Pitch Draft

(Ministry of Education New Zealand, Reading Recovery in New Zealand: Uptake

implementation and outcomes, especially in relation to Maori and Pasifika students, 2006)

Kamler, B. & Comer, B. (2005). Designing turn-around pedagogies and

contesting deficit assumptions. In B. Kamler & B. Comer (eds), Turnaround pedagogies, Sydney: Primary English Teaching Association of
Australia. pp. 1-14.

Tomlinson, C., (1998). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All
Learners.
Forlin, C. & Lock, G. (2004). Embracing diversity: Using technologies in remote
school communities [videorecording]. Perth: Edith Cowan University.
Bragg, S., & Fielding, M. (2005). Its an equal thing Its about achieving together: Student
voices and the possibility of a radical collegiality. In H. Street & J. Temperley (Eds.),
Improving schools through collaborative enquiry (pp. 105-135). London: Continuum. [Read

pp.105-110 and pp.127-132]

Mayes, E.(August, 2014). Student participation in research in and about schools.
Lecture conducted from University of Sydney, Sydney.
Talbot, D. (September, 2014). Practitioner Enquiry 1. Lecture conducted from
University of Sydney, Sydney.
Bybee, et al., (2006)
Morrison, M. (2002). What do we mean by educational research. Research methods in
educational leadership and management, 3-27.
Context 500
Millicent Lee Poulos Foundation
Coordinator from Language department for ESOL students
School backgrounds (nature and content of the school)
Current needs so its necessary to carry out a pitch
Reading recovery program
The Project 800
-Describe the research and development project
Earlier introduced since 1984, however there are some differences
-Matching the National Professional Standards
National Professional Standards for Teachers:
ELEMENT 2 Teachers know their students and how they learn
Aspect Knowledge of strategies for addressing student needs

2.2.5 demonstrate the capacity to apply effective strategies for

teaching non-English Speaking Background students
2.2.6 Apply a range of literacy strategies to meet the needs of all
students
ELEMENT 3 Teachers plan, assess and report for effective learning
3.2.4 Select, develop and use a variety of appropriate resources and
materials that engage students and support their learning.

Anticipated Benefits 500

Why school needs it/ wants it?
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/earlyyears/readi
ng_recovery/research.htm
37% percent of students population is LBOTE students
School needs such a program to support for LBOTE students
(differentiation and equity teaching)
Students ESOL literacy skills could be potentially improved
Outcomes of educational significance on students
Early detection if better for future(Recover earlier, gain better
results)
Impact on teachers decision making and professional development
Sustainability
85% of students completed the program (high success rate)

Evaluation 750
*How would you evaluate the project?
By engaging students, teachers and different staffs from different
departments
Ask about their opinions and conduct practitioner enquiry
*What kinds of data you need to collect and analyze?
Students as data sources:
-Students' past performance (half-yearly, yearly, HSC trial results, etc)
Students' role
-Students' in-class performance (past performance)
-Samples of students' work Department's role

Students as active respondents

-Hear what students say about the project (Teachers' role) Interview students
about the reading period (Do you see any improvement? Do you like or dislike,
why and why not? How do you usually spend the time of reading period? Etc)
-Interview teachers/staffs who are supervising the reading period (What have
you noticed? What obvious changes have been made so far? )
-Discuss their learning and approaches to teaching (Students' role)
*How will you know if the project is a success?
By comparing students past performance and recent performance
Checking students accuracy on logbook throughout the term
*How would you monitor the success in progress?
By having a log book to record their reading reflections through the whole
term, and teachers could keep monitoring students' development, the log
books are designed with some questions which let students answer, by
collecting students' work and record the accuracy continuously each week,
teachers will know students' individual needs and actual improvements of
implementing the project)
*Also talk about the strengths and limitations
(Strengths) Students are participating, so that
(1) Policy discourses
(2) More engaged
(3) Letting them have roles so that they feel senses of ownership of
learning
(4) Teachers are learning what students experiencing at school
-Involves practitioner enquiry
(1) Teachers can notice problems in progress
(2) Teachers can always go back and reflect
(Limitations)
How could measure students overall improvements and
developments based on the accuracy of how they answer the
questions in the logbook only?
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/earlyyears/readi
ng_recovery/whatis.htm

