This newsletter and the Secondary Student Achievement Professional Learning and Development initiative is funded by the Ministry of Education. The providers are The University of Auckland and Te Tapuae o Rehua consortium.

National Newsletter: Learning LanguagesInformation and resources for middle leaders in secondary schools | Term 3 2013

We look forward to

Secondary Student Achievement Professional Learning and Development - National Newsletter

Tēnā koutou! 你好! 안녕하세요 Kia orana! Bonjour! Guten Tag! こんにちは。Salvete! Faka’alofa lahi atu! Talofa lava! ¡Buenos días! Malo e lelei! Taloha ni!

Professional learning and development opportunities continue this termThis term, we continue with workshops and regional clusters. These PLD opportunities are Ministry-funded and there are no registration costs for participants. See page two for details.

Further details of the workshops including the venues and links for enrolment will be available shortly on the TKI Secondary Middle Leader portal: http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Secondary-middle-leaders/Professional-learning-and-development

and on the Learning Languages PLD wiki: https://learninglanguagespld.wikispaces.com/

Please contact us directly if you have any queries. Our contact details are listed on the next page.

Have you seen the latest circular Assessment Matters?NZQA’s SecQual circulars are now known as Assessment Matters circulars.  All assessment, operational and logistical matters in relation to secondary qualifications are communicated through these online publications http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about-us/publications/newsletters-and-circulars/assessment-matters/. All circulars published prior to 25 March 2013, can still be found in the SecQual folder.

Recent circulars of particular interest to Languages teachers include:

29 May Use of Te Reo Māori in external assessment 01 July Facebook Subject Pages04 July Listening passages in languages, 2013 examinations

International Languages Week is 18-25 AugustInternational Languages Week has been run in New Zealand schools for a quite a few years now. This is an excellent opportunity to showcase the learning of languages and culture within your school and wider community. If you are looking for ideas for International Languages Week this year this resource has generic and language-specific activities that might provide some inspiration and further ideas are available on the NZALT website.

Adapting earlier versions of NCEA external assessments using top down markingTop down marking was introduced with the aligned standards. At the same time the format of the assessment schedules changed to better reflect the intent of these standards. 

Specifically, the format of the schedules for recent standards:

Discontinued the use of bolds and underlines, and judgementstatements that relied on counting up pieces of information. This was done because the 'counting up' method did not support holistic marking when all aspects of a candidate's response are considered as a single entity.

Included a descriptor of each level of achievement - as stated in the standard - at the top of the schedule, along with an 'unpacked' version. This is the same for every question.

PLD for Northern/Central North regionsNational workshopsThinking Critically about L3 NCEAIn response to feedback from middle leaders, these workshops will be offered in November after students have begun their external assessments. Details will be on TKI and the Learning Languages PLD wiki or you can email de.edwards@auckland.ac.nz

Regional workshopsCreativity and ICT in Learning LanguagesHamilton Thur 01 Aug, Atrium on

National Co-ordinators for Learning Languages

Northern and Central North regions

Dee Edwards Faculty of Education The University of Auckland T: 09 623 8899 ext. 48724 M: 027 588 0488 F: 09 623 8881 E: de.edwards@auckland.ac.nz https://learninglanguagespld.wikispaces.com/

Central South and Southern regions

Jo Guthrie UC Education Plus Te Tapuae o Rehua ConsortiumUniversity of Canterbury T: 03 367 0750 M: 027 483 5510 Education Plus Web Site Mau ki te ako website

Secondary Student Achievement Professional Learning and Development - National Newsletter

Adapting earlier versions of NCEA external assessments using top down markingTop down marking was introduced with the aligned standards. At the same time the format of the assessment schedules changed to better reflect the intent of these standards. 

Specifically, the format of the schedules for recent standards:

Discontinued the use of bolds and underlines, and judgementstatements that relied on counting up pieces of information. This was done because the 'counting up' method did not support holistic marking when all aspects of a candidate's response are considered as a single entity.

Included a descriptor of each level of achievement - as stated in the standard - at the top of the schedule, along with an 'unpacked' version. This is the same for every question.

PLD for Northern/Central North regionsNational workshopsThinking Critically about L3 NCEAIn response to feedback from middle leaders, these workshops will be offered in November after students have begun their external assessments. Details will be on TKI and the Learning Languages PLD wiki or you can email de.edwards@auckland.ac.nz

Regional workshopsCreativity and ICT in Learning LanguagesHamilton Thur 01 Aug, Atrium on

Since 2006, the Ministry of Education has been funding Language Immersion Awards for teachers, with the goal of improving language teaching and learning in New Zealand schools. The programme is managed by AFS Intercultural Programmes New Zealand. In that time more than a hundred New Zealand teachers have been granted awards for language immersion experiences for between a month and a year in places as diverse as China, Samoa, Mexico and Belgium. It is a flexible programme, able to respond to the individual needs of the teacher applying. For example, a teacher who needs to develop or refresh their language skills may opt to spend their time mostly studying in a language school, while another teacher may opt for a school-based immersion experience.

Teachers who are currently permanently employed and teaching French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Cook Island Maori, Samoan, Korean, Tokelauan, Tongan or Vagahau Niue are eligible to apply for a Language Immersion Award. Teachers applying must be fully registered, hold NZ citizenship or residency, be permanently employed by their school, and have the support of their principal and BOT. Schools supporting a teacher’s application must also provide written commitment to ongoing language teaching at the school.

