Languages Archives

‘Including’ English as an Additional Language or Dialect Learners in your Classroom

Cindy Valdez explores some of the strategies that help to support English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) learners in your classrooms. Ensuring that EAL/D students feel included in the classroom helps to address their academic and emotional needs. . .

“The [Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education] Declaration has two distinct but interconnected goals:

Goal 1: The Australian education system promotes excellence and equity

Goal 2: All young Australians become:

•      conﬁdent and creative individuals

•      successful lifelong learners

•      active and informed members of the community.

Achieving these education goals is the responsibility of Australian Governments and the education community in partnership with young Australians, their families and carers and the broader community. “(Education Council, 2019)

In line with this policy, my vision for all students, regardless of their backgrounds, is that they be included in their classroom lessons, and they are able to access the Australian Curriculum, so that every student feels that they have a rightful place in their learning environments. A student, regardless of their race, socio-economic background, physical or intellectual ability should be able to be part of any classroom and receive the quality education that they deserve and are entitled to. It may be a challenge, but it is achievable. During planning and programming sessions, my role as the English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) Specialist teacher/mentor has been to ask my colleagues to reflect upon the following questions. In this paper I pose the same questions with my responses.

“How do I ensure that each student feels that they belong and is included in my classroom?”

‘Belonging’ and ‘inclusivity’ could mean different things to different people. Some would say that it means that each child is ‘heard’ or ‘seen’, that their thoughts and views are valued. Others would say that each child feels that they ‘fit’ in, or that they ‘get along’ with everyone in the classroom. Whatever it is, there’s a general consensus that to feel ‘included’ means that your contributions are valued; you are allowed to have, and to express, your own opinions; you are treated with kindness and respect; and last, but not least, you are seen as a ‘worthy conversational partner’ by your peers.

For me, there is another ‘layer’ to being ‘included’ and ‘belonging’ in the classroom. That is, that each individual is seen as part of a ‘community of practice‘. In a recent article I read, “Scaffolding Practice: Supporting Emerging Bilinguals’ Academic Language

Use in Two Classroom Communities” (Pacheco, M., Shannon, D. & Pray, L. (2017). the authors described this practice as:

“…community-focused, language-as-practice perspective of academic language builds from the foundation that a classroom is a community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991), or a group of individuals that engage one another with shared resources to work toward common goals. With this perspective, we frame academic language as practices, or the different ways that

students and teachers use language to participate in activities that are recognized and valued by other community members”

(Pacheco, M., Shannon, D. & Pray, L. p.65, 2017).

How do I design learning experiences that are ‘intellectually challenging’ (Dufficy, 2005) for my students?

As we need to engage our EAL/D learners in learning that involves higher order thinking, critical thinking, collaboration and problem solving, teachers need to: make decisions about the ‘BIG IDEA’ that we want all students to know about and understand; formulate ‘essential questions’ so that all students know ‘why’ we are learning what we are learning about; and design a ‘rich task’ to consolidate and demonstrate new learnings.

EAL/D learners will greatly benefit from participating in High Challenge/High Support programs. These programs aim for deep knowledge and deep learning, whilst providing EAL/D learners with high levels of targeted support via two aspects of scaffolding: ‘designed-in scaffolding’ (carefully planned sequence of learning experiences), and ‘contingent scaffolding’ (point of need teaching). (Hammond & Gibbons, 2005).

In a classroom where a ‘community of practice’ is evident, both teacher and student scaffold the academic language in order for everyone to be able to participate in meaningful and purposeful classroom talk. We often push our EAL/D learners towards being able to justify, describe and explain their thinking because as we know “academic language is not something that a student does or does not have, but a practice that a student does” (Pacheco, M et al, 2016, p. 65).

We must clarify our students’ thinking by asking questions to ‘extend’ the talk in an attempt to engage them in substantive conversations, “which could include attention to language at the vocabulary, syntax, and discourse levels.” (Pacheco, M. et al, 2017 p. 65) In a “community of practice”, the students will also extend the talk of their peers because the teacher has modelled the language.

How do I scaffold EAL/D learners’ use of academic language and participation in class discussions?

EAL/D learners need to access all curriculum areas, access age-appropriate quality reading materials and access the academic language demands of every subject. This includes, for example, words with different shades of meaning, subject-specific vocabulary/language, scientific language and so forth.

