have a chance to reach their full potential through exposure to engaging programming and effective teaching.

Emily Frawley Teaching Poetry: A Fine Art

This workshop explores strategies for teaching students to analyse and create their own poetry. It models exercises suitable for junior and middle secondary students as they are introduced to the foundations of poetic techniques and a range of poetic works including Australian, canonical, contemporary, rap, found poetry and Ekphrasis (poetic descriptions of works of art). The presenter discusses several poetry assignments for students in Year 7 and 9, and the key learning activities that led to student success.

Emily teaches English in Melbourne's western suburbs, and in the Master of Teaching degree at The University of Melbourne. She is the president of VATE and her PhD examined English teachers as writers and the affordances for creativity. 32

Helen Poole Sucking imagery out of your students

In high schools, we still persist with getting our students to write poetry sometimes much against their wills and our better judgment. But poetry still remains as one of the best genres in which to teach figurative language features, such as simile, metaphor and personification. The results of high school poetry tasks are often insipid works that are a chore to produce and tasteless to mark. Unfortunately, many of this literal generation don't read a wide range of texts and, therefore, they have difficulty writing figuratively. So how do we get their creative juices flowing? Sometimes a 'hands on' approach is what works best or, in this case, it's more like 'mouths on'. We will use our sense of taste to unlock our other four senses to a world of imagery (yes, this involves food)! This session will be a micro-lesson that you can expand on and take to your own creative writing classes. Ultimately, no teacher wants to assess bland pieces of poetry, this workshop will give you the tools to put some flavour on the page and to get delicious pieces of writing from your students.

Helen is always looking to rework or reinvigorate her teaching practice. She is passionate about creative writing and believes that every student should tell his or her stories through literature, as a cathartic mental health exercise. She works at Swan Christian College, in the eastern suburbs of Perth.

Yvette Krohn-Isherwood Sci-phi: teaching philosophy through Science Fiction film

Research has suggested that critical thinking skills are enhanced through the inclusion of philosophy into an English programme. This workshop will investigate how teachers can use Science Fiction film to engage philosophical discussion and critical thought.

Yvette Krohn-Isherwood is currently the president of NZATE and also works full-time for the New Zealand Ministry of Education. Yvette is well-known in New Zealand for her national work around teaching critical thinking in the classroom, and to this end, she is the author of 13 teacher resources on incorporating philosophy into English teaching. She has facilitated numerous workshops around New Zealand, and has presented at both the New Zealand and Australian English conferences. Her record of achieving excellent Scholarship results for her students is noteworthy. Yvette's experience also includes being a national English facilitator, a deputy principal, HOD English at a number of schools and a marker and panel leader for external examinations. In 2016, Yvette was honoured with a Woolf Fisher fellowship, enabling her to research how critical thinking is taught in Asia and Europe. She continues to be at the forefront of education in New Zealand, most recently being part of the NCEA Review group investigating curriculum design in the New Zealand education system.

Lisbeth Kitson Transposing Genres: the creative potential of music and music videos for writing

Music is a powerful medium that connect to our emotions, our memories and past events and people. The lyrics and multimodal music videos that accompany songs all offer valuable resources to springboard into a range of creative writing opportunities: poems, free-writes or a short piece of fiction. As Teresa Cremin from the UK asserts, teaching for creativity in writing requires not only knowledge, skills and understanding but the emotional capacity to engage artistically. In order to teach about writing, teachers need to be writers themselves and to demonstrate the processes involved and provide expert knowledge and advice based on experience. In this workshop, participants will explore perceptions of themselves as writers before using the stimulus of a music video clip of their own choice and transpose the lyrics (and other modes) into a short piece of writing, a poem or a free-write.

Dr Lisbeth Kitson is a lecturer at Griffith University at the Gold Coast, Queensland. Her areas of research interest are related to literacy, curriculum literacies, and multiliteracies, with a particular focus on the integration of Information and Communication technologies and multimodal texts, including e-literature, into teaching practices.

33 Linda-Dianne Willis and Beryl Exley Teaching early years English/Literacy using multiliteracies pedagogy that included inquiry curriculum and online social media to engage parents

This presentation presents English/literacy research into multiliteracies pedagogy in three different early- years classrooms in one school that used inquiry curriculum and social media to engage parents/caregivers in student learning. The teachers used Seesaw as a multimedia platform which enabled the students to produce a range of different oral and written text types that combined audio, visual, gestural, spatial, and linguistic modes. Seesaw enabled students to easily share these texts with their parents/carers. The processes of text production enhanced teaching and learning by expanding the resources available to students individually and collectively. These included: increased knowledge and understanding of text types and the choices available to them as critical producers and consumers of texts; enhanced forms of communication, presentation, and dissemination of texts; and more access to teacher, peer, and parent/caregiver feedback throughout text production. The presentation discusses positive changes in student agency and how multiliteracies pedagogy that included inquiry curriculum and online social media to encourage parent-school engagement contributed to their learning in English/literacy. The presentation also explores the challenges and opportunities for teachers of using online social media to engage parents/caregivers in student learning in English/literacy. Future possible classroom and research projects are discussed.

Linda Willis is Lecturer in Curriculum Studies at The University of Queensland, teaching English curriculum and pedagogy. Her research interests include multiliteracies pedagogy, inquiry curriculum, parent-school- community engagement, principal leadership, cogenerative dialoguing, and initial teacher education.

Beryl Exley is an experienced teacher and teacher educator working in English Curriculum and Literacies Education at Griffith University, Queensland. She is the ALEA National President (2017-2019).

Amy Seely Flint Examining Young Learner’s Identity development within critically oriented and culturally relevant practices

Shifting demographics in classrooms and schools and increased pressures for achievement and standards have resulted in classroom practices that rarely attend to the diverse linguistic, cultural, and social practices young children bring into classrooms spaces. In many classrooms in the United Sates, teachers follow standards-based curriculum guides and test preparation materials that do not reflect the lives and experiences of the children in their care; resulting in misaligned instructional practices.Drawing on the work of educational theorists such as Ladson-Billings (1995), Lewison, Flint and Van Sluys (2002), Paris and Alim (2012; 2016), and Zapata, Laman, and Flint (2017), this presentation focuses a children's sense of identity as they engaged in critically-oriented and culturally sustaining curriculum. A Grade 1 teacher interested in disrupting the commonplace curricula for children, and particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse children, offered interactive read alouds, writing engagements, and discussions with texts that took up social justice topics, including fairness and equity. Employing case study design, findings suggest that sustained engagement with critically oriented texts fostered children's sense of who they are in the world, a deeper understanding of how race and culture matter, and increased opportunities for young learners to inquire, critique and push back against deficit perspectives as they draw upon cultural referents for learning.

Amy Seely Flint is professor and Chair of the Early Childhood and Elementary Department at the University of Louisville. Her research interests include teacher professional development, critical and new literacies, and early literacy development.

Archana Sinh The world of Language and Imagination, Art in Kindergarten year

Within this presentation I acknowledge that imagination is the gateway to creative thinking and naming in words the process of imagination and thinking is owning that experience. Research suggests that exploring works of others gives an insight into the thinking process, creativity, technique of others and that Art Appreciation is significant within language and literacy. Within this presentation language is seen as a representational symbol of meaning making. Thus the idea of visual thinking is relevant to its

34 understanding. Enhancing visual thinking through fine art encourages critical thinking skills that require internal manipulation and organisation of ideas and thoughts. Within Kindergarten year in Queensland children are from a three and a half year old age to four and a half year of age, the abilities and skills in language are quite diverse, but the expectations from families are similar. Within my personal philosophy of language and learning and the guidance of research and QKLG (QSA, 2010) I explore fine art as a medium of communication, expression, representation, discussion and appreciation with images and words. In this presentation I share literacy and English language as experienced through three Fine Art experiences for Kindergarten children (Brisbane, Queensland). Involving discussion of the art work. Introduction to elements of Art and thus the language of Art. And Intentional practices to support, foster and encourage visual literacy

Archana Sinh is an Early Childhood teacher in Queensland. She has completed her Master of Education from QUT, where a small part of her course load was research based project on language and literacy. Archana has worked in long day care Centres in Sydney and Brisbane for many years. She is passionate about language and literacy in prior to school setting and has presented at ALEA conference in 2016 and 2017. Archana has also worked as a Sessional Lecturer at MSIT, Brisbane.

Debra Hannagan and Mystique Dia The Art of Guided Reading:Supporting Students for whom English is an Additional Language or Dialect

The effective teaching of guided reading is an art that requires astute observations of students’ needs to inform creative teaching decisions. For students who speak English as an additional language or dialect, there is an extra layer of complexity in identifying and responding to their linguistic needs and facilitating their successful interactions with texts. This session will explore the approach of identifying students’ language strengths and needs to plan for guided reading lessons. This approach is used in the Literacy Acquisition for Pre-primary Students (LAPS) program, designed to support the literacy learning of students in Kimberley region of Western Australia in their first year of school.

Debra Hannagan is an Early Years Literacy Specialist for Waardi Limited in the Kimberley region of WA, delivering the Literacy Acquisition for Pre-primary Students (LAPS) program to teachers. With 14 years of experience in Aboriginal education, and having studied Applied Linguistics, she is passionate about supporting EAL/D students.

Mystique Dia is a Nyul Nyul woman raised in Broome. She has recently joined Waardi Limited as an Early Years Literacy Specialist with the Literacy Acquisition for Pre-primary Students (LAPS) program. She has delivered LAPS as a classroom teacher in Broome and brings a wealth of knowledge of Aboriginal education.

Karen Rantissi How To Get A Picture To Tell 1000 Words: An Art Adventure

*Please note that participants for this workshop will need to make their own way to the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Limited spaces available.

They say a picture tells 1000 words, let’s discover how to effectively draw them out! Our ancestors drew upon cave paintings to educate and share their stories .Today we have a wealth of artworks that ignite imaginative stories within their onlookers. Discover ways to harness arts potential to improve literacy outcomes, through artistic discussions, imaginative writing and vocabulary enrichment through creating, appreciating and conceptualising artworks. Enjoy a unique professional development opportunity to partake in a gallery based creative writing workshop, allowing the many masterpieces on exhibition within the Art Gallery of Western Australia to inspire us! Workshop participates will be provided with outstanding opportunities to appreciate, create, respond to, share and enjoy a wealth of tried and tested classroom based literacy activities that include imaginative writing, letters, plays, poems and descriptive language activities that have all been inspired by art. This unique workshop offers a wide range of classroom ready learning resources, opportunities to develop and/or consolidate professional knowledge of both literacy and the arts as well as establish professional partnerships with the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s Educational Team and your local arts community.

Click here for transport options for travelling to the WA Art Gallery. It is about a 25 minute walk from the Convention Centre to the Gallery.

Karen Rantissi is a Learning Support teacher and a specialist teacher in the Creative Arts. She recently completed her Masters of Education, researching the quality teaching of Creative Arts. She has created literacy resources for multiple art galleries. In 2015, Karen was awarded an Australia Day Arts and Culture Award.

Session 5

Alexandra Newbold We are all in this together! High impact strategies for literacy improvement.

This 25 minute workshop will unpack evidenced based, practical strategies that have transformed teacher practice in the literacy learning space. Suzie and Alexandra work together using a case management approach with teachers to identify the literacy learning potential of every student at Parkside Primary School, a primary school of 410 students in Adelaide's inner suburbs. The three year project has evolved into a rigorous targeted teaching process that can be adapted in any school. Informed by the work of Lyn Sharratt, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and John Hattie, this collaborative approach enables teachers to implement high impact strategies to target teaching in reading and writing. Join us as we share the journey of teachers collaborating as data analysts to inform their teaching; designing intentional learning and accelerating literacy improvement. Practical strategies and processes include: • Using learning data; agreed at the whole school level, to inform next steps in literacy learning. • Identifying what each learner needs in order to reach challenging goals in the learning design. • Targeting teaching in differentiated ways. • Tracking and monitoring each individual learner's progress over time. • Supporting students to develop their own incremental learning goals.

Alexandra Newbold is an experienced literacy educator who has worked for over 30 years as a classroom teacher, teacher-librarian and literacy leader. Originally trained as a coach in the Literacy and Numeracy National Partnership 2012 (LNNP), she currently works full time as a Literacy Coach in four schools in the Greenhill South Partnership, Adelaide. Alexandra is the current ALEA SA President and is a passionate literacy advocate; supporting educators navigate the latest research and pedagogy to improve literacy outcomes for all students.

Helen McGrath Using picture books, drama and cooperative games for enhancing social and emotional skills as well as language and literacy skills

This experiential workshop will focus on fun and engaging ways in which different combinations of selected high quality picture books, cooperative classroom games and activities, higher-order thinking strategies, video-clips & drama activities can support students to practise important English skills across the curriculum as well as assist them to develop a range of key social and emotional skills such as respectful disagreement, teamwork skills and being resilient. This session is most suited to primary school teachers.

Dr. Helen McGrath is an Adjunct Professor at both Deakin University and RMIT University in Melbourne. She is also a Psychologist in private practice and the author or co-author of 22 books for teachers.. Her most recent publication (o-author, with Adjunct Professor Toni Noble at ACU), is 'Bounce Back: A Positive Education Approach to Wellbeing. Resilience and Social-emotional learning (3rd Edition, 2018)

Susanna Matters and Lynne Verghese Latin for Literacy

Latin for Literacy is a growing international movement in primary education which supports spelling, vocabulary acquisition, grammatical understanding and cultural literacy through the teaching of beginner's Latin. Beginning in the UK, Latin for Literacy has been used as an enrichment program to both raise scores in standardised tests and extend gifted and talent students. This workshop will outline how and why Latin 36 for Literacy has been embedded into a Year 5 and Year 6 team-teaching environment as an extension program. A summary of research in the field will provide context for the presentation of both work samples and teaching and learning reflections. Practical and engaging lesson ideas which address etymology and sentence structure will be demonstrated.

Susanna Matters is a proud primary educator. In 2015, Susanna was highly commended by the NSW Teachers' Guild in their Certificate of Excellence for Early Career Teachers award. She holds a Masters in Gifted Education from the University of NSW which was awarded with excellence. In 2017, Susanna was named as the NSW Young Professional of the Year for the Australian College of Educators. She has integrated Latin into her literacy instruction for five years and currently teaches at Abbotsleigh, a leading independent girls' school in Sydney.

Lynne Verghese is a lifelong learner and passionate primary educator. For the past year she has embraced the opportunity to teach Latin in order to enrich her students' learning experiences in literacy. Outside of school, Lynne is committed to leading camps for young people with disabilities. In 2017, she was invited to contribute to Scripture Union International's Consultation on Serving Children with Disabilities in France.

Robert Vanderburg with Nicholas Sailor and Nicholas Lovett Inspiring Art: How to merge drawing and literacy in the classroom

Recent research has looked at integrating drawing with literacy instruction (Anonymous, 2016; Glasswell & Kamberelis, 2007). However, merging art into literacy instruction can be complicated, especially when instructing writing. This presentation will model three lessons teachers can use to combine writing and art instruction. The presenters will provide one lesson that outlines how drawing can be used to help students develop a complex and interactive narrative essay. The second lesson will help students use drawing to construct a paper with cohesive arguments supporting a central thesis. The third lesson will provide a way for teachers to use drawing to help students integrate quotes from a text they have read to support arguments made in a paper they are writing. The presenters will have the teachers take part in these lessons so they can experience how drawing will help improve students'™ writing skills. We have found that teachers who experience new lessons before integrating them into their instruction enhances the teachers'™ ability to use the lessons. By the end of this session, teachers will leave with three lessons for their teaching repertoire and samples of drawings and essays they produced in the presentation.

Dr. Robert Vanderburg has a PhD in Educational Psychology and is a Lecturer at CQUniversity. He has experience teaching secondary English and has published papers striving to help teachers improve the instruction of reading and writing.

Nicholas Sailor is an Indigenous undergraduate student at Central Queensland University. He is currently studying Primary Education. In 2017, he presented a paper on Torres Strait Islander Literacy at the Australasian Conference of Undergraduate Research (ACUR).

Nicholas Lovett is getting a degree in primary Education at Central Queensland University. In 2017, he presented a paper at the Australasian Conference of Undergraduate Research addressing literacy instruction with college students.

Aimee Hunter The benefits of ‘recycling’ language for EAL/D students within a play based classroom

By the time a native English-speaking child enters year four at school they will possess a vocabulary comprising of almost 40.000 words (Adoniou, 2016). This puts EAL/D learners at a disadvantage to native English-speakers when they enter the Australian school system and highlights the need for educators to build their knowledge of the English language in the most efficient ways possible. The learning needs of EAL/D students are best met when they are provided with repeated opportunities for them to 'recycle' their growing understanding of the English language; that is to hear, see and use it within their play across a variety of contexts. The educators experience with EAL/D learners has found that authentic, hands-on experiences within Play Workshops provide the students with the time to explore the language and become increasingly confident communicators in English.

37 This workshop will explore the importance of educators continuously recycling content specific language in the classroom. Ways to incorporate these strategies into the teaching and learning cycles within a play- based curriculum will be discussed. The importance of providing a variety of 'access' points to English language learning through a range of modes will also be explored.

Aimee Hunter is a Teacher at Lyons Early Childhood School in the ACT. She is a Teaching Young Children in English in Multilingual Contexts (TYCEMC) trained tutor and has taught in the Southside Introductory English Centre (SPIEC). Aimee has a keen interest in EAL/D learners and is constantly exploring ways that she can better meet their learning needs in an early childhood play-based setting. She is undertaking a Master of Education specialising in literacy intervention. Aimee is a member of the ALEA ACT local council committee.

Eva Gold and Ann Small Crossing Over Years 5- 8: Critical and Creative Approaches to Picturebooks

Works of art or literature are often close companions of controversy and this is often particularly evident in picture books as they elaborate and enrich narratives by pushing textual boundaries. Controversial picturebooks often require readers to face the challenge of interpreting contradictory or complex words and images in order to re-think their own particular perspectives on, at times, not-very-nice aspects of the world. These multimodal texts, with their images and companion words, are an opportunity for students to respond to and create texts with complex narrative structures, disruptions to space and time, blurred lines between the fictional and the real. This workshop, for years 5 – 8, will explore critical and creative approaches to teaching the concepts of narrative, context and perspective through picturebooks.

Jennifer Shand Young adult fiction: A gateway to reading

Young adult fiction continues to grow in popularity in the wider community and is used in secondary schools to build interest in reading. This research investigates the opportunities presented by the use of Australian young adult fiction in the middle school English classroom to create cultures of reading, engage students in reading and to build students' reading comprehension and interpretation skills. In particular, it uses Rosenblatt's (1978, 1995) transactional theory of reading and key notions of aesthetic and efferent reading. The research identifies how Australian young adult fiction tells stories that help young readers to explore ideas, understand their experiences of the world and formulate attitudes. Additionally, it considers how the reading of young adult fiction can be simultaneously used to help students build knowledge and understanding. The research demonstrates the value to be derived from using aesthetic approaches to reading as a gateway into comprehension and interpretation skills.

Jennifer Shand coordinates secondary education courses and English curriculum at the University of Western Australia. Her research interests include the teaching of Literature, writing pedagogy, middle and upper school English curriculum, cross-curricula literacy, and young adult fiction. Recently, Jennifer has taught extensively in upper school English and Literature and middle school English from years seven to ten. She has worked at the level of Senior Teacher and Head of Department where she mentored new and pre-service teachers.

Sally Lamping Literacy and Art as Social Practice: Learning to Read, Write, and Interrogate in Adolescence

This workshop will profile English methods used in two separate contexts (Australia and the United States) where adolescents were learning to read and write for the first time in their lives, in spite of their trauma, informed by their experiences of forced migration, and in rejection of the deficit labels they've been given. It interrogates the in-between space where funds of knowledge become funds of identity (Esteban-Guitart and Moll 33) through the practice of literacy as both a skill and orientation to the world. In each of these contexts, art was used as a way of meaningfully engaging students with literacy as a social practice while simultaneously providing them with age-appropriate contexts for developing emerging skills as readers and writers of print. It focuses on the ways literacy in adolescence often intertwines with identity construction and builds on recent work in funds of knowledge and identity approaches to curriculum. It argues that, in these classrooms, there must be room for both strands of the literacy debate. 38

Sally Lamping is currently a lecturer in Literacy at Charles Stuart University in Bathurst, New South Wales. Previously, she was Professor of English and Education at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, USA. For the past twenty years, Sally has been working with teachers, students, and teacher candidates in the field of literacy, specifically as it relates to forced migration in regional school contexts and the uses of literacy in activist citizenship. Sally was a 2014 U.S. Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Adelaide, South Australia, where she worked alongside teachers in one of Australia's only stand alone New Arrival Programs for adolescent learners.

Kathy Shortland-Jones ‘Teach Me Something I Don't Know' - Engaging Isolated Students Using the Inquiry Model in an Online Context

Students attending the School of Isolated and Distant Education - located in Leederville in Perth - come from a wide range of geographical, social and educational contexts across Western Australia, Australia and around the world. One of the English courses targets senior secondary students who are at educational risk due to low literacy levels, isolation and disengagement.

The Foundation English teachers at SIDE - Kathy Shortland-Jones and Donella Grieco - developed a series of cross-curricular modules based on the Kath Murdoch Inquiry Approach, instructional intelligences, and the concept of 'wonderment'. Working through online classes, email, phone calls and visits, the teachers work to build relationships with schools and students across Western Australia. With constant flexibility and negotiation at the centre of their approach to education, the SIDE Foundation English teachers endeavour to engage one student at a time, to celebrate all achievements, and to strengthen students' transferrable skills in their last years of high school to take with them into adulthood.

