PETAA Leading with Literacy conference 2020: Reading to Write

Presenters

Dr Misty Adoniou is a Senior Lecturer in Language Literacy and Teaching English as a Second Language at the University of Canberra. She is the recipient of a number of teaching awards, including the 2014 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. She has presented nationally and internationally in the areas of spelling, literacy pedagogy, grammar and Teaching English as an Additional Language.

Misty was the lead writer for the national English as an Additional Language Teachers Resource which accompanies the Australian Curriculum and has served on several national advisory boards. She is on the Board of Directors of TESOL International — a teachers’ association representing over 100 teachers’ associations around the globe.

She has served as the President of two international TESOL Affiliates; TESOL Greece and the Australian Council of TESOL Associations.

Jennifer Asha is a literacy educator with a passion for helping children become literate in technologically and visually rich environments. She works in schools to support teachers in the use of quality literature in best practice literacy education. Jennifer teaches at the Australian Catholic University and University of Sydney in a variety of literacy teaching units. She has written the classroom units for the Teachers' Guide to the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards, Picture Book category from 2012 to 2020 and is the presenter and moderator of popular face-to-face and online courses for PETAA.

Corinne Bushell has more than 15 years of experience in primary school education in England and Australia as a classroom teacher, Master Teacher and is currently Head of Department: Curriculum in an Education Queensland school. She is currently developing a set of actionable, ACARA-aligned marking guides for writing, and which will create curriculum clarity for teachers and students.

Dr Jon Callow is an experienced teacher, having worked in primary schools, universities and in professional development for teachers. His areas of expertise include primary English and literacy teaching. His research areas include visual literacy, multimodality, the use of ICT to support literacy and multimodal learning, as well as student creativity and engagement. As a professional literacy consultant, he has worked alongside teachers in their classrooms, in Australia and the US. He is passionate about engaging and equitable education for all his students.

Dr Rod Campbell is a significant leader in literacy education in Australia, and key player in Queensland education history, with extensive experience in publishing, workshop presentation, and in-school mentoring of classroom teachers and curriculum leaders. He is co-writer and editor of more than 20 successful publications on literacy teaching, and on teaching English grammar and knowledge as resources for writing and reading. He is the lead writer of the Australian editions of Literacy for the 21st Century (2012 and 2015) and co-author of Teaching English Grammar: A Handbook for Australian Teachers. All of his work is grounded in ongoing classroom development and practice.

Eron Chapman Is Assistant Principal Teaching and Learning, Gowrie Street Primary School. Prior to this she was Teaching Partner — Differentiated Support for School Improvement; a Victorian Department Education initiative to bring high performing Leading Teachers to work in pairs across four schools to build teaching capability, with a focus on literacy. She has been a Campus Leader, Leading Teacher, classroom teacher of every year level, art teacher, even bus driver!

Professor Beverly Derewianka is Emeritus Professor of linguistics at the University of Wollongong, Australia. She is a leading figure in educational linguistics and Sydney School genre pedagogy. Her major research contributions have been in the field of literacy education. Her research projects tracing students’ literacy development have had a direct and substantial impact on curriculum and syllabus development in Australia and internationally. She has (co-)authored 11 books and numerous book chapters and journal articles in the field of literacy education. Her PETAA books include the best selling A New Grammar Companion for Teachers and Exploring How Texts Work, 2nd edition.

 

Ursula Dubosarsky was born in Sydney, wanted to be a writer from the age of six and is now the author of over 60 books for children and young adults. She has won several national prizes, including the NSW, Victorian, South Australian and Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and has been nominated for the international Hans Christian Anderson and Astrid Lindgren awards for children’s literature. She was appointed the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2020-2021 at a ceremony at the National Library of Australia in February.

 

Helen Harper is a Senior Lecturer in English, Literacies and Languages Education at the University of New England. Helen has worked as a mentor in literacy education, as a linguist in remote Indigenous communities (Queensland and NT), and as a teacher of English as an additional language. Her current research interests include collaborating with teachers to apply principles of scaffolding language across the curriculum, and investigating the provision of English language services to refugees in regional Australia. In 2016–2017 she was a co-recipient, with Bronwyn Parkin, of the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia (PETAA) Research Grant. With Bronwyn, Helen has co-authored the PETAA publications Teaching with Intent: Scaffolding academic language with marginalised students, and Teaching with Intent 2: Literature-based literacy teaching and learning.