How do you ensure that students are thinking, talking and writing like scientists, historians, geographers, authors, artists or mathematicians?

There are language and cultural implications for each subject that need to be considered. That is, EAL/D teachers need to consider the language demands specific for each subject by knowing the language structures, grammatical features and vocabulary development which need to be targeted and explicitly taught.

Using History as the example, Paul Dufficy explains that when teaching History “…an important goal is to assist young people to become historians – to appropriate the texts, the ways and the dispositions of history and historians…in the process of becoming historians, children and young people are, potentially, becoming critical, fair-minded, optimistic, curious, courageous, and angered by injustice” (Paul Dufficy, 2005 p. 41).

How do I ensure that everyone is included in EVERY lesson that I teach? How am I differentiating the curriculum so that all experience SUCCESS?

EAL/D learners need to be able to make connections to what they are learning about. Can they see their own culture and values in the unit of work? If not, how can we bring their ‘cultural capital’ into the curriculum? How do we ensure the learning is relevant to our EAL/D students? The goal is substantive engagement, not compliance and completion of busy work. Both the Learning Intention and Success Criteria need to be made visible to EAL/D learners so that they succeed in completing an open-ended rich task throughout the unit of work.

What do I want my students to THINK about?

Teachers need to know their subject area, and the ‘why’ of the unit of work. Prioritise learning outcomes and take the ‘slow teaching’ approach. It’s not about ticking all the boxes, rather it’s about taking the time to design ‘deep’ learning and careful consideration given to what meaningful learning needs to happen in during each lesson.

What BIG IDEAS do I want them to learn and understand?

Deconstruct the ‘big idea’, focus question, essential questions and the ‘why’ with your learners. The ‘big idea’ is what you want your students to think and learn about. It could be written up as a question. For example – to understand ‘characterisation’: “How do authors use emotive language and impactful noun groups to create characters that are believable?” This could then be deconstructed by unpacking the vocabulary words necessary to understand the question. To ensure that everyone is on the same page.

How do I design and sequence the learning?

· Backward map from the rich task so you know the end to plan ahead! Decide on the order in which you would like to tackle the unit. What do my students need to learn about first to achieve the learning outcome? Stage teams will find that this could look different in each class.

· Frontload the vocabulary by selecting, highlighting and bringing to students’ attention key words, that are pertinent to understanding the text they’re about to read, view or listen to.

· Visible thinking routines. Find ways to make your students’ thinking visible by engaging in various visible thinking routines such as ‘see, think, wonder’, ‘beginning, middle, end’ and ‘What makes you say that?’ to name a few. (Click here for the link to Harvard University’s Project Zero)

· Message abundancy. EAL/D learners need to hear, see and use target language multiple times and in many different ways (i.e. message abundancy). Design learning activities that require all students to talk to complete learning tasks by, for example, engaging in visible thinking routines and communicative activities to use the target language/vocabulary.

· Know thy students! Give your EAL/D learners timely feedback on both content and language learning. Let them know how they are going with acquiring the English language in their speaking, listening, reading/responding and writing. Both the ESL Scales & EAL/D Progression will assist in this process. Click here for more information

Make their learning visible, for example, goal setting, wall charts, conferencing, and so forth. As well, plan for engaging ways for students to demonstrate their learning through, for example, the creation of an artwork.

· Create your own resources to link with the current unit of work. Create your own modelled texts as sometimes ‘rich’ and age-appropriate reading material is hard to find so as a team, collaboratively construct your own. Be mindful not to simplify the language too much as the inclusion of target and subject-specific vocabulary is a must! Learners of English will not learn the academic language unless they are exposed to it. Create other resources such as word/picture/meaning matching cards, cloze activities, ranking activities, margin questions (which may need to be read to your newly arrived students, and translated if possible).

Learning a new language is best acquired in an inclusive environment where each person feels safe to flourish in. An environment where a community of practice comprised of students and their teachers who all feel safe to take risks, understand that learning is messy, value connections, nurture respectful relationships, and understand that learning is best achieved when ‘we’re all in it together’.

Dufficy, P. (2005). Designing learning for diverse classrooms. Newtown: Primary Teaching Association Australia.

