What’s new?
New to the TEAL website!
Rad resource
During the school terms in Victoria, the TEAL website will periodically feature a new Rad resource. It might be an interesting academic article, a website or a game that you can use in the classroom. Scroll down to see the resources.
The Arc platform
The Department of Education has a new online resource centre – the Arc platform. It looks snazzy and it is very easy to navigate.
You can access recorded webinars on a range of EAL-related assessment and reporting topics:
EAL assessment moderation: Speaking and Listening for Pathways A and B
Assessing and reporting on English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners’ progress
Moderating student writing samples against the Victorian Curriculum F-10 English as an Additional Language (EAL): Pathway C
EAL Curriculum Pathway A (F-2) Transition Considerations
To visit the website, go to: the Arc platform.
Learning logs
We have always been fans of good reflection activities here. Encouraging your students to reflect on, and and take responsibility for, their own learning can be a powerful learning experience.
Reflection activities can be modified to suit the age and English language proficiency levels of your students. It can take time and practise to foster students’ critical thinking skills but it is well worth the effort. An ability to reflect on and learn from our experiences is also a valuable life skill and one that becomes increasingly important as students move through the year levels.
LINK: Revamping learning logs (with downloadable and adaptable template)
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Online quizzes
Quizlet
is a fantastic tool for consolidating new vocabulary. Teachers create digital flash cards for their class, or students create their own using translations into their home language. The flash cards are presented through activities and games that students use to revise the vocabulary at their own pace. LINK: Quizlet
There is also the option to play Quizlet Live, a fun whole-class game in which students are randomly allocated into groups and need to work together to answer the questions. watch a short YouTube clip to find out how to play. LINK: How to play Quizlet Live
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Indigenous history week
Many new arrival students – not surprisingly – will not know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been in Australia for between 50,000 and 120,000 years. The Indigenous History Special from Behind The News could help teachers introduce their intermediate (and above) EAL students to a key historical event, the Freedom Ride in the 1960s.
LINK: Indigenous History Special
Note, the video link in the resource does not work in Chrome.
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Teaching remotely
VicTESOL and the Virtual New Arrivals Program (VNAP) has presented a fantastic professional learning event: Learning from Home: Supporting EAL students remotely.
LINK: Learning from Home: Supporting EAL students remotely
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Online resources for EAL teachers
The Department has collated a number of resources for teachers of EAL students on the FUSE website.
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Ice breakers
Who else likes doing icebreaker activities in the first class? It can be a great way to start learning names and to find out about different students – and a fun way for students to get to know each other.
‘Find someone who’ is designed for students with some literacy in English. It can be easily modified to suit younger or older learners and it can be used successfully with adult learners too.
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Game time!
As we are getting to the end of the term, this week’s rad resource is a fun word game you can play with EAL (or non-EAL) students of all ages. It is called ‘Just a minute’ or ‘Taboo’ in some circles.
Resources: Paper, scissors, star stickers
LINK: How to play ESL Taboo plus ready-made game cards
Free online moderation:
Thank you to the teachers who submitted writing and speaking samples to us for use in our online moderation sessions in Terms 1 and 2, and to the many teachers who attended them.
Recordings of sessions we have conducted to date have been posted in the Benchmarking Forum.
Thanks to Alan Williams for sharing the document to your right with us. It highlights the equivalence between ACARA EAL/D Progressions and the EAL stages used in Victoria (and throughout the TEAL web 
site.)
Click on the image on the left for more details, or read the related post in our public discussion forum.
Exciting announcement: The Reading and Vocabulary assessment for EAL students (RVEAL) assessment tool is now available to teachers in Victorian schools!
Please visit the Common Reading and Vocabulary Assessment Tools page for more information.
TEAL webinar: Over 80 people met online on 30 October last year to hear our very own Anna-Lise (Wallis) speaking about TEAL. Anna-Lise spoke about the history of the tools and highlighted the importance of assessing our EAL students’ progress in a way that furthers their learning. She also gave a guided tour of the TEAL web site, and answered quite a few questions!
This webinar was recorded. The recording and PowerPoint slides that Anna-Lise used are now both available on the VicTESOL web site.
Professional learning news: Would you like to learn more about the Tools to Enhance Assessment Literacy?
- Venture to the TEAL professional learning modules for some self-directed learning.
- For other EAL-related professional learning events, visit the Department of Education and Training’s Arc platform and view the EAL channel. You can follow the channel and be notified about upcoming events, or spend time browsing recordings of past professional learning webinars.
Join the 300 registered users of this web site:
Now is t
he perfect time to sign up. As a member you can post in the TEAL forums, and will be able to read (and post in) our private Benchmarking forum.
Click on the logo to your left, to register. It’s quick and it’s free.
