Australian Catholics Professional Learning Sessions are for religious education practitioners to deepen their knowledge about key topics related to faith education and formation. Participants will have the opportunity to listen to our guest speakers, as well as pose questions and share their own experiences in a collaborative environment.
Next Professional Learning session: Effective reading practices in the Religious Education classroom
Find out more about how to use structural approaches to teaching reading, such as subject-specific vocabulary and knowledge development in the Religious Education classroom and delve into ways to approach reading the Bible effectively. This session is inspired by recent research from the Grattan Institute and a small-scale American study, called ‘Effect of prior knowledge on good and poor readers' memory of text’ (1988).
Guests:
Professor Rauno Parrila is the Director of the Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy at ACU. Dr. Parrila’s research focuses on psychological, linguistic, and social correlates of both typical and atypical development of reading skills. He has a keen interest in reading instruction and interventions, reading difficulties in different orthographies, and compensation of learning difficulties in both children and adults.
Janine Luttick is a lecturer in biblical studies in the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy at Australian Catholic University. She began teaching after completing her PhD at ACU in 2018. Janine has published in the areas of the gospel of Mark and contemporary biblical hermeneutics. Her current research focuses on the depictions of female children in the Bible, connecting her study with scholarship on the history of emotions and on family studies in the New Testament. Janine is currently preparing a contribution to a volume on global perspectives of reimagining family and household in the New Testament.
Teaching idea: Using ChatGpT effectively to generate subject or article-specific knowledge and vocabulary activities for the religious education classroom using Australian Catholics articles.
Date: May 21
Time: 4.30-5.30pm AEST
Accreditation
Accreditation is available in the dioceses of Melbourne, Sale, Sandhurst, Ballarat, and in Armidale and Lismore.
Teachers in Victorian dioceses wishing to receive accreditation for this event will need to supply your VIT Registration Number and School as part of your booking.
Attendance will be checked on the day, so only those attending the live session will receive accreditation.
If you are in a Diocese that is not listed above (but have an AC+ subscription), please check with your Catholic Education Office to see if it can be accredited with them also.
More upcoming Professional Learning sessions in 2024
TERM 3
Music Mission
Suggested date: July 30
Speakers TBC
Teaching idea: analysing well-known hymns in the classroom to teach theological concepts
Real retreats – tips for planning a successful retreat
Suggested date: Aug 20
Speakers: TBC
Teaching idea: mindful reflection using stimulus questions written by Chat GPT
Catholic movie festival – How to choose and use films for the RE classroom
Suggested date: Sept 10
Speakers: TBC
Teaching idea: novel active viewing activities
TERM 4
The great teaching ideas swap meet!
Suggested date: Oct 22
Join us and bring along some of your favourite classroom ideas to swap with your colleagues. Our assistant editor