The Education Council (2019) The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration

Pacheco, M., Shannon D., & Pray, L. (2017). Scaffolding Practice: Supporting Emerging Bilinguals’ Academic Language Use in Two Classroom Communities. Language Arts, 95 (2), 63-76.

Readings and resources:

Hammond . J., (2012) “Hope and challenge in The Australian Curriculum: Implications for EAL students and their teachers” The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy

https://www.alea.edu.au/documents/item/492

ACARA – EAL/D Teacher Resource link:

http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/student-diversity/english-as-an-additional-Language-or-dialect

ACARA – EAL/D Overview and Advice:

http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/EALD_Overview_and_Advice_revised_February_2014.pdf

ACARA – EAL/D Progression:

http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/EAL_D_Learning_Progression_Foundation_to_Year_10_09052014_file_2.pdf

ACARA – EAL/D Annotated Content Descriptions, Language/Cultural Considerations & Teaching Strategies: English:

http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/EALD_Learning_Area_Annotations_English_Revised_February_2014.pdf

Mathematics:

http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/EALD_Learning_Area_Annotations_Maths_Revised_February_2014.pdf

Science:

http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/EALD_Learning_Area_Annotations_Science_Revised_February_2014.pdf

History:

http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/EALD_Learning_Area_Annotations_History_Revised_February_2014.pdf

Australian Curriculum – Student Diversity Link:

https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-diversity/

Harvard Graduate School of Education – Project Zero – Visible Thinking

http://www.pz.harvard.edu/projects/visible-thinking

Cindy Valdez has been an EAL/D specialist for over 20 years.  She has predominantly worked in south-west Sydney and is passionate about inclusion, developing others as leaders in the EAL/D space, and catering for the academic and wellbeing needs of EAL/D learners, including students from refugee backgrounds. 

Cindy led various action learning projects during her role as a Refugee Support Leader in 2017-2019.  She is currently an EAL/D Education Leader at the NSW Department of Education, and President of the Association for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ATESOL) NSW.  

Including-EALD-learners-in-your-classroom-Cindy-Valdez Download

Tell Me Your Story: Supporting EAL/D Students from K-8

Overview

If you wish to apply to attend a single day of this three-day course, please email us at cpl@nswtf.org.au

We will focus on oral language development as the basis for developing literacy through the cyclical use of a range of strategies. This will be achieved through consideration of how students need to make meaning in curriculum contexts with a particular emphasis on developing knowledge about language, particularly grammar and vocabulary.

The focus of this three day course presented by Kathy Rushton and Joanne Rossbridge is to develop understandings and strategies for participants who support EAL/D students in both small groups and mainstream classrooms.

Practical strategies will be provided to foster the use of English Language (L2) while encouraging students to use all the linguistic resources that they bring to school, including the use of their first language (L1). Consideration will be given to the wellbeing framework and supporting students in an inclusive environment which honours and confirms their identity, language, and culture.

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Surry Hills (3 Days, March – June)

Day 1 – Friday 26 May 2023

Day 2 – Friday 23 June 2023

Day 3 – Friday 21 July 2023

Federation House

23-33 Mary St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010

Surry Hills (3 Days, November – December)

Day 1 – Friday 3 November 2023

Day 2 – Friday 17 November 2023

Day 3 – Friday 1 December 2023

Federation House

23-33 Mary St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010

Day 1 – Speaking and Listening

Principles of second language learning
Lexical density and grammatical intricacy: The relationship between grammar and vocabulary development
The Mode Continuum
Elaborated and restricted codes and the relationship between L1 and L2
Strategies for developing oral language through planning and the cyclical use of range of activities, e.g. communicative activities, group work, drama, rhymes, chants, poems. Link back to the mode continuum.
Select a picture book and, based on today’s session, prepare strategies. Explanation of task for Session 2.

Day 2 – Reading

Introduction of Field, Tenor and Mode.
Before, during and after reading and in preparation for writing with a focus on:
– field building activities to acknowledge and build on cultural knowledge (before)
– intonation, pronunciation, punctuation and spelling (during)
– inferential comprehension (after)
Strategies for categorising vocabulary and working with language features
Share strategies for selected picture book with a small group
Explanation of task for Session 3.