Julie Hayes has worked in schools as a teacher and leader, both here and in the UK, for nearly 35 years. She retired in 2019 having been Principal of Cowandilla Primary School in Adelaide for the past 16 years. Most of her career was spent in schools and preschools with high numbers of migrant and refugee children. Knowing the important role language plays in learning and social interaction in and out of school, Julie ensured her teachers were trained in and Accelerated Literacy and Systemic Functional Linguistics. Teachers need to be experts in order to help children construct highly effective oral, written and visual texts. Julie has been an active member of state and national Principals’ associations and won the 2019 John Laing Award for her contribution to professional learning in South Australia.

Dr Pauline Jones is Associate Professor, Language in Education in the School of Education at the University of Wollongong. She teaches educational linguistics, classroom-based research, English curriculum and policy in undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the literacy outcomes for disadvantaged students.

Having completed her PhD on oral language in 2005, Pauline’s current research focuses on multimodality, disciplinary dialogue and literacy transitions across schooling years. She has written extensively for teachers (in- and pre-service) in language and literacy including co-editing (with Alyson Simpson and Anne Thwaite) the PETAA book Talking the Talk: Snapshots from Australian Classrooms.

Gill Pennington was working as an EAL/D consultant for the ACT Department of Education when she completed her Masters of TESOL at Canberra University. On moving back to Sydney in 2007 to take up the role of Multicultural/ESL consultant in south-western Sydney, she began her doctoral studies part-time at Sydney University. Her research into storytelling in a multilingual community was completed earlier this year, and she now tutors in the Primary Unit of Study Teaching in a Multilingual Classroom. She is currently working as a Project Manager within the NSW Department of Education, coordinating research into the impact of ICT on the teaching of writing in primary schools. She is a council member and past president of ATESOL NSW.

Dr Bronwyn Parkin was adjunct lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Adelaide and is now a literacy consultant with a long history of working in the area of literacy with Aboriginal and low socio-economic students. For many years, she was a Literacy Development project officer in the Literacy Secretariat, SA Department of Education. Her Applied Linguistics PhD was titled Scaffolding Science, a study into scientific literacy development of students in a low socio-economic classroom.

Together with Dr Helen Harper from the University of New England, Bronwyn was the 2016–2017 recipient of a PETAA research grant, Scaffolding academic language with educationally marginalised students, with the resulting publication, Teaching with Intent: Scaffolding academic language with educationally marginalised students and Teaching with Intent 2: Literature-based literacy teaching and learning .

Bronwyn has 30 years' experience in supporting language and literacy teachers beginning in Aboriginal Education, remote and metropolitan through the South Australia Accelerated Literacy program focused on disadvantaged schools; through the recent PETAA research grants investigating academic language pedagogy with educationally marginalised students; and as a consultant working in disadvantaged contexts. Dr Parkin has been a member of the Literacy Education Advisory Committee of South Australian Department of Education.

Professor Alyson Simpson has a passion for children’s literature. With a background as a teacher librarian she now works with graduate-entry trainee teachers at the University of Sydney as a Professor in English literacy education. In all areas of her teaching, Alyson links educational theory with practice. She has developed partnerships with schools to examine the connection between English, language development and the authentic use of information and communication technology in the classroom. Alyson’s classroom-based research employs discourse analysis to investigate the issues involved in the nature and development of language, critical literacy, working with children’s literature in online environments, and pedagogic change.

Tim Warwick is the Acting Principal at Gowrie St Primary School in Shepparton. Earlier in his career, he taught Legal Studies and Humanities at Wanganui Park Secondary College. Tim has led and supported a number of Indigenous education and cultural awareness strategies which have been launched in schools across the Murray Goulburn Valley region. He was the Project Co-ordinator for the Kaiela Dhungala First Peoples Curriculum and is on the boards of Ganbina and Boundless, two organisations aimed at supporting the aspirations of our young people.

Sue Whiting was a primary school teacher whose passion for literacy led her to become a children’s and Young Adult author and editor who has worked in publishing for two decades. Sue was senior commissioning editor and publishing manager for Walker Books Australia for many years before leaving in 2016 to concentrate on her writing. As a storyteller and schools’ performer, Sue has informed, inspired and entertained thousands of kids across the country. She is also a freelance children’s book editor and writing coach, and the author of numerous books, including the bestselling Missing, the award-winning A Swim in the Sea and the CBCA Notable Books, Platypus, Get a Grip, Cooper Jones and Beware the Deep Dark Forest. Sue has two new releases in 2020, The Book of Chance a mystery/suspense novel for readers 10+  and Good Question, a picture book illustrated by Annie White.