The Languages and Culture team is thrilled to announce the launch of our 2 new videos: Literacy in languages and Numeracy in languages.

These short (approximately 7 minutes each) videos unpack the importance of these critical general capabilities within the context of the Languages KLA. 

Each video includes Stage-appropriate examples for explicitly teaching each skill, in order to support students' literacy and numeracy development.

Thank you to our 'actors' – Brindha Punneyalingam, Will Simpson and Julia Zhu, as well as the incredible students at Baulkham Hills High School and Kirrawee High School.

To view the videos, click on 'Learning across the curriculum' at the top of our Stages 4 and 5 landing page, and then scroll to the relevant heading. 

We hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoyed making them.

In Term 4, the Languages and Culture team is delivering Assessment and reporting in 7-10 – new languages syllabuses workshops.
 
The workshops are for language teachers of Stages 4 and 5 from NSW public schools, and are NESA registered for 5 hours. They will be delivered through Microsoft Teams.
 
This course leads you through the changes you'll need to make to assessment and reporting in order to align with the new K-10 syllabuses.
 
There are 4 workshops planned for Term 4:

• Monday 26 October
• Friday 6 November
• Thursday 12 November
• Tuesday 24 November.

More events, both through Teams and face-to-face workshops, will be available in 2021.

The learning intentions of the course are:
- understand the difference between assessment as, for and of learning, and a task-based approach to assessment of learning
- understand the Common Grade Scale and the newly released Course Performance Descriptors for languages and understand their application in determining student achievement of course outcomes
- explore sample marking guidelines and draft marking guidelines differentiated across 5 grades (A-E) for one task
- write quality assessment tasks and design marking criteria that clearly describe student achievement
- understand how to report on student achievement in line with the new syllabus and tailored for the school context.
 
Enrol via MyPL, course code RG09900. Places are limited.

Welcome to Term 4. We hope everyone had a relaxing break – most likely the first genuine break many of you have had all year! We’ve been busy taking the holiday period to add more content to our website, and even though we’ve been updating the blog and our virtual statewide staffroom in Yammer, we’re actually hoping you weren’t reading anything because you were so busy relaxing! So here it is again – all in one place, just in case you missed it.

Class party unit – Stage 4
Just in time for Term 4, we have developed a generic 10-week Stage 4 party unit. The unit has been especially designed to support you in differentiating and adjusting teaching, learning and assessment activities to support a range of students. You can find the unit on the Stages 4 and 5 section of our website, or we also added it to each of the language-specific Stages 4 and 5 pages.

Stage 4 Indonesian – Dining with Indonesian friends!
We have just published a unit starter (unit of work) and matching assessment task on "Dining out with Indonesian friends!", and updated the Stage 4 scope and sequence to align with these new resources.
The unit starter is fully resourced with everything you need to pick up and teach!
Access our support via the Stages 4 and 5 Indonesian page.

Stage 5 – new sample scope and sequences
New Stage 5 sample scope and sequences for Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian, Modern Greek and Spanish are now live. The Arabic sample is for students with prior learning and/or experience, so is a good example to view if you have this learner group in Stage 5.

Online collaboration – professional learning module (TIPD)
This TIPD module has been developed by teachers, for teachers. Set aside approximately 45 minutes to read the content and complete the reflection questions.
The module supports you to:

• - select relevant online collaboration tools to support syllabus outcomes in the languages classroom
• - connect students to other language learners
• - connect with teaching colleagues to enhance language learning opportunities and outcomes through collaboration.

It can be accessed from our professional learning page.
​
We're on YouTube!
Languages NSW has set up a new YouTube channel, with recordings of our past statewide staff meetings, including:

• - our top 10 favourite assessment tasks
• - language learning games
• - blended learning
• - assessment for learning.

Please subscribe – we will add more recordings each year.

In Term 4, the Languages and Culture team is delivering Assessment and reporting in 7-10 – new languages syllabuses workshops.
 
The workshops are for language teachers of Stages 4 and 5 in NSW public schools, and are NESA registered for 5 hours. 
 
This workshop leads language teachers through the changes they will need to make to assessment and reporting in order to align with the new K-10 syllabuses.
 
There are 4 workshops planned for Term 4:

• Monday 26 October
• Friday 6 November
• Thursday 12 November
• Tuesday 24 November.

Full details, including enrolment details will be published Week 1, Term 4.​

Due to the impact of COVID-19, the Languages and Culture team is postponing all Term 1 workshops, with the exception of Wollongong (18 March).

New dates for the Term 1 venues will be published later in the year.

At this stage, Term 2 events are proceeding as planned.

​A reminder, tomorrow's Wollongong event is still going ahead.

Our Languages K-10 syllabus familiarisation and planning eCourse is been made available again on MyPL. We have restructured the course in to make enrolling and accessing the course content simpler – the new course code is RG08902.

This registered eCourse supports language teachers 7-10 in NSW public schools to implement the K-10 language syllabuses in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Greek, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.

The eCourse's objective is for participants to develop their understanding of the new Languages K-10 Framework and related syllabuses and to consider the implications for programming. The eCourse has been co-designed with practising teachers.

There are 7 online parts to complete, and a post-course assignment to submit. The post-task assignment must be submitted and marked as 'achieved' for participants to receive the registered hours.

If you are a language teacher 7-10, you need to successfully complete all components (Parts 1-7 and the assignment) to receive the NESA registered professional development hours. Alternatively, you can complete Parts 1-7 only and add this as Teacher Identified Professional Development (TIPD) on eTAMS.

If you are a language teacher K-6, you may complete Parts 1-7 only and add this as Teacher Identified Professional Development (TIPD) on eTAMS.
 
With our Assessment and reporting in 7-10 – new languages syllabuses workshops rolling out statewide from next week, we strongly recommend you revisit this important learning to maximise your participation in the assessment workshops.

The Languages and Culture team is ready to deliver a new workshop to support teachers of Stages 4 and 5:
Assessment and reporting in 7-10 – new languages syllabuses.

The workshop will be rolled out statewide and is NESA-registered for 5 hours.

This course has been developed as a 1-day face-to-face workshop and leads language teachers through the changes they will need to make to assessment and reporting in order to align with the new syllabuses.

The learning intentions of the course are:
- understand the difference between assessment as, for and of learning, and a task-based approach to assessment of learning
- understand Common Grade Scale and the newly released Course Performance Descriptors for languages and understand their application in determining student achievement of course outcomes
- understand how to report on student achievement in line with the new syllabus and tailored for the school context
- write better quality assessment tasks and design marking criteria that clearly describe student achievement
- explore sample marking guidelines and draft marking guidelines differentiated across 5 grades (A-E) for one task.

The course is for languages teachers 7-10 from NSW public schools.

Enrol via MyPL, course code RG09900.

Upcoming event dates and venues are:
Monday 16 March – Parramatta
Wednesday 18 March – Wollongong
Monday 23 March – Sydney CBD
Tuesday 24 March – Sydney CBD
Wednesday 25 March – Queanbeyan
Wednesday 25 March – Terrigal
Friday 27 March – Newcastle
Tuesday 31 March – Coffs Harbour
Wednesday 1 April – Ballina
Friday 1 May – Parramatta
Thursday 7 May – Armidale
Tuesday 12 May – Port Macquarie
Thursday 14 May – Wagga
Thursday 21 May – Dubbo
Friday 22 May – Bathurst

Separate sessions will be held for teachers from Saturday School of Community Languages and NSW School of Languages. Teachers from these two schools are to await advice for dates and venues from their schools.

If you have further questions, contact Evia Kyriacou or call 7814 2820.