Context 400
Millicent Lee Poulos Foundation
Coordinator from Language department for ESOL students
School backgrounds (nature and content of the school)
Current needs so its necessary to carry out a pitch
Reading recovery program
Our school, the Presbyterian Ladies College is a K-12 Catholic,
independent school which is located in Croydon in inner west of New
South Wales. PLC is a ladies college which was founded in 1888,
currently there are 1172 female students enrolled at the school.
There are about 37% of language backgrounds other than English
students at PLC, as well as 1% of Indigenous students of the total
population. At our college, we do have a very high ICSEA, 1172,
which is significantly higher than the state average. 78% of our
students families come from top quarter of the state, 22% from the
middle quarters and only 1% come from the bottom quarter. We are
proud of our outstanding school facilities, our net recurrent income
for per student is $28000 in 2013. We also have specialized
scholarship programs for students from year 5 to year 12.
At PLC, our students attempt to achieve high achievements in both
NAPLAN and HSC examinations. Students reading and numeracy

achievements in NAPLAN testing are quite significant from 20112013, which has been improved by 50 and 44 units relatively.
Meanwhile, our students achieve more the higher bands than similar
schools and Australian schools, and get less the lower bands
compare to similar schools and Australia schools in NAPLAN results.
Not only the NAPLAN results, 85% of PLC students gaining offers
from universities and the reminders would go to TAFE or other
higher institutions, where half of the HSC students gain ATAR results
of 90 or higher.
However, the current priority area which needs to be focused on is
to meet literacy needs of ESOL students at PLC. Though our ESOL
students could sustain basic interpersonal communication skills,
they often lack the sophistication needed to fulfill the academic
requirements. One of the evidences is that according to our
colleges 2013 HSC performance of English Advanced, Standard
English and ESL results, where compare to the state average
percentage of achieving band 6, 0% of ESL students had achieved
band 6 compared to stage average as 3%.
Based on the notions of the National Professional Standards for
teachers, teachers should know their students and how they learn,
as well as developing effective strategies for addressing students
needs (NSW institute of teachers, 2011). Therefore, to meet
literacy needs of ESOL students has become one of the priorities at
PLC this year. As the coordinator of English language department, I
would like to pitch for funding for a research and development grant
from Millicent Lee Poulos Foundation. The entire project is aiming for
providing an on-going reading recovery program for ESOL students
and monitoring students English literacy developments throughout
the term. I would introduce our designed project of reading recovery
program for ESOL students by mapping onto National Professional
Standards for teachers, discuss the anticipated benefits of the entire
program underpinned with relevant research-based evidences, as
well as evaluating the detailed methods of the project from both
students as data resources and students as active respondents
perspectives, discussing strengths and potential limitations of
conducting the research in the following sections.

Anticipated Benefits 300

Why school needs it/ wants it?
37% percent of students population is LBOTE students
School needs such a program to support for LBOTE students
(differentiation and equity teaching)
Students ESOL literacy skills could be potentially improved
Outcomes of educational significance on students
Early detection if better for future(Recover earlier, gain better
results)
Impact on teachers decision making and professional development
Sustainability
85% of students completed the program (high success rate)
(1)Nature and context of the school
(2)Evidence proof
(3)Equity teaching impact not only within schooling context but also
social functioning
(4)Foster inclusive teaching
There are several anticipated benefits of implementing this research
and development project, first of all, according to the nature and
context of the school, PLC is a multilingual community as there are
around 37% of total population who are LBOTE students, and 10% of
total population are ESOL students. Comparing to English Advanced
and Standard English HSC performances in 2013, ESL is considered

to be the prior area to be improved this year. Our ESOL students

should be provided extra supports to achieve the sophistication to
fulfill academic requirements. So that, it is worthwhile to pitch for
wonderful opportunities and projects for the special 10% of our
young people at PLC, to let them take challenges in the community
and make difference in the world. From the basis of Christian
worldview, we are called to help individuals, and provide equity
teaching and learning environments for them.
Secondly, from recent researches, the implementations of reading
recovery program have proven to be successful. According to a
major study conducted in New Zealand, students who begin the
reading recovery program with lower initial performance would
catch up with other students by the end of the program (Ministry of
Education New Zealand, 2006). Though our designed project has
subtle differences between previous cases, at this point I believe
that the earlier we prepare such program for ESOL students, the
better long-term improvements would have on those students.
In addition, as ESOL students come from different cultural
backgrounds, it is necessary to understand the importance of
learning support and make positive attitudes and responses towards
various students. By designing the research and development
project for ESOL students, it would not only prevent the exclusion of
teaching, but also meet target students' needs. Students with
different individual needs may impact not only within the schooling
context but also influence towards the social functioning and
operating. When ESOL students are engaged with project discussion
and the project per se, they will thus be valued, accepted and
respected regardless of cultural backgrounds (Forlin, 2004).
Moreover, statistic data shows that from 1996 to 2013, there are
over 100000 students in NSW had participated the reading recovery
program, which the average duration of participating the program is
approximately 14 weeks, and over 85% of those students had
successfully discontinued the program within 14 weeks (NSWDET,
2014). It shows that students who are involved in the program may
have higher potential to improve their literacy learning skills.
Therefore, I believe that at PLC, if our ESOL students could be
provided such reading recovery program, they may have better
opportunities to enhance their current English skills.
On the other hand, by participating and getting involved in the
reading recovery program of ESOL students, it would also foster
professional development on teachers' knowledge about literacy,
learning and development, and gain perceptions and decision
making experiences through the process of the research project
(Pearson, 2003). Teachers will have more opportunities to know their
target students better, and therefore develop on-going strategies for

