Dear Teachers,

Last year around  17 of our ECE and Primary teachers were trained in two ESL courses offered for staff – Teaching Young Children in English in a Multilingual Context (ECE and Lower Primary) & ESL in the Mainstream Class (Middle – Upper Primary).  These courses are designed to provide opportunities for all teachers to develop an understanding of how better to support the needs of second language learners in their teaching.

All teachers are expected to have this course completed after two years of employment at YCIS. It involves making the commitment to attend 7-10 lessons with tasks and readings to complete at the end of each module. Some tasks require you to reflect on your teaching and/or the reading(s) provided, while other tasks involve you trialing strategies learned with your students in class.  More importantly, it is an excellent course for teachers who teach second language children in their classrooms, which are all teachers at YCIS.  The course costs, including course booklets and snacks, are covered by the school.

The course has been taken by a number of Chinese teachers in the past and the concepts and strategies taught are relevant for any language.  We encourage Chinese teachers to also take the course and use this for their own professional learning.

Now, all you need to do is sign up and participate! Please email our course tutors – Melissa or Andrea to register for either of these courses.  The deadline to inform them of your interest in attending will be Friday, December 8th.

Please see the attached overview of the 2 courses being offered-

Teaching Young Children in English in a Multilingual Context (ECE and Lower Primary)

Licensed Course tutor- Melissa Shaw

Teaching Young Children in English in Multilingual Contexts Course Outline

ESL in the Mainstream Class (Middle – Upper Primary)

Licensed Course tutor- Andrea Griego

Teaching ESL in The Mainstream Class Course Outline

Classes will begin on Monday, January 15 with dates of classes listed below:

(Please note that dates may change, but we will aim to keep to the scheduled calendar)

January 15, 2018

January 29, 2018

February 12, 2018

March 5, 2018

March 19, 2018 

April 9, 2018, 2018

April 16, 2018 (Melissa Course)

April 23, 2018

May 7, 2018 

Once registered a more detailed schedule will be sent out that will include times, venue and module titles.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Melissa & Andrea

Morning All,

As we wrap up our busy year, we would like to acknowledge and congratulate the teachers that participated in our ESL Courses this year. Both courses are highly interactive and engage participants in various activities that guide them in reflecting on their pedagogy. This year Andrea and I have been amazed at the contributions of all participants as they have come to class prepared to share and reflect on their teaching practices.

We would like to congratulate the following staff members on the completion or participation in the course.

Teaching Young Children in English in a Multilingual Classroom

ESL  in the Mainstream

Congratulations again to the participants and for your commitment in attending all the sessions, as well as completing the required course work.

Melissa & Andrea

Dear all,

As you are aware, a staff In-Service Day has been scheduled for Friday, April 14. Please see the programme outline below:

Morning Sessions

• 8.00 Coffee/Tea
• 8.10 – 8.30: Staff Meeting – Admin
• 8.30 -10.00: Assessment: Feedback strategies session (Assessment Committee)
• 10.00-10.30: Morning Tea Provided
• 10.30–12.00: Assessments-Creating a Performance Task (Melissa and John)
• 12.00-1.00 Lunch – Own arrangement

Afternoon Sessions

• 1.00-4.00: Language Learning across the Curriculum for Specialists (Andrea and Melissa). Specialists are required to attend. It is optional for Chinese teachers (Please inform Sissy Shen if you would like to take this session).
• 1.00-2.45: 2 PD Sessions for all other teachers (Two times 45 mins sessions with 15 min transition in between):
  • Bridging the Gender Gap in Reading – Liz
  • Guided Reading; Effective Instruction at the teacher table – Ryan
  • Using Reading Comprehension Strategies to conference with students – Ann
  • The importance of reading for pleasure, and how to get children to love reading – Clair
• 2.45-3.00: Tea & Coffee
• 3.00-4.00: Year Level Meetings
  • 30 min team feedback from PD sessions
  • 30 min admin

For a more detailed description of the four sessions, see below.

Please indicate below which two sessions you will be signing up for. Try to ensure that each Year/Team has a representative at each of the four PD sessions if possible.

Afternoon PD Sessions

Full Name *

Choose your 2 sessions

Workshop 1: Bridging the Gender Gap: Boys’ Performance in Reading

Presented by Liz Hambleton Room 106

This workshop will be about boys’ attainment in reading. It will look at the gender gap between boys and girls in reading from lower Primary up to Secondary, why such a gaps exists, how it affects our students and what we can do about it in the classroom. Teachers will be given practical examples of what they can do to help boys and all students be enthusiastic about reading and improve their reading levels.