Day 3 – Writing

The teaching and learning cycle
Identifying strategies for developing writing through a joint construction.
Strategies for supporting written like text, eg Readers Theatre, Dictogloss, Running dictation, Advance /Detail
Making links to the community through writing for a purpose
Prepare notes for the joint construction of a Literary Recount and an Exposition using selected text.

Joanne Rossbridge

Joanne Rossbridge is an independent language and literacy consultant working in both primary and secondary schools and with teachers across Australia. She has worked as a classroom teacher and literacy consultant with the DET (NSW). Her expertise and much of her experience is in working with students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Joanne is particularly interested in student and teacher talk and how talk about language can assist the development of language and literacy.

Kathy Rushton

Kathy Rushton is interested in the development of language and literacy especially in disadvantaged communities. She has worked as a classroom teacher and literacy consultant and provides professional learning for teachers in the areas of language and literacy development. Her current research projects include a study of multilingual pre-service teachers and the impact that teacher professional learning has on the development of a creative pedagogical stance which supports translanguaging and student identity and wellbeing.

Day 1

Completing Tell Me Your Story: Supporting EAL/D Students from K-8 (Speaking and Listening) will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Accredited PD in the priority area of Delivery and Assessment of NSW Curriculum/EYLF addressing standard descriptors 1.3.2, 2.5.2 & 3.3.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.

Day 2

Completing Tell Me Your Story: Supporting EAL/D Students from K-8 (Reading) will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Accredited PD in the priority area of Delivery and Assessment of NSW Curriculum/EYLF addressing standard descriptors 1.3.2, 2.5.2, 3.3.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.

Day 3

Completing Tell Me Your Story: Supporting EAL/D Students from K-8 (Writing) will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Accredited PD in the priority area of Delivery and Assessment of NSW Curriculum/EYLF addressing standard descriptors 1.3.2, 2.5.2, 3.3.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.

Primary and Secondary teachers who support EAL/D students in both small groups and mainstream classrooms.

$600 for 3 days

Three whole day workshops with participants actively engaged in each session and undertaking reading and assignments between sessions.

The NSW Teachers Federation Conference Centre is a registered COVID safe business, and all courses are run in compliance with the Federation’s COVID safety plan.

JPL Articles

Critical Literacy in English and History: Stages 3 & 4

Helping Your Students to Become Better Writers

Tell Me Your Story: Working with EAL/D Students in Mainstream Classrooms

Dhurga dictionary and learner’s grammar journey

Waine Donovan and Kerry Boyenga give teachers an insight into the journey they took to create the Dhurga Djamanj (We all talk Dhurga) Language Program in NSW public schools. They inspire us with the story of how their dictionary, a wonderful and extremely valuable resource for anyone who wishes to learn the traditional language of the Dhurga speaking people of Yuin Country, was written . . .

The Dhurga Dictionary and Learner’s Grammar (Ellis, P et al., 2020) was borne from the belief of the authors’ grandmother, Ursula Connell, and mother, Patricia Ellis Sr, that education is the key to everything. So much so, that seven of the children in their immediate family are employed in education in one form or another. They strongly believed that if you have an education, you become a confident, strong contributor to society.

Up until the year 2000 at Broulee Public School, German was taught as a Language Other Than English (LOTE). German was taught to the students during their classroom teacher’s RFF (Release from Face to Face). This meant that the classroom teacher could not consolidate the language that was taught during the following week.

Eventually the teacher moved away leaving the school unable to provide LOTE (Languages Other Than English).

Kerry Boyenga, an Indigenous teacher employed at the school, proposed to the then Principal, Mr Jeff Ward, that they teach a Community Language Other Than English (CLOTE). That language being Dhurga. Over the next 2 years, discussions took place about the amount of language we had and, if indeed, there was enough to teach it.

At the same time teachers from Vincentia High School wanted to do a similar project. Since Vincentia is on the cusp between Dharawal and Dhurga, they decided to teach Dhurga because there was more information about it than there was for Dharawal. Gary Worthy (brother-in-law to the authors of the dictionary) had several discussions with Kerry. Over that period of time, funding avenues were also sought by both schools. It was then decided that the two schools would work together as partner schools and the process began.

Dhurga is still taught as a one-hundred-hour course at Vincentia High School to this day.

