2009 Consult and Collaborate Conference Programme

FRIDAY, 18 September, 2009

8:00 am – 8:45 am

Registration

8:45 am – 9.15 am

Opening Address: Julie Grantham Director General of Education and Training

9:15 am – 10:30 am

Exhibits Open

Keynote Address: Maggie Snowling, (Main Presentation Area)

Dyslexia and Language Impairment: Risk and Protective Factors

10:30 am – 11:00 am

Morning Tea

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Workshops

Christine Killey – Addressing the ‘Spelling’Challenge

Lorraine Graham – Supporting Reading Comprehension and Reading Fluency for Middle Years Students

Jan Roberts – Interactive Writing Strategies for Students with Learning Difficulties in the Classroom

Barbara Nielsen – Using a Case Management Model for Consultation and Collaboration

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Lunch Break

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm

Workshops

Lorraine Hammond – How to Pull a Rabbit Out of a Hat: Conspicuous Strategies to Make Cognitive Writing Processing Explicit

Tom Nicholson – Some Practical Ideas for Teaching Advanced Phonics to Struggling Readers

Craig Wright – Understanding Words: What We Do, Why We Do It, and How You Can Do It.

Kay Distel – The 3 Rs – Resilience, Rapport and Results – an auditory/somatic approach to stress

3:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Afternoon Break

3:30 pm – 4:15 pm

Papers

Samantha Hornery - Reading for Life – Volunteers Working to Help Children with Learning Difficulties

Nicole Todd – The Support Teacher’s Role in Consultation and Collaboration in Secondary Schools

Susan Galletly – A Comprehensive Model of Reading-Accuracy Development with Tests for Teaching

Rebecca Seah – Possibilities and Limitations in implementing a ‘Response to Intervention’ Approach in Year 8

4.30 pm – 5.30 pm

Special Event

Presentation by Sir Jim Rose on Primary Education - Policy and Practice in England - Sponsored by LDA

SATURDAY, 19 September, 2009

8:00 am – 9:00 am

Registration

9:00 am – 10:30 am

Exhibits Open

Keynote Address: Charles Hulme, (Main Presentation Area)

Interventions for Reading and Language Impairments

10:30 am – 11:00 am

Morning Tea

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Workshops

Samantha Hornery – Unravelling Assignements – Helping Families with School Projects

Kerry Hempenstall – Aiding Parents to Teach Reading at Home: The RMIT Clinic Approach

Jan Roberts - Interactive Comprehension Strategies for Students with Learning Difficulties

Christa van Kraayenoord - The Potential of Universal Design for Learning

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Lunch Break

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm

Workshops

Christine Killey – Addressing the ‘Grammar’ Challenge

Gary Woolley – Consult and Collaborate: Empowerment through the Implementation of a Pedagogical Framework for Literacy

Donna Tangen – ESL in the Classroom, Strategies for Support

Louise Mercer – Anxiety and Depression in Adolescents with LD

3:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Afternoon Break

3:30 pm – 4:15 pm

Papers

Julia Starling – Linking Language to Learning in Secondary School Classrooms: A Collaborative Service Delivery

Mary Delahunty – Sharing Literacy Knowledge for Better Outcomes

Craig Wright – Designing and Implementing Educational Interventions

Ann Bellert – Narrowing the Gap: The QuickSmart Mathematics Intervention

4.15 pm – 4.30 pm

Conference Closure

Presenter

Time

Topic

Day 1 Friday 18 September 2009

Maggie Snowling

9.15 am

Keynote presentation on Dyslexia and Language Impairment.

Christine Killey

11.00 am

This work shop examines and shows how to teach Romalda Spalding’s 29 spelling rules which apply to 83% of all words that we use. It shows when they are taught using a systematic, multi-sensory approach, using little rhymes, stories and symbols, student’s are able to quickly learn them and they start to feel empowered about their knowledge of spelling.

Lorraine Graham, Anne Bellert and Leanne McLennan

11.00am

This workshop aims to address aspects of these issues of disadvantage by providing information about learning difficulties in reading as experienced by older children and then examining appropriate, evidence based adjustments class-room teachers can provide. Also, information will be provided for schools and teachers looking to implement targeted interventions as another means of supporting the reading development of middle-years students experiencing persistent learning difficulties.