addressing students' needs.

Evaluation 500
I would evaluate the project by engaging students, teachers and different
staffs across curriculums in the research, where students are the target data
sources involved in this program. Mayes (2014) has outlined many aims of
students' voice, for example, it could foster a radical collegiality between students and
teachers rather than collaborations. Instead of asking questions by teachers during
research process, when students are involved in the participatory action research, they
often work together with teachers, share or negotiate different opinions and interests,
and produce some new understandings. (Bragg & Fielding, 2005)
Therefore, in this research project, students are firstly involved as data sources, we
will review students' past performance, for example the half-yearly, yearly and HSC
exam results of ESL to determine each ESOL student's individual needs. Students'
role of being data sources will be evaluated through their on-going in-class
performance compared to their past performance in ESL class. Meanwhile, our school
departments from different curriculum are also responsible for examine students'
overall improvement and performances after the initiation of the reading recovery
program research.
On the other hand, we need students to be active respondents and co-researchers in
this project, as each individual's reflections towards the developments of the project
could make contributions towards the new approaches of the research. For example,
teachers' role at this stage will need to hear what students say about the project, this
can be conducted with interview method, proposed questions could be asked as"do
you think you have improvement during the reading recovery program? Do you like
or dislike this program, why and why not? How would you rate the efficiency of this
program? etc. " Another approach is that, teachers and staffs who are supervising the
reading recovery program should also be interview, such questions could be" what
have you noticed during the program? What obvious in-class performance have been
made on students so far?".
The research will be conducted in both longitudinal and sectional approaches.
Success of the program could be monitored in progress, students who are
involved in the reading recovery program will have a log book to record their
reading reflections through the whole term. The logbook is designed with
typical questions which are related to the articles that students will read. After
each reading recovery period, students will need to complete the questions on
the logbook, and teachers will collect students' work, check the answers on
the log book and record the accuracy continuously. In this way, teachers will
have better understandings of each individual's needs and the actual
improvements of implementing the project. By comparing students' past

performances data sources of ESL subject with the recent results and records
of log book accuracy and, we will able to know whether the project has certain
effectiveness on our target ESOL students or not.
For this research, there are several strengths and limitations. First of all, as
students are participating and getting involved in the research, it's not only
because of the policy discourses but students will actually be more engaged
with learning. They will have senses of being the centers of learning progress,
and therefore teachers could also gain new understandings about what
students are experiencing at school (Talbot, 2014). In addition, according to
the 5E's model by Bybee, et al., (2006), teachers need to evaluate and make
decisions about how the learning is going and what are the future approaches.
The reading recovery program requires teachers to notice any improvements
or problems occurred in progress so that teachers can always make
reflections on the program.
However, one of the limitations of this research is that, we would monitor and
evaluate our research success by interview students and teachers and
comparing students' previous performances with recent performances.
Although students are involved as active respondents in the research project,
the questions we have proposed to ask students during the interview may
underpinned with our own practical, personal and professional interests
(Morrison, 2002). Unless we make some sharp questions to consult our ESOL
students, otherwise the research project will not be build upon a valid basis.
Moreover, by considering the reliability as the consistency of the progress and
transparency to see the research if is meaningful, it might be difficult to
determine students' overall improvements and developments with the
accuracy of answers to the questions on logbook only. When students are
evaluated through their results of answering questions, it might stress ESOL
students and teachers, so that the evidences of literacy improvements, which
are collected from their answers, might lose its validity and reliability of stating
their real performances. Therefore, it is never the less to ensure the
monitoring process of the research project would not have extra stress and
huge unreliable influences on students.