Kathy Shortland-Jones has been teaching for 22 years in a variety of educational contexts and now works at the School of Isolated and Distance Education in Leederville, Perth. She is passionate about engaging students through building connections, flexible teaching programs and text choices, and wondering with students as to what they might be able to teach her.

Antoinette Meade, Sally Johnstone and Christine Payne Using Case Management to Build Teacher Capacity, Increase Student Agency and Improve Outcomes for all Learners.

A variety of data sets indicated significant lapses in our students' ability to write at stage level. This was compounded by the acknowledgement that many teachers felt ill-equipped as teachers of writing within their subject areas. Our school is not unique in this challenge. After research, we implemented a new strategy that gives students greater agency and helps unstick ‘stuck’ teachers, so we can improve our students' results as readers and writers. Student writing samples were used across the curriculum to plot students on our data wall; students were nominated for Case Management; and staff made a commitment to action. The teacher buy in was infectious and led to a deprivatisation of teacher practice and collaborative writing skill development. This evolving process has played a fundamental role in building teacher's capacity to deliver deliberate and direct instruction in order to improve student writing and agency.

Antoinette Meade is the Leader of Diversified Learning at Loyola Senior High School and aims to ignite the possibilities of all students through practical strategies, individual case management and shared practice.

Sally Johnstone is the HSIE Leader of Learning at Loyola Senior High School, who has spoken at conferences put on by the HTAA and the HTA. She is interested in exploring what teachers can do to increase their students' achievement.

Christine Payne is the Acting Leader of Learning in English at Loyola Senior High School. She is passionate about strategies that improve the capacity and realise the potential of all students.

39 Mavis Price To English from vernacular literacy

The background: In rural areas of Papua New Guinea where English is heard only in the classroom and many teachers are not proficient in English the Vernacular Path to English course was created. Mother- tongue based multilingual education demonstrates that learning to read and write in vernacular improves the outcomes for future English education.The players: linguistics, second language learning principles and literacy acquisition principles. Following the same progression as first language acquisition the course emphasises listening and speaking of English including Total Physical Response activities and meaningful conversations. Then, building on the vernacular literacy ability of the students and the phonetic similarities between the two languages, the sounds of English are introduced in a systematic way. At the same time students are encouraged to read bilingual books and play games which involve reading and speaking English, in order to increase their vocabulary. The course has proved to be very successful and popular with Papua New Guinean Elementary and Primary school teachers as they face the challenge of introducing English to students who have no knowledge of English prior to school. It would be a helpful approach in contexts where refugees or other immigrants enter the school system here in Australia.

Having worked in vernacular literacy for 20 years in Papua New Guinea working with Nationals to design orthographies, produce curriculum and train Nationals at local, provincial and National levels, Mavis Price is now lecturing students who will be involved in literacy projects in multilingual contexts around the world.

Stacey Campbell The lost art of shared picture book reading in early childhood: Are teachers focusing too much on phonics at the expense of quality literature?

Shared picture book reading provides opportunities for children to learn phonics by exposing readers to visual information, orthographic print and print-image connections. However, in many early years classrooms more time is dedicated towards phonics, resulting in children's literature taking a back seat. This study examined early childhood teachers' pedagogic methods and approaches to phonics and environmental supports for promoting early language across six Queensland early childhood settings. The ELLCO Pre-K classroom observation tool was administered, measuring quality of language and literacy experiences, together with instructional efforts to build vocabulary, phonological awareness, phonics and writing. This study revealed a range of strengths and weaknesses. Phonics occurred through play-based learning or narrow literacy practices, such as one letter per week. There was little evidence of picture book reading as playing an integral part of the literacy programs, ranging from absent through to selection based on length (read quickly). The way images and language work together in picture books contribute to children's construction of meaning. Engaging in picture book reading is beneficial in developing phonics, vocabulary and print knowledge. Absence of children's literature may be due to prioritising phonics in early childhood. ELLCO results and implications for phonics teaching will be presented.

Dr Stacey Campbell is a lecturer in early childhood literacy at Queensland University of Technology. Her research areas include code-related literacy, oral language, assessment, children's literature and teacher beliefs and practices. Stacey has also worked as a teacher and director in NSW primary schools and preschools for over 10 years.

R.V. Sheela The use of Translation as a tool in the English Classroom

In the age of Globalization, English has earned the status of International/Intercultural Language and caters to the need of an 'awakened learner' The use of learners' mother tongue or regional language in teaching English is seen as the "inter-lingual" Method, which has seen success in the multi-lingual and pluralistic Indian English Language classroom. As the Russian scholar Victoria V. Safonova (1996) describes, it is 'teaching for intercultural L@ communication in a spirit of peace and dialogue of cultures' . Translation as a tool in an ELT classroom proves to be of great help. In the recent times, with the reappraisal of Contrastive Analysis in language teaching/learning, mother tongue is seen as more of a resource than a hindrance and reinforces the exploitation of mother tongue in second language teaching. The concepts of Error Analysis, Inter language, pedagogic exploitation of contrastive approach are gaining greater importance. Language planning in multi-lingual countries is a great challenge and cannot be looked at from monolingual perspectives. Translation used as a technique for teaching goes a long way in achieving the goal. The very

40 act of finding equivalents, comparing sentence structures and cultural contexts, understanding and appreciating conceptual translations facilitate language learning.

Dr. R.V.Sheela is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, M.E.S. Degree College, Bangalore, India. Teaching at the under graduate level for the last two decades, Dr Sheela is involved in active research in the area of English Language Teaching and also the design of text books and study materials for the under graduate courses in Bangalore University, as well as publishing articles in international journals and presenting papers in the National and International Seminars.

Chris Carlill, Tracey Mortimer and Candi Dempster The Writing's on the Wall: Building a Coherent Approach to Writing

Improving student literacy levels is a complex challenge. One school aimed to enact changes to improve student literacy by delineating strategies for vocabulary development, comprehension, and writing within an integrated whole-school literacy model. This study examines how a group of teachers devised and led a literacy intervention program based on action research findings, and in response to a system-level imperative. The overall aim of this program was to increase teacher capacity as literacy educators and improve student literacy levels in a coherent and measurable way. A key assumption was that every teacher can be a literacy teacher. Data collected from teacher interviews and student writing performances reveals that general and specific literacy strategies, developed through targeted professional learning and collaboration experiences, indeed increased teachers' professional capacity as literacy educators and led to improvements in student writing performances in Science. We provide a discussion of the findings and the implications and directions for future research, in particular the advantages and disadvantages of a whole-school approach to literacy improvement and emerging challenges in literacy education.

Candi Dempster is the Deputy Principal of St. Benedict's College. Chris Carlill is the English Curriculum Leader. Tracey Mortimer is the former Science Curriculum Leader. All three collaborated on a literacy action learning project in 2015 are members of the College's Literacy and Data Team.

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43 Current Seesions Tuesday

Session 1

Duncan Driver and Tobias Wilkins Two households, both alike in dignity: Shakespeare in the English and Drama classrooms

A dialogue between a Drama and English teacher, this workshop explores the relationship between respective pedagogies for the teaching of Shakespeare, acknowledging common deficiencies in the approach of both and investigating the polemics that result from jealousies and suspicions around the Shakespeare curriculum. Attendees will discover that a literary-dramatic tension need not exacerbate the differences between English and Drama; this tension is fundamental to Shakespeare's works, regardless of the learning context in which they appear. The presenters will lead colleagues through an original and engaging series of exercises that examine how discourse and play may be authentically harnessed by both the English and Drama teacher in an interdisciplinary study of 'Romeo and Juliet' that benefits a wide range of students. Ultimately, this presentation advocates for the benefits of regarding English and Drama as two complimentary sides of the one Shakespearean coin.

Duncan Driver is an Assistant Professor at the University of Canberra and its Program Director for Secondary Education. His PhD investigated Shakespeare studies, leading to articles for Melbourne Scholarly Publishing and Iona College’s Shakespeare Newsletter. Recently, he published “Writer, Reader, Student, Teacher” in English in Australia and “Poetry and Perspective” in Idiom.

Tobias Wilkins has worked in theatre and education since graduating with a BA in 2006. He completed his Masters in the teaching of Shakespeare in 2012, and is currently undertaking his Doctorate in the same area. Toby is also head of Drama, Media and Music at Box Hill High School.

Julie Easton The Art of Teaching English to Indigenous Students

This workshop will focus on how to engage Indigenous students in middle and upper secondary school English and enhance their critical analysis and writing skills. It will identify, discuss and reflect on the cultural, historical and economic issues relevant to many of these students that have an effect on students’ engagement and performance in English. Participants in the workshop will engage in exploring resources that will motivate students’ learning. They will also engage in interactive activities that will scaffold student learning in an explicit and meaningful way.

Julie Easton B.A., Dip Ed., M.Phil., (Australian Studies) was a lecturer in Secondary pre-service Education at Curtin University until her retirement 5 years ago. Since then she has worked with the Follow the Dream program, mentoring and tutoring Indigenous students in English and History, in connection with a number of schools throughout WA. She also continues to supervise Curtin Education students during their Field Experience units.

Alex Wharton Creating a culture of wide reading

English professionals need no convincing of the vale of reading. But perhaps our colleagues, parents, and students do? 'Creating a culture of reading' will review the current situation our society is faced with regarding attitudes towards reading - and together we'll think through responses to the vision of 'creating a culture of reading'. Content covered will include partnering with parents, strategies for engaging reluctant readers, and working with other educational stakeholders to help create an active literate culture in our schools and communities.

Alex Wharton is Head Teacher English and Drama at Sydney's Northern Beaches Christian School. He has published English curriculum materials for a variety of organisations (including ETA NSW), and presented 44 at local, state, and national conferences for English Teachers. He has a passion for engaging students in the world of subject English!

Session 2

Elizabeth Baker Inquiring into language with functional grammar

The English language has changed dramatically over time in form, function and meaning. This makes it difficult for educators to teach language based on a set of rules if the rules keep changing! Functional grammar breaks the traditional "rules based' grammar mould. Rather than seeing language as a set of rules, it focuses on the functions of words in text. Functional grammar appreciates the art of language. Since the introduction of the Australian Curriculum: English and its blend of both traditional and functional grammar, teachers around the country have been perplexed as how to teach functional grammar in an engaging way. This workshop, based on best practice in grammar education, will demonstrate the art of inquiring into grammar with students. Participants will develop knowledge in the foundations of functional grammar. Beginning with the clause we will analyse quality texts. This knowledge will be extended as we discover the different roles each part of the clause plays. Participants will engage in hands-on, meaningful activities that they will be able to use in their classrooms. Participants will leave this workshop with knowledge and strategies in functional grammar that can enhance student critique and enable children to become empowered communicators.

Elizabeth is a classroom teacher in the ACT and works as a mentor across the state developing the capacity of her colleagues.Elizabeth has completed a Masters of Education focusing on literacy education and a Masters of Teacher Librarianship through Queensland University of Technology. She is currently an active member of the ALEA ACT Local Council.

Louise Cimetta Visual Narratives in the iPad Classroom

Wordless picture books provide a visual narrative that invites learners to explore and create their own stories from what they see on the page. These stories offer rich opportunities for oral language, viewing and writing. iPad can be a powerful literacy resource when it is utilised as a tool that empowers students to tell their own stories of learning.

This workshop provides hands-on opportunities to experiment how students can leverage iPad and wordless picture books to connect literacy and the media, performance and visual arts in the early years and primary classroom. Please bring an iPad or iPhone with you to this session if you have one.

Originally training as an early childhood teacher, Lou Cimetta taught across the early years and primary years before moving to leadership positions at school and system level. Lou worked for ten years at the Catholic Education Office in Western Australia, focusing on teaching and learning initiatives. She has been an instructional coach supporting schools to draw on research and evidence to improve literacy and numeracy results. Lou also developed digital learning strategies, led the digital learning team and represented the National Catholic Education Commission on cross-sectoral digital learning working parties during her time at Catholic Education. Lou most recently worked as a development executive at Apple supporting local, national and international educational institutions in utilising technology to maximise learning opportunities. As part of this role she opened up new markets, developed education content and designed powerful learning experiences for leaders and educators. Lou now works as an independent consultant supporting early years and primary educators to connect developmentally appropriate pedagogy with technology.

Forma Gonzales Utilizing marine products in teaching English as an art for specific purposes at the college of fisheries

English is a very interesting subject. It is a medium of instruction in almost all countries. Through English Language, thousands of words are written and spoken by all people from all walks of life. It is indeed a 45 science and an art. This study focused on the use of marine products in teaching English as an art for Specific Purposes particularly at the College of Fisheries, Mindanao State University, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines. It aimed to utilize marine products, task students to construct sentences, passages, paragraphs and compositions as well as evaluate the students’ performance. This study made use of descriptive- qualitative design conducted at the College of Fisheries using the first year college students as participant respondents with actual marine products as instruments of the study. The data were gathered by collecting marine products such as crabs, fishes, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, clamps, seaweeds and sea grasses. Students were instructed to identify the instrument in English and were tasked to write their sentences, passages, paragraphs and compositions out of it. Their performance tasks were evaluated and analyzed. Based from the data gathered, it was found out that the freshmen students of the College of Fisheries were able to identify marine products and write sentences, passages, paragraphs , compositions out of the marine products. They also understood the reasons for letting them utilized marine products . Hence, it is concluded that marine products can be utilized to teach English as an art for specific purposes where students learn and enjoy their course. As such, it is recommended that more marine products shall be used in teaching English as an art to the other students of the College of Fisheries.

Carmel Small Understanding Levelled Texts

This will be a practical session focussing on how levelled texts actually work and the art of using them within a guided reading session for all levels of primary schooling. We will look at the highly successful criteria that underpins the PM levelling system, and best practice in the explicit teaching of reading in order to develop a balanced reader.

The session will focus on: • understanding the strategies needed to be a balanced reader • the literacy criteria underpinning 30 levels of text for F- 6 students • best practice in choosing and using using levelled texts for modelled, guided and independent reading Participants will also receive quality examples of PM levelled texts to use in the session which will demonstrate the literacy criteria used in the different stages of literacy development in the primary schooling years.

Carmel is a professional development consultant for Nelson Publishing - a Cengage Company. She has extensive experience in working in a variety of educational roles at a state, regional and school level in South Australia. With recent experience as a school leader, she is aware of emerging school needs and priorities for quality teaching and learning in a range of school settings. She is extremely passionate about assessment for learning processes, particularly in relation to the use of explicit literacy strategies and classroom data to inform practice.

Julie Shepherd The Art of Teaching Spelling

This practical and engaging session will examine the presenter's journey in learning about and understanding English Orthography; and how this translates into classroom practice. Julie will share information about using a scientific inquiry approach and tools (word webs, word sums and matrices) to help students understand and investigate the underlying structure and conventions of English spelling. The place of morphology, etymology and phonology will be examined and discussed. The session will focus on how a range of teachers (Foundation to Year 8) have assisted their students to develop their knowledge about spelling using words that come from meaningful contexts: inquiry and literature. Many examples will be provided including students' investigations, quality teaching strategies and documentation used for planning. Participants are bound to leave with an excitement and curiosity about words that they will catch from the students.

Julie Shepherd is a classroom based educational consultant and works alongside teachers: planning, modelling strategies and acting as mentor and critical friend. She has worked around Australia and also in Singapore, Korea and China. Julie has had a long involvement with ALEA and is the incoming Victorian State Director. 46

Rosana Stout and Jennifer Griffths New Media: beyond engagement

The art of teaching English has always required teachers to include real word texts. In 2018 these texts are likely to be new media texts. The Australian Curriculum both explicitly and implicitly requires students to engage with and interpret digital texts. Are these texts too complex because students lack the general and contextual knowledge needed for deep and sophisticated engagement? Conversely, are they too flimsy because they seen as popularist and impermanent?

The workshop interrogates the value of using 'new media texts'_ such as listicle, mobile apps and twitter to achieve English Curriculum outcomes. Drawing on experiences of teaching in a BYOD school, the presenters will provide participants with the opportunity to examine these texts to determine how they might provide an opportunity for rigor in the context of the English classroom, rather than simply increasing student engagement. Participants will unpack the pedagogy of using new media texts with the aim of maximising opportunities for students to increase their understanding of specific English outcomes such as context, purpose and audience. Participants will also be encouraged to develop avenues into engaging students in wider discussions around the place these texts have in the cultural literary landscape.

Rosanna Stout is an English HOLA, academic researcher and teacher with more than thirty years teaching experience in a range of contexts. Her current context is a newly established BYOD school. She have a keen interest in interrogating pedagogy to find ways of enriching the teaching and learning experience.

Jennifer Griffiths has taught at high schools and universities in Western Australia and Victoria for thirteen years. She has been interested in the ways the digital impacts on education and the world for much longer than that. Jennifer is currently teaching English and Literature at Byford Secondary College.

Susan Lazenby The Art of Letting Go: From Pedagogy to Andragogy

This workshop will suit teachers of English and Literature in senior secondary classes. The aim is to encourage English and Literature teachers to foster independent reading and meaning-making. Additionally, it changes the way teachers use texts in a classroom. Students need to take the skills and concepts they have learnt in their course and apply them to any text from any genre. This can be achieved when students engage deeply with a text of their own choice. In the module, they research and analyse their text, then produce an extended response with an annotated bibliography. Thereafter, students present a tutorial to their peers. This is a rich module that offers students the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and understanding of course concepts. I will offer an insight into the advantages of this module, strategies for facilitation, provide the unit of work and how it is assessed. Participants will have an opportunity to adapt the unit to suit their programmes. You will also hear a student's perspective.

Susan Lazenby is the Head of English at St George's Anglican Grammar School in the heart of Perth's CBD. She has taught English and Literature across a range of schools both in Australia and overseas. Susan's has been involved in curriculum development, course advisory and examination panels.

Kathy Rushton and Janet Dutton Tell me your story: Developing identity texts with students in the middle years

This Identity Texts Project began when some proactive secondary teachers wanted to further improve the literacy and language outcomes of their students. The teachers were from English faculty and the executive of a secondary school with a large population of students who could be defined as having a Language Background Other Than English (LBOTE) or of speaking English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) and therefore speaking one or more languages other than English. As colleagues and mentors, we had worked for several years with these teachers supporting their professional learning around the teaching of English, language and literacy. Since that initial discussion other schools have also joined the project which has now been developing over several years. We hope that the Identity Texts Project will offer an approach to literacy development that aligns with the teachers' professional beliefs about teaching, student engagement and well-being and subject English and will also facilitate the improvement in student literacy to meet the NAPLAN literacy goals of the school and sector.

Dr Kathy Rushton is interested in the development of literacy, especially in socio-economically disadvantaged communities with students learning English as an additional language or dialect. She has worked as a literacy consultant, EAL/D and classroom teacher with the DEC (NSW), and in a range of other educational institutions. Kathy is a lecturer in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. Dr Janet Dutton has significant experience in schools as a leader and teacher in English, Drama and History and in teacher education as a lecturer and tertiary mentor. Her scholarly contribution to education includes conference presentations, book chapters and the wide-ranging delivery of professional learning. She has also has worked in developing assessment and curriculum at national and state level organisations and was the Chief Examiner, English for the NSW Higher School Certificate 2011-2016. Janet is a lecturer in Secondary English in the Department of Educational Studies at Macquarie University.

Elena Mujkic Differentiation: A Rich Collage

More and more, Australian classrooms are spanning a broad range of literacy levels; a Year 8 English classroom might have students reading at Grade 3 level alongside students reading at Year 11 level. While on the outset this may pose a challenge for teachers, it can also prompt us to discover the richness in students' skills and experience beyond the classroom, and remind us of the individuality of our students. There are many and varied ways we can approach teaching such a classroom and this presentation explores these. Examples of differentiating an English curriculum will be shown, from studies of texts such as poetry, plays and novels, to scaffolding writing. The session will be an interactive workshop, allowing teachers and educators to explore the perspective of their students in the activities. The session will cover the ways in which the study of English does not always have to be through written text, but can also be visual, kinaesthetic and experiential. Teachers will be able to draw concrete strategies from the workshop, as well as a theoretical grounding (Tomlinson, Munro) should they wish to explore more.

Shifting from a linguistics background, Elena Mujkic came to teaching through Teach for Australia where she taught in regional Victoria. She then completed her Master of Teaching in Bordeaux, France, returning to start teaching in the Northern Territory. She is passionate about how teaching English encompasses teaching skills for life.

Kristian Stewart Digital Storytelling in the Writing Classroom: Engaging Student Authorship, Encouraging Voice, and Communicating Across Difference

Digital storytelling, a genre of media-based writing, invites students to merge text, music, images, and voice into a 3-5 minute video production. In a writing classroom, digital storytelling is an intellectual enterprise that leads students through developing purpose and a point, rhetorical strategies for web-based writing, adjacent to providing a platform for students to use their own voice to narrate their ideas and experiences. Further, as a culturally-responsive pedagogy, digital storytelling encourages students to get to know themselves and each as they are led through classroom activities where they engage in dialogues across differences and learn to listen with care.