Jan Roberts

11.00 am

This workshop is aimed at classroom and special education teachers in upper primary and secondary levels. Some students with learning difficulties hate writing tasks even more than they hate reading; while others like to write but still achieve poorly. This workshop will demonstrate practical, collaborative ways teachers can involve students to write more, or to write less with more skill.

Barbara Nielsen

11.00 am

This workshop links research into learning difficulties in literacy with teaching practice. Epidemiology is a relatively new research paradigm developed within the field of medical research to meet the needs of biologic research in relation to health issues. This paper explains some underlying principles of epidemiology and then demonstrates how these principles have been applied within a particular piece of research: research into the causes of learning difficulties in literacy.

Lorraine Hammond

1.30 pm

This session will review a number of case studies to demonstrate specific errors and changes to student writing after intervention. A range of conspicuous strategies to address common writing difficulties such as poor narrative structure, ‘run on sentences’, proofreading, basic and complex narratives and ‘anorexic’ writing will be modeled. These strategies are examples of evidence based practice but most importantly can be easily implemented by regular classroom teachers.

Tom Nicholson

1.30 pm

The workshop will look at some of the more advanced phonological recoding rules that we teach to children who attend our University Summer Schools and after-school Reading Clinics. This material would be useful for children reading who are already reading at least at a 6-year-old level.

Craig Wright

1.30 pm

Understanding Words is a theoretically-driven reading intervention. The focus is on word-level reading skills but it also includes activities designed to improve phonological awareness, spelling, vocabulary, grammatical awareness, and active comprehension strategies. The workshop will briefly summarise the reading intervention literature to provide a framework within which to understand the content of the programme. The major focus will be on demonstrating practical strategies for reading intervention that can be used in Understanding Words or in other programmes or settings.

Kay Distel

1.30 pm

The aim of the workshop is to explore auditory/somatic connections of stress by:

• Brainstorming: What faulty perceptions do you observe in your environments?

• Short presentation: A mind map connecting brain research to stress, perception and the senses.

• Short awareness experiences to demonstrate and acknowledge some of the characteristics of stress and listening.

• Summary /reflection: What and how will we take this new information to our communities?

Samantha Hornery

3.30 pm

The primary purpose of this paper is to: (a) present a synthesis of the research informing teaching programs and strategies for reading, and (b) provide an overview of a new reading program administered by volunteers which capitalises on these recent advances in educational research.

Nicole Todd

3.30 pm

This paper will report on research conducted in secondary schools in NSW which examined the experience of three support teachers. The focus of this paper will be on the effective support teacher’s role in collaboration and consultation and the influence of school culture.

Susan Galletly

3.30 pm

Rigorous assessment, instructional decision-making and differentiated instruction are hallmarks of effective reading-accuracy instruction. For optimal effectiveness, teachers need rigorous models which explain all important areas of reading-accuracy development. They also need efficient effective tests which map children’s development of those important areas. This session presents the model of reading accuracy development which Galletly (2008) developed in her doctoral work, which focussed on reading accuracy development and assessment for classroom teacher perspectives.

Rebecca Seah

3.30 pm

In Queensland, the Ministerial Taskforce on Inclusive Education (students with disabilities) is committed to providing quality education to all students. It emphasizes the importance of partnerships and responsiveness to individuals’ access to and presence, participation and achievement in, a broader learning society. Nevertheless, significant issues remain in determining how best to cater to the needs of all students within a classroom. This paper describes one high school’s effort to include Year 8 students’ with disabilities and learning difficulties in a mathematics classroom.

Sir Jim Rose

4.30 pm

This presentation will take a look in the rear view mirror since the introduction of the 1988 UK national curriculum, and consider why after 10 years it made little impact on reading and maths standards, and how the national strategies introduced under the government started an upward trend which stalled. The presentation will then look at the latest picture to see what lessons have been learned, and what lessons still need to be learned.

Day 2 Saturday 19 September 2009

Charles Hulme

9.00 am

Keynote presentation on Interventions for Reading and Language Impairments.

Samantha Hornery

11.00 am

During the workshop you will receive pointers to help children: (a) plan their time for a project; (b) design a ‘battle plan’ for their project; (c) understand what is required; (d) create meaningful and fruitful searches in Google; and (e) use computer software to its greatest advantage.