The Project 800

-Describe the research and development project
Earlier introduced since 1984, however there are some differences

-Matching the National Professional Standards

National Professional Standards for Teachers:
ELEMENT 2 Teachers know their students and how they learn
Aspect Knowledge of strategies for addressing student needs
2.2.5 demonstrate the capacity to apply effective strategies for
teaching non-English Speaking Background students
2.2.6 Apply a range of literacy strategies to meet the needs of all
students
ELEMENT 3 Teachers plan, assess and report for effective learning
3.2.4 Select, develop and use a variety of appropriate resources and
materials that engage students and support their learning.
250 Mapping to professional national standards for teachers
-Element 2
-Element 3
This project is underpinned with the National Professional Teaching
standards, "Element 2 Teachers know their students and how they learn"
which 2.2.5 requires "teachers to demonstrate and apply a range of strategies
to address students' various needs" (NSW Institute of teachers, 2011). As our
ESOL students come form different cultural and language backgrounds, those
students may have various learning needs and difficulties, therefore, we need
to apply for a practical project and strategies to help those students, especially
focusing on their individual needs. It also requires teachers to apply equity and
teaching practices by providing the equal reading recovery program opportunities to
all ESOL students, and involves continuous implementations of inclusive teaching to
all of the students. It would also lead us to understand the effectiveness,
importance of designed learning support from research findings, further
considerations relates to sustainable development of reading recovery
program may also help teachers from different curriculum areas to know
students needs better.
"Element 3 Teachers plan, assess and report for effective learning" will also
be implied with our project, during the research process, teachers will select
particular texts for students to read, develop particular logbooks for ESOL
target students to complete and provide appropriate learning supports to
engage students (NSW Institute of teachers, 2011). Moreover, in our ESOL
language curriculum, we will monitor the on-going improvements of ESOL
students during the research project process by collecting students
performances in progress, and modify the program continuously to meet their
individual readiness levels on a differentiated teaching practice basis
(Tomlinson, 1998).

250 what's the project about

-In order to support lower achieving ESOL students with poor English
literacy skills
-How long is the term
-Who are the target students?
-Who are involved?
-Types of the research and data sources
The research project of reading recovery program will engage all our ESOL
students at PLC, students will attend a 30 minutes reading recovery session
after school twice a week, and there is no determined length of the program.
By considering ESOL students' individual literacy performances, the project
will aiming for accelerating students' English language skills and enhance
students' sophistications of academic requirements. The reading recovery
program is designed to be held individually, English subject teaching staffs will
provide one-to-one support during the sessions, students will need to
complete reading exercises and attempt answering questions on their
logbooks. This program is considered as supplementary to the current
learning curriculums in their English classrooms.
Not only the staffs from English department are involved in this project, but
also teachers from other curriculum departments are required to get involved
in the program as the participants of the research. The key features of this
research are that to find out about the effectiveness of having a reading
recovery program for ESOL students at PLC. The research will be supported
by both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The data sources of the research
will be collected from different approaches, including students' in-class
performance, previous and current performance and results. Another
dimension is that, both students and staffs involved in the program will be
interviewed with semi-structured interview questions, their opinions and
attitudes towards the on-going program will be valued in the process.
Our research project also aims to develop a sustainable, inclusive and
effective supportive program for ESOL students in regard to their English
literacy needs. This includes their abilities to read and perceive information by
reading English articles, their accuracies and participation of attempting
questions, and their improvements of literacy skills in the progress (Kamler &
Comer, 2005). Where these factors do have short-term and long-term impacts
on our ESOL students' proficiency of using language, as well as developing
the intercultural understandings between their mother languages and English.
300 Relevant research findings