In this workshop, participants will learn how to implement digital storytelling into a writing and or English based curriculum, and they will be instructed on how to create a critical digital storytelling praxis with suggestions on readings, lesson-plans, and course instruction. Participants will also view several digital stories, be shown software for creating these productions, and be invited to ask questions through an interactive segment. This workshop is designed for instructors who work with upper-level students or with students within teacher education programmes. However, participants will learn how to modify a digital storytelling curriculum to fit their varied classroom needs.

Dr. Kristian D. Stewart, a King-Chavez-Park Faculty Fellow and University of Michigan Diversity Scholar, is an instructor of writing in the department of Language, Culture, and Communication at the University of Michigan-Dearborn USA. Dr. Stewart has published articles and chapters centered around best practice, ethical considerations, and training teachers through digital storytelling in the British Journal of Educational Technology, Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, and within edited collections (Routledge). Currently, Dr. Stewart is finishing grant related work affiliated with the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

Wendy Cave and Sophie Bissell Standard 2:4 is so much more: Cultural Integrity meets Critical Literacy

The AITSL Professional Standards for Teachers reflect the importance of developing in teachers an understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This presentation describes the journey of two schools intent on building skills and dispositions to promote cultural integrity and literacy practices required for lifelong learning and active citizenship. Using a range of texts and communication media teachers have enhanced their knowledge, and commitment to the promotion of reconciliation through education of communities and their children. Participants will experience the impact and possibilities of integrating the arts to support meaning making from multiple perspectives.

Wendy Cave is a Principal in the ACT. Her educational leadership foregrounds human dignity and environmental stewardship through critical literacy. In 2017, she was invited to contribute to the design and development of the ACT Education Directorate's Cultural Intergrity Continuum: a school improvement tool. Sophie Bissell is a school leader who works with educators to nurture and develop active and informed citizens. Sophie sees education as the most powerful tool we can use to overcome the challenges we face in our world. She is currently Deputy Principal Pedagogical Transformation at Macquarie Primary School.

John Nicholas Saunders Literacy and Drama: Research into how drama based pedagogy can improve student literacy

This research paper will share the findings from Saunders' current PhD research exploring student outcomes through a drama-based intervention in English and literacy classrooms in the School DramaTM program. The program was developed by Sydney Theatre Company and The University of Sydney's School of Education and Social Work with Professor Robyn Ewing AM. School Drama is a professional development program for primary school teachers, which demonstrates the impact of using drama-based, creative pedagogy combined with quality children's literature to teach a range of English and literacy outcomes. The paper will illustrate how using artful pedagogy (particularly process drama-based), combined with quality children's literature, can improve student academic (English and literacy) and non- academic (engagement, motivation, confidence and empathy) outcomes in the primary years of schooling.

John Nicholas Saunders B.CI, B.Ed, M.Ed (Research) is a former secondary school teacher and the current Education Manager at Sydney Theatre Company. John has extensive experience in Arts Education and has held positions as a senior curriculum writer, head of department; Board member of Playlab Press, Associate Academic at Australian Catholic University, President of Drama NSW and Drama QLD, and guest lecturer at the University of Sydney. He currently holds positions as: President, Drama Australia; Chair, Australian Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG) Education Network; and Drama representative, National Advocates for Arts Education. In 2016 he co-authored 'The School Drama Book: Drama, Literature & Literacy In The Creative Classroom' with is colleague, Professor Robyn Ewing. Robyn Ewing AM (B.Ed Hons, PhD) is a former primary teacher and currently Professor of Teacher Education and the Arts, Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney. She lectures in Curriculum, English, Literacy and Drama across preservice and postgraduate teacher education programs. She is passionate about the role that the Arts can play in transforming learning and has a commitment to creative teaching and learning at all levels of education. In the areas of English, literacy and the arts, Robyn's research and writing has particularly focused on the use of educational or process drama with literature to develop students' imaginations and critical literacies She has worked in partnership with Sydney Theatre Company on the School Drama program since 2009. Her writing and research has also explored arts informed research methodologies, mentoring and the experiences of early career teachers, curriculum storylines and inquiry and case based learning. She has worked as an academic mentor with teachers at a range of Sydney primary and secondary schools with the major focus on transforming the curriculum using the Arts as critical, quality pedagogy. Robyn is an Honorary Associate at STC, a Council Member of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS), a Board member of WestWords and an honorary scholar at Barking Gecko Theatre.

49 Sam Barta Writing in Role: A New Process to Engage and Empower Students

This research tests a creative, collaborative approach for literacy instruction within the social context of a grade 4/5 classroom for effectively engaging and motivating students. The specific classroom activity, a collaborative, interactive and episodic role-play, not only is an example of creative teaching, but of teaching for creativity. The process provides a meaningful context within which to practice many elements of a literacy program. I have used this written role-play process to integrate a literacy program with both special and mainstream classes from grades 3 through 12. I find it to be an effective, engaging, and enjoyable process for both my students and myself a teacher. This mixed-methods case study tests the efficacy of the written role-drama process with a new class and teacher. It is the focus of my Doctor of Education study at James Cook University. This study builds on and contributes to work in literacy, drama in education, creativity theory, Self-Determination Theory, and student engagement theory. It is centered within the social context of a specific classroom process, focused on literacy, informed by these key theories for both the activity and data analysis. Insight is provided into how the central ideas of student autonomy and collaboration, from these theories, can inform effective teaching practices.

Sam is a Canadian teacher, currently working on a Doctor of Education degree at James Cook University in Townsville. Inspired by what she learned in a "Drama in Education" course as part of her 5-year degree in Special Education, she went on to make this the focus of her Masters’ Degree.

Tessa Daffern The art of using error analysis to help build spelling skills

Being able to spell remains an important enabler for meaning-making, and it supports reading development. In order to empower students to develop the skills essential for success in spelling, linguistic error analysis can be used to determine which spelling skills require explicit teaching. This paper offers teachers and researchers insight into the development of reliable and valid spelling assessments. Informed by Triple Word Form Theory, the Components of Spelling Tests (CoSTs) are innovative tools designed to measure phonological, orthographic and morphological subskills in spelling. The CoSTs involve systematic spelling error analysis and they are suited for use by teachers and their students across Grades 3 to 6. The tools have been validated in a series of studies involving over 2,000 students across 22 school contexts to ensure their psychometric properties are robust. The aim of this session is to provide background to the development and validation testing results of the CoSTs, and to explore ways in which these innovative assessment tools can be used to inform instructional priorities in spelling.

Tessa Daffern is an Assistant Professor at the University of Canberra. Her research focuses on the teaching and learning of spelling; and the relationships between spelling, reading and writing. Tessa has published her research in national and international journals, and she enjoys regular professional work with school teachers. Tessa was the recipient of the 2017 ALEA Doctoral Thesis Award.

Session 3

Short Talks Clare Thomson Tick Tock Teacher

As teachers, we are time poor. We are constantly searching for ways to maximise our time so that every moment is a teachable moment. This eight minute TED talk will discuss ways in which we can utilize time from the second students arrive at the classroom until the beginning of formal learning. These activities and ideas aim to set the tone for a fun start to the day and create an active learning environment. Most importantly, these activities maximise students' literacy learning. This vital pre- instructional time in the morning has the potential to engage and transform mindsets of students and immerse them in literacy learning.

Clare Thomson is an Early Childhood Educator at St Jerome's Primary School in Western Australia. She has a passion for children's literature, and inquiry based learning. Since beginning work at St Jerome's in 2015, Clare has taught Year 1 prior to moving to Year 2. Preceding teaching, Clare worked as a Special Needs Education Assistant, which helps her cater for a wide range of students. 50

Gillian Dawn Visual Literacy and Students Creative Writing

‘Teaching children to read and write should be an artistic event…) (Freire, cited in Cremin 2006, p. 416) D'Arcy (1999) reported narrowing assessment criteria reduces creative expression changing writing instruction into ‘language study', yet publication of NAPLAN results pressures schools to ensure students are 'test literate'. As a result instruction targets structural features and conventions (Andiliou & Murphy 2010; Frawley & McLean Davies 2015), although teachers have the power to facilitate instruction in creativity, vocabulary and imagery (Applebee 2013).

Analysis of school-based and NAPLAN writing assessments identified ‘Characters and Setting’, and ‘Vocabulary’ as categories receiving the lowest grades. My research will investigate the relationship between visual literacy and the ability to compose texts that evoke visualisations in the mind of the reader. Students will venture outside the classroom and use natural environment as stimuli to make authentic sensory connections for visualisations during writing.

Gillian is the Head of Learning Support. She holds a Diploma of Teaching, Graduate Certificate Education, Master of Education and is in the process of completing a PhD at Curtin University. Gillian has taught across a range of year levels and diverse school environments, in New Zealand and Australia.

Jill Colton What's English go to do with design?

Design thinking is one of the popular buzz phrases of our time and in this talk I explore how the production of multi modal texts can be framed as a process of design. How do writers and illustrators collaborate to produce picture books? How can this inform the way we teach children about narrative text? Taking a design approach is innovative, but it also resonates with good English pedagogy. It about learning from one field and transferring it into a new context and really builds on what we know about creative thinking and the process of writing. It's all in the design.

Jill Colton lectures and teaches in the undergraduate and post-graduate teacher education programmes at the University of South Australia where she is a member of the English/literacy team. She is completing a research degree with a focus on the effects of digital technology on pedagogy. Jill is currently involved in the Digital Literacy Trailblazers project at UniSA. This project aims to investigate the way that digital tools are being used in English and literacy classrooms. Jill has also been working on a collaborative project with Jo Mignone from the UniSA School of Art, Architecture and Design to explore design thinking in collaborative practice.

Clare Williams Voice and Value: collaborative learning for struggling readers in junior secondary schools

Literacy practices and strategies for improving language and literature study involves building relationships within the learners' social proximity, in their place and space of learning.

Learning support educators-as-paraprofessionals, work collaboratively with classroom teachers to facilitate literacy improvement strategies for struggling readers. When such collaboration also gives a voice to those education support staff, the effectiveness of reading outcomes are further enhanced. Using a framework of PAR principles, this talk explores how support-staff as participant-action-researchers aim to achieve a shared literacy-learning-community in pedagogies of possibility.

Clare Williams lectures in literacy education at Federation University Australia. With 40 years practising tertiary, secondary, primary and ESL teaching in language, literacy, drama and humanities, and as a teacher educator for Ministries of Education in Asia and southern Africa, Clare's PhD and passion are for literature and literacy learning.

51 Beverly White and Rachel Bin Salleh Reading Australia: Teaching Indigenous Literature to Primary Students

This session will explore the wide range of Reading Australia's quality resources created to assist in the teaching of Indigenous texts. Rachel Bin Salleh, the author of Alfred's War (2018), and Bev White, educator and Reading Australia unit writer, will come together to discuss how teachers can get children thinking and talking through intentional and responsive teaching, and accessing the deeper meanings of literature through a close examination of text and visual elements using Alfred's War as an example of a Reading Australia teaching unit. By the end of the session participants will have been introduced to a selection of texts by Indigenous authors and illustrators, and gained practical tips for incorporating activities from these innovative resources in their own classrooms.

Beverley White is Manager: EALD and Literacy programs for the Department of Education in South Australia. She previously worked as leader of Learning at Kaurna Plains Aboriginal School. Prior to that, she was an EALD Consultant for many years. Bev is passionate about all students accessing the curriculum, through intentional and explicit teaching which engages active and reflective learners.

Rachel Bin Salleh is descended from the Nimunburr, Bunuba and Yawuru peoples of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. She has worked in publishing for over 20 years and is passionate about Indigenous people telling their stories. Rachel lives in Broome with her family. Alfred's War is her first book.

Iesha Siotis, Carolyn McLeod, Antonia McGuire and Celeste Murphy The Art of Storying: Building the Power of Story through Read Alouds and the Performing and Media Arts

This workshop will take participants through the journey that Turner School (ACT) has undertaken to develop a whole-school and community culture of reading aloud to children. This culture has been built over the past 6 years to incorporate the performing and media arts and includes classroom read alouds, whole-school read alouds and students using multimedia to present, create and perform their reading. This workshop will show participants the positive impact on student learning by developing a whole-school culture with read alouds from preschool to upper primary and provide insight into how this can be achieved in classrooms, teams, whole school and community.

Iesha Siotis is an executive teacher, classroom teacher and literacy coach at Turner School (ACT) and the ACT Primary Teacher of the year in 2016-2017. She has taught across the NSW and ACT education systems. Iesha has worked closely with new educators in mentoring roles. Iesha works passionately with her colleagues to enhance literacy outcomes for all students. Iesha presented a Poster at the 2015 ALEA AATE National conference.

Carolyn Macleod Carolyn Macleod is an executive teacher, classroom teacher and coach at Turner School (ACT). Carolyn is passionate about developing children's love of and for reading. She has led her team of 1/2 teachers to celebrate all children as readers embedding Debbie Miller's reading workshop model. Carolyn has co- presented at the 2017 national AAMT conference on the Turner School team embedded coaching model.

Antonia McGuire Antonia McGuire is the early years literacy coach and executive teacher at Turner School (ACT). Passionate about using quality literature, drama and puppets to teach reading, she has taught across a number of ACT schools. Using a team embedded coaching model Antonia builds the capacity of early childhood teachers and supports them with their cycles of inquiry.

Celeste Murphy Celeste Murphy is a lead teacher and literacy coach at Turner School (ACT). Celeste is a passionate early childhood teacher who instills a love of reading in all her students and their parents. Celeste leads parent and volunteer workshops in how to support children develop as readers and writers and coaches teachers. Celeste's recent focus with teachers has been on aligning teaching practices to whole school agreed beliefs about reading and writing.

52 Adam Cece Spark the Spark: Inspiring Kids to Write

Where do you get your ideas from?' It's the question award-winning middle-grade author Adam Cece gets asked at every school he visits, because young writers want to know the secret to turning a blank page into the next Harry Potter. Many kids say they don't write because they'can't think of anything to write about'. Adam has developed a fun, educational workshop that outlines his story-generation process'”how he gets inspired and how he collects ideas, 'sparks', how he uses his conscious and subconscious mind to develop those sparks'”and his personal writing processes, which help him to write funny books. His workshop aims to help middle-grade teachers develop the pedagogical tools to inspire their students, by presenting new ways of approaching creative writing, fun ideas on how to inspire kids to write, and tips on getting and keeping kids reading and writing.

Adam Cece lives in Adelaide. His first book, Wesley Booth Super Sleuth, was published in 2015. In 2017, Adam won the Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing for The Extremely Weird Thing that Happened in Huggabie Falls.

Denyse Ritchie The Art of Sculpting Words for Written Expression

Australian schools and teachers are currently being criticised for not teaching phonics in the early years, however the fact is that virtually every school in Australia DOES teach phonics. The problem is that the vast majority follow linear synthetic phonics continuums with a starting point of 'Letter-Sounds','initial sounds' or 'SATPIN', where words that can't be decoded using letter sounds are taught as whole words and are referred to as'sight words'. The unsustainable and contradictory nature of these teaching continuums is the reason many learners become confused and disengage. (Often our learners who are then diagnosed with Dyslexia)

This workshop will discuss how, when given the correct tools and understanding, classroom teachers can develop their own individualised learning programs to explicitly teach and demonstrate the symbiotic processes of synthesising and analysing phonics in whole words for decoding and encoding.

The session will discuss why educators should not be wasting teaching-time practising pseudo-words (nonsense words) or teaching to a'phonics check' and instead be developing learners their phonics and vocabulary knowledge using real words presented in meaningful contexts and authentic text.

It will show how, using a balanced approach, teachers can lay laid strong and sustainable foundations in the big five: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Danyse Ritchie has been a teacher, university lecturer, teacher trainer and program author. Her current focus is teacher professional development. She, along with her team of professional trainers, works in many remote indigenous communities, mainstream schools, and international schools. She has actively contributed to studies in Macau and Indonesia on the direct effects of teacher subject knowledge in English linguistics and phonics and student outcomes. In Macau she has won an award for her work in teaching ESL.

ALEA S.I.G The teaching of writing across the curriculum: An evidence-based approach The Literacy team at Brisbane Catholic Education

Writing is a necessary skill to full function in today’s society. Writing is a complex process that is carried out in a range of contexts and for a range of purposes (Walshe, 2015). Data suggests that writing is one area in which students often do not progress well once they enter the high school context (ACARA, 2017). Knowing how writing may change from one subject area to the next is important for secondary students yet many approach their tasks from a similar perspective; most usually from how they learnt to write in the English subject; and also do writing from a formulaic approach (Ivanič, 2004). Further, research has shown that teachers in the secondary context often see themselves as discipline experts rather than teachers of literacy and in particular writing (Barton & Woolley, 2017). The Australian Curriculum includes a general capability of literacy which explores the notion of literacy in different curriculum areas including maths, science and the arts. The literacy general capability outlines the 53 importance of teachers’ and students’ understanding of text, grammar, word and visual knowledge within a range of texts. Such knowledge and understanding relates to the process of writing. This project therefore aimed to firstly unpack what the research says about the teaching of writing for curriculum area specialists in secondary schools; secondly to develop policy and resources related to teachers’ practice within one jurisdiction–the Brisbane Catholic Education Diocese; and thirdly provide quality professional development to teachers on how best to implement appropriate strategies in the classroom. Research design involved a qualitative study that aimed to answer the question: Can teachers’ exposure to further knowledge and understanding of content area writing improve students’ work? Data was gathered via interviews with teachers and as well as PD feedback. Students’ samples of work were also analysed using a semiotic framework (Halliday, 1978) that identified a number of text features including text structure, grammar, cohesion, voice, etc. Resources were consequently developed to ‘bump up’ students’ writing achievements. Results showed that when content area specialist teachers in the secondary context improve knowledge and understanding of the writing process as well as text features then they are more likely to improve students’ writing generally. References Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2017). National Assessment Program [Electronic version]. Retrieved from http://reports.acara.edu.au/Home/TimeSeries. Barton, G. M., & Woolley, G. (2017). Developing literacy in the secondary classroom. London: Sage Publishers. Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold. Ivanič, R. (2004). Discourses of writing and learning to write. Language and education, 18(3), 220-245. Walshe, R.D. (2015) Writing as process. In Turbill, J., Barton, G.M., & Brock, C. (Eds.), Teaching Writing in Today’s Classrooms: Looking Back to Look Forward, (pp. 13-25). South Australia: ALEA.

The Literacy team at Brisbane Catholic Education comprises of a group of dynamic educators passionate about growth and student learning who provide expert advice in literacy within BCE based on contemporary research, system and school data and through professional relationships with literacy experts and associations. Kim Summers, Jo Kimmins, Alfina Russo, Kylie Layton and Lona Gill form a team to address the growing needs within the field of education around Literacy across P-12 in 139 schools across the Archdiocese of Brisbane. The Literacy team is charged with working collaboratively to develop and deliver policy and strategic directions in literacy for BCE schools and to develop and provide professional learning for school support teams in alignment with relevant research and data. A key component of the team's role is to design and develop a range of professional learning and classroom resources to support teachers in implementing literacy across the Australian curriculum.

Nell K. Duke Absolutely Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy

Some instructional practices in early literacy have such a strong research base that we should see them in every classroom. In this workshop, Duke will share a number of such practices, targeted at children ages 4 – 8. She will engage attendees in a discussion about effective ways to implement these practices as well as pitfalls to avoid.

Liz Nicholls Picture This: The Grammar of Visual Literacy

This workshop will be using images in contemporary picture books to investigate three areas of how visual grammar is used to influence the reader:

54 • Character point of view and how this positions the reader • The use of colour to create mood and provoke emotion • Size, ratio, perspective and the use of space to imply modality Teachers will develop their understanding of visual literacy and the image language interaction of contemporary picture books.

Liz Nicholls is an passionate literacy educator who has extensive experience as a classroom practitioner, Learning Support and Reading Recovery teacher. She also has had school leadership roles as a Literacy Leader and former assistant principal. Currently she is working as a Literacy Teaching Educator for Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta.

Garry Collins Some approaches to teaching an Australian war poem: 'a cairn of words over a silent man'

What do Geelong Grammar, Learmonth RAAF base, and the island of Crete have in common?

This session will outline some approaches to teaching the poem ‘The Tomb of Lieutenant John Learmonth AIF’. Appropriately for a national conference, the topic has connections with several states. The poet (John Manifold, 1915-1985) grew up in Victoria and spent the final years of his life in Queensland while the poem relates indirectly to an event that occurred in Western Australia.

A review in The Canberra Times argued "'John Learmonth' is a wonderful poem which manages the difficult task of being patriotic without being chauvinistic, of praising courage in war without praising war."

John Learmonth was school friend of the poet’s who died during World War 2 while serving in the Second AIF (Australian Imperial Force). He fought on Crete during the unsuccessful defence against a German airborne invasion launched after the conquest of Greece.

Garry Collins taught secondary English for 35 years, mainly in the Queensland state system, but also on year-long exchanges in the US and Canada. After retiring from full-time teaching, he spent 8 years as a part-time teacher educator, first at ACU and then at The University of Queensland.

Rosie Kerin Collective action: greater equity, engagement and achievement across the English faculty

Collectively, English teachers can achieve much more than is possible if they work in isolation across separate classrooms. This workshop will explore some strategies for English faculties that are either in the planning or being trialled in a sample of South Australian secondary schools. The goal is to increase cohesion, coherence, engagement and student achievement. From mapping and making text choices for Year 7 to 12; shifting pedagogical approaches to English; to new assessment strategies, plans and moderation, the goal is to drive student engagement, success and equity.

