School+-+Kooweerup+SC

Kooweerup Secondary College is located on the rapidly approaching outskirts of south east Melbourne, 18kms south of Pakenham and just off the South Gippsland Highway. We currently have over 950 students. We have been growing rapidly in the last few years and expect to have over 1000 students next year. We are a bus school and that means that the majority of our students come to school on buses from a wide area including Pakenham, Pearcedale, Grantville and Tooradin.

My job this year is Lead Teacher School Improvement - Literacy. I felt, and still feel, that this is a huge job and at the beginning, I didn't really know where to start. I was promised time and PD to develop my skills. I worked with a Literacy consultant at the start of the year. I presented a PD to the staff on how to write paragraphs, in order that we have a consistent practice throughout the school. This was a fantastic session and I have had some terrific feedback but it will take time to infiltrate throughout the school. I have experienced such negative feedback as "I am a Science teacher, so how is this relevant to me?". Through talking to Jill on her visit, I understand that this was me acting as a consultant, rather than a coach, but given my overall role, and some reading from ALEA which says that we have to have common strategies and practices in the school, I am quite happy with the work I have done in that area.

I have loved the ELC course but I feel that I have not been very successful at trialling some ideas. As a NSP school we have employed a coach and in some ways I felt that I didn't want to step on her toes. However, I have made some progress. I have been working with a graduate teacher in a reciprocal coaching role - I am learning about coaching and she is giving me some feedback and getting some support with her teaching practice, but we haven't met many times. I have also had conversations with the Food Tech teachers about literacy in their classrooms. I have found time to start doing more reading and I am sure that this will make a difference to my practice and my confidence.

Recently my principal, who is new this year, decided that we were to set up a "Literacy Room" and handballed the challenge to me. His idea is that every year 7, 8 and, possibly, 9 English class would go into this room once a week. Does anyone have anything similar? What would be the purpose of this room? What resources would we need? Our remedial literacy support teacher and I are starting to research and are planning to visit schools? I think that Literacy coaching could fit in very well here. Initially, I wasn't very excited about the idea as my idea is that EVERY classroom in the school should be a Literacy room. However, there are lots of things to find out and try - strategies that could make a difference for our students if we are given the time, support and resources.

I do not currently teach any junior English classes. For the upcoming days of the course should I bring in samples of my senior students' work or get some samples from other teachers?

I am looking forward to the upcoming sessions.

Message from Bron Clifton- hi Jenni. I just saved your slideshow on writing paragraphs - it's really useful! We didn't really get a chance to talk about Fast For Word. Let me know how I can be of assistance. You are welcome to visit SGSC if you would like to have a look at our set up. I haven't got the exact data yet. However, it was successful and therefore will run again next year in Terms 2&3. Bron clifton.bronwyn.c@edumail.vic.gov.au 26/10/10

Jenni Kyval Kooweerup Secondary College

Hi Jenni, thanks for confirming my visit on June 8th. I look forward to meeting with you. When we meet I would be keen to hear your response to this question, 'After our days 2 & 3 what was the first change you made to your practice and why?' I am sure that we will have lots to discuss but I am keen to find out about what you are thinking and trying. See you in a couple of weeks, Jill August 30th What a fantastic two days we had last week! I now feel that I have learnt so much and am really growing in my leadership capacity. I am excited about putting lots of the ideas we have learnt into practice and of course, now I know that I have to be strategic about how I go about introducing and using new ideas. I have already used "Inanimate Alice" with my Year 11 and 12 classes, elicting some terrific discussion. I plan to show it, and the Tim Rylands clip, at an English faculty meeting, simply to raise awareness and promote discussion of digital literacies. I have typed up my "Reflective Journal" as suggested by Loren on Day 2 or 3 and I think that I have even managed to upload it to my page! Progress! I am a bit unsure about sharing some of my responses because they seem a bit simple but it is an authentic document and makes my thinking "visible". While typing it up I became really aware of my development and it made me think again about some of the great activities undertaken during the course.

__Evidence of Impact__



On of the most sucessful things that I feel that I have done this year is work with a Graduate teacher. She agreed to be my coaching partner. This suited us both as, through our joint project, I could work on coaching techniques and conversations and she could fulfil VIT registration requirements. During one conversation, Emma said that she had felt quite frustrated with teaching the Creating and Presenting section of the English course to her Year 11 class in Semester 1. I asked her a series of questions that led her to reflect on her practice and identify her needs, which would make her feel that she was teaching the course better. We then became a collaborative team and worked together. We went back to basics and looked at the Key Skills and Key Knowledge listed in the study guide. We planned a unit together, locating resources and keeping our ideas on our determined outcomes. We found some great resources (demonstrating that you don't always have to start from scratch {Thanks MHS for your great online resources}). The outcome is that we both feel that we have taught this section much better this time and the student writing was more successful.

This experience has changed both Emma's and my own teaching practice. Following this we planned a unit for "Using Language to Persuade" together. I have taught Year 11 and 12 English for a number of years and now I feel that my students in Year 11 are so much better prepared for Year 12 than they ever have been. We now have to work on influencing the other Year 11 teachers! Emma and I have already started talking about getting ready for 2011 because there are some changes we want to make. Of course the Key Skills and Knowledge have always been important but this process has enabled us to articulate why we are teaching or using particular things, both to our students and ourselves. There is no mystery and everything is clear and well organised.

I have included our unit plans as evidence.