Page 35 - Languages Victoria December 2019

Languages Victoria
MLTAV CLIL Network Workshop @ Wesley College 18/11/2019
by Debbie Tai, Enhanced Language Program Coordinator, Wesley College
The MLTAV CLIL Network facilitates professional learning to support teachers involved in CLIL. The term 3 workshop this year was held at the Glen Waverley campus of Wesley College. Over 60 teachers from government, catholic and independent schools as well as Chinese language expert, Dr. Jane Orton and CLIL expert, Associate Professor Russell Cross from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education also participated in the full-day workshop. The program included the opportunity to participate in CLIL- focused workshops, network and collaborate with colleagues working in CLIL and to observe a number of CLIL classes-in-action in the Chinese Enhanced Language Program (ELP).
Claudia Prescott presented a workshop sharing how Wesley uses a comprehensive planner to carefully consider all elements to be included in the CLIL Units of work in the ELP. The team uses CLIL principles to inform the way they collaborate to plan teaching and learning activities, design assessment tasks and create resources to support the identified learning goals.
Yayoi, the Year 3 and 6 Chinese teacher at Wesley Elsternwick, reflected on this session saying, ‘The workshop participants were interested to see the process of curriculum design and how this is used to ensure the learning is engaging and well scaffolded for students throughout each unit’.
Workshop participants were then able to visit a range of CLIL classes across Foundation to Year 4 to see how teachers were supporting students to not only ‘learn the language’ but also to ‘learn through the language’. Participants commented on how impressed they were by students’ achievement, teachers’ professionalism and passion and the alignment of effort and purpose across the whole school.
Another highlight of the CLIL Network Workshop was the focus group sessions which engaged the participants in discussions about the opportunities and challenges involved in teaching CLIL in particular subject areas. Wesley teachers Ivan Chan (PE), Angeline Siow (Art), Claudia Prescott (Humanities), Yuxuan Chen and Jenny Chen (Science &ICT), Alisa Shen and Jing Zhao (ECLC) shared some of the strategies they find effective in their programs. Kylie Farmer (MLTAV CLIL Network facilitator) also led a focus group sharing some work MLTAV had done recently showcasing how Numeracy can be effectively taught through an additional Language. These resources are available on the Department of Education and Training
Volume 23 Number 1 Page 35