Kerry Hempenstall

11.00 am

The RMIT Psychology Clinic receives referrals for children and adolescents struggling to make adequate progress in school, particularly in literacy. The Clinic provides assessment, a written report, program recommendation, and training to parents who wish to supplement the literacy instruction supplied by their child’s school. Referrals are often suggested by teachers, school psychologists and speech pathologists, paediatricians, and by word of mouth from other clients. This workshop will describe the features of the model, using a case example.

Jan Roberts

11.00 am

This workshop will demonstrate practical, collaborative ways teachers can involve students who have comprehension difficulties, even if their basic reading skills are poor. The aim is to teach students how to read actively and purposefully for key information, inferences and to analyse texts. The strategies are research-based and appropriate for use in classrooms or individual tutoring.

Christa van Kraayenoord

11.00 am

This paper will examine the potential of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in meeting the needs of a range of students in inclusive settings. The key feature of the curricula designed using a Universal Design for Learning Framework is the promotion of access, participation and progress in general education for all learners (CAST, 2004). The paper will focus on curricula and instruction/intervention related to students with reading difficulties. Cautions and concerns about UDL and RTI will be raised.

Christine Killey

1.30 pm

This presentation will explain a unique colour coded grammar system that I use to teach students. Teaching tools include colour coding, props, songs, rhymes and dice games to aid learning and remembering grammar rules. Each participant will receive colour coded stickers, a die and some games. This will help display a multi-sensory approach to teaching grammar, using explicit teaching techniques.

Gary Woolley and Janelle Wills

1.30 pm

In 2008, Griffith University and Independent Schools Queensland developed a yearlong professional development program (Reading Partnerships) for teachers from a range of independent schools. The presentation will briefly outline the development, and theoretical and practical aspects of the pedagogical framework. Dr Gary Woolley (Griffith University) and Janelle Wills (Independent Schools Queensland) will give a brief outline of the program and teachers from some of the participating schools will give examples of the children’s work and reflect upon the experience of teachers as researchers. Some practical workshop activities will supplement the presentation.

Donna Tangen

1.30 pm

Students who have English as a second language (ESL) must learn everyday curriculum through the process of learning English. Students who speak English fairly fluently may appear to be competent in the language to such an extent that they are expected by teachers to complete school work at the same level of English proficiency as their peers when, in fact, they do not have the language to do so. The struggle to keep up with peers may be interpreted as the student having a learning difficulty and so inadequate or improper learning support may be given specific to the learning need, potentially acerbating the problem and resulting in a lose-lose learning situation for all. The current study explores strategies that will assist generalist classroom teachers in supporting students who have ESL and assist teachers in recognising whether a student who has ESL may also have a learning difficulty.

Louise Mercer

1.30 pm

Many in the field of education are of the opinion that adolescents with learning disabilities, who have experienced chronic academic failure, are at greater risk than their typically developing peers for developing social-emotional distress including anxiety and depression. Empirical studies, however, are few and results are equivocal. This session will involve presentation of research findings followed by case studies and practical demonstration of application of best practice

Julia Starling

3.30 pm

Adolescents with language-based learning difficulties are a significantly under-researched and under-serviced population. Yet recent prevalence studies provide evidence that these learning difficulties affect between 10-16% of secondary students (McLeod & McKinnon 2007). Support and intervention programs need to address issues of maximal effectiveness within the constraints of limited resources. The paper will present the data from the first wave of the study, which provides Level 2 evidence using a randomised control trial. This study is the first of its kind in Australia and will contribute to international research into evidence-based best practice for models of service delivery to the learning disability population.

Mary Delahunty

3.30 pm

Literacy learning for our children should engage all stakeholders who have an understanding of not only the needs of the children, but the research and thinking required to implement it. Evidence shows that technology can offer both support for literacy learning and also remediation if and when necessary. It enables truly multi-sensory learning using ears, eyes and hands for typing so difficulties are minimized and learning is more efficient.

Craig Wright

3.30 pm

This seminar will describe a seven step process used for designing and implementing educational interventions. Attendees will learn about alternative sources of information that go beyond normal educational or psychological testing and how to use this data to achieve the best possible outcomes for students and teachers.

Ann Bellert

3.30 pm

This paper focuses on the cognitive factors that impact on students in the middle school years experiencing learning difficulties in basic mathematics. It begins with a review of selected literature providing information about the learning difficulties in mathematics. Focus then shifts to an implementation of the QuickSmart intervention.