Rosie Kerin taught English in the middle and senior school years, and was a lecturer/researcher at UniSA, teaching in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. She is now a freelance education writer and consultant and offers professional development for teachers of English.

Kaye Baldock and Barbara Doukas Growing Engaged, Confident, Assessment Capable Writers

This workshop tells the story of 10 schools in the Darwin Region’s response to a National, Territory and Regional decline in NAPLAN writing achievement. The data and associated trends highlighted a need for a deliberate, focused partnership between coaches and schools to lift student achievement in writing.

The Assessment Capable Writers Project (ACWP) is designed as a gradual release model, incorporating collaborative planning, modelled lessons, individual and team feedback and professional learning. This model focuses on building the capacity of our teachers and school based instructional leaders to continue to implement Visible Learning through an explicit focus on writing.

55 The workshop captures the voices of school leaders, teachers, students and coaches in their endeavor to be the most improving schools in the area of writing.

Kaye Baldock is a Teaching and Learning Coach in Darwin Region Northern Territory. She is Manager of the Assessment Capable Writers Project (ACWP), a three year project designed to lift writing achievement. Kaye’s passion is to make a positive difference to students and teachers, giving them the power to achieve.

Barbara Doukas is a Teaching and Learning Coach in the Darwin Region. She is an experienced teacher who has taught in a range of primary school contexts from kindergarten to year 7 including ESL. Her current work involves coaching, providing literacy support to teachers, modelling lessons and delivering professional learning.

Dr Tamara Bromley The enactment of school literacy policy by early childhood teachers in an Australian Context: Policies impact practice

This presentation is derived from a larger qualitative investigation into the production and enactment of school literacy policy by early childhood teachers in an Australian context. While the larger study included extensive analysis of national and State educational policy within a policy trajectory framework, this presentation outlines findings from two case study schools, each a public school in Western Australia. Findings indicate that Australian governments are 'steering from a distance' English, and literacy, curriculum and pedagogy in the early years in schools. Pressures to comply with the neoliberal intentions underpinning educational policy are swaying early childhood teachers in schools to change their English, and literacy, curriculum and pedagogy in ways that are intended to contribute to the school's improved results in testing regimes conducted in these, and later years. The presentation offers 'food for thought' on how policy shapes literacy curriculum and pedagogy, specifically in the early childhood years in schools. The presentation is derived from the presenter's PhD (University of Western Australia), supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. The supervisors, Associate Professor Grace Oakley and Professor Lesley Vidovich, are not presenting but are co-authors of this presentation.

Tamara Bromley, an experienced school-based early childhood teacher and Literacy Specialist Teacher, recently completed her PhD in the areas of policy, literacy and early childhood while continuing her work in schools. Tamara's current position is as a Lead Teacher, teaching in Kindergarten, at South Bunbury Primary School.

Alex Bacalja Understanding trends in compulsory senior English text-lists 2010-2019

VCE English text-selection lists are a crucial component of schooling, opening and closing access to cultural products. These lists, in operation with VCE English since 1990, limit the choices teachers can make when selecting the focus of study for their teachers. This paper reports initial findings from a project investigating text-selection trends affecting senior school English in the state of Victoria. Analysis of text- lists from the past ten years was conducted to highlight taken-for-granted assumptions about the texts valued for study, as well as those which are excluded.

Dr. Alex Bacalja is a lecturer in language and literacy, and coordinates English Learning Area and other literacy subjects. He has worked for over a decade in secondary schools across Melbourne in both teaching and leadership roles. Alex's research focuses on digital literacies and subject-English.

Claire Jones Historical Fiction in Senior Secondary English

While Australian Historical Fiction has always been popular within senior secondary classrooms across the national, recent trends in texts lists and curricula indicates that the concerns of such works have become narrow experience for senior school experience for students. Classroom study of such narratives, published or created since the critical dates of the bicentenary and Mabo, asks students to engage with conversations about historical perspectives and national identity. This paper will argue that the popularity of such novels

56 within subject English has worked to impart particular views of reconciliation and national politics that centre on the shared experience of suffering and fulfilling a role of a national Bildung or a cultivated culture. In an increasingly global culture can this rather limited or restricted approach to literary education continue to engage English students, or is it now a time for a Regional or World Literature focus?

Claire Jones qualified as a secondary English and History teacher in 2001. With a passion for both literary and cultural studies, teaching the senior years of secondary were her specialisation. In more recent years Claire has been teaching in the tertiary sector working in Australian Literature and Global Literatures at The University of Western Australia, as well as Literary and Cultural Studies course at Curtin University. She has also been a WACE and ATAR examiner of the English and Literature courses and has served as Chief Marker to both of these courses. Claire is also the President of the English Teachers Association of Western Australia, and is the Western Australian delegate to the Australian Association for the Teaching of English National Council.

Session 4

Philippa Statkus Speaking their language: making connections in literacy through students’ socio-cultural influences.

Nowhere is the adaptability of language more evident than the classroom, where it reflects social and cultural influences in a range of forms. Students often communicate using a language peppered with online references, and use texts that reflect the relentless nature of their digital culture. With new content appearing online constantly, it is no wonder that some students lose interest in static literary texts. Why read a book ? To create connections with students, educators need to learn to understand student language and its roots in their digital culture. Their chosen texts are products of this culture, but their comprehension and critical analysis of these cultural texts is still meaningful and relevant. Does explaining how the reader is influenced by the language choices in a tweet not count due to the text's format? Are predictions and inferences any less valid because the text is a video game? This session will focus on how to connect with and re-engage students by including texts from their digitally based culture in literacy sessions. Creating connections between these cultural texts and literary texts allows you and your students to speak the same language. Be prepared for memes, hashtags, emojis, social media, pop culture....and Shakespeare.

Philippa is an experienced primary school teacher, having taught at a range of schools in WA and Victoria. She is the Literacy Leader at her school, and is passionate about the teaching of literacy.

Rodney McAllister Proving Effective Feedback to Young Readers

Providing effective feedback to young children as they read is a powerful pedagogical tool used by successful teachers of early literacy. Hattie and Timperley (2007) found high quality feedback impacts substantially on student improvement, increasing progress by as much as eight months in an academic year. Furthermore, feedback that focuses on how students monitor, direct and regulate their own learning is most effective (Hattie and Timperley, 2007). Reading involves child cognition as indicated by the reading behaviours articulated in the West Australian Curriculum Content Descriptors (2017). When reading is viewed as an active cognitive process requiring a lot of practice, teachers can help by providing feedback which prompts the child towards more effective problem-solving and meaning-making. This workshop involves engagement with video examples of young readers. Participants will consider how to provide immediate and effective feedback in order to enhance the agency of the child with regard to their reading.

Rodney McAllister has a Master's Degree in Language and Literacy and more than 30 years experience as an educator in primary schools. Recent positions as a Reading Recovery Tutor have been held in QLD and at ECU Perth. Currently employed as a Reading Recovery Tutor in Catholic Education Western Australia. Samantha Scholes is a Reading Recovery Tutor and has worked with Catholic Education Western Australia 57 for the last 7 years, mainly in the Kimberley. Having completed her Tutor Training with the NSW Department of Education, Sam now works collaboratively with schools, classroom teachers and Reading Recovery in Western Australia.

Jo Padgham The Art of leading literacy learning walks and talks when they are in teacher’s hands

Learning Walks and Talks are a highly effective school improvement practice to check in on the implementation of school agreed literacy practices, to build capacity of staff, to establish the level of variance in teaching across a team or school and to identify high level practices that can be scaled up to other classrooms. "Learning Walks have been transformative in schools moving from professional learning to professional practice. They offer another channel through which information can flow and foster teacher leadership.'_ (Fisher & Frey 2015)

Jo Padgham will share different types of Learning Walks and Talks that each have a specific purpose depending on who is involved in the walk. Jo draws on the work of Fisher and Frey, Sharratt and Fullan and Routman along with her years of shaping Learning Walks and Talks in schools. A focus of the workshop will be on the powerful collaborative teaching team walks aligned to team goals to improve identified aspects of literacy teaching to impact learning.

The workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to reflect on their own school agreed literacy practices and to consider the possibilities of literacy Learning Walk and Talks.

Jo is past ALEA Vice President and has 15 years experience as a principal. Jo is currently in a leadership capacity building role with the ACT Directorate. Jo contributed to the ALEA 2015 Teaching Writing in Today's Classrooms. Jo was awarded ALEA Life Membership and an ACEL Honorary Fellowship and made an ALEA Principal Fellow.

Christine Topfer What’s Essential: Implementing 10 Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy in the Australian Context

The Early Literacy Taskforce in Michigan, supported by Dr Nell Duke, has established 10 essential instructional practices for early literacy that can have a positive impact on literacy development. Christine Topfer is working with clusters of schools in the ACT supporting them to implement these research- informed instructional practices in every class, every day in all learning areas. In this workshop, examples of the instructional practices in use in these primary classrooms will be shared; along with what teachers report to be their major 'aha' moments. Participants will have the opportunity to use Lyn Sharratt's 'Circle of Practice' to map which of the essential practices are currently in their daily repertoire.

Christine is currently working as an education consultant. She has worked as a school leader, literacy coach and early years teacher. Chris has co-authored Supporting literacy learning in the early years, and Guiding thinking for effective. She is a life member of ALEA and a past ALEA National Vice President.

ALEA S.I.G. 2: English and literacy teacher education as artful practice.

Five pre-service English and literacy teacher educators share snapshots of how they use their knowledge, artistry and skills in innovative and creative ways to ensure the next generation of teachers are agile, flexible and responsive to students’ learning needs.

Service-Learning in Action - A' Whale of a Tale' program for children who have experienced trauma Dr Glenda Cain

Many opportunities for a service-learning experience are available to education pre-service teachers at the University of Notre Dame Australia and the program termed "A Whale of a Tale" is just one of these. "A Whale of a Tale" has developed as a service-learning program as result of a partnership with the University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) and the Western Australian Department of

58 Child Protection and Family Support (DCPFS), addressing some of the needs of children (referred to as "children in care") who have experienced trauma. This research paper will describe how the "Whale of a Tale" program has come into being, the links to a service-learning pedagogy, and the perceived outcomes of the experience through a research study. It will also discuss the concept of inclusion and how the program has facilitated outreach of humanity to marginalised children

Dr Glenda Cain Senior Lecturer (Literacy Coordinator) School of Education, Notre Dame (Fremantle) Glenda Cain is currently working as Senior lecturer (Literacy-ECE and Primary) at the University of Notre Dame Australia, teaching in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the School of Education. She has extensive teaching experience across all sectors as a classroom teacher in both early childhood and primary classrooms; a deputy principal; early childhood curriculum officer; and university lecturer.

Glenda’s Ph. D was entitled "Service-learning as a way of developing pre-service teachers’ knowledge, perception and cultural awareness of Aboriginal Education”. Her interest in Aboriginal education and service-learning has seen partnerships develop with Clontarf Aboriginal College, the Tjuntjuntjara School and community, and the Department of Child Protection and Family Support.

As a university lecturer in teacher education, Glenda has a comprehensive and up to date knowledge of educational research, issues and trends. In 2011 she was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and School of Education Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence, in 2012.

Snapshots of engaging artful approaches to literature in primary pre-service English and literacy teacher education Dr Jon Callow

It is a given that primary teachers must authentically model engaged and expert reading in the classroom. A challenge for tertiary educators is to build pre-service teachers’ confidence, enthusiasm and expertise in their own reading of children’s literature. This presentation will share several practical seminar activities designed to encourage our pre-service primary teachers to read a range of contemporary literary texts and consider how creative and artful approaches to the use of Literature and Discussion Circles, mindmaps and book trailers can also engage their future students and simultaneously embody formative assessment and reflective processes.

Dr Jon Callow, Sydney School of Education, University of Sydney Jon is an experienced teacher, having worked in primary schools, universities and in professional development for teachers. His areas of expertise include primary English and literacy teaching. His research areas include visual literacy, multimodality, the use of ICT to support literacy and multimodal learning, as well as student creativity and engagement. As a professional literacy consultant, he has worked alongside teachers in their classrooms, in Australia and the US. He is passionate about engaging and equitable education for all his students. Teacher wisdom stories Dr Jessica Mantei

Preservice teachers in their second year of the BPrimEd at the University of Wollongong are engaged as teacher researchers in their language subject. Their task draws on the belief that it does not matter if a teacher has ten years’ experience or two, they have a professional responsibility to learn from others and critically interpret new knowledge for their professional practice. The task uses audio recordings to capture the wealth of knowledge often shared by teachers in informal settings, and we call these teacher wisdom stories (Labbo, et al., 2003). The preservice teachers create and share their “teacher wisdom stories” in a repository and then use this collection to investigate the nature of literacy teaching in primary school settings. In drawing their findings together, they reflect on and share their own developing wisdom about literacy teaching.

59 Dr Jessica Mantei Senior Lecturer, University of Wollongong Jessica Mantei teaches and researches Language and Literacy in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Wollongong. Jessica’s research interests focus on teacher pedagogies and on children as consumers and creators of text as they explore and respond to the messages they are exposed to and those they might convey in their own compositions. Jessica currently serves ALEA as State (NSW) Director.

The artistry of ‘becoming’: Inquiry and arts-based pedagogy in pre-service secondary English teacher education Associate Professor Jackie Manuel and Dr Janet Dutton

This paper explores a distinctive model of Initial Teacher Education for pre-service secondary English teachers that integrates a suite of inquiry and arts-based approaches across three semesters of a Master of Teaching (Secondary) program. The model adapts and creatively extends theory and pedagogy that are both deeply embedded in and intuitively appropriate to the disciplinary norms and characteristics of English as an arts subject and to English teaching and learning. The model is underpinned by a number of key assumptions, with the most prominent of these being the ‘teacher-as-artist’. The presenters will provide an overview of the secondary English program and offer examples of artefacts from pre-service English teachers in response to inquiry and arts-based pedagogies. They will then reflect on the innovative features and strengths of the model and its scope for optimising English teachers’ professional identity, collaborative capacity and genuine artistry.

Dr Janet Dutton, Lecturer in Secondary English Curriculum Department of Educational Studies at Macquarie University Janet holds a BA, DipEd, MA, Grad Dip Ed, and PhD in Education from The University of Sydney. Janet’s research interests include the pre-service teacher experience, English teacher identity, motivation and retention, secondary English curriculum and the impact of high stakes testing on creative English pedagogy. Jacqueline Manuel. Associate Professor of English Education, Sydney School of Education and Social Work University of Sydney. Jackie holds a BA (Hons 1) in English, a Dip Ed and a PhD in English Literature from the University of New England. She is Program Director of the Master of Teaching (Secondary) and Secondary English Curriculum Co-ordinator in the Faculty. Jackie’s teaching and research interests include teenagers’ reading; creative pedagogies in secondary English; pre-service English teacher motivation; early-career teacher experience; and English curriculum history.

Ron Gorman The Power of Story

This session will examine the place of story in children's and young people's lives and that reading quality literature is a means of developing successful and productive futures. The presentation and discussion will focus on the notion that 'the more young people read, the more they see the world though others eyes' and that this has the greatest potential for a better world. The session will draw on the work of authors and illustrators to put the proposition that story telling is a uniquely human trait. This, alongside the OECD's research regarding the trends shaping education, places literature as essential to young peoples learning and the development of dispositions essential for productive lives. Practical examples of ways into deep questioning will be shared covering all primary years. The voice of students will also feature. A focus will be the co-constructed learning developed by students with teachers which has the effect of high student engagement.

Ron is Deputy Director of AISWA. He has extensive experience in teaching and leading a diversity of schools in WA and Victoria. Ron manages innovative programmes and university partnerships for AISWA. He is a member of the Global Educators Leaders Partnership and has been awarded Fellow of Australian Council of Educational Leadership (WA). Ron is also Chair of the Australian Children's Literature Alliance working closely with the Australian Children's Laureate. 60

Cameron Hindrum Mentionable Places: the voices of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon in crafting a poetry of truth during World War One

A hundred years after it was written, the poetry of World War One continues to enthrall, intrigue and inspire us. This workshop addresses the work of two prominent poets as sites of truth: when government propaganda was keeping the reality of war's horror away from the concerned eyes and ears of loved ones in towns and villages across the British Isles, it fell to poets to be the truth-tellers, and in meeting this objective they crafted some of the most visceral, moving and powerful poetry of the 20th century. Two poems (Dulce et Decorum Est and Glory of Women) will be analysed and unpacked so that clear links between technique and meaning are established, with those links then examined in the wider context of the communicating the truth about war.

Cameron Hindrum is an experienced workshop presenter, writer, actor and English teacher. His first novel was published in 2011 and he is currently completing a Doctorate of Creative Arts through the University of Wollongong with his second novel. His first major play, I Am A Lake, successfully toured Tasmania early in 2018.

Adam Kealley Reading Australia: practical tips for teaching Australian literature to Secondary students

This session acknowledges the role Australian literature plays in the 7-10 and senior secondary Australian Curriculum, and reveals how Reading Australia can provide time-poor teachers with quality resources to assist in the teaching of Australian texts. Adam Kealley, educator and Reading Australia unit writer, will demonstrate the range of texts supported through Reading Australia, before unpacking a sample unit to demonstrate how teachers can employ these innovative resources to create new and meaningful units of work. By the end of the session, participants will have had the opportunity to preview the range of Reading Australia units and will gain practical tips for incorporating these activities and texts in their classrooms.

Adam is a secondary English and Literature teacher with over twenty years' experience. He is passionate about engaging boys in English and Literature and has authored teacher resources for the Copyright Agency's Reading Australia project, as well as resources for ABC Splash, Fremantle Press, the AATE and the ETAWA, Pearson.

Emily Gregory, Charlotte Kewley and Lyndsey Simcoe Developing powerful readers and writers through Project Based Learning

"All children are hard-wired to be problem solvers, They long to understand, are often troubled by issues in their communities, and are driven to be part of the solution."_ Ellin Oliver Keene, 2014. The year 5/6 team of teachers at Turner School (ACT), inspired by Kath Murdoch and Nell Duke, has combined their passions for multi-disciplinary student-driven inquiry learning and building powerful readers and writers by developing a strong Project Based Learning approach in their classrooms. Their students work for extended periods of time responding to real life questions they have, addressing real needs that they connect with. They research, read and create texts in responding to their questions. They have real purposes to read and write and real audiences for the written, oral and multi-modal texts they create. Along the way their teachers plan intentionally for these students, drawing on carefully selected mentor texts, modelling different writing forms, equipping each student with the support they need to create the powerful texts to suit their particular project. The teachers continually map their teaching and their students' learning against the Australian Curriculum across multiple disciplines, and the examples participants will see in this workshop are across a number of STEAM projects.

Emily Gregory is a 5/6 teacher at Turner School (ACT) and the recipient of the 2017/18 ACT New Educator of the Year. Emily has presented nationally on Data and Digital Literacy and Project Based Learning. She is passionate about children's literature and developing children's identities as researchers, readers and writers.

Charlotte Kewley is a 5/6 teacher and Literacy Coach at Turner School (ACT). She has led her team in deepening their knowledge and understandings in using the Debbie Miller workshop model. Her coaching

61 focus has been on supporting teachers to conference and provide targeted feedback. Charlotte presented at the 2015 ALEA AATE conference on interactive writing.

Lyndsey Simcoe is a 5/6 lead teacher at Turner School (ACT) and works effectively to mentor new educators. Lyndsey has had a long term focus through collaborative Action Learning inquiries on building effective writers.

Ashley McPherson A gallery of ideas: adding colour to a blank canvas

At its heart, the Writer's Notebook is a place for collecting ideas for future writing. It is a low-risk writing practice that excites and challenges writer's to find their inner voice and to practice the skills they will need to use for future pieces. The purpose of writing is for it to be heard and enjoyed by an audience, but first, we need to have the ideas and the skills to develop our writing. This session will share how the Writer's Notebook has been used to engage reluctant writer's across P to Grade 6 and how it has built a culture of writing that inspires students to be great and teachers to enjoy writing with their students. The content of this workshop is based on the work of Ralph Fletcher and Amy Buckner. "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." Roald Dahl.

Ashley has worked with the Department of Education (Tasmania), for 10 years. He has been a classroom teacher, literacy support teacher, literacy coach and now an assistant principal. Having recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Educational Leadership, he is now focused on leading research-based, high leverage teaching and learning practices across schools.

Brett Healey How children experience writing (and how they don’t)

How would you teach writing if you knew how children experienced it? During the creative writing process, children experience a tension of mindsets, shifting between the personal, the imaginative and the schooled. Thus, an awareness of the things that contribute to this tension is key to teachers' artful delivery of writing lessons. Of course, children make sense of their writing experience in ways teachers can't see from the outside view, so knowing the structure of this experience attunes us to what is happening inside. My research, conducted in a Perth school, found that children hardly experience the art of words as authors do. Rather, their experience is filled with a perception of writing rules, grades, freedom, and mystery. This paper details the findings of this research, unveiling the writing consciousness of children in the classroom. I describe the barriers and pathways to rich writer experiences that teachers can adjust to enliven the writing process and effectively communicate the art of writing.

Brett Healey is a literacy coach at Victoria Shanghai Academy in Hong Kong and author of Lifting the Lid of Words and Pictures. He is an experienced primary school teacher specialising in children's creative writing and his current research, through Murdoch University, explores children's writing worlds.

