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 Languages
Information and resources for middle leaders in secondary schools | Term 3 2013
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!
National Co-ordinators
for Learning Languages
Professional learning and development
opportunities continue this term
Northern and Central
North regions
This 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-middleleaders/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/aboutus/publications/newsletters-and-circulars/assessment-matters/.
All circulars published prior to 25 March 2013, can still be found in
the SecQual folder.
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.wiki
spaces.com/
Central South and
Southern regions
Recent circulars of particular interest to Languages teachers include:
29 May Use of Te Reo Māori in external assessment
01 July Facebook Subject Pages
04 July Listening passages in languages, 2013 examinations
International Languages Week is 18-25
August
We look forward to
International 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 languagespecific activities that might provide some inspiration and further
ideas are available on the NZALT website.
Secondary Student Achievement Professional Learning and Development - National Newsletter
Jo Guthrie
UC Education Plus
Te Tapuae o Rehua Consortium
University of Canterbury
T: 03 367 0750
M: 027 483 5510
Education Plus Web Site
Mau ki te ako website
Adapting earlier versions of NCEA external
assessments using top down marking
Top 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 judgement
statements 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.
A 'grade score descriptor' for N1 through to E8 was written for each
question; they described what a candidate at each particular grade
score actually did. The descriptors vary from question to question
because the specifics of the questions vary.
For each question a list of the specific evidence that candidates
commonly/most often wrote was included.
For each question a brief example of a verbatim response at each
level was included.
The corollary of the above is that if you have an earlier schedule with
bolds and underlines, it was likely written for the old standards, and
hasn't been structured for the aligned standards. Which means it
doesn't work very well for top down marking - most particularly the
judgement statements. So where to from there?
The simplest thing to do is to rewrite the judgement statements so that
they don't specify how many 'pieces of information' are needed. Rather
what they do is to describe what a student at that level is able to do. If
you look at last year's Level 3 schedules (which were for the old
standards) you will see this. This link will take you to the French L3
schedules, the other 2012 L3 schedules are formatted the same way.
Template
If you want to go further than that, look at the template for the L1
Listening standard on the NCEA page of the Learning Languages PLD
wiki, and adapt it for the questions you are using.
You will find the schedules for all L1 papers in 2011 are set out in this
way, as are the schedules for L1 and L2 in 2012.
iCLT Language Immersion Awards
One of the challenges of teaching students about target language
culture(s) is the fact that culture is relative, dynamic and variable.
Learning about another culture through books, films, music, and social
media means that students see the culture through the lens of the
writer, singer, film-maker etc., and teachers need to ensure that
students have access to a wide variety of perspectives.
Keeping up with the rapid changes in language and cultural norms is
certainly easier than it used to be, thanks to the internet, but nothing
can replace the experience of being both a participant and an observer
in a different cultural setting.
PLD for Northern/Central
North regions
National workshops
Thinking Critically about L3 NCEA
In 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 workshops
Creativity and ICT in Learning
Languages
Hamilton Thur 01 Aug, Atrium on
Ulster Motel/Conference Centre.
Register:
https://intranet.teamsolutions.ac.
nz/forms/index.php/forms/worksh
op_enrolment/KQTS45
Napier, Sat 03 Aug, Conference
Room, Scenic Te Pania. Register:
https://intranet.teamsolutions.ac.
nz/forms/index.php/forms/worksh
op_enrolment/KQTS44
Engaging Boys in Learning
Languages
Auckland, Thur 08 Aug,
National Library Service Centre.
Register:
de.edwards@auckland.ac.nz
Pasifika
Auckland, Thur 22 Aug, Venue
TBC. Register:
s.gaugatao@auckland.ac.nz
Clusters (venues TBC)
Tauranga, Wed 31 July
Auckland, Tue 28 Aug
Northland, Tues 03 Sept
Rotorua, Wed 11 Sept
Hamilton, Thur 12 Sept
Napier, Tue 17 Sept
Pasifika - TBC
PLD for Central
South/Southern regions
Clusters
New Plymouth Week 2, term 3
Wellington Week 3, term 3
(Days and venues TBC)
To check venues and enrol for
PLD opportunities in the Central
South and Southern regions, go
to the Learning Languages
Professional Learning/Workshops
page:
http://www.edplus.canterbury.ac.
nz/languages/proflearn.shtml
(Continued on next page.)
Secondary Student Achievement Professional Learning and Development - National Newsletter
2
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 ongoing links with individuals and schools in another country, from
regular contact via email, wiki, to school trips, and student exchanges.
Regional Facilitators for
Learning Languages
Siliva Gaugatao
Faculty of Education
The University of Auckland
T: 09 623 8899 ext. 48134
M: 027 555 4655
F: 09 623 8881
E: s.gaugatao@auckland.ac.nz
W: http://www.teamsolutions.ac.nz
Everything you need to know about applying for an award can be
found on the AFS website:
http://www.afs.org.nz/educators/liateachers/
Jeni Lemberg
UC Education Plus
Te Tapuae o Rehua Consortium
University of Canterbury
T: 03 546 0587
Useful Links
E: jeni.lemberg@canterbury.ac.nz
Secondary 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.
Education Plus Web Site
Mau ki te ako website
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.
Secondary Student Achievement Professional Learning and Development - National Newsletter
3
Te Reo Māori in the Online Dictionary of New
Zealand Sign Language
Language Weeks
Deaf 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.
International Languages Week
18-25 August
https://learninglanguagespld.wikisp
aces.com/
http://www.nzalt.org.nz/events/ilw.
shtml
Cook Islands Māori Language
Week
4-10 August
The 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
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.
13-19 October
Langsems 2013
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.
Tokelauan Language Week
28 October – 3 November
Chinese
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
Secondary Student Achievement Professional Learning and Development - National Newsletter
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.
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