In 2003, staff from Broulee Public School joined Vincentia High School to research and develop a Community Language Program to teach the Dhurga Aboriginal language that was traditionally used, and is still being used, by Aboriginal communities of the South Coast including the Walbandja people of Batemans Bay, Mogo and Broulee, the Murramarang people from Ulladulla and the Brindja yuin people of Maurya.

A number of linguists supported the research, including Luise Hercus, who originally recorded Aboriginal people speaking the Dhurga language from the South Coast during the late 50s and early 60s. Her research was integral in the formation of the Dhurga Djamanj (We all talk Dhurga) Language Program at Broulee Public School. These recordings are held at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra. Broulee Public School and Vincentia High School language groups attended a two-day workshop at AIATSIS, coordinated by linguist Jackie Troy.

Ms. Jutta Besold was employed, by the joint schools, through grants received from the Department of Education and Training and The Board of Studies (now NSW Standards Authority – NESA). Jutta was instrumental in the research and reclamation of the language. Her thesis Aboriginal Languages of the South East Coast was instrumental in the production of the Dhurga Dictionary and Learners Grammar. (Ellis, P et al., 2020). She visited the South Australian Museum with community consent, to search for evidence of the Dhurga language. Jutta’s involvement was pivotal in presenting and clarifying the sound system and orthography of the Dhurga Language.

In 2004, Pip Dundas and Susan Poetsch, from the Board of Studies, supported the program and, in 2005, Dr Jennifer Monroe, another linguist joined the team. Jennifer’s role was to assist the schools with programming the language into the Human Society in Its Environment (HSIE) curriculum and putting it onto the Board of Studies Website as an example for other schools to follow. It is still on the NSW Education Standards Authority’s (NESA – the current iteration of the Board of Studies) website to this day.

A number of formal and informal meetings were held with Broulee Public School, Aboriginal Student Support and Parent Awareness Program (ASSPA), Cobowra Local Aboriginal Land Council, Djuwin Women’s Lore Council and local Elders. From these meetings two golden rules were established: It was decided that the Dhurga language would only be initially taught to Aboriginal People, at a TAFE level, to ensure our people got their language back and were the ones to be employed to teach it. The decision was also made that words would not be made up to fit with the times, for example words for computer, televisions, cars etc. This has been done in other language reclamations. Those decisions were made to ensure the language was kept pure and the English versions of those words would be included in conjunction with Dhurga. As is done in other languages around the world.

In 2005, at Broulee Public School, the Dhurga Djamanj Language Program commenced, delivered by Indigenous teachers Kerry Boyenga and Waine Donovan, strongly supported by Jutta Besold and Jeff Ward. The program was designed to teach basic Aboriginal language to all students from Kindergarten to Year 6 as well as the classroom teachers.

Each Thursday, Waine taught seven of the classes ranging from Kindergarten to Year 6. Each Friday, Kerry taught the remaining seven classes ranging from Year 1 to Year 4. The program was delivered within the context of the team-teaching model, with every class having a 30-minute lesson each week, this was then consolidated during the week by the classroom teacher.

On Thursdays and Fridays, Waine and Kerry spent the afternoon sessions developing resources for the delivery of the program. Since all of the students and teachers were beginning language learners, the same resources were developed fourteen times. Each student was given a Dhurga Workbook to put their work in, which followed them throughout the time that Dhurga was taught at the school. This gave them a resource to take home to continue using Dhurga beyond school.

Broulee Public School formed a partnership with Cobowra Local Aboriginal Land Council in Moruya, to develop resources and to provide transport for Elders and other community members to observe weekly lessons at the school. Elders often became emotional, displaying their pride and excitement in seeing their language being taught in the school. Their participation validated that the program was being implemented correctly.

The Cobowra Local Aboriginal Land Council members voted to support the use of two Dhurga phrases found by Jutta Besold at the South Australian Museum, as the chorus of the song Eurobodalla, written by local songwriter and musician Jeff Aschmann, about the Eurobodalla waterways. He wanted to include Dhurga words in the song. He was thrilled when presented with the two phrases in Dhurga. Both phrases refer to bringing fish to the camp and the children eating fish at the camp. The Year 3 and Year 4 students from Broulee Public School were recorded singing the chorus for the song.