Veronica Gardiner Escaping standardised and commercialised ‘states of mind’: Early Career primary teaching, professional learning and the art of teaching English

In Australia, educational reforms position early career primary teachers (ECTs) of literacy to privilege standardised and didactic ‘best practices’. In counterpoint, many researchers argue that such narrowing of practice impoverishes the scope and depth of student and teacher learning. To explore how ECTs perceive and navigate literacy learning and practice at the local level within this reform context, the present study fostered a series of small-group ‘café’ dialogues. These meetings took place in metropolitan, regional and remote locations of Western Australia. Facilitation and analysis of emergent dialogue was framed through multiliteracies theory, Cultural Historical Activity Theory, and critical perspectives on professional learning. Findings illustrate the heavy local influence of structured commercial programs on ECT learning and practice, as well as the diverse ways in which these teachers sought to question and expand beyond such

62 influences to include aesthetic, expressive, and participatory possibilities for themselves and their students. In doing so, these ECTs ‘speak back’ to deficit policy readings of their capacities; and showcase creativity in shaping the art of teaching English, in contexts pursuing commercially homogenised practice.

Veronica Gardiner has been a PhD candidate and Commonwealth Scholarship recipient at Murdoch University, Western Australia. since early 2015. Veronica's research specialises in exploring and advocating conceptually informed teaching and learning, inclusive of diverse contemporary literacy practices. Her specific focus on enablements, constraints and discourses in relation to sociocultural and communicative diversity is significant, given the increasingly privileged status of standardised practice and knowledge in Australian schools and educational policy. In counter, Veronica's activities with a range of teachers in remote, regional and metropolitan Western Australia have been aimed to support student- and context-responsive professional literacy learning.

Mary Weaven You do this to empty the heart

This session takes its title from a key line in Gwen Harwood's poem 'The Spelling Prize', and suggests that current neoliberal trends are 'emptying the heart' out of the dynamic possibilities inherent in teaching English. Harwood's poem condemns the reductionist practice, prominent in her 'Class of 1927', of testing spelling; today, 90 years later, we have officially sanctioned NAPLAN tests that constrain creativity in our classrooms and limit our capacity to select content. Drawing on Harwood's poem this session will explore how teaching poetry in the secondary English classroom can challenge neoliberal trends in education. Reference will be made to a small-scale research project conducted with Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) in a university in Melbourne, where participants - all aspiring English teachers - have experienced either scant or no engagement with poetry during their own schooling. Curriculum policies, in the Australian state where this research was conducted, acknowledge the importance of poetry yet it remains optional in the classroom. Although the study of poetry presents vital possibilities to explore human relationships and challenge dominant ideologies these opportunities are currently being missed. Discussion will be invited on the extent to which the study of poetry may fill rather than empty the heart.

Mary Weaven has presented her research on poetry teaching at ALEA/AATE conference and internationally. She has edited a collection of case studies from pre-service teachers: Dilemmas of Practice, and is currently a Senior Lecturer at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia

Lynne Bury Disciplinary literacy in the middle years

All teachers, this includes art, mathematics and science teachers are teachers of literacy and this provides challenging options, as all teachers need a clear understanding of the vital role literacy plays within the discipline/s they teach. Each discipline area can use literacy in uniquely different ways. As students move through school literacy becomes increasingly differentiated and specialised. Therefore research around practice in this area in primary schools is crucial. How do we best incorporate disciplinary literacies into our teaching and learning curriculum so that our students become competent, confident individuals with a clear understanding of the world around them?Focusing on the disciplinary area of science, and its place in upper primary school classrooms and curriculum, this research paper discusses some of the challenges facing teachers in the upper primary classroom in relation to their understandings of, and practices around, disciplinary literacies. This paper explores the pedagogical approaches used in four Year 5/6 Victorian primary classrooms and documents the teachers' understandings around why and how they integrate disciplinary literacies practices in their upper primary classrooms. The paper raises interesting possibilities for new ways of presenting disciplinary specific practices in classroom curriculum.

Lynne works as a literacy consultant and is currently completing doctoral research on disciplinary literacies in the middle years. She has been a member of ALEA for 35 years. Lynne currently works in primary and secondary schools in Victoria and teaches literacy at RMIT University.Professor Heather Fehring Heather is a Professor in the School of Education, RMIT University and has published widely in the area of literacy assessment. She has had a strong commitment to ALEA, was nominated as an ALEA Principal Fellow in 2017, and is currently the ALEA Victoria treasurer for the 2019 National Conference.

63 Session 5

Christa Balfour with Tamara Tane and Michael Ferris Using Innovative Pedagogies to improve Literacy outcomes for Indigenous students

The Prime Minister's 2017 Closing the Gap report indicates that there is still on average about two-and-a- third year's gap between the reading literacy of Indigenous and non-Indigenous 15 year olds. According to Watson (2013), 'Digital learning environments allow for positive learning outcomes amongst Aboriginal Australian students.'_ So, can the use of quality digital pedagogies also assist Indigenous students to improve their literacy? As part of an ALEA Local Council group at Reynella East College, consisting of myself, Tamara Tane, Michael Ferris, our English leader Heidi Godden and ALEA mentor Julia Johnson, and using the four stages of the Appreciative Inquiry process: Discover, Dream, Design and Deliver, we set out to explore this question. Our goal was to equip teachers with innovative pedagogical resources that would empower them in the Art of teaching English and Literacy, whilst also assisting Indigenous learners to improve their literacy so they are better able to comprehend and create the genres required in their secondary education.

Christa teaches across the curriculum, with a passion for the Middle Years. She received the Ruth Probert Memorial Medal for Excellence in BeginningTeaching at Flinders University and gained insight into the literacy needs of ATSI learners during a placement on the APY lands. She leads professional learning about innovative pedagogies.

Michael has a high level of understanding of ICT/digital applications in teaching and learning contexts. He delivers professional learning sessions to colleagues and is passionate about enabling ATSI students to achieve beyond their own expectations by equipping them with literacy competencies that will allow them to be confident, independent learners.

Tamara has a passion for teaching in the middle years, seeing it as an opportunity to build foundations for successful lifelong learning. She has seen the direct link between literacy proficiency and broader engagement for ATSI students and aims to use innovative pedagogies to enhance literacy learning across the curriculum.

Pru Smith and Liz Harper Working at the leading edge in writing: Feedback just-in-time

Students make their greatest progress when teacher feedback facilitates them to work at the leading-edge of their learning. Young children just acquiring the skills of writing, make the greatest progress when teacher feedback is just-in-time and focused on their use of the writing process. Feedback delivered in this way is powerful in progressing and even propelling students forward. Such growth is substantiated by research that shows effective feedback accelerates the pace of student learning by at least 50% (William, 2010), almost doubling the average student growth over a school year (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). However, powerful feedback is also dependent on teachers having high levels of both pedagogical and content knowledge for a curriculum area, and this is acquired over time and with many teaching experiences. In this instance, teachers would need to know how to provide feedback that focuses students on self-regulation in writing - what do children already know, and what do they need to know and know how to do? With its emphasis on pedagogy, this workshop addresses the conference theme The Art of Teaching English and explores how teachers can support the efforts of early writers by providing feedback that responds to the leading-edge of children's learning.

Dr Pru Smith draws on a wealth of experience as a classroom and literacy intervention teacher, and a school leader and, more recently, as a teacher educator in literacy education at Edith Cowan University. Currently with Catholic Education Western Australia, Pru is a Literacy Leader and Reading Recovery Trainer for WA. Pru's research interests include: differentiated literacy instruction; literacy intervention; and teacher discourse. Her Masters research focused on the discourse acquired by Reading Recovery teachers during their initial year of professional learning and her PhD centred on the use of teacher discourse in inquiry-based classrooms.

Liz Harper is a Reading Recovery Tutor currently working with Catholic Education Western Australia. Having completed her Reading Recovery Tutor Training with the Department of Education in NSW, Liz now 64 works collaboratively with schools, classroom teachers and Reading Recovery teachers to improve the literacy outcomes of students in Western Australia. She has worked across education systems in a range of locations including remote and town schools in the Pilbara and Kimberley, as well as the metropolitan schools of the Perth and southwest regions. Liz has a special interest in early literacy acquisition, particularly in the development of children's oral language capacity as a way of improving their reading and writing outcomes.

Samara Scharner I have a story to tell you! Embedding the art of storytelling in your literacy program to improve oral fluency, comprehension and creative writing.

In my classroom action research, I use the'Storytelling Schools' model to enhance oral language and reading comprehension. It has ignited my student's passion for language, creation of stories and dramatic play. I use the Immitate, Innovate and Invent model adopted from Pie Corbett's Talk for Writing and the'Helicopter stories' from Vivian Gussin Paley. Both initiatives from the UK are inspirational and are underpinned by an understanding that oral language ability underpins literacy attainment. Educators model a telling of the story and plan experiences for students to internalise the story, its language features and structure. Educators are not just'retelling' a story, they are performing it with actions for key phrases and words for the students to pick up and immitate. Students are then scaffolded to innovate on it, to create their own version. In the independent phase, students create their own stories having been provided with a bank of ideas and language features. The three steps take the students along a journey from using their oral ability and language immersion to becoming storytellers and writers themselves. The approaches of Storytelling and acting out stories both excite and embolden children as they seek to make sense of their learning and their world. Being equipped to find their voice, fosters a sense of passion and agency in the art of simply telling a story.

Samara is classroom teacher and mother of two toddlers, passionate about oral language and its importance in education. She teaches at an independent school in Googong, just outside of Canberra, where innovation, inquiry and passion are encouraged.

Mem Fox Choral speaking: the how, the why and the wherefore of spoken verse in literacy development

This workshop follows on from my keynote speech. Its focus will be explaining and experiencing choral speaking. We will do a lot of it, with my guidance and without it. The manner in which we choose poems for choral speaking will be explored. The strong relationship between choral speaking and learning to read will be emphasised. The notion that books, not only poems, can be chorally spoken, will be explored also, and how to choose those books will be explained. There will be a vast amount of interaction, joy, and laughter to demonstrate in practice everything I hope teachers will take back to their classrooms, in order to enhance in the happiest manner, the literacy learning of their students.

Erika Boas The artful use of inquiry-based learning in the English classroom

How can I use inquiry-based strategies artfully in the English classroom?

65 Inquiry-based instruction promotes an exploration of language, literature and literacy in integrated and meaningful ways. The kinds of reading, writing and participatory activities to be carefully designed will engage students with a variety of texts and with the world around them. The learning is framed around essential questions. Students are apprenticed into new ways of doing and thinking, with the opportunities to practise and build skills and knowledge in order to demonstrate deep understandings and to work in thoughtful and creative ways when completing rich tasks and culminating projects. Inquiry-based instruction is about teaching for deep understanding and life-long learning. Participants in this workshop will engage with the powerful pedagogy of inquiry-based learning and how learning experiences can be carefully designed to assist the learner to get to the big ideas at the heart of the English discipline.

Erika Boas is an Assistant Principal in charge of the middle school at Ogilvie High School. Erika has served as TATE President since 2012 and is the current President of AATE. Erika has authored many inquiry- based publications and units, including 'Inquiring Minds Learn to Read and Write' with Professor Jeffrey Wilhelm. In 2016, she co-edited the AATE publication, 'The Artful English Teacher'.

Elizabeth Mountford Tales and dreams and shadow truths: the graphic novel in the Middle Years English classroom

This workshop will focus on how teachers can create teaching and learning sequences and rigorous assessment tasks using the rich, complex narrative structures and multiple layers of meaning in graphic novels. The workshop will share teaching ideas, readings and critical literacy strategies and involve participants in creating rich and engaging teaching, learning and assessment ideas for implementation in their own classrooms.

Elizabeth Mountford (BA, Dip Ed, MEd (International), Cert IV in Digital Literacy) has taught English across the stages of schooling and in urban and regional schools in the Northern Territory for 30+ years. She is currently the English Consultant for the T-9 Curriculum Team in the Northern Territory Department of Education, and member of the English Teachers Association Northern Territory (ETANT), and Editor of its professional journal. The study of the comic and the graphic novel has been part of Elizabeth's repertoire for many years. A regional school that was Elizabeth's last teaching position before beginning her work in the Department last year had over 50% indigenous students, and their critical literacy skills and engagement were greatly enhanced when visual or artistic elements were an integral part of their literature studies

Mel Dixon and Amanda Taplin Literacy: adaptable or subject-specific?

Too often English teachers are regarded as the literacy experts in the school and yet English has its own disciplinary emphasis. How can the English teacher guide the school towards literacy that responds to the needs of all subjects? To what degree are literacy approaches adaptable across subjects, across student abilities and language skills including EAL/D; from primary to secondary settings? In this workshop, we will introduce the idea of cross-curriculum literacy and the role of English in supporting this. We will consider how we can draw on the existing literacy of students in navigating a range of platforms. Examples will be drawn from a range of classroom contexts.

Mel Dixon is the resources officer and literacy consultant for the English Teachers Association NSW. She edits the state journal mETAphor, writes and edits many resources and is a regular presenter of professional development in the areas of literacy, grammar, curriculum and leadership.

Amanda Taplin teaches EAL/D and English in Sydney. She is an active member of the English Teachers Association NSW, working closely with the publications committee and has assisted in the editing of resources. She was the project leader for the Department of Education's mEsh program, writing resources for the new HSC EAL/D syllabus.

Paul Sommer The Video Essay for English teachers: new directions in film studies.

English has had a special relationship with film analysis. And it is a field that has not stood still. The conference strand of English and the Arts provides an opportunity to explore what has been called a 'new

66 scholarly form'_ and a 'reinvention of analysis'_, by one of its most energetic practitioners, Catherine Grant. For us, as English teachers, it offers a means to continue to educate ourselves in the field and to challenge ourselves to explore cinematic thinking through the work of Adrian Martin, Cristina Alvarez Lopez, and Grant. As a model for complex and subtle analysis, it has implications for fresh assessment tasks that we might offer students. This workshop will be an introduction to the video essay, including an overview of resources, but it will also consider how it might help us move from conventional shot analysis to an investigation of film that foregrounds movement.

Paul Sommer's current research with Curtin University, Perth, continues a 25 year commitment to film study in English. He lives in Japan and has taught IB English for the past ten years at Osaka International School (of Kwansei Gakuin University). Paul is a past president of AATE and SAETA.

Janet Scull and Noella Mackenzie The art of conversation: talking to support young writers

Of all language and communication activities, writing is the most complex and for many children the most difficult. Research has established the importance of adult-child interactions as adults play with, talk with and read to young children in the first years of life, but there is a shortage of research about adult-child interactions when young children are drawing and writing. This paper reports on a study designed by A/Prof Janet Scull, A/Prof Noella Mackenzie, Professor Linda Harrison and Dr Natalie Thompson to explore the ways in which early years educators across preschool and school settings interact with children as they engage in early mark-making, drawing and writing. Young children were video taped or photographed while they created their artefacts and participated in conversations about their texts. The recordings accurately captured conversations, gestures and non-verbal information to isolate the key features of the adult-child language interactions and pedagogical supports and strategies that mediate and promote learning. The findings acknowledge the importance of socially mediated interactions and child-adult relationships in guided learning environments. The study contributes to the development of evidenced-based approaches to building educators' capacity to effectively engage in intentional teaching conversations to improve children's learning.

Janet's research explores language and literacy acquisition processes and practices that support the continuity of children's learning across early childhood settings and the early years of schooling. She has also contributed to the design and evaluation of early literacy teaching for students from a range of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Noella Mackenzie is an experienced literacy educator and researcher. Noella's research focuses on the learning and teaching of writing. Her research is informed by teachers, early childhood educators and children. Latest book: Mackenzie, N.M., & Scull, J.A. (Eds) (2018), Understanding and supporting young writers from birth to 8. Oxfordshire: Routledge, UK.

Megan Brown and Denise Chapman Investigations into pre-service educator's fear of technologies

The Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership standards for graduate-teachers, state that ICT must be used to expand curriculum learning opportunities and make content relevant and meaningful. However, there persists a wariness to technology by some. It is important to recognise the difficulties that are faced when it comes to making good use of digital technologies (Selwyn, 2015; Walsh, 2010). Through work with pre- and in-service educators, this auto-ethnographic study illuminates our understandings of educators’ resistance to technology in the classroom. Analysis showed gender, age, students' resilience or resistance to technological challenges, their perception of childhood, and expectations of self and university, are seen to impact how students participate in class and their attitudes towards digital technologies more generally. We argue for the need to sensitively work with pre-service teachers to allay their fears in utilising media and technology while highlighting the benefit for students learning from pedagogies utilising such technology.

Megan Brown is current PhD student and teacher-educator at Monash University. She has previously conducted research with Early Years educators, and her current research interests lie in community literacies focussing on critical and culturally responsive practices.

Dr Denise Chapman is a passionate digital media-creator and teacher-educator at Monash University. She is an early childhood inclusion specialist focused on critical digital literacies and culturally-sustaining partnerships within diverse communities. As part of the Learning with New Media Group, Denise's current research prioritises communities experiencing marginalisation.

Christine Edwards-Groves Upsetting the Apple Cart: Reconsidering questioning as artful interactive moves for student meaning making

Asking and answering questions is the prominent and formative pedagogical structure that shapes any lesson at any stage of schooling. This paper presents research examining shifts from the mainstream dominance of teacher-questioning evident in typical initiation-response-feedback (IRF) practices, towards teachers reconsidering the work of the second and third turns after an initiating question. Through an eight- month funded action research 12 teachers from two geographic regions in NSW examined their own interaction practices as a foundation from which to build projects focusing on developing more dialogic approaches to pedagogy. Analysis of video-recorded lessons establishes the interactional accomplishment of dialogic change among teachers and students; more specifically the study identifies how teacher self- analysis of their lessons disrupted (for them) the ways changed questioning moves contribute to student's meaning making in literacy lessons. Findings interrupt the prevalence of teacher-led questioning as dominating classroom exchanges into interactive spaces where, through a deliberative focus on dialogue, questioning moves - described as artful - emerged. In these classrooms, the new questioning moves led to the appearance of student-initiated or student-led questioning exchanges that evidenced and contributed to their making meaning. This shift of footing required teachers reconsidering the ways different questioning moves address literacy-learning goals.

Dr Christine Edwards-Groves (PhD, MPhil, Grad. Dip Educational Studies (Literacy), Dip Teach) is Associate Professor (Literacy) at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga. With Christina Davidson, she was lead investigator of the inaugural PETAA literacy research grant. Christine is key practice scholar for the international Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP) network. Dr Christina Davidson (PhD, MA, BEd, Dip Teach) is Senior Lecturer at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga. Her research considers how interaction accomplishes learning during institutional activity, and together with Edwards-Groves, is co- author of the recently published text 'Becoming a meaning-maker: Talk and interaction in a dialogic classroom'_ (PETAA, 2017).

Jeannine Wishart The Contested Space of Teaching Grammar

In the context of NAPLAN and the National Curriculum, the teaching of grammar has become a crowded, contested space in primary classrooms, with many pedagogical approaches, commercial programs and resources jostling for shelf space and teacher dollars. This Doctorate of Education research attempts to make sense of this issue by investigating primary school teachers reported beliefs about, pedagogical choices for, and the resources used to teach written grammar and documenting just what teachers are using to inform grammar teaching practice. These beliefs, choices and resources were investigated using a mixed methods approach of survey and interviews in order to obtain both big picture and more fine detailed data, and to tell the "numbers and the stories"(Cresswell, 2012). The results from the survey (the numbers) and the interviews (the stories) will be compared and early findings presented to provide a snapshot of what is happening in classrooms, and provide food for thought for teachers and teacher educators alike.

Jeannine Wishart is currently working toward a Doctor of Education degree at the UWA Graduate School of Education. She holds a Masters Degree in Literacy and Learning Difficulties from ECU and a Bachelor of Education in Reading from WACAE. She is a primary school teacher of many years experience and is currently working as a Literacy Specialist Teacher and Literacy Coach at Leda Primary School. Her area of research focuses on the pedagogy of written grammar in primary schools.

Session 6

Jane Sutton and Alison Kelly 68 Storycasts

Our school's 2018 Early Childhood project,'Storycasts', will bring students, families and the school community together as they create and share audio books. They will use both picture books in English and bilingual works in the relevant home languages. We are the largest school in Canberra, with just under 2000 students from preschool to year 10. This buzzing community seeks new ways to celebrate diversity and interconnection through our shared stories. Storycasts is a three part project which has been assisted by an Australian Government Digital Literacy School Grant. The first part of the project introduces preschool and kindergarten students to new early-childhood-friendly technologies, Easispeak MP3s and sound stations. The children will read and retell quality picture books, recording them on the easily-docked microphone-recorders. The second part has the parents and grandparents making ipad or audio microphone bilingual recordings of stories in English and a home language to stimulate student engagement. The third part generates new student content as part of an audio book site. We will speak in the workshop session about the new experiences engendered by'Storycasts'. There will be a video to post on the conference website including original content from the session.

Jane Frances Sutton has a Bachelor of Education (Australian Catholic University), an Honours English degree (University of Sydney), and a Graduate Diploma in Art History (Australian National University). Previously an editor of children's books in the UK, she currently enjoys teaching Kindergarten at Amaroo School, Canberra.

Alison Kelly studied at Barkly House College of Education (University of Cape Town). She founded and ran her own private pre-primary school in Cape Town, South Africa, for 14 years. Her family immigrated to Canberra in 2011. For the past four years she has held a combination of an Early Intervention and an EAL/D Specialist role at Amaroo School, Canberra.