Workshop 2: Using Reading Comprehension Strategies to Conference with Students

Presented by Ann McCormick Room 108

Explicitly teaching metacognitive reading comprehension strategies has many advantages for developing readers. One of those advantages is that we can use students' responses to these strategies in reading conferences to assess their reading level, nudge them toward new reading possibilities, and to celebrate growth. In this session, teachers will first be given resources to implement reading comprehension strategies in guided reading. We will then go over how to lead effective reading conferences by looking at example conference scripts, watching reading conferences, and practising conferring with each other.

Choose your sessions

Workshop 3: Guided Reading: Effective Instruction at The Teacher Table

Presented by Ryan Kravalis Room 110

In this session, we’ll focus on how to get the most out of small group reading instruction. We’ll look at what to teach and how to teach it effectively. Discussions will focus on the importance of assessment, the structure of guided reading sessions, the skills and strategies we should teach, and some example lessons. At the very least, teachers will walk away with a reminder about what good practice looks like in guided reading.

Workshop 4: The Importance of Reading for Pleasure and How To Get Children To Love Reading.

Presented by Clair McEnhill Room 111

One of the challenges for teachers is not simply getting students to read – it’s getting them to enjoy reading also. It is one thing for students to read through a text in class but will they open another book when they get home. Research has shown that reading enjoyment is much more important for children’s educational success than previously thought. Before we teach children to read it is important to get children of all ages excited by and interested in books and reading. In this session, teachers will be shown ideas and strategies to help them instil a love of reading in their students and ideas to make the classroom a reading friendly environment.

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Dear All,

Looking ahead to Semester 2B, we would like to continue to offer our Optional PD sessions for ECE and Primary. We have a few sessions already planned, however would like to see if there are any other teachers who would like to offer a mini workshop.

If you have been on a PD this year or have knowledge and a passion for a specific area that you would like to share, we invite you to email or come and talk to Sissy or myself. At this point you don’t need to have the workshop planned, just a proposed idea would be enough.

By knowing how many workshops we have, we are able to schedule these in for the remainder of the year including our next Teacher In-service Day coming up in April. Please email us by the end of next week, Friday Feb. 24, with your proposal. As we need to plan for the rest of the year, please ensure that you are able to contact us by the deadline.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Melissa & Sissy

Dear Teachers,

Last year around 25 of our ECE and Primary teachers were trained in two ESL courses offered for staff – Teaching Young Children in English in a Multilingual Context (ECE and Lower Primary) & ESL in the Mainstream Class (Middle – Upper Primary).  These courses are designed to provide opportunities for all teachers to develop an understanding of how better to support the needs of second language learners in their teaching.

Over time, we would like as many of our staff to be trained as possible.  It is a big commitment as it involves 7-10 lessons with tasks and readings to complete at the end of each module. Some tasks require you to reflect on your teaching and/or the reading(s) provided, while other tasks involve you trialing strategies learned with your students in class.  More importantly, it is an excellent course for teachers who teach second language children in their classrooms, which are all teachers at YCIS.  The good news is that the course costs, including course booklets and snacks, are covered by the school. Now, all you need to do is sign up and participate. This is a priority and all teachers are expected to have this course completed after two years of employment at YCIS.

The course has been taken by a number of Chinese teachers in the past and the concepts and strategies taught are relevant for any language.  We would encourage Chinese teachers to also take the course and use this for their own professional learning.

If you are interested in signing up, please inform Melissa or Andrea.  The deadline to inform them of your interest in attending a course will be Wednesday, December 7th.  Please see the attached overview of the 2 courses being offered –

Teaching Young Children in English in a Multilingual Context (ECE and Lower Primary)

Teaching Young Children in English in Multilingual Contexts Course Outline

ESL in the Mainstream Class (Middle – Upper Primary) –

Teaching ESL in The Mainstream Class Course Outline

The classes will begin on Monday, January 9th and the dates of the classes are below:

January 23, 2017

February 13, 2017

February 27, 2017

March 13, 2017

March 20, 2017 (Melissa’s course only)

April 17th, 2017

April 24th, 2017 (Melissa’s course only)

May 8, 2017

Once registered a more detailed schedule will be sent out that will include times, venue and module titles. Please note that dates can change but we will aim to keep to the listed calendar.