How Language Works: Success in Literacy and Learning

Description

A comprehensive and innovative professional development program for educators seeking to extend their understandings about language and literacy

The program aims to:
•     make the workings of the language system explicit in order to appreciate the role language           
      plays in constructing knowledge across all learning areas
•     build understandings about the patterned ways meanings are made within and across genres  
      so that educators are able to develop students’ language resources to enable them to 
      understand and produce those genres
•     enable participants to understand and use the differences between spoken and written 
      language, both as a teaching and a learning tool
•     develop the ability to assess language explicitly and efficiently to support the learning of all 
      students
•     promote a teaching and learning cycle that provides opportunities for an explicit focus on 
      language as part of a rich learning environment.

The teacher development course incorporates group discussion, small group activities, classroom-based research and highly practical readings. It is designed to develop teachers’ understandings about language and literacy, using a functional model of language. Trained tutors deliver 30 hours of face-to-face professional development in 10 modules which, when combined with module activities and readings, is equivalent to more than 50 hours of professional development for teachers and may be accepted as RPL in some university courses.

It is expected that teachers registering for this course will attend all five sessions.

Presenters

Patricia Kershaw (AISWA Staff)

Literacy Consultant

Pat Kershaw is a Literacy/English Consultant and has been with AISWA since 2009. She has taught at primary, secondary (English) and tertiary levels and has been involved in many research projects within the university sector and within AISWA, with a focus on literacy in cross-curricular and collaborative projects, which model approaches that teachers can take in the classroom. Her main areas of interest are writing, grammar, oral language and literacy across the curriculum. She works with teachers of literacy and/or English from P-10, as well as principals and teacher teams across WA to support schools with literacy requirements.