Emma Davidson and Lyndall Read Using the Arts to inspire writing in the early years

As an early childhood school we seek every opportunity to engage children in reading, writing speaking and listening. We use The Arts as a vehicle to jump start discussions about and a love for books of all kinds and to provide a vehicle for children to express their emotions. The preschool team have focussed on a number of interrelated components. These include: oral language, wordless picture books, drawing as a tool to make and create meaning, building relationships to encourage risk taking and recognising the environment as the third teacher and a key component to inspire children to explore and inquire. Participants will be able to engage with provocations set up within the preschool environment and consider how they might extend and develop their own environments to embed a focus on The Arts and literacy.

Ms Lyndall Read is Principal at Southern Cross Early Childhood School. Lyndall is a keen early childhood advocate with over 30 years experience working within childcare, national and international schools and education policy settings.

Mrs Emma Davidson is Deputy Principal at Southern Cross Early Childhood School. Emma has worked within a range of settings including childcare, P-6 schools and central office advisory roles.

Kim Summers, Lona Gill and Evelyn Chapman Reading-Writing Connection: The Arts as a Bridge

Working with the connection of the Australian Curriculum English and The Arts, this workshop will explore how Arts strategies can be used to engage, inspire and enrich all learners through the lens of quality literature. For English, the opportunity to engage imaginatively and critically with literature and the richness of language. For the Arts, the notion that arts learning can open new ways of engagement leading to a deeper understanding for both comprehending and composing. The workshop will model how The Arts can connect reading and writing at any point during the teaching and learning cycle. Participants will engage with drama to experience how it can develop inferential comprehension, empathy, and a deep understanding of character and how this deeper learning can be used to establish successful conditions for writing.

69 Kim Summers is a Senior Education Officer with Brisbane Catholic Education, prior to this, she worked as a classroom teacher and head of departments across Prep - Year 12, in both Australia and the UK. Kim holds a Masters of Education and her current work is focussed on strategic direction, teacher capacity and student attainment in the areas of English, Literacy and Pedagogy.

Lona Gill is an Education Officer with Brisbane Catholic Education. She holds a Masters of Education and has worked as a classroom teacher, Drama specialist and Support teacher across Prep - Year 12. A key component of her role is to design and develop a range of professional learning and classroom resources to support teachers.

Currently working as an Education Officer: The Arts with Brisbane Catholic Education, Evelyn has a background as both primary generalist and specialist Arts teacher. She has witnessed the power of the Arts to engage, inspire and enrich all learning and works with teachers to build their capacity to successfully embed the Arts in student engagement with literature.

Tessa Daffern, Noella Mackenzie and Antonella Sassu The Art of Teaching Transcription Skills in the Early Years of School: Spelling and Handwriting

Handwriting and spelling are necessary skills for young writers to learn. Success with spelling is a key predictor of success with writing while handwriting has been shown to activate motor, visual and linguistic areas of the brain and is linked to success with learning letters, reading, spelling and maths. Learning to spell involves learning to coordinate phonological, orthographic and morphological processes and requires explicit teaching. Handwriting also requires explicit teaching and considerable practice. Being a good speller and having an efficient handwriting style free a writer's working memory to concentrate on text creation. This workshop will be interactive and informed by current research. Classroom vignettes will be shared to illustrate how metalanguage can be used and how children's literature can be incorporated when explicitly teaching spelling. Participants will also explore children's pencil grasp and posture and the patterns that support handwriting. Participants will trial processes for teaching and monitoring progress in handwriting.

Noella Mackenzie's research focuses on writing. Publications: Mackenzie, N.M., & Scull, J.A. (Eds) (2018), Understanding and supporting young writers from birth to 8. Oxfordshire: Routledge, UK., Mackenzie, N.M. & Spokes, R. (2018). The Why, Who, What, When and How of Handwriting Instruction. Practical Literacy: the early and primary years, 23(1)

Antonella Sassu is an early childhood educator at Radford College, Canberra, and she has taught in a variety of national and international schools. Antonella has presented for the International Schools Early Childhood Conferences and at the University of Canberra. Her Masters research explored the benefits of partnership reading as a strategy to build comprehension and fluency.

Meaghan Hird Vocabulary, Verbs and Voice

This workshop will focus on Year 7 and Year 8 English skills and knowledge centred around vocabulary, verbs and voice. By explicitly teaching these aspects of the subject, we can deepen student enjoyment of reading and writing, and develop the skills necessary for the later years of secondary English. The workshop will explore a range of teaching strategies for Year 7/8 English through imaginative texts such as novel extracts, short stories and poetry. We will focus on how to deepen and extend student vocabulary, how knowledge of types of verbs can impact positively on student reading and writing, and how voice is created and maintained in texts. Participants are encouraged to apply the strategies to a text they teach in their own schools, thus being able to access a digital or hard copy of their preferred text during the workshop will be useful.

70 Meaghan Hird is an Education Officer for Sydney Catholic Schools and an experienced secondary English teacher who has taught in NSW for many years. In response to changes in NSW syllabuses, Meaghan developed a series of professional learning modules for teachers of Year 7 and Year 8 English.

Wendy Allder Big Write and VCOP- Raising the standards in writing through talk

Big Write and VCOP is designed to bring the fun back into writing, to make the children want to write and to be continuously challenged throughout the writing journey. Through games, activities, writing tasks, conversations and discussions, students will learn not only where their abilities lie in a fun and engaging way, but also the steps they need to take, in order to continue to improve. Based on the premise that ‘if they can’t say it, they can’t write it’, we scaffold the learning to allow children to become articulate thinkers and speakers, who will then become articulate writers. It is a differentiated approach suitable for Early Years – Year 10 and comes with 2 comprehensive, evidence-based assessment tools; one for the teacher, linked to all the Curriculums and the student friendly scale empowers the children by allowing them to analyse where their skill set lies, and specifically what steps they need to take in order to move forward.

Born in country Victoria, Wendy dreamed of becoming a teacher. In 1976 she completed training at both Frankston Teachers College and Latrobe University. She began her teaching career at Pearcedale P.S. in 1977, and apart from 9 years when she had her three children, she has taught continuously ever since. She has taught all year levels, as well as a brief spell in the Library, and time as a shared Art specialist in 4 rural schools. For 2 years Wendy combined consulting for Andrell Education and teaching part time. With the demand for Big Write and VCOP rapidly increasing, she has retired to become a full time consultant where she can share her passion for the program that achieves such improved outcomes for so many. Wendy intends to remain active in spending hands on time in the classroom, developing activities and tracking the progress of children in their writing journey.

Aidan Coleman Art Made Tongue-tied by Authority: Overcoming the barriers to teaching Shakespeare

The canonical weight of Shakespeare can be oppressive but the bard well-taught should loosen the tongue. Starting with a series of interviews I conducted with teachers as part of Australia’s first Shakespeare MOOC, I consider some of the barriers that students (and often teachers) have in approaching Shakespeare, and strategies for overcoming them. We will also consider when to introduce conventions and features of Shakespeare’s work, and the appropriate level of depth in which to cover these, in line with the Australian Curriculum. The workshop will give those new to teaching Shakespeare a strong basis for success, and provide new ways into the texts for experienced teachers.

Dr Aidan Coleman taught high-school English for thirteen years and currently teaches in the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide and the School of Education at Tabor College. He is a co-designer of the MOOC Shakespeare Matters for AdelaideX and reviews regularly for a number of publications, including Cordite and The Australian.

Kirli Saunders Poems to Share

Red Room Poetry aim to make poetry a meaningful part of everyday life by connecting Australian education communities with contemporary poets. Red Room's Poetic Learning projects enliven poetry creation across the curriculum with multimodal experiences. In 2017, these projects reached18,400 students from 450 in Australia and New Zealand schools.

Join Poet, Author and and Manager of Poetic Learning, Kirli Saunders as she explores the relationship between Literacy and the arts through Red Room's 'Poetry Object' and 'Poems to Share II'.

Poetry Object is the largest free poetry writing competition, inviting young writers and their teachers to submit poems about special and curious objects. It is open to students in Years 3-10 and teachers from Australia and New Zealand. In 2017, Poetry Object published over 3400 student and teacher poems from over 190 school communities.

71 Poems to Share ll is a collaboration between Red Room Poetry and the Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE) aimed to inspire creation, sharing and publication of poetry. The curriculum aligned digital and print resource features excerpts from commissioned poems, student and teacher poems, supporting teachers with meaningful literacy engagement.

Kirli Saunders is a proud Gunai woman, poet, children's author and educator. Her book 'The Incredible Freedom Machines' will be presented at Bologna Book Fair in 2018. Her second book 'Our Dreaming' will be released in 2019. Kirli manages Poetic Learning at Red Room Poetry.

Julian Laffan The Art of Illustration: relating narrative to the hand printed image

The wood cut as a printed image has its origins as some of the earliest forms of literature. The relevance of woodcut as an intergral part of the history of books and narrative prouction continues in the currect age of the digital image and text. This presentation will discuss the relevance of the printed image as art and how narrative can be expressed as images. The formation of hand rendered and printed images and the conceptual development and process of how an artist works with written storying creates a visual language in harmony with text. The ongoing collaborative process will be explored through examples of collaborative work with two literary authors. In order to evoke a sense of place, identity of characters and meaningful interpretation of narrative, in conjuction with a harmony between text and image the artist works through different explorations leading to final pictorial decisions. Through a description of the creative process from initial marks, related research, to completed images the presentation provides an indication of how literature can be enhanced through a relationship between both text and image.

Julian Laffan is an artist, educator, curator and illustrator. He specialises in woodcut and drawing and has exhibited nationally and internationally as an independent artist and with cross-cultural collectives in South- East Asia. He has been a Judge for the Children's Book Council of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery. He is also Assistant Principal and coordinates literacy at St Bede's Primary School, Braidwood, New South Wales. See: julian-laffan.squarespace.com

Katherine Halcrow A music pedagogy approach to the teaching of writing

A unique connection between music and language has been proven many times over, not least through neuroscience and linguistics. In particular, grammar and rhythm share a unique connection. Research has proven the benefits of bringing music into the English classroom but not what could be learned from music pedagogy and the analogous conclusions that could be applied. However, if the brain processes music and language in similar and identical ways, it may be useful to consider in what ways the Literacy teacher may be able to gain special insights from the music classroom, for the teaching of language, particularly for the teaching of grammar and writing. This research particularly explores the music pedagogy approaches of Listening, Reciting, Improvising and Composing. In the highly tangible and experiential world of the music classroom the stages of music engagement- listening, reciting, improvising- are fluid and students work back and forth between them in continuity. How vital are each of these stages in the learning of music and what implications might they have for us as Litearcy teachers. What would be the analogies for listening, reciting, improvising and to composing in the Literacy classroom, and how might it benefit our teaching of writing ? Away from the literacy debates over skills versus context, the music classroom would seem to poignantly demonstrate how skills and context can b inextricable partners in the learning process.

Kate Halcrow is a PhD student at the University of Sydney, and works full-time as a leader in a NSW Primary school. She worked for some years as the core teacher for a specialist music class at an independent school in Canberra and became interested in approaches being used in the music classes she observed. Kate has a specialist interest in Primary Writing, Drama and History, She is the founder and coordinator of a Schools Creative Writing Competition for Anti-Poverty week, now in its fourth year, with Jackie French as the competition judge.

Amanda McGraw with Mary Mason Pedagogies for teaching reading: imaginative acts of interaction

72 If reading is an imaginative act (McGraw & Mason, 2017), the teaching of reading must be orchestrated in ways which involve both students and teachers in meaningful, collaborative, and strategic acts of exploration. In this workshop we will present an experiential model for thinking about what effective readers do in secondary school English classes. The model has been developed during a four year Victorian Department of Education funded reading project that has been led by the Victorian Association for the Teaching of English (VATE). The model articulates a complex and imaginative concept of reading in classrooms which sees readers travelling on four intersecting planes of experience: wandering and returning, seeing and not seeing, internal and external voices and imagination and restraint. The workshop will involve the active exploration of pedagogical strategies which enable students and teachers to travel on and between these experiential planes in order to make sense of texts, develop and justify personal interpretations, and metacognitively understand personal reading processes. The workshop will also briefly examine the sorts of pedagogical approaches and institutional cultures which stand in the way of teachers and students reading in these ways.

McGraw, A. & Mason, M. (2017). Reading as an imaginative act. English in Australia. 52(2), p.9-19.

Dr Amanda McGraw is a Senior Lecturer who coordinates the Master of Teaching (Secondary) program at Federation University Australia. Amanda taught English for 20 years in state and independent schools and worked as the Education/Executive Officer at VATE for three years. Her research interests include the teaching of reading in English, dispositions for teaching, and partnerships in teacher education.

Mary Mason is a life member of VATE. Her career has focused on change in schools, particularly around increased agency for students. For the past two years she has been working with Dr Amanda McGraw on a project related to teaching reading for VATE with funding from the Victorian Department of Education.

73 Current Sessions Wednesday

Session 1

Imelda Judge Exploring, creating and Assessing Multimodal Texts for enhanced creativity in Stage 6 English

The increasing popularity of emerging multimodal texts opens up the potential for these texts to be part of an invigorating study in 21st century English classrooms. As composers and publishers now start to cater for more and more interest in this area are we ready to assist our students in responding to and composing in this field? With the multimodal requirements of the new Stage 6 syllabus, we can view this as an exciting opportunity to explore the variety of texts available, including mixed reality and virtual reality textual forms, and provide opportunities for students to unleash confidence in, not just responding to these diverse texts but in also, creating them; beyond their final years of school and testing and into the world of work.Attendees will need to bring their own devices and a mobile phone with data. Attendees are advised to preload the following apps to their phone for use on the day: Google Cardboard, HP Reveal and Guardian VR.

Imelda Judge has been teaching for nearly 20 years and has also worked at the Department of Education in state office in NSW in the Futures Learning unit. As a dedicated English teacher who loves technology and looks for creative ways to use technology to enhance student learning and engagement, Imelda has constantly sought out new texts to challenge student thinking about what makes a text suitable for study. Vanessa Refalo has been an English teacher for 7 years and worked tirelessly as a volunteer for ETANSW. She has passionately sought out new and emerging texts that can be used in the classroom, considering the creative ways we can use these texts in assessment and to inspire student creativity.

Kevin Price The English Teacher as Writer: A workshop from the Born Storytellers Creative Writing PD Masterclass for ATAR English Teachers

In an effective writing pedagogy, the learning writer and the teacher-as-writer team up to produce new experiences for learners, developing skills, understanding and knowledge as a shared, yet individual, resource for both learner and teacher. When the English classroom functions as both studio and workshop, the focus is on the space between the writers and the relationships between writers and their environment. Teachers share the same challenges and joys of writing that their students experience, and the transformative effect of creative writing as an important practice in knowledge making.

This workshop uses a rich, dynamic writing exercise complementing the Creative Writing PD Masterclass to demonstrate aspects of a studio/workshop classroom, and how it enhances the production of writing learning across all genres and forms, increasing learner confidence and cognitive skills. Participants will take away a powerful exercise they can use immediately in their classrooms to engage their students.

Kevin Price is a novelist, PhD research candidate in Creative Writing and Education, and a secondary English teacher. He is published in Writing in Education, and his research interest lies in the role of story and its transformative experience in Creative Writing study, practice and education.

Session 2

Janine Kelly and Leah McGill Embedding the Arts in Literacy Learning with ACTF resources

The ACTF's varied content, resources and virtual learning opportunities enable students to explore the Arts through viewing, responding, collaborating, and creating their own digital stories.

74 This workshop will feature case studies from primary and secondary educators who have successfully embedded the Arts in literacy learning through the use of ACTF materials, including: • Live student webinars • with actors, directors and producers • You're Skitting Me online comedy scriptwriting workshops • Our new F-2 music resource, aimed at supporting generalist teachers in teaching the basics • Little Lunch series, filmmaking app, and annual app competition for students • MY:24 series and documentary-making app • Dance Academy series, movie and ‘Arts Education' website. Participants will also be walked through new and upcoming ACTF content and resources, with reference to Australian Curriculum alignment.

An experienced primary teacher with a passion for children's programs and their educational potential, Janine Kelly produces curriculum-aligned resources that complement ACTF content. She facilitates virtual learning events for students, and supports teachers using ACTF materials through workshops and outreach to schools.

Leah McGill is a primary teacher who has worked with a range of year levels in her eight years at Parkfield Primary School. She is currently working with a class of Year Two students, and has a passion for integrating the Arts and Technology in the primary curriculum.

Jeni McCarthy A student centred pedagogical approach to teaching English within a 2 hour literacy block

St Bernard's has seen a shift in the pedagogical approach to the literacy block. Students are the centre of a balanced English program. Classroom teachers focus on teaching from the point of need and from where each student is placed on their continuum of learning. This is achieved through inquiry-based teacher led instruction, which focuses on individual conferencing. Through Sustained Reading and Sustained Writing and by broadening students reading of good literature, we have seen an increase in each student's willingness to become creative writers and enthused readers. This has been a K-6 pedagogical shift and has led us on a journey of discovery which has resulted in an agreed whole school approach. Teaching staff conduct reliable and consistent assessment and there has been a shift in our classroom support programs. The goal is to develop our student’s literacy skills to be effective English learners in the classroom.

Jeni McCarthy is a Teacher at St Bernard's Primary School, Batemans Bay. Jeni has a Masters in Special Education, Deakin University; is Reading Recovery and L2 trained. Jeni's current position as Early Learning Intervention teacher in Literacy and Numeracy, sees Jeni supporting staff and students Kindergarten to Year 6.

Katina Zammit Engaging the Reader: using knowledge of grammar to enhance writing

Writing literary and persuasive texts that engage the reader's attention requires knowledge of more than the basic structure, key language features and field knowledge. While this knowledge provides a basis upon which to build students' writing skills and confidence, teachers need to delve further into understanding interpersonal language choices and how these choices create an emotional response with a reader. Making explicit the interpersonal language choices with students provides them tools and vocabulary to employ in their own writing and contributes to meeting the outcomes of the Language and Literacy Strands of the Australian Curriculum: English.

In this workshop, participants will engage in activities to learn about evaluative language in the context of interpreting, analyzing, evaluating, and creating written texts. It will focus on (i) how we express attitudes, and (ii) how we engage the reader; the resources of Attitude and Engagement in the Appraisal system. Participants will learn about the language choices associated with these resources, analyse how selection of vocabulary (word, phrases and sentence level) contributes to the personal connection and reader's response to written text. They will also use this knowledge to create short literary and persuasive texts.

75 Katina Zammit works in the School of Education, Western Sydney University. She researches the teaching/learning of genre and grammar to support improved literacy outcomes of students from diverse backgrounds through explicit teaching of the resources of written, visual and multimodal texts. Katina works closely with teachers investigating pedagogical change.

Rozita Dass and Tracy Taylor Review, rethink and revise: collecting, interpreting and utilising student data to guide explicit literacy instruction

The teaching of literacy in Australia has been in the spotlight particularly over the past few years, with literacy levels reportedly remaining stagnant or declining (Birmingham, 2017). An Expert Advisory Panel appointed to provide advice on the development and implementation of a national Year 1 literacy (and numeracy) check concluded that "without appropriate teaching and effective assessment of phonics skills, many children will not be able to progress through their levels of schooling'_, recommending a national Phonics Screening Test be introduced which would "focus on the assessment of phonic knowledge'_ (Department of Education and Training, 2017).

While phonics instruction is central to the teaching of reading, reading involves more than accurate word recognition. A balanced approach, beginning with an analysis of the skills and knowledge children have already acquired as well as the additional knowledge and skills required for fluent reading with comprehension, is advocated.

With this in mind, this workshop aims to review, rethink and revise tried and tested strategies to improve the literacy proficiency of a child through hands-on activities on how to: • assess using a variety of observation tasks and assessments • rediscover a range of comprehension and processing strategies • apply these understandings in a one-to-one setting

Dr Rozita Dass is an academic lecturer and professional practice coordinator in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University. She teaches literacy units in the Bachelor and Master of Education programmes and coordinates practicum experience for pre-service teachers. Her research interests are literacy education, curriculum policies and practice, and teacher education.

Dr Tracy Taylor is a Sessional Academic at Edith Cowan University, teaching literacy units for pre-service and graduate teachers. Her ongoing interests include cross-curricula literacy, and literacy development for students with SEND. She is keen to share her passion for differentiating literacy learning to provide for a diverse range of students.

Robyn English Beyond character, plot and setting: the art of teaching students to use literary devices to improve writing

In this workshop, participants will use a short piece of text and learn how to rework it to use a range of literary devices. This model was used by teachers in the Lilydale District when they took 50 students on a 'Writers' C(r)amp' in 2017. The session will share experiences of the camp preparation and model strategies used to teach students in years 5, 6 and 7 to edit their work. The session is aimed at teachers who feel confident in teaching the basics but want to expand their repertoire to be able to teach students how to make their writing more complex and sophisticated. Robyn likes her workshops to be highly practical so attendance comes with a warning that participants will write!

Robyn English is a primary school principal and the reviews editor for Practical Literacy: the Early and Primary Years. She is a keen writer and has many years of experience working with primary and junior secondary school students in writing classrooms. Robyn has led professional learning workshops in a range of literacy skill areas and is a published author.