The Broulee Public School Language Group travelled to Dubbo, Canberra, and Sydney to participate in workshops and present at linkup conferences that included other language groups from all over NSW. Kerry and Waine were regularly invited to schools and community groups along the South Coast to present the Dhurga Djamanj Aboriginal Language Program and facilitate workshops. Since then, numerous schools and groups are now running their own language programs based on this model.

The Dhurga Djamanj Aboriginal Language Program was nominated by Broulee Public School staff and was successful in receiving a School Program Award in Excellence from the Eurobodalla Learning Community.

Kerry and Waine presented the Dhurga Djamanj Aboriginal Language program to the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) State meeting in 2006 and received the AECG’s endorsement. The program was also presented to, and endorsed by, the Djuwin Women’s Lore Council.

In 2008, Kerry and Waine presented the Dhurga Djamanj Aboriginal Language Program at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference in Melbourne. The program has received several prestigious awards.

In 2008, the first Certificate One in Aboriginal Languages was delivered at the Moruya Campus of TAFE Illawarra and was called Dhurga Buradja which translates to Dhurga Tomorrow. This course was delivered by Kerry and Waine, strongly supported by Jutta Besold. Eighteen students enrolled with a 100% retention rate throughout the course. During that course, Kerry and Waine delivered the Dhurga Language to elders from their family and the local community. It was a great privilege to do that because traditionally elders from community were the teachers. Since this delivery the Dhurga Aboriginal Languages course has been delivered to communities in Moruya, Mogo, Nowra, Narooma, Jervis Bay, Braidwood and Ulladulla by Kerry Boyenga and Patricia Ellis respectively.

A Certificate Two in Aboriginal Languages is currently being developed.

Patricia Ellis completed her Masters in Aboriginal Languages course through the University of Sydney, which became the impetus for the production of the Dhurga Dictionary and Learner’s Grammar. She worked tirelessly with Kerry and Waine, other family members and linguists from ANU, to produce the dictionary that is available today.

The authors of the Dhurga Dictionary and Learner’s Grammar believe that it is the most valuable gift that they could give to their family and community.

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Ellis, P., Boyenga, K., & Donovan, W. (2020). The Dhurga dictionary and learner’s grammar. Aboriginal Studies Press.

Besold, J. (2012). Language recovery of the New South Wales South Coast Aboriginal languages. The Australian National University. https://doi.org/10.25911/5D78D7B2E457D

The dictionary is available online here and in bookstores.

Waine Donovan

Waine Donovan is currently the NSW Teachers Federation Organiser based in Queanbeyan. He is a proud Brindja Yuin man from the South Coast of New South Wales.

Waine worked for ten years at Mogo Public School as an Aboriginal Teachers Aid (ATA) later changed to Aboriginal Education Assistant (AEA). Whilst at Mogo Public School, he fulfilled the role as representative for ATAs/AEAs with the PSA.

Prior to becoming an Organiser, he taught at Bodalla Public School and Broulee Public School on the South Coast for seventeen years. During the last nine years of his time teaching in schools, he was a member of the NSW Teachers Federation Executive.

Waine and his sister Kerry Boyenga both taught the Dhurga Language to all students and teachers at Broulee Public School over four and a half years, as well as Certificate 1 in Aboriginal Languages at Moruya TAFE twice, to local Indigenous community members.

Waine held the position of Federation Representative in both schools that he taught in and was also a Federation Councillor for over ten years and an Annual Conference delegate during that time.

Kerry Boyenga

Kerry Boyenga has been working in education for over thirty-five years. She studied at the Australian Catholic University and gained an Association Diploma in Aboriginal Education, a Bachelor of Teaching, and a Graduate Diploma in Adult Education. She has been a teacher at several schools in her local area for over twenty-three years and is now teaching the local Indigenous language, Dhurga at Bodalla Public School and Moruya Public School, and at night classes to adults. Kerry has represented her community at local, regional, and state levels of the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) for over thirty years. Kerry describes her role as teacher of Indigenous langage in local schools as her perfect job.

Building Confidence and Success in Stage 6

Khya Brooks suggests an approach to the HSC which can reduce everyone’s anxiety…

On the day my first HSC classes’ results were released, I was nervous and excited. However, I did not expect the reactions that I witnessed.

