The English Teachers’ Association of Queensland Inc



ETAQ Saturday Seminar 1-2015Getting Reading RightSaturday 14 March, 2015Loving and learning reading is at the core of our work in classrooms, libraries and learning spaces. As teachers of English, we have developed a rich dialogue about the ways we read and our purposes in reading a growing variety of texts. In spite of enormous changes in schools, pedagogy and 21st Century learning tools, our challenge as educators remains unchanged: How can we best help our students to share our belief in the value of reading: its power to inspire and move; inform and enlighten; and provoke and incite? Corinda State High School, Pratten Street, Corinda QLD 4075Keynote Address: “We read to know we’re not alone”: Enabling and nurturing our students’ reading lives 65024081915Presenter Associate Professor Jacqueline Manuel University of Sydney Jacqueline Manuel is Associate Professor in English education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. She holds a BA (Hons 1) in English, a Dip Ed and a PhD in English Literature from the University of New England. She has published widely in the field of English education. Her most recent book is Teenagers and Reading: Literary heritages, cultural contexts and contemporary reading practices (Wakefield Press/AATE, 2012). Jackie’s research includes a focus on creativity and imagination in secondary English; teenagers’ reading; new teacher motivation; and student engagement with literature. She is a former Member of the NSW Board of Studies and has been Chief Examiner of NSW HSC English (Standard & Advanced, 2006-2011).AbstractIn an age saturated by digital media and technology, what are our students choosing to read and why? What determines their choices and invests them with purpose and meaning? What excites and motivates them when it comes to reading? When are they reading and how are they reading? What are their attitudes and responses to the reading we require of them in English? Do boys and girls approach reading in gender-specific ways? How much consonance or dissonance exists between our expectations of our students’ reading and the story of their individual and shared reading lives? What insights, both practical and conceptual, does recent research offer us as teachers?In this presentation, I will focus on the ‘what, how, when, where, and why’ of contemporary teenagers’ reading. I will draw on Australian and international research in the field of teenagers’ reading practices and preferences as a stimulus for reconnecting with the enduring questions about our role as teachers in shaping the quality of our students’ reading lives. Exploring students’ perspectives on their attitudes to reading and their reading habits can serve to reorient us to the key challenges we face as we seek to enable engaged, curious, accomplished and satisfied readers. As teachers, our attentive and creative pedagogies can ignite and reignite the fuse of wonder and excitement about learning, being, connecting and knowing through purposeful immersion in language and the expansive rewards of reading.ProgramTimeActivityFrom 8:30Registration & tea/coffee8:45 – 9:20ETAQ AGM9:25 – 10:25Keynote address + questions10:25– 10:55Morning tea11:00 – 12:00Workshop Session AOr 2 hour workshop12:05 – 1:05Workshop Session BThis activity constitutes 3 hours 15 minutes of Continuing Professional Development (CPD).Workshop Sessions Details of the workshops on offer are shown below. Participants will have the opportunity to select either one two hour or two one hour workshops from the following. See summary on page 7.Workshop APanel discussion – Jacqueline Manuel, Michelle Ragen and James Moloney, hosted by Lindsay Williams AbstractOur expert panel will further explore Seminar 1’s theme: how best to help our students to share our belief in the value of reading. A leading academic, an English teacher and librarian, and an author will discuss the challenges facing teachers and the changes they’ve noticed in adolescent reading practices as they relate to contemporary learning environments. The panelists will also discuss the books teenagers are choosing to read today and how we, as English teachers, can continue to nurture our students’ belief in the value of reading. Before concluding, the panelists will also recommend books for particular age groups. Their provocations, conclusions and suggestions are sure to be helpful for teachers and school leaders.Panel ChairLindsay Williams is an educator with 30 years ofexperience, as an English teacher, HoD, panel chair,tutor/lecturer, and consultant. He is undertaking aPhD focused on the multimodal, interpersonal workof presenters. Follow him on Twitter: @LindsayguruPresentersA/Prof Jacqueline ManuelMichelle Ragen?is an English teacher, teacher librarian and a curriculum assistant for English teachers in the Middle School at Brisbane Grammar School. A passionate reader, Michelle is a member of both the Riverbend Readers and