CONTACT US: For further information on TEAL and guidance for the web project, please contact one of our team members.
| Web site contacts | UNSW |
|
Anna-Lise Wallis anna-lise.wallis [at] education.vic.gov.au Alternatively, use |
Prof Chris Davison, TEAL Project Leader c.davison [at] unsw.edu.au
|
| The TEAL Steering Committee | The TEAL project team |
|
Department of Education and Training: Chris Finch Anna-Lise Wallis Catholic Education Melbourne: Judy Connell Hanya Senjov Margaret Vingerhoots Independent Schools Victoria: Andrew Hay UNSW: Prof Chris Davison Janet Saker Alan Williams Janelle Ho (Educational Assessment Australia) |
Dennis Alonzo Robert Colla Sarah Culican Gerry Davies Pam Luizzi Giuliana Mecoli Helen Pearson Janet Saker Alan Williams Student researchers (UNSW) Susanne Stanyer Sara Mashayekh De Phung Oluwaseun Ijiwade |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
| Primary and secondary schools | Teachers |
| Blackburn ELS | Robyn Antrim, Chris Everett, Ruth Giffard, Alex Perry |
| Collingwood English Language School | Marissa Varrasso, Juliette Greening, Maria Irinous, Jenny Markos |
| Creekside College K-9 | Madalin Coghlan, Lisa Bargiamidis |
| Doveton College | Michelle Landgraf |
| Laverton P-12 College | Sandra Di Mieri, Margaret Svigos |
| Noble Park English Language School | Patricia Franke, Georgina Georgalli, Derva Josic, Erin Kaitler, Inna Gvozdenko, Kay Rothstadt, Anna Trudzic |
| Oakleigh Grammar | Duncan Goddard |
| St Anthony’s Coptic Orthodox College | Merete Entwistle |
| Wesley College | Andrea Belmonte |
| Western English Language School | Michelle Bond, Kevin Pozniak |
| Primary schools | Teachers |
| Albany Rise Primary School | Diane Campasino |
| Athol Road Primary School | Rebecca Learmonth |
| Bell Park North Primary School | Lynda Newell |
| Bellview Park Primary School | Janelle James |
| Christ the King Primary School, Braybrook | Brigida Paino, Maria Watt, Lucy Dinoto, Tameka Pentreath |
| Dana St. Primary School | Joan McKaskill |
| Flemington Primary School | Christina Laught |
| Mont Albert Primary School | Rosemary Fitzpatrick |
| Mother of God Primary School, Ardeer | Michelle Buckley |
| Oatlands Primary School, Narre Warren | Nicki Whitehead |
| Preston North East Primary School | Michelle Andrews |
| Resurrection Catholic Primary School, Kings Park | Vesna Curmi, John Hein |
| Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, St. Albans | Sarah Ceddia, Chantal Mifsud, Sandra Tanner, Belinda Joannou |
| St. Andrews Primary School, Clayton South | Sharon McCarter |
| St. Dominics, Broadmeadows | Gay Nicholls |
| St. Mary MacKillop Primary School, Keilor Downs | Fiona Parnell |
| St. Mary’s Primary School, Colac | Jodie Hassett, Susie Scott |
| St. Patrick’s Primary School, Pakenham | Iris De Visser |
| Sunshine Harvester Primary School | Christine Durbridge, Siobhan O’Brian |
| Windsor Primary School, Windsor | Lily Papamihail |
| Secondary schools | Teachers |
| Brunswick English Language Centre | Erica Dunn, Anne-Marie Lynzaat, Susan Pardy, Roberta Zekic |
| Brunswick Secondary College | Mitchell Brannon, Megan Conley, Steven Kolber, Anne Siciliano, Nony Smitzis |
| Catholic Regional College, St. Albans | Grace Cini, Hanja Senjov, Rebekah Loring |
| Catholic Regional College, Melton | Rebekah Loring |
| Geelong English Language Centre | Bronwyn Smith, Carry Varley, Lynda Newell, Paul O’Connell |
| Geelong North Secondary College | Monica Thomson |
| Hoppers Crossing Secondary College | Anne Bury |
| Hume Central ELC | Elizabeth Tedge |
| Koonung Secondary College | Sharyn Paspa |
| Mackillop College Werribee | Rebecca Paic |
| McGuire College, Shepparton | Jagdish Mahinder Singh |
| Melba College (formerly Croydon-Maroondah College) | Lynne Dwyer |
| Nazareth College, Noble ParkNorth | Brendan Hermon |
| Preston Girls Secondary College | Renata Tirabassi, Ekaterina Xanthopolous |
| St. Monica’s College, Epping | Medeleine Haddad |
| Thomastown Secondary College | April Edwards |
| Traralgon Secondary College | Maral Coleman |
| Wellington Secondary College | Maria Papasotiriou |
| Westall ELC | Anastasia Kotisou |
Special thanks to Mairead Hanna at VicTESOL for her assistance and support for TEAL.
Thanks also to Margaret Nutbean, Jane Banks, Eliza Costigan, Trish Fattor, Sharon Pledge, Pierina Perri from Catholic Education Melbourne, and Dominic Byrne, Judy Massey, Giuliana Mecoli, Jennie Patterson, and Madeleine Parker from the Department of Education and Training