-Allington (2002) Reading Recovery as a means of accelerating the

development of early reading than other instruction intervention
- Reading recovery will have outcomes of educational significance
for students in NZ
-Evaluation of reading recovery in London
-Difficulty with initial literacy acquisition may lead to less practice
and motivation (Strickland, D. 2002)
The success of having a reading recovery program for students in earlier years has
actually been proved by evidence-based researches. It was firstly developed in New
Zealand by Clay (1980), which was used to provide supports to students whose
performances are in the lowest 20% in year one. Different to Clay's project, our
designed project aims to provide special supports to ESOL students form K-12, and
all of our ESOL students are required to participate the reading recovery program, but
specialized help are dependent on their individual English literacy needs.
Having a reading recovery program has been previously proven successful by many
research projects, for example Allington (2002, 2005), Schmitt et al. (2005) and
Strickland (2002) suggests that reading recovery program will have accelerated
improvements of students' readings skills than any other intervention. In addition,
another case study which was carried out in New Zealand reports that the reading
recovery program do have outcomes of educational significance for students (Fung,
2006). Moreover, an evaluation of reading recovery program in London suggests that,
students who didn't have access to readings program would make gap between them
and their peers (Burroughts-Lange, 2005). Considering the long-term effects of
having readings recovery program, Strickland (2002) suggests that by letting students
get involved in such program, they appear to gain more confidences and being
motivated with learning experiences. Therefore, it is necessary to provide reading
recovery opportunities for ESOL students to engage their learning, as once they are
engaged with the learning in target language, their efficiency of using English will be
enhanced, and ultimately benefits them to develop all-round understandings cross
different curriculum.
According to the current nature and school performances of PLC, it's worthwhile for
PLC to have this reading recovery program for ESOL students. Based on various
interventions and research findings, it's been proven that reading recovery program
will assist students learning successfully (NSWDET, 2014), and the outcomes of
implementing the research project at PLC will not only help the English department
but also other departments at school to further develop effective teaching and learning
support strategies for our ESOL student groups. Therefore, the significances of
conducting the research and development project of reading recovery program for
ESOL students at PLC are strongly supported by earlier research findings.

Pitch Draft
Allington, R. L. (2008). What really matters in response to intervention: Researchbased designs. Boston: Pearson.
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2014, January 1).
Presbyterian Ladies College, Croydon, NSW. Retrieved September 6, 2014, from
http://www.myschool.edu.au/SchoolProfile/Index/75169/PresbyterianLadiesCollege/4
3987/2013
Bennett, P. (2011, March 10). Early Reading Instruction: Why has Reading Recovery
Survived? Retrieved September 14, 2014, from
http://educhatter.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/early-reading-instruction-why-hasreading-recovery-survived/
Bragg, S., & Fielding, M. (2005). Its an equal thing Its about achieving together: Student
voices and the possibility of a radical collegiality. In H. Street & J. Temperley (Eds.),
Improving schools through collaborative enquiry (pp. 105-135). London: Continuum. [Read

pp.105-110 and pp.127-132]

Burroughs-Lange, S., & Douetil, J. (2006). Evaluation of Reading Recovery in

London Schools: Every Child A Reader, 2005-2006. Institute of Education, University
of London.
Bybee, R. W., Taylor, J. A., Gardner, A., Van Scotter, P., Powell, J. C., Westbrook, A.,
& Landes, N. (2006). The BSCS 5E instructional model: Origins and
effectiveness. Colorado Springs, CO: BSCS.
Forlin, C. & Lock, G. (2004). Embracing diversity: Using technologies in remote
school communities [videorecording]. Perth: Edith Cowan University.
Kamler, B. & Comer, B. (2005). Designing turn-around pedagogies and contesting deficit
assumptions. In B. Kamler & B. Comer (eds), Turn-around pedagogies, Sydney: Primary
English Teaching Association of Australia. pp. 1-14.

Mayes, E.(August, 2014). Student participation in research in and about schools.

Lecture conducted from University of Sydney, Sydney.
Ministry of Education New Zealand, Reading Recovery in New Zealand: Uptake
implementation and outcomes, especially in relation to Maori and Pasifika students,
2006.
Morrison, M. (2002). What do we mean by educational research. Research methods in
educational leadership and management, 3-27.
NSWDET. (2014, January 1). Reading Recovery: A research-based early intervention
program - home. Retrieved September 14, 2014.
Pearson, P.D. (2003) The role of professional knowledge in reading reform. Language
Arts, 81, 1415.
Professional Teaching Standards. (n.d.). NSW Professional Teaching Standards.
Retrieved August 28, 2014, from http://www.nswteachers.nsw.edu.au/MainProfessional-Teaching-Standards/nsw-professional-teaching-standards/
Schmitt, M. C., & Gregory, A. E. (2005). The impact of an early literacy intervention:
Where are the children now? Literacy Teaching and Learning: An International
Strickland, M., & Abbott, L. (2010). The Reading Teacher, 64(1), 66-68.
Journal of Early Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 10(1), 1-20.
Talbot, D. (September, 2014). Practitioner Enquiry 1. Lecture conducted from
University of Sydney, Sydney.
Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H., & Fung, I. (2007). Teacher
professional learning and development: Best Evidence Synthesis (BES).
Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education.
Tomlinson, C., (1998). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All
Learners.