Riverbend Secondary Schools' book clubs.? At Brisbane Grammar School, Michelle enjoys running the Apollo Club (a book club for year 12 students) and the Aficionado Society (a film and literature club for years 9 and 10 boys). ?Michelle is also very interested in the contemporary reading habits of teenagers and the ways in which they respond to literature.James Moloney?has lived most of his life in Queensland. He was a teacher and a teacher librarian for many years but now writes full time in a shed tucked away in the back yard of his home in Brisbane. In recent years he has written fantasy and high adventure for younger readers, but his passion remains the Young Adult novels for which he is best known.?Workshop BIt’s Alive! Re-energising reading through transformed classics - Chelsea ParakasAbstractWhen faced with a Year 9 class with declining literacy levels and an indifference towards reading, the prospect of teaching a classic text seemed all but impossible. However, through a reimagined approach to classic literature and the introduction of graphic novels and film, student interests were targeted, as was their understanding of the focus text (Frankenstein) through the utilisation of the Four Resources Model and other comprehension strategies. Students were then encouraged to explore a wider range of classics that have been transformed for modern audiences, promoting reading outside of the classroom and connection between texts.Targeted testing at the beginning and the end of the unit saw improvement in student comprehension skills and an overall attitude shift towards the subject of English.PresenterMy name is Chelsea Parakas and I have been working in the small rural school of St Joseph's Stanthorpe for the past 6 years. When I started here, I fell in love with the community and the hard working nature of the students. Although faced with challenges that are apparent in many rural communities (low-literacy; school disengagement), in my current role of Head of Curriculum, I have made it my focus to develop units that not only improve students’ basic reading and writing skills but also promote a love of classic and contemporary literature.Workshop C Getting reading right with Robert Browning’s poem My Last Duchess – Garry CollinsAbstractThis workshop will outline some activities for teaching Robert Browning’s poem My Last Duchess in secondary school English classrooms. It will be suggested that, with this poem, in order to get reading right, students should be encouraged to take on the role of literary sleuths or text detectives, capitalising on their curiosity (a reference to the theme of this year’s AATE/ ALEA national conference to be held in Canberra in early July) to make deductions from the incomplete evidence available in the text and to determine if a crime has been committed. Integration of the Language, Literature and Literacy strands of the F-10 Australian English Curriculum will be modelled, in particular, the teaching of grammar, punctuation and spelling in context. With minimal adaptation, the proposed activities could be suitable for Years 10, 11 or 12.PresenterNow a part-time teacher educator at the University of Queensland, Garry Collins taught secondary English for 35 years, mainly in the Queensland state system, but also on exchange in the US and Canada. Currently AATE President, he is keen on functional grammar and poetry and enjoys integrating them. Workshop D – 2 hoursHigh Reliability Reading: Building students’ comprehension before, during, and after reading - Julie BlissAbstractThis session considers how we can create optimal conditions to help students deeply comprehend text by planning activities before, during, and after reading. These activities can be used in all subject areas to help students construct their understanding of the content of texts used in class.PresenterJulie Bliss is a Principal Education Advisor for the Australian Curriculum in Metropolitan Region, Queensland. She has worked in regional and university positions in the areas of English and literacy. She managed a research project on Indigenous students’ literacy acquisition that studied the effects of reading culturally inclusive texts written and illustrated by Indigenous people. Currently, Julie is investigating a pedagogical approach that involves the teacher bolstering instruction to enable all students to read complex texts. This is in combination with an amplification of the teacher’s role in assisting students to access texts for increased independent reading. She is completing her PhD research in this area. Workshop E – 2 hoursTop Level structure – an oldie but a goodie! Pat HipwellAbstractMuch reading research in the 1980s and 1990s showed that an understanding of the way in which ideas are organised in non-literary texts contributes greatly to making meaning from those texts. All texts have an organisational or top level structure. Examples include relatively simple ways of organising information eg