Many people turned to me and said “Congratulations. You did so well”, as though I had just sat the tests myself. Meanwhile, some of my colleagues were sitting with their head in their hands saying “I didn’t even get one band 6. What happened?” The rest of the day was spent listening to colleagues criticise their own practice and try to justify their classes’ outcomes to themselves; “Oh, I should have focused more on this area in the syllabus…” and “If only I had thought to revise this case study more thoroughly”.

What I learnt that day was to internalise the HSC results as though they were my own. I learned that my classes’ success somehow translated into how valuable I was as a teacher. The day was not spent celebrating, it was spent critically reflecting. Sure, this is great practice for long-term improvement, but what I have found is that it has also increased the pressure experienced by teachers. I have noticed that this pressure is then often transferred onto students, resulting in unnecessarily increased anxiety throughout the school.

I argue that this approach is reflective of a growing individualistic and negative culture within society and therefore teaching; which positions individual teachers rather than school systems or society more widely as solely responsible for student outcomes. This anxiety is reinforced by constant questions from the school executive, such as “Did you differentiate enough?”, “Are you providing enough scaffolds?”, “How many band 6s will you get this year?”

There is often too much pressure on many of the adults and, subsequently, many of the children at school.

I thought school was supposed to be joyful!

What to do?

So, I decided to actively address this cultural shift. I wanted students to own their own learning, rather than assuming it was all my responsibility. I began to reshape my programs, assessments and my overall practice. The more confident and successful my students became with their skills, the more confident and successful I felt within my practice. Our collective anxiety melted away and school days became more positive.

I found this new approach enabled me to have a better range of measures to gauge my success as a teacher. Rather than relying on quantitative numbers at the end of the HSC, I established a clearer set of procedures that allowed me, and the students themselves, to better measure our progress.

Below are some practical strategies that have helped me in achieving this cultural shift in my classroom, with a view to empower learners and improve their confidence, and ultimately, their success. I will focus prominently on the strategies utilised with my Society and Culture classes, but they are strategies that are easily transferrable to other subjects.

Please note, I work in a partially-selective public school in South-West Sydney. This means I have a large range of students; from high to lower ability, from advantaged to disadvantaged backgrounds, and from the disengaged through to some ‘over workers’. I have found that these strategies have assisted all of my students. For this reason, they should be applicable in almost any school context.

Strategies to develop a culture of student-driven learning

No summary, no marks

A strategy I have implemented is to withhold marks from students after they initially receive their assessments back. I encourage students to read through their feedback, and write a summary outlining what they need to work on, and how they intend to improve a particular skill in future assessments.

Once they do this, I provide them with their mark. This is a way to maximise student engagement with feedback. Also, students tend to keep these summaries and read over them before submitting future drafts.

Specific student-led feedback

I no longer accept copies of drafts from students seeking copious feedback. I found that quite often I would have read a draft several times before it came to marking it, and it was exhausting, time consuming and students generally still made similar mistakes in later assessments (indicating it was not as effective as I wanted it to be).

As a result, I developed a feedback matrix to use with my classes. The matrix outlines a three-step feedback system where I give specific feedback at set times and students are required to actively engage with it. The steps are outlined in Image below or click here to view.

Image 1 – Feebdack Matrix

There can be many benefits to using the matrix. As students use the marking criteria to develop specific questions for their feedback, they self-identify areas they thought they were not as strong in. For teachers, this means no longer spending copious time fixing tiny issues. Instead, we are able to provide wider feedback that students then identify in their own work. Also, students can easily see if their ‘limitation’ was someone else’s strength, and they can seek more help from one another.

Grouped feedback activities

Following the submission of a formal assessment task, I allocate each student a shape based on the marking criteria. Each shape is representative of a skill they should aim to actively improve. I then dedicate a lesson to improving those skills by grouping students by shape around the room, and each ‘shape group’ completes an activity dedicated to improving that skill. For example, I gave a student a triangle to indicate that they needed to better synthesise their research. I then had a triangle station, where all students that received the triangle worked on an activity where they ‘blended’ primary and secondary information together to identify conclusions. Students then practised writing these conclusions into paragraphs, to improve this skill further.

Strategies to develop specific skills

Writing

To improve student writing, I developed an acronym (shown in Image 2 below) focussed on sentence starters. Whilst there are many popular paragraph structures around, this approach focusses on the sentence level and students tend to find this more visible. Over the course, students begin using different sentence starters, eventually utilising the acronym as an editing checklist rather than a structure. It has been hugely successful across all stages and courses and has also been adopted by various other faculties and schools.