Before taking up the award, teachers are supported to set language learning goals to ensure that they are able to focus on achieving specific language and cultural outcomes while away. These goals allow teachers to reflect on and assess the impact of the Language Immersion Award on their teaching and their students’ learning. The Ministry of Education, which funds the awards, uses this information to monitor trends in language learning and the impact of this award on the teaching of languages in the curriculum.

Teachers who have been away on an immersion award in recent years report a wide range of benefits, from a young teacher who is now able to answer the question “Have you ever been to France, Miss?, with a resounding “Yes”, to more experienced teachers who comment on the value of refreshing their knowledge of contemporary life and society and revitalising their passion for the language and culture they are teaching. Many teachers have seized the opportunity to establish on-going links with individuals and schools in another country, from regular contact via email, wiki, to school trips, and student exchanges.

Everything you need to know about applying for an award can be found on the AFS website: http://www.afs.org.nz/educators/liateachers/

Useful LinksSecondary Focus updates in the Gazette Each issue of the Education Gazette features a page called Secondary Focus which has updates on resources, teaching and learning or professional development relevant to the secondary sector. It is possible to view all the Secondary Focus pages over the last couple of years on this site. Other secondary stories from the Gazette There is a page on TKI that lists links to all the stories from the Education Gazette that have a secondary flavor. There will be useful material here to start a conversation at a departmental meeting. Signing up to Education Gazette article alerts means that the same day a new issue comes out, you will receive an email with the latest headlines. Each headline includes a small blurb about the story, and when clicked on, links you to the whole story on the Education Gazette website.

Educational Leaders website The Educational Leaders section of TKI has important resources, readings and case studies relevant not only for senior leaders but for middle leaders too. In particular, you could check out the ‘Leadership development’ link on the menu and then the ‘Professional information’ tab.

Regional Facilitators for Learning Languages

Siliva GaugataoFaculty of EducationThe University of AucklandT: 09 623 8899 ext. 48134M: 027 555 4655F: 09 623 8881

E: s.gaugatao@auckland.ac.nzW: http://www.teamsolutions.ac.nz

Jeni LembergUC Education Plus Te Tapuae o Rehua ConsortiumUniversity of Canterbury T: 03 546 0587

E: jeni.lemberg@canterbury.ac.nz

Education Plus Web Site Mau ki te ako website

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Secondary Student Achievement Professional Learning and Development - National Newsletter

Language Weeks

International Languages Week 18-25 Augusthttps://learninglanguagespld.wikispaces.com/http://www.nzalt.org.nz/events/ilw.shtml

Cook Islands Māori Language Week 4-10 AugustThe theme for this week is Toku Reo, Utuutu 'Ia; My Language, Nurture it

Tongan Language Week 1-7 September

Tuvaluan Language Week 30 September – 6 October

Fijian Language Week 7-13 October

Niuean Language Week 13-19 October

Tokelauan Language Week 28 October – 3 November

Themes for each language week will be confirmed closer to the dates. For more information on Pacific Language weeks visit the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs website and facebook page.

Chinese

Dr Yu Wang 王宇National Language Adviser: Chinese has an interactive mailing list for teachers of Chinese on behalf of NZCLA, the NZ Chinese Language Association. The name of this group is nzcla, and the email address is nzcla@yahoogroups.com

It is hoped that this will become an active platform for Chinese teachers to exchange information and resources. All teachers who are on the Chinese listserv@tki have been invited to participate. If you or a colleague you know have not received an invitation and would like to join, please contact Yu. 

Te Reo Māori in the Online Dictionary of New Zealand Sign LanguageDeaf and hearing New Zealanders now have access to te Reo Māori vocabulary through the Online Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language, produced by Victoria University.

This resource was launched in May 2013, during NZSL week. It creates a link between the official languages of New Zealand. At present, only main glosses (meanings) for each sign are translated into te Reo Māori, but this allows word searches via English or te Reo Māori.

A large proportion of the NZSL community and deaf children are Māori, and identify with both deaf and Māori cultures. The addition of te Reo Māori to the dictionary creates a trilingual resource for deaf people that improves their access to learning te Reo Māori vocabulary. It also enables hearing speakers of te Reo Māori and hearing NZSL users to find correspondences between signs and te Reo Māori vocabulary. This is potentially useful to deaf children and their educators.

Vocab@Vic 2013, 18-20 December Thirty per cent of the research on vocabulary that has appeared in the last 100 years has appeared in the last 10 years. There has been remarkable progress in research in areas such as multiword units, computer-assisted vocabulary learning, vocabulary learning activities and vocabulary testing.

The Vocab@Vic conference aims to keep participants up-to-date with current research and practice in vocabulary teaching and learning. The conference is being held at Victoria University, Wellington from Wednesday 18 – Friday 20 December 2013.

The conference theme is deliberately broad: Current trends in vocabulary studies. The opening and closing plenary speaker is Paul Nation, Victoria University of Wellington. Further information is available on the conference website.

Langsems 2013

Organised by local NZALT regions in non-conference years, Langsems allow teachers to access PLD closer to home and to network with colleagues. Langsems have already taken place in both the Massey and Canterbury regions in 2013 and details for other regions are outlined below:

Auckland: Saturday 24 August, Faculty of Education, University of Auckland. Register: http://nzalt.org.nz/support/AucklandLangSem2013.html

Waikato: "Where next for Learning Languages?" Friday 30 August, Hamilton Airport Motor Inn. Register: https://learninglanguageswaikato.wikispaces.com/LangSem+2013

Victoria: Saturday 23 November (TBC)Contact: Victoria Regional Officer

Otago: Will take place in term 4. More details will follow but if you have any queries in the meantime, please contact the Otago Regional Officer

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