description, compare/contrast, cause/effect, sequence/process and problem/solution in the primary years; and more complex arrangements eg proposition/support, inductive/deductive, and investigation in the secondary years. Alerting students to the top level structure of text enhances their ability to comprehend. It also contributes to memorising what has been read; identifying main ideas rather than isolated facts (this contributes to summarising); and assists students as they compose written material where the ideas are organised in particular ways. During this practical workshop, teachers will examine a number of texts with the purpose of identifying the top level structure. They will also develop a teaching sequence to use with students to increase their awareness of specific top level structures and incorporate the use of appropriate graphic organisers as visual representations of the linguistic relationships that exist within text.PresenterPat Hipwell is an independent literacy consultant and works for her own company, logonliteracy. She trained as a high school teacher and taught Geography and Social Science in England and Australia for many years. Since starting a consultancy business eleven years ago, Pat has provided professional development to primary and high schools that are developing whole school approaches to literacy teaching and learning. She has particular interest in designing quality assessment tasks and the literacy demands of school based assessment in Queensland and National Testing. Her workshops are extremely practical and teachers leave with ideas to implement in content area classrooms. Recently, Patricia has become interested in practical strategies for teaching vocabulary and the link between vocabulary development and reading. She has written a number of books including, How to Write What You Want to Say, which is a bestseller.Workshop F Getting Reading Right with eBooks and ‘Born Digital’ Narratives – Dr Cherie AllanAbstractThis presentation aims to examine a number of practices around reading digital texts. The session will provide opportunities for discussion of material covered and sharing of participants' classroom experiences.PresenterCherie Allan has been a secondary teacher and, more recently, taught Children’s Literature at QUT. Her current research interest is related to reading digital texts. She is affiliated with the Children and Youth Research Centre (CYRC) at QUT.Workshop GMaking Connections Between Real and Fictional Worlds – Anthony Ingold and Ana CulicAbstractThis presentation explores a middle school English programme that engages and challenges students by bringing fictional worlds to life. Over the course of Years 7, 8, and 9, students are exposed to a variety of texts that allow them to develop a love of reading. Through these texts students engage with relevant, real-world issues; the core focus being the environment and sustainability, refugees, and regimes. By integrating fictional and real worlds, the programme encourages students to consciously consider texts, recognise textual ideology and understanding of self, through themes and individual reading processes. As learners recognise, reflect and interact, they are empowered to engage and empathise as responsible citizens in a multicultural society and are equipped to articulate increasingly sophisticated ideas about their own individual differences and complex cultural identities.During the course of this presentation we will provide examples of the learning that students participate in and the ways in which we bring the real world into the classroom through interactions with community groups and the integration of a resource rich environment – both of which encourage students to explore and inquire in order to make connections between real and fictional worlds, determine the events and ideas that influence texts, and communicate their own unique experiences. PresentersAnthony Ingold is a teacher of English, Ancient History and Modern History and has taught in state and independent schools in Queensland. He has experience teaching in diverse classroom environments across middle and senior years. Ana Culic is a third year teacher who has worked in an independent school for the last two years. Her core area is English with a particular focus on Middle School. Workshop HMr Darcy and That Wet Shirt: The Sequel– Natalie Fong and Heather CostelloAbstractThree years ago at the ETAQ March Seminar, Heather Costello and Natalie Fong proposed a Year 10/11/12 unit on Pride and Prejudice that would incorporate curriculum requirements of multimodal, multicultural texts (including Asian texts), the aesthetic, and intertextuality by looking at how classic texts are interpreted by modern media. A great excuse to analyse Colin Firth’s iconic wet shirt from the 1995 BBC series, and hopefully to encourage students in their reading by opening up classic literature.The premise of the unit was: Pride and Prejudice is a popular classic that has spawned many film adaptations (1995 BBC, Joe Wright’s 2005 film, Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, etc.), other imaginative reincarnations (Lost in Austen, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). This unit is intended to be a fun way of drawing students into the world of this novel, through these adaptations and references, specifically Bride and Prejudice – exploring common themes and motifs between the Regency and Bollywood, and whether or not this adaptation stays true to Austen’s original intent. In 2014, Heather and Natalie were given the opportunity to teach this unit to two quite different classes – an extension class and a mixed ability class. Come and hear about: the triumphs and tragedies of implementing a unit that tries to make the Regency sexy, the best resources and reading practices, the life skills learnt (e.g. what to look for in a potential spouse), as well as how the students benefited from cultural immersion through Regency dancing.PresentersNatalie Fong teaches English and History at Citipointe Christian College. She is an avowed Anglophile, and in 2013, spent 6 months completing an internship in the Education department at the Globe theatre in London. One of her teaching and research interests is marrying up classic texts and modern texts in order to “make old texts seem cool” for teenagers. Heather Costello teaches English and History at Citipointe Christian College. She is staff coordinator of the 2015 Humanities Research Symposium for Youth. Heather has a love of classic literature and ancient history, and is still figuring out how those two work together!Workshop IHa! Ha! Made you Read – Erin Geddes (B.Ed, M.Ed)AbstractWe focus so much on reading comprehension that sometimes it’s important to stop and remember that reading can be enjoyable. If reading enjoyment is a more important factor in academic success than a child’s socio-economic status (OECD, 2002), then it’s vital that we become better at engaging and motivating students in reading! In this session, Erin will take you through both classroom and library-based practices that have been effective in motivating students to read for pleasure. The workshop will include information on helping students to select engaging material, types of texts you may never have thought about, building in extra reading in the classroom and cheat sheets for English teachers who don’t read Young Adult material (but who probably should!).PresenterErin Geddes is an English teacher and Teacher-Librarian who has presented numerous local, state and national workshops and been a sessional lecturer for QUT’s Teacher-Librarian Masters course. Her favourite achievement to date is increasing fiction borrowing in her school library by 62% in 2014. She believes in the power of books, pop culture, technology and is anti-shhhhing. You can follow her on her blog: or various Pinterest pages, including: Workshop JETAQ position on Senior Assessment and Tertiary Entrance changes – Fiona LaingAbstractETAQ has created a position on the Matters/Masters Senior Assessment and Tertiary Entrance Report, released October 2014. Since then the minister released his response to the report, agreeing with much of it and also including the Parliamentary Education and Innovation Committee report on Assessment Methods for Senior Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics (Report No. 25). ?The minister decided to trial using Maths and Science as a basis for deciding on the final system for English and the humanities. ETAQ urgently needs to put together a position on this and it needs input from teachers in Queensland. Come to this session where we look at the options and you have your say. Our new government needs to hear your voice.PresenterFiona Laing is currently HOD English at Forest Lake State High School and president of ETAQ. She is passionate about English teaching and standing up for English teachers.Session 1(11:00 – 12:00)Session 2(12:05 – 1:00)Workshop A Panel discussion – Jackie Manuel, Michelle Ragen and James Moloney, hosted by Lindsay Williams Session 1 only√Workshop BIt’s Alive! – Re-energising reading through transformed classics – Chelsea Parakas√√Workshop CGetting reading right with Robert Browning’s poem My Last Duchess – Garry Collins√√Workshop DHigh Reliability Reading: Building students’ comprehension before, during, and after reading – Julie Bliss√Workshop ETop Level structure – an oldie but a goodie! – Pat Hipwell√Workshop FGetting Reading Right with eBooks and ‘Born Digital’ Narratives – Dr Cherie Allan√√Workshop GMaking Connections Between Real and Fictional Worlds – Anthony Ingold and Ana CulicSession 2 only√Workshop HMr Darcy and That Wet Shirt: The Sequel – Natalie Fong and Heather Costello√√Workshop IHa! Ha! Made you Read – Erin GeddesSession 2 onlyWorkshop JETAQ’s position on Senior Assessment and Tertiary Entrance changes – Fiona LaingSession 2 only ................
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