Image 2 – Writing Acronym

Once this acronym is introduced, I often develop an activity where students read various responses and highlight the different elements using different colours. The responses are usually related to course content, so that students actively learn relevant information through the process. We then discuss which responses were better and why, and students rewrite one of the poorer examples using the structure themselves. Often, I will then have students ‘highlight’ one another’s responses to begin to foster a peer marking culture.

I also use the highlighting activity as self-guided feedback through the course. Students learn to highlight their responses and identify whether they have used too much description, or if they need to embed more examples.

Applying concepts

In many subjects, applying concepts is integral. I scaffold this skill in a multitude of ways.

The concepts are colour coded in my classroom, and are all displayed on the wall.
Each lesson, I have students identify the various concepts that were discussed in class. Through this, students learn that a lesson can cover elements of a concept without the teacher explicitly stating it, and so they begin to look for opportunities to make these connections themselves.
I provide students with paragraphs from previous responses. Students identify two concepts that would enhance the paragraph, and rewrite the paragraphs with the concepts applied. They then peer mark one another’s responses.
Randomly, I will pass each student three cards, one with a ‘fundamental’ concept, one with an ‘additional’ concept and one with a ‘related’ concept. Students are then given one minute to prepare, and then discuss a key point of the case study using all three concepts. It helps to revise content, and enhances students’ ability to apply concepts appropriately.

Strategies to build a culture of success in the subject

One of my biggest successes has been developing a good rapport between cohorts. This has enhanced the mentorship my Year 11 students receive each year, and has also contributed to the growing profile and number of Stage 6 classes in my school.

Year 11 markers

Each year, one week before the Personal Interest Project (PIP) major work is due, I spend a day with my Year 11 students deconstructing exemplar PIPs and marking them collectively. This is a positive and voluntary experience, and the focus is about building up each other rather than putting pressure on Year 11 to produce Year 12 level work, or, of criticising older students.

Once students feel more confident in their understanding of the requirements of each section in the PIP, I then have them ‘mark’ draft Year 12 PIPs. This provides an array of advantages, such as my Year 12 students are provided with additional feedback, my Year 11 students have a better understanding of the skills required of them to achieve higher results, and I use the opportunity as a checkpoint to ensure all students have finalised their PIP at least a week prior to submission day.

Q&As

Each year I ask a number of my previous Year 12 students to come and speak to my new Year 12 students. The new group develop questions they want answered and my older group provide hints, tips and pieces of advice. Often, the older students offer to assist with PIP topics or research too.

Student developed questions

Lastly, following each topic, I have students map past HSC questions to the syllabus dot points and concepts. Students then develop a question for the topic, by mixing two dot points and adding a verb or integrating a concept. Finally, students add their question to a shared document and everyone selects three questions to respond to for practise.

This empowers students to develop their own resources for revision (I also get a bank of new question ideas). Often students will then show the question designer their response, and this suggests more collegiality between the students, as the class becomes more focussed on achieving great marks for everyone rather than personal or individual success alone.

Building up each other

It is important to note that I am very explicit with my students about the skills they learn, and how each of these strategies empowers them as learners. What I have noticed after integrating the strategies listed above is that students become less reliant on me to feed them information and are much more active about their own development. This allows each of them to feel confident and ultimately enables them to succeed as a class. It also makes it easier for me to measure how well they develop essential skills. It is this development that I value most in my teaching, knowing my students have come so far, and guiding them to continue to learn and grow more confident even when they are no longer in my classroom.

Khya Brooks currently teaches in Social Sciences at Elizabeth Macarthur High School. She has conducted workshops at the Australian Geography Annual Conference, worked in collaboration with local schools to develop higher-order-programs for the Australian Geography Curriculum, conducted research and had it published on behalf of the Western Sydney University EPIC (Educational Pathways in the 21st Century) program and contributed to educational podcasts. Khya’s students have received awards from the Society and Culture Association for their outstanding accomplishments in examination and PIP components of the HSC course. She has also contributed to the sustained growth and success of Stage 6 classes in her school. Khya is currently refining her approach to higher-order-learning strategies, and is guiding a research cycle of inquiry within her school.