The last day of the conference was fantastic! We both enjoyed the opening plenary speaker, Beverly Derewianka, a professor from the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia. The title of her talk was, Forcing Grammar Out of the Closet. She spoke of how the new Australian National Curriculum contained a renewed focus on grammar, but grammar as how politicians and non-educators saw it. She provided us with much to think of in terms of grammar instruction and how to approach it effectively in our schools. She stated that on assessments of writing there were less grammatical errors in students' writing and more errors in terms of punctuation and spelling. She also stated that "a social dialogue in the spoken mode influences grammatical errors in students' writing." This rung true with us, as often times our students' underdeveloped English language development affects the types of grammatical errors we see in their writing. The most common grammatical errors she mentioned included subject/verb agreement, use of pronouns, and formation of past tense. Dr. Derewianka described a new approach to the instruction of grammar that included discussions with students round the audience and purpose of their writing, paired with plenty of opportunities for discourse and providing students with meta-language (language for talking about language).
Pilar attended a session on teaching non-fiction through the arts. The presenters described how using the arts helped students understand the content found in non-fiction text. For example, writing a poem about metamorphosis or creating a dramatic play in the social studies. Presenters also mentioned that using music helps to reduce anxiety in students and increases their attentiveness. Jennifer attended a session focused on recent research on reader response. The presenters shared their research and provided opportunity for discussion among conference participants.
The World Congress closing session was led by children's author, Joy Cowley. She described how to create an effective early literacy book and how teachers might evaluate texts for their appropriateness for use with early readers. She mentioned the importance of text placement, child-friendly stories, humor, use of high frequency words, and high picture support. Her talk was funny and heart-warming, as Mrs. Cowley was an incredibly thoughtful and kind woman! We were even so lucky as to have her autograph some books for the Mozart students! What a great lady! What a great conference! We learned so much and are excited to bring that learning back to Mozart School!
Today we had adventures at the Auckland War Memorial Museum! We figured out public transportation! Although at first we really didn't know where to get off the bus for the museum, a kind New Zealander who was also going to the museum told us where to get off the bus! At the museum we saw a lot of great exhibits. We explored the Maori wing of the museum and enjoyed a Maori cultural performance. The weird and wonderful exhibit featured strange New Zealand insects. We also saw a food exhibit called Kai to Pie: Auckland on a Plate and watched a video on a New Zealand botanist that discovered a plant she called the Vegetable Sheep! We bought lots of great teaching materials from the museum, including books, a DVD, and a special wooden Maori weapon used to strike an enemy's head! When we left the museum it was really rainy and windy! Both of our umbrellas turned backwards! We safely made it back to the bus and got home with enough time to plan for tomorrow and look over our budget expenses!
Until tomorrow...
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