Michelle Avila Vanderburg, Charlotte Logan and Birgit Sambell Three Tried and True Activities for Arts Based Literacy Instruction

76 Recognizing that students benefit from having disciplinary literacy experiences has been a focus of recent professional literature (e.g. Beane, 1997; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2012). Integrating the arts with literacy enhances the content that is taught and benefits students' engagement, motivation, and achievement (Donahue & Stuart, 2010; Fiske, 1999), as well as provides opportunities for students to express themselves in creative ways. Under the guidance of university lecturer Dr. Michelle A. Vanderburg, two pre- service teachers, Charlotte Logan and Birgit Sambell, have recently explored using arts-based literacy activities (creating recipes, visual dictation, and music writing prompts) in primary practicum classrooms. In this presentation, the teachers will share their experiences and how these activities helped to develop their students' literacy skills. The presenters will explain how and why the activities could be used in various year level classrooms. Attendees will also be invited to participate in an arts-based activity.

Dr. Michelle Avila Vanderburg has a PhD in Language and Literacy and is a Senior Lecturer at Central Queensland University. She has taught primary, secondary and higher education settings. Her research background includes looking at inquiry methods, literacy coaching, and teaching effective literacy practices to pre-service teachers and prep-12 students.

Charlotte Logan is a pre-service teacher, studying Primary Education at Central Queensland University. She hopes to become a Primary school teacher, continuing her education with a Masters of Literacy.

Birgit Sambell is a pre-service teacher, studying Early Childhood Education at Central Queensland University. Her experience includes working in the childcare industry for the past 10 years and she hopes to further her career and become a Kindergarten or Primary school teacher.

Kristen Smith and Clare Polubinski The Art of Teaching Writing

This workshop explores the art of high quality writing instruction that one school has implemented to solve the problem of writing as a formulaic process whereby a text type is taught and students fill the boxes of a planning template to write according to the rules. Teachers were dissatisfied with this, students were bored and writing lacked creativity. The pedagogical approach to teaching writing changed from teaching a text type to teaching key qualities that define good writing. The 6+1 Trait Writing model for instruction and assessment helps students to think critically and to achieve high-quality writing. In this workshop, participants will hear about this innovation - the power of teaching writing as an art. They will explore how the writing traits - ideas, organisation, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation can be used to engage students in creative writing. Samples of student writing and learning engagements will be shared.

With over 25 years of experience, Kristen has taught in primary and junior secondary settings. She has led her teachers to improve student achievement in Writing and Spelling. She has a Diploma of Teaching, Bachelor of Education, Postgraduate Certificate of Gifted Education and Master of Education (Gifted Education).

Clare Polubinski is the PYP Head of Learning, Languages and a classroom teacher at Wesley College, Glen Waverley campus in Melbourne. She has also taught in an international PYP school in Hong Kong and is passionate about working with both teachers and students to improve teaching and learning practices.

Jenny Miraudo Ponder the Genre: The art of teaching genre in the English classroom

There are thousands of films on Netflix, ordered into just 14 genres. Within each genre, however, are hybrid titles placed in nuanced subcategories, blurring the lines of categorisation. Teaching students to understand and appreciate the ambiguities of genre is an art form. As a concept featured in senior syllabuses across Australia, it is critical we demystify genre and its structural, thematic and stylistic complexities. This workshop unpacks the challenges senior students face when tackling genre, from identifying generic conventions—and how they can be manipulated or subverted by creators of texts—to their evolution over time due to contextual factors. By examining a range of multimodal and print texts, participants in this workshop will strengthen and expand their pedagogical approach to teaching genre as a

77 critical aspect of the senior English syllabus. Attendees will be provided with text recommendations, strategies and resources to support their artful teaching of genre.

Jenny Miraudo is the Leader of Learning for the English Department at Newman College. She has a Master’s degree in curriculum design and assessment from the University of Western Australia and is passionate about designing meaningful teaching and learning programs. Jenny contributes to the Good Answer Guides for ATAR English.

Rosie Kerin Better Writing for All: A whole school project

This workshop examines the second year of a three- to five-year project designed to improve writing outcomes for all students, with a particular focus on Year 8 and 9 English (the first and second year of secondary education in most South Australian schools). We will detail initiatives within the English Faculty, and across the curriculum, as teachers worked collectively to improve the teaching of writing and student outcomes. We will examine the highs and lows as the team, including school leadership and all teachers, developed their whole school literacy agreement and: • focussed on attributes of quality writing • collaborated on curriculum, pedagogical and assessment design • addressed collaboration and diverse needs across the school.

Dr Rosie Kerin is a former English teacher, and university teacher/researcher. She now works as an independent education consultant and writer. The majority of her time is spent working with teachers in specialist workshops, or with school teams developing and supporting English and Literacy projects aimed at increasing student engagement and success.

Karen Rohde is the English Coordinator and a driving member of the Better Writing for All Team at John Pirie Secondary School. She has extensive knowledge of teaching in challenging situations and is currently working with her team and Dr Rosie Kerin to improve writing and literacy for all students.

Roger Nottage is the Principal of John Pirie Secondary School, and the driving force behind the Better Writing for All Project. He maintains an active role with staff and students in raising the profile and value of written

Rita van Haren Teaching Writing Digitally

Are you interested in online professional learning that is asynchronous and flexible? The ACT Association for the Teaching of English trialled an online course on teaching writing digitally in 2017. In the course teachers explored and practised some of the affordances of teaching in online environments including metacognition, active knowledge making, differentiation, multimodality, feedback and collaboration. This session will include reflections on our trial and our plans for the course in term 3, 2018 and beyond.

Wendy Cumming-Potvin and Veronica Gardiner Literacy Arts and English Classrooms: Opening conversations about LGBTQI human rights

Recently, following resounding public approval through a national postal survey, The Australian Government legislated for marriage equality, thereby openly supporting LGBTQI human rights. Yet, many educational stakeholders continue to highlight that due to discrimination and bullying, school cultures are often detrimental to the health and well-being of LGBTQI affirming students, staff and families - a phenomenon which also negatively impacts society more broadly (Strauss et al., 2017; Ullman & Ferfolja, 2015; United Nations Human Rights Council, 2017, WA Commissioner for Children and Young People, 2017). As literacy educators /researchers committed to social justice and academic inquiry, we draw 78 primarily on a Young and Well Collaborative Research Centre project to ripple traditional educational waters, by asking expansive questions, such as: What are the possibilities and constraints for literacy arts to open up conversations about LGBTQI human rights in classrooms? More pointedly, how are a group of English secondary teachers currently navigating these spaces? Further, how can multimedia texts and literature be used to celebrate sociocultural diversity? And finally, how can such literacy resources be appropriately mapped to the Australian curriculum? (Pearce, Gardiner, Cumming-Potvin & Martino, 2016).

Wendy Cumming-Potvin is an Associate Professor at Murdoch University. She has been a Visiting Professor at McGill University in Quebec, Canada and is currently an Affiliate Member of the International Gender Studies Centre at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. Wendy is the recipient of a Vice- Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her research/teaching interests are in literacy education, human rights, diversity, online learning and community engagement.

Veronica Gardiner has been a PhD candidate and Commonwealth Scholarship recipient at Murdoch University, Western Australia, since early 2015. Veronica’s research specialises in exploring and advocating conceptually informed teaching and learning, inclusive of diverse contemporary literacy practices.

Bev Steer Stimulating Students to Write Creatively

This presentation will address a wide genre of written responses demanded of students in the curriculum. Ideas to encourage and motivate our students to write creatively will be shared. The teacher engaging in writing tasks in class and seeking feedback from students on their own writing piece is a powerful learning experience for all involved. This can provide ideas and approaches for both the talented writer and the student who believes they cannot write. Use of a variety of feedback strategies, including teacher, peer and group feedback, along oral and written a variety of feedback assist students to develop their writing style. This combined with regular reflective practice can move a student’s writing skills forward? Share in some ideas to stimulate and motivate the wide range of a in our classes, including the hesitant writer.

Bev Steer teaches in Middle School. She has background in Gifted Education, empowering her provision for all learners and is currently assisting with Carey professional development. Her passions are teaching, learning and thinking philosophies and delivering International, National Conference presentations.She has been a sessional lecturer at Monash University and has attendance at Havard University extending her knowledge of Visible Thinking.

Therese Barrington and Joanna Winchester Writing - a solo or ensemble creation? Writing Collaboratively using Process Drama Pedagogy.

In 2017, the analysis of the Naplan results shows a sharp decline in students writing skills across all year levels (www.naplan.edu.au/results-and-reports). Hattie (2009) found an effect size of 0.59 for cooperative learning when compared to individual work. Process drama pedagogy can form the basis of a new approach to writing by linking the process of group devising, rehearsal and feedback (including peer and teacher feedback) to the development of writing. This allows for a critical approach to drafting as students collaborate with their peers and teachers to create a piece of creative writing that collates the collective skills of the group alongside critical feedback from the teacher. Conference delegates will be taken through the collaborative writing process of drafting and re-drafting. Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Milton Park, UK: Routledge.

Dr. Therese Barrington lectures in English and Literacy Education and Educational Psychology in the Primary and Secondary education courses at ACU. Therese has spent 32 years as an English teacher and Faculty Head in secondary schools in NSW. Her passion is in developing self-efficacy for the teaching of English.

Dr Winchester is a Drama and Arts Education Lecturer at ACU and teaches within Primary and Secondary education courses. Joanna's doctoral research investigated the artistic and social practices that community arts organizations employ within communities. Dr Winchester uses a multidisciplinary approach to her research, involving education, performance and cultural studies.

Robyn Henderson, Linda Mahony, Julie Falkner and Christine Edwards-Groves The art of writing for ALEA's Journals

Writing journal articles is an art, as is knowing how to select and target a journal for getting an article published. This workshop will cater for novice and accomplished writers seeking to be published in ALEA's journals. It will introduce prospective authors to some of the ALEA journal editors: Linda Mahony from Practical Literacy: the Early and Primary Years. Julie Faulkner from Literacy Learning: the Middle Years and Christine Edwards-Groves from the Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. The workshop will begin with a whole group presentation from ALEA’s publications director and the three editors/associate editors. This will be followed by small group discussions with the editors. The editors will discuss a range of specific aspects of getting published, including timelines, how the publication process works, and the writing support that is on offer. Audience members will be able to ask specific questions about writing for publication.

Robyn Henderson is ALEA's Publication Director and an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Southern Queensland. She has extensive experience of writing and editing and a long history of teaching and research in the literacy field.

Linda Mahony is one of the two editors of Practical Literacy: the Early and Primary Years. She is a senior lecturer in education and researcher in literacy and the early years at Charles Sturt University.

Julie Faulkner is one of the two editors of Literacy Learning: the Middle Years. She has taught in secondary and upper primary English classrooms for many years. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at Monash University.

Christine Edwards-Groves is an associate editor of the Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. She is an associate professor at Charles Sturt University. She previously worked for several years as a literacy consultant and primary school teacher.

Session 3

Short Talks Mathew Lillyst Art appreciation for all: using classical literature and traditional texts to engage and upskill students.

Text selection in English is no easy task. Many factors are taken into consideration, such as student interests, literacy levels and the potential for disengagement. Classical texts can be potentially challenging and demanding, with many teachers opting for accessible contemporary texts. However, this denies students access to the greatest works and writers the world has ever seen. Exposing young people to the masterpieces of the literary world, with the right teaching strategies, can develop our students in unforeseen ways. Try picturing a class of Year 10 reluctant readers discussing symbolism and the fragility of civilisation in William Golding’s classic Lord of the Flies. Imagine a class with low literacy levels, and a disdain for English, detailing the elements of a Shakespearean Tragedy in Macbeth. Opportunities to appreciate the classics will allow students to experience the true Art of English, and potentially foster a love for English as an Art.

Mathew Lillyst is an English teacher at Muswellbrook High School in rural New South Wales, teaching Years 8 to 12. In 2018, his short story ‘Recognised’ was published in the anthology Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia. He is curren tly undertaking a Master of Arts (Writing and Literature) at Deakin University.

Laurie "Darian" Thrailkill Unconventional Text: How to Read Games

As our understanding of what constitutes literacy continues to expand (Gee, 2015) what counts as literature needs to begin to expand with it. Educators strive to provide students with meaningful interactions with literature so that they can learn how to decode, understand, use, and analyze 80 those texts (Freebody & Luke, 2003) to participate effectively in society. The Australian Curriculum calls for students to be able to "interpret and analyse" spoken, written, visual, and multimodal texts (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority).

Students today are exposed to a variety of literacy modes that have developed with new technologies (Alvermann, 2011). All texts are shaped by the social practice that surrounded their creation (McDonald, 2013), including unconventional text. Games are a type of interactive narrative with the potential to help students make sense of cultural and social contexts (Glassner, 2001). To prevent students from being passive and uncritical consumers (Alvermann, 2011) educators need to support students' interactions with unconventional texts like games. Using the four resources model (Freebody & Luke, 2003), this presentation provides a roadmap for educators to support their students' engagement with games which are an unconventional, but engaging, type of text.

Laurie (Darian) Thrailkill is a graduate student at the University of Wyoming currently pursuing a doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction, with a focus in Literacy. Darian's research focus is on how unconventional texts can be used for learning. She received the ARF Graduate Student Scholarship in 2016.

Bree Hansen Reflections from an early Literature Teacher “Reflections from an Early Literature Teacher” explores some of the insecurities experienced in teaching this subject for the first time and therefore is designed for Senior School teachers who are new to teaching, or new to teaching Literature. This talk will address some of the key differences between ATAR English and Literature, including content, pedagogy and student expectations and will share the audience some effective strategies to ensure students engage and understand how to achieve their desired outcomes. Most of all, in sharing the art of teaching literature, attendees will gain an appreciation for some of the challenges experienced by others and build their confidence in classroom delivery.

Bree Hansen is a Senior Teacher who engaged in diverse roles within education. She taught in London, led the integrated WACE Team at the Australian Trades College and was a consultant for DET Statewide Services. In 2013 she returned to Shenton College, and has taught Year 11 Literature for 3 years. 2018 will be the first year she teaches Year 12 Literature.

Tracy Radbone Songwriting 101

Can you strum a guitar or pick out a tune on the piano? Then why not bring Music into your poetry unit? Instead of just writing poetry with your class, why not learn a few handy musical skills to help you to lead the class in some song-writing? What a different way to teach students structure, tone, narrative, iambs, rhyming, subject matter, starting from what they know, popular songs. We will look at some ways in which you can support your students, including a quick lesson in chords and some free online resources which can help you. We will investigate ballads, blues, sonnets and rap, plus invite sharing of other poetry types which can have a musical link.

Tracy Radbone has taught English and Music for over 30 years to students of all ages. She has just finished teaching English and Music in an International IB school in Jakarta, Indonesia, where, among other classes, she has experimented in teaching song-writing to children of varying ages and abilities.

Jayne Caley and Vanessa Barber The Art of Teaching English to Our Youngest Learners

A desire to engage our youngest students in the literate world through their own interests and discoveries has taken us down the path of exploring inquiry and play based learning. Rather than being a 'reward' for when the real learning is completed, the opportunity to pursue their curiosities and passions becomes the work of students. This session will explore the Art of Teaching English through a play based environment where the formal and explicit instruction of English springboards from students own interests and engagement in play based experiences. Videos, photos and anecdotal stories will illustrate the use of this

81 pedagogy for students aged 3-8 years. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to consider the environment as a third teacher and the way that provocations can be incorporated into the environment to facilitate learning.

Jayne has worked as an early years teacher in independent and catholic schools and is also involved in the delivery of initial teacher education programs. Jayne believes that early childhood educators need to work with a pedagogy of engagement to capture the hearts and minds of our youngest students.

Vanessa has implemented play and inquiry based learning in many classes across the primary school at Geraldton Grammar. Throughout her career she has taught in various schools in Western Australia and New Zealand. Vanessa is passionate about intentional teaching and play based learning.

Jennifer Crowley and Kathy Ferrari Re-framing Readers Resourcefully - The Art of Developing New Pedagogies for Struggling Middle Years Students

Struggling readers in the upper primary & early secondary years are faced with a future of negative self concept, disadvantage and disengagement as they grapple with the challenges of reading to learn across the curriculum. How can we best interrupt this trajectory and re-frame these learners as strategic, resourceful readers? This session reports on the second stage of an exciting reading intervention for late primary and early secondary students involving daily small group reading opportunities, explicit teaching, home reading challenges with blogging and teacher networking. Students were supported and expected to talk and think their way strategically through increasingly complex texts around high interest topics. Two and a half years into the intervention as a system of schools we have seen significant growth in all assessment measures in comprehension and vocabulary, but more importantly the intervention has had a major impact on student attitude and self-confidence. We argue that these results are too compelling to ignore - an opportunity such as this should be available to all upper primary and early secondary students at risk in reading!

Jennifer Crowley is a Literacy Teaching Educator with Catholic Education, Diocese of Parramatta. She has been teaching for over 25 years, having worked in a number of teaching, leadership and consultancy roles in New South Wales and South Australia.

Kathy Ferrari is a Literacy Manager with Catholic Education, Diocese of Parramatta. She has been teaching for 25 years and has also worked as an Assistant Principal. She is President of Sydney West ALEA, and has also had this role in Sydney North.

John Nicholas Saunders and Robyn Ewing The art of using drama based pedagogy in Primary English Classrooms

This practical workshop will share the methodology of School DramaTM program, developed by Sydney Theatre Company and The University of Sydney's School of Education and Social Work with Professor Robyn Ewing AM. School Drama is a professional development program for primary school teachers, which demonstrates the impact of using drama-based pedagogy combined with quality children's literature to teach a range of English and literacy skills including inferential comprehension, confidence in oracy, descriptive language and narrative writing. Research into the program has indicated increased student outcomes in both academic (English and literacy) and non-academic (engagement, motivation, confidence and empathy) areas. Teachers will leave this practical and engaging workshop with a range of practical process drama-based strategies to use when teaching literature in any primary classroom context.

Robyn Ewing AM (B.Ed Hons, PhD) is a former primary teacher and currently Professor of Teacher Education and the Arts, Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney. She lectures in Curriculum, English, Literacy and Drama across preservice and postgraduate teacher education programs. She is passionate about the role that the Arts can play in transforming learning and has a commitment to creative teaching and learning at all levels of education. In the areas of English, literacy and the arts, Robyn's research and writing has particularly focused on the use of educational or process drama with literature to develop students' imaginations and critical literacies She has worked in partnership with Sydney Theatre Company on the School Drama program since 2009. Her writing and research has also explored arts informed research methodologies, mentoring and the experiences of early career

82 teachers, curriculum storylines and inquiry and case based learning. She has worked as an academic mentor with teachers at a range of Sydney primary and secondary schools with the major focus on transforming the curriculum using Arts as critical, quality pedagogy. Robyn is an Honorary Associate at STC, Australian Film, Telecision and Radio (AFTRS), a board member of West Worlds and an honorary scholar at Barking Gecko Theatre.

Josefine Wang and Claire Burton Exploring the Unknown: A creative writing workshop

We often tell our students to "write what you know" but this approach doesn't always provide us with the most interesting stories to read. This interactive workshop focuses on developing pedagogy in both primary and secondary contexts to teach creative writing skills. Participants will partake in a number of activities that explore what we do know and how we use these experiences to inspire creative writing. Exploring experiences through the lens of creative writing will encourage participants to become creative in their language choices while staying authentic to their personal voice and writing style. Using experiences to write about the unknown will not only develop participants' abilities to write better, but it will encourage them to explore a more creative direction, and hopefully they won't wake up to realise it was all a dream.

Josefine Wang is an English teacher at Atwell College and is particularly interested in differentiation and developing activities and pedagogy to support this. Currently she is focusing on establishing creative writing and critical thinking skills in students. Josefine has been a member of the ETAWA since June 2017.

Claire Burton began teaching in 2013 and is currently an English teacher and the Year 11 coordinator at Shenton College in Perth. She was involved in the Shenton Teacher Development School (TDS) in 2014- 15, focusing on developing and sharing programs and assessments for the WACE English courses. She has delivered professional learning on the implementation of the new WACE courses for the ETAWA. Claire has been a council member of the ETAWA since 2016.

Karen Yager The Artistry of Writing

If our students are to be inspired to write with artistry they need to experience quality texts. We need to remember to encourage our students to delight in the aesthetic and powerful use of language. Our students are apprentice writers who need to learn from the masters. It takes time, effort and practice to achieve artistry, and the process is iterative. If students are given the opportunity like great writers to reimagine, experiment and refine their writing, then every student can improve their skills and become increasingly 83 confident and proficient writers. This workshop will provide literacy strategies and ideas for how to support students to improve the artistry of their writing. The initial focus will be on using a range of quality literary and cultural texts that engage and inspire students. A range of mini-lessons that immerse students in the writing process, enable them to appreciate the power of the written language, improve their craft and unleash their creativity will be shared. There will be opportunities to share ideas and develop further strategies together.

Karen Yager is the Deputy Head 7-12 & Head of Student and Teacher Excellence K-12 at Knox Grammar School, an English method lecturer at UNSW and president of ETA NSW. Karen has contributed to many journals and professional publications and has been a presenter at State, National, and International conferences. She is a Premier's Literary Scholarship winner and in 2013 the Singapore Ministry of Education awarded her their first ever International Teaching Fellowship. In 2014, Karen was awarded the prestigious APTA (Australian Professional Teachers' Association) for Meritorious Contribution to the Profession Award.

Allison Skerrett How to Artfully Redesign Your English Curriculum Using a Transnationally-Inclusive Framework

Transnational people are those who live their lives across two or more nations to maximize their life opportunities, while maintaining active familial, sociocultural, economic and other ties to the multiple nations they call home. Recent data releases from world migration organizations report up to 31 million school-age transnational youths. In this interactive workshop, English/literacy teachers will engage in activities that help them identify transnational students in their schools and classrooms. Participants will read and discuss classroom vignettes of English/literacy teachers whose classrooms include transnational students engaged in inquiry into students’ languages, literacies, and cultures; reading and analyzing literature; and engaging in multilingual and multimodal compositions that draw out transnational experiences and literacy competencies. Workshop participants will reflect upon and discuss their English education practices and (re)-imagine with others how they could implement these transnationally-inclusive curriculum and instructional practices, and other like-minded practices they themselves begin designing, that will uniquely fit their teaching contexts and student populations. All teachers will leave the workshop with stronger understandings of transnationalism and what the phenomenon means for English education, and with robust ideas and initial designs of how they can move their art of English teaching toward greater inclusiveness of transnationalism and transnational students.

Jeffrey Lewis Multiple Dimensions: Science Fiction Narratives

This workshop will explore a range of learning experiences designed to enhance the aesthetic qualities of student's narrative writing within the context of a Year 8 Science Fiction unit. Using creative work from different mediums (including music, video games, visual art and short film) as stimulus, this workshop will outline a range of simple creative activities designed specifically to inspire evocative, imaginative writing.

Jeffrey Lewis is an English teacher at Brisbane Grammar School. He is the current Secretary for English Teachers Association of Queensland (ETAQ).

84 Anna Sanderson is an English teacher at Brisbane Grammar School. She has been teaching for 10 years and has taught both in Australia and abroad.

Meridie Howley Using emerging online text types, such as interactive web documentaries and hyper-linked texts, to explore conventions of texts with secondary students

Creators of texts are experimenting with a range of multimedia tools to create innovative, experimental texts that take new forms such as interactive web documentaries and digitally augmented, hyperlinked or GPS responsive prose or poetry texts. These emerging online texts are more than just onscreen versions of print texts but explore the range of possibilities offered by technology to further the art of communication. Online texts provide opportunities to explore the conventions of texts types and can be unique in providing a non-linear narrative, a degree of choice and active participation on the part of the reader, and take some of the power and control over the text from the creator to give it to the reader. The Senior Secondary Australian curriculum has incorporated the analysis of digital or online texts into English courses and in South Australia we have further promoted these text types through our course design, text lists and example tasks. In this workshop you will be introduced to a range of digital texts of various genres and consider how these might be used in the English classroom to explore text conventions and inspire students in innovative ways. There is more to studying online texts than just exploring social media.

Meridie Howley is currently a Senior SACE Officer of Curriculum and Assessment for the SACE Board of South Australia. She is involved in managing curriculum development and assessment and quality assurance processes in a range of English subjects at the senior secondary level. Prior to this she was a passionate and enthusiastic secondary school teacher with almost 30 years of experience.

Mike Lefroy, Joy Lefroy and Robyn McKeon Escape Into Stories/ innovative partnerships

When literature and digital technologies are partnered, they offer us the opportunity to expand the art of storytelling. Authors Mike and Joy Lefroy, with Digital Consultant Robin McKean, bring another dimension to exploring and understanding some of the stories that have special significance this year. 2018 marks the 150th anniversary of the last convict ship to travel to Australia. Many of the convicts were Irish Fenians, some of whom later escaped from Fremantle Prison to freedom. 2018 also marks the 250th anniversary since James Cook left England on a voyage that would lead directly to the European settlement of Australia in 1788. The Catalpa Escape and Captain Cook's Endeavour authored by the Lefroys' open a window into our rich past. During this workshop the authors share some of their stories and research before you explore integrated digital storytelling and literary skills solutions.

Mike's passion for connecting people, especially children, with their history drew him to writing. His family heritage includes WA's first Surveyor General JS Roe, and Chief Engineer, CY O'Connor. His publications with Fremantle Press, Black Dog and Walker Books include picture books, junior novels, non-fiction and education resources.

Joy is an author and education consultant who embraces an inquiry-based approach to learning. With Mike Lefroy (Museums Without Walls) they develop and deliver hands-on local history excursions and incursions. Joy's publications include The Pipeline CY O'Connor Built, The Catalpa Escape and education resources for National Trust and Heritage Perth.

Robin is the WA project officer with the Computer Science Education Research team at the University of Adelaide. As a former Teacher Librarian, Learning Technologies Specialist, Curriculum and STEM Coordinator she is an advocate for the use of digital solutions that will future proof storytelling and the Art of English.

Paula Beck and Nicole Edwards Reading Assessment: Where are we going wrong?

85 The P-10 English curriculum in Australia celebrates engagement with and enjoyment of a wide range of texts across a range of cultural contexts, but in practice it appears the link between curriculum and assessment is not strong in many schools. Based on consideration of hundreds of P-10 English work samples, as well as discussions with teachers across Western Australia, we've identified common issues in the assessment of reading.

In this workshop information will be shared on issues with: • decoding vs comprehension • assessment tasks • grading • levelled readers • text selection, and discuss the impacts these have on the assessment of reading across early childhood, primary and secondary contexts. This session will encourage teachers to reflect on their own current practices (and those of their school) in the teaching and assessment of reading, as well as encouraging a renewed focus on literary texts for pleasure in the classroom.

Paula is Principal Consultant P-10 English and 11-12 Literature at School Curriculum and Standards in WA. She is also a board member of The Literature Centre. Paula has an interest in reading choices; how and what schools choose as texts for English, compared to how kids read outside school.

Nicole Edwards, a primary trained teacher, is currently employed at School Curriculum and Standards as Principal Consultant: P-6 English. She works closely with educators in the development of support materials for the planning, teaching and assessing of the English curriculum for Western Australian schools.

Juliet Paine Artfully Thinking - using scaffolds and other visual cues to develop critical thinking and essay writing in the middle years.

In this workshop, we will look at practical strategies to engage English students in the middle years and improve their analysis skills. In particular, the use of visually engaging scaffolds and other cues will be shared, and how these enable students of differing abilities to succeed both in critical reading and essay writing.

Juliet Paine is an English teacher at Loreto College in Adelaide. She has also previously held positions including Head of English at Loreto, SACE Exam Marker and Moderator and has been on the SAETA Council. She has published two poetry collections and her writing has appeared on ABC RN and in The Weekend Australian.

Simmone Pogorzelski A tale of two theories

Until recently, the use of predictable texts has been a dominant feature of early reading instruction. A recent focus on synthetic phonics however, has led to curriculum changes which now require children to also read decodable texts. While this addition recognises the importance of making the alphabetic code transparent to young readers during the process of reading connected text, continued reference to the three-cueing system in the curriculum documents suggests that the use of texts, and the reading models underlying them, is not well understood. On the one hand, decodable texts require children to blend known letter-sounds together, while the words that face young children in predictable texts rely on language skills and a growing bank of high frequency sight words. This session will explore the important question: what is it about each text that contributes to the development of early reading progress?

Simmone is a PhD candidate at Edith Cowan University and the recipient of two scholarships: the ECU Higher Degree by Research scholarship and the Dr Susan Holland scholarship. She is a senior product developer with MultiLit and a sessional academic in the School of Education at ECU.

Grace Oakley The art and science of using mobile devices in literacy learning 86

In this presentation, Grace Oakley will discuss and illustrate how mobile learning theory and research can be used to guide the use of mobile devices in literacy teaching and learning. Grace will discuss and appraise several practices with reference to established and emerging mobile learning theory, referring to dimensions such as context, personalisation and collaboration. She will make references to her upcoming edited book, Mobile Technologies and Language and Literacy: Innovative Pedagogy in Preschool and Primary Education, to be published by Emerald Publishing, which includes chapters by literacy researchers and expert practitioners from around the world.

Grace Oakley is a teacher and researcher at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Western Australia, where she also coordinates the MTeach (Primary) course. Grace has an interest in the relationships between literacies and technologies and how innovative practices using technology can transform literacy learning. She is currently the ALEA State Director for Western Australia.

Margaret Merga with Veronica Gardiner A whole school approach to reading engagement in your primary or secondary school: practical tips from the research

In the Australian Curriculum, literacy is now positioned as a general capability to be taught across all subject areas, and as such, the art of teaching literacy is no longer seen as confined within the English subject area, nor is it the sole responsibility of the English teacher or literacy specialist. In recent years, this has led to a reimagining of the role that schools play in fostering literacy skills and reading engagement. Firstly, we will explore how the whole school literacy approach is defined, and how the position of reading engagement, as a key literacy area, is represented in the whole school literacy policies of contemporary Australian schools. Secondly, we will highlight the importance of making the fostering of reading engagement a key pillar of a whole school literacy approach. Finally, we will draw on recent peer-reviewed research to share practical ideas for promoting a whole school reading culture that promotes reading engagement both at school and beyond, providing take-away ideas that can be used in your schools

Dr Margaret Merga is a Senior Lecturer at Curtin University. She is keenly interested in the position of reading and books in the contemporary world. Her research has contributed to a broader understanding of the role that teachers, librarians and parents can play in supporting young people to become life-long readers.

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88 Session 4

Sharon Moloney and Helen Middleton Cultivating curiosity, creativity and connections: building all learners to be readers and writers.

"Reading and writing are reciprocal processes and instruction is likely to be most powerful when they are treated as such" (Duke, 2014). This workshop looks at the ways reading and writing are intertwined and literacy is developed for children with disabilities and additional learning needs through a variety of texts. Participants will be taken through a number of ways to build the reading / writing connection in a classroom through student passions, collaboration with peers and the use of technology to support literacy acquisition and access to the curriculum.

Sharon Moloney is an executive teacher at Turner School in the ACT, teaching both mainstream and special education and is the lead literacy coach within the school. Sharon has previously presented at National ALEA conferences, the Asia-Pacific Congress on Creating Inclusive Schools as well as other conferences within the ACT.

Helen Middleton is a lead special education teacher at Turner School in the ACT and works with the Disability Coordinator to support and mentor other special education teachers within the school. Helen is highly collaborative, innovative and brings a deep understanding of curriculum and evidence-based pedagogy to her practice.

Kerry Gehling Comprehension- A Deep Understanding

The opportunity to develop a deep understanding that is connected to and informs a developing knowledge situated within social, cultural and historical contexts is important for the development of citizens who have agency in their world. To achieve this agency, students need opportunity to bring their prior knowledge, values and beliefs to the interpretation and internalization of new information and understandings. However, the explicit teaching of comprehension has largely focused on the teaching of identified comprehension strategies. Recently, through the Australian Curriculum and from some researchers, there has been a call to expand this approach to incorporate critical comprehension. This workshop will present a range of concepts and associated practices that underpin the teaching of critical comprehension. Participants will be asked to question and explore ways that these could be used to inform the teaching of relevant, cross-curriculum programs that promote critical comprehension.

Kerry is a PhD student investigating critical comprehension. She has worked for many years as a teacher, literacy consultant and in curriculum leadership as well as publishing - books, papers and units of work. Kerry's keen interest in the way people learn and comprehend has led to questions about and an investigation into comprehension and the way that teachers tackle the call to 'teach comprehension'

Cynthia Brock, Fenice Boyd, Dr David Caldwell and Laurie (Darian) Thrailkill Book Club: An instructional framework for nurturing children’s inquiry with picture books

Although literature is one of the three central components of ACARA English, many teachers have questions about meaningful ways to engage children with quality children's literature (McDonald, 2014). In this interactive workshop, teachers will experience a Book Club lesson and then step back and examine the components of a 'typical' Book Club lesson. A central feature of this workshop will be modeling how to use functional grammar within a book club framework to analyze illustrations in an award-winning children's picture book that focuses on diversity (Callow, 2011). Teachers will leave this session with concrete plans for: (1) ways to use Book Club as an instructional framework to implement the literature component of ACARA in their classrooms, (2) ideas for incorporating Book Club into their overall classroom literacy program, (3) ideas for quality literature to use in primary, junior primary and middle school classrooms, (4) ideas for integrating Luke and Freebody's (1990) four reading practices (e.g., code breaker, text participants, text user & text analyst) with Book Club, (5) concrete examples of ways to use functional grammar to analyze illustrations in a children's picture book, and (6) a list of references and resources for additional reading about Book Club.

89 Cynthia Brock's primary teaching interests include literacy instruction for children in the middle and upper- primary grades, literacy and diversity, and qualitative methods. She studies the literacy learning of upper- elementary children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Her current work focuses on disciplinary literacy teaching and learning in the primary grades.

Fenice Boyd is Professor and Department Chair in Education at the University South Carolina. Her teaching and research interests focus on effectively using young adult literature, written from diverse perspectives, to foster students' engagement with texts. She was a visiting scholar at the University of South Australia in 2015.

Dr David Caldwell is Program Director for the Master of Education, Master of Education (TESOL) and the Graduate Diploma in Education Studies (Digital Learning) at the University of South Australia. He is particularly interested in the application of Systemic Functional Linguistics to contemporary language contexts.

Laurie (Darian) Thrailkill is a doctoral student at the University of Wyoming. A former elementary and middle school teacher, her teaching and research interests include disciplinary literacy (focus area mathematics) and gaming as it relates to literacy teaching and learning.

Kylie Pedler Bookmaking, Read Alouds and Explicit Mini-Lessons: strategies towards composing written texts

How do you balance free choice writing with explicit teaching of genre and grammar? How do you support children to see themselves as writers and encourage them to write more? The answer:

Read alouds to hook students in and expose them to a wonderful world of vocabulary and language; Mini lessons to identify and explore the author and illustrator techniques; and Bookmaking as a chance to play and experiment with words and pictures in a student centred, non-threatening way.

This workshop will give an overview of how one teacher incorporated these strategies in the writing program, valuing each child's prior knowledge, their voice and their creativity while helping them to build a growth mindset about being competent, capable learners. Using these strategies empowered learners to be creative risk takers and flourish as writers. The workshop will include practical examples and hands-on experiences.

An experienced Early Years and EAL Primary School Teacher, Kylie currently works at St Gabriel's School. Her work consists of classroom and small group teaching while supporting teachers to foreground language within the teaching and learning cycle. Kylie is the editor of Composing Written Texts across the curriculum F-6

Terry Locke From event to rubric: Responding to the student writer

This workshop begins with a writing task and considers a range of issues involved in the art of providing supportive feedback to writers who are likely to be experiencing anxiety and a lack of confidence. Participants will have an opportunity to respond to writing and consider what is involved in the development of a rubric, i.e. a marking guide that is customised to a particular type of text.

Until his recent retirement, Terry Locke was Professor of Arts and Language Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato. His research interests over the years have included: constructions of curriculum, assessment practice, teacher professionalism and self-efficacy, the teaching of literature and the teaching of writing across the curriculum. His most recent books are: Developing writing teachers (Routledge, 2015) and (with Teresa Cremin) Writer identity and the teaching and learning of writing (Routledge, 2017)

Kerri-Jane Burke Writing Teachers: a New South Wales experience

90 This practical workshop explores the community of practice that is the ETA Writing Teachers. With an increasing emphasis on a teacher's writing identity and the need for us to regain the importance of iterative writing practices, it is important for English teachers to reinvigorate or discover the art of writing. We begin with an overview of current theoretical perspectives on the benefits of writing teachers, for themselves and their students, and consider organisational models for creating and sustaining writing communities. We will engage in a range of strategies to gather words and ideas in order to write, read and share our compositions. We conclude with a brief discussion on the implications for our classrooms and future projects.

Kerri-Jane Burke is Head Teacher of English at Moss Vale High, an Executive Officer of the ETANSW and Professional Development Committee member. She has contributed articles to several journals and publications, and led the Moss Vale Community of Schools Transition Writing Project incorporating English Textual Concepts. Kerri-Jane is an experienced HSC marker and regularly presents at state and national conferences. Her interests include collaborative creative writing and promoting literacy through engaging texts, such as music videos. In August 2015, Kerri-Jane received the prestigious Premier's Teacher Scholarship to research her passion for Teacher and Student writing projects in the UK. She actively pursuing several writing opportunities for teachers and students, and was guest editor of the Writing Teachers edition of mETAphor (Issue 3, 2017).

Lorraine McDonald Evidence-based literary appreciation: Learning to evaluate authors' use of language and style

English as Art: The workshop draws on award winning literary texts to consider how the language engages their audience. The language techniques of appraisal are explicitly explored to demonstrate the power of language in persuading readers to particular points of view. English through the Arts: The use of fiction and non-fiction texts expands the curriculum focus and the special effect of language use as a subtle 'persuader' in content areas is explored. The workshop utilises an 'identify, describe, explain' sequence to support teachers' work and to encourage a move towards higher order interpretation and inference.

Dr Lorraine McDonald was a Senior Lecturer at Australian Catholic University (Sydney) and is the author of the best-selling text 'A literature companion for teachers' (2nd ed., 2018). Lorraine has taught undergraduate and postgraduate levels in all areas of literature, linguistics and literacy. She was a classroom teacher, has taught at tertiary level in Australia, the USA and UK over several decades. She has worked with undergraduate and post-graduate teachers in the fields of Literacy Education, Literature for Children and Young Adults, Linguistics and Drama and continues to work in these fields for several different Australian Universities. Lorraine is the author of the best-selling 'A literature companion for teachers' (2nd ed., 2018). She contributed to the multi-modal and literary teaching/learning experiences within the Global Words online resource as a content editor, was a writer for the Indigenous curriculum resource Yarning Strong and is the second presenter in PETAA's Project 40 set of online videos and papers. Lorraine regularly presents at national and international conferences and delivers a range of professional development workshops around the world.

Melanie Hobbs and Rebecca Ewing The Art of Teaching Narrative Point of View

In this hands-on workshop, attendees will work through a number of exercises designed to build their confidence as writers, as well as equip them with a number of strategies they can take back to their English classrooms. The focus will be on narrative point of view, and the workshop will cover: when to use first person vs. third person point of view, how to build a protagonist's memories and thoughts into your narrative, and how to develop an original yet authentic voice for your narrator. We'll also experiment with non-human narrators and unexpected perspectives. Come prepared to do some writing!

Melanie Hobbs has been a teacher of English for ten years, during which she has worked in a rural school, presented at state conference, and completed a Master of Curriculum Studies degree at the University of Western Australia. She is currently teaching at Darling Range Sports College in Forrestfield.

91 Rebecca Ewing has taught English in public and independent secondary schools for the past eight years. She completed a Master of Education degree at the University of Western Australia in 2017 and is currently teaching at Santa Maria College in Attadale, Perth.

Peter Jones New Media: art forms for millennials

The hashtag is ten years old. Yet engaging with new media, such as blogs, video games, and podcasts, can be difficult in the English classroom both from a technical standpoint and knowing a new set of codes and conventions. Students in out classrooms are often voracious consumers and creators of digital texts. Just as we introduced magazines in the 80s and graphic novels in the 90s, we need to now include digital texts into our repertoire in order to continue to teach students to be critical consumers of popular media. This workshop will focus on integrating digital cultural texts into the English curriculum and approachs to explore perspectives, narrative, genre and situational context. Different units of work will be demonstrated where digital texts are the focus, such as blogs; and digital texts compared thematically with other text types, such as video games contrasted with documentary and essays. The hybridity of new media provides exciting potential for rich creative projects that demonstrate numerous curriculum outcomes, but not without unique challenges that will be addressed in the workshop. It is hoped participants can bring their own experiences on experimenting with digital texts, however, participants new to the field are welcome to come and be involved.

Peter Jones is currently Leader of Pedagogy, Pre-Kindergarten to Year 12, at Newman College catering for over 1800 coeducational day students. He has presented at numerous conferences and professional learning sessions whilst also having experience as a Head of Year and Head of Department at several schools.

Jon Callow The art of Oliver Jeffers: how do book reviews talk about words and pictures?

Reviews often mirror particular ways of how our culture engages with the art of English. Reviewers, both students and adults, draw on received wisdom or mandated models, as to what a review should entail and what language should be used to describe and critique words and pictures. How might we combine aesthetic responses with thoughtful and engaging analysis when we talk and write about picture books and visual narratives? This paper will explore the work of picture book author Oliver Jeffers. Using a selection of published book reviews about his work as a starting point, this presentation will offer a multimodal analysis of some of Jeffers' texts, comparing this type of analysis with reviewers' comments and insights, as well as considering a child's innovation on his work. The multimodal analysis will draw on a visual grammar, following Kress and Van Leeuwen's multimodal framework (2006), as well as link to the Australian Curriculum: English, with its focus on reviews and analysis.

Dr Jon Callow teaches and researches at the University of Sydney. His areas of research include visual and multimodal literacies, digital media, children's literature, pedagogy, creativity and engagement.

Noella Mackenzie I am learning to write but we don’t get time to draw at school

Learning how to write is more important than ever before, and getting students off to a good start is essential to later success. For many children early drawing and talking experiences signal the start of their journey towards becoming literate. The statement in the title was made by a child who had been at school for just 5 weeks. He loved to draw and would spend time every day drawing at home. He was disappointed that something he loved to do was not valued at the big school he had been looking forward to attending. Data informing this presentation come from a range of research projects conducted between 2007 and 2017. Co-researchers have included teachers, early childhood educators, education consultants and many children. Using exemplars from children the presentation will illustrate the important links between drawing, talking and early writing and demonstrate how young children's drawings and spoken language can be used by teachers as a natural scaffold as they learn about written English language conventions. While this is a research presentation, there will be practical take home advice for both Early Childhood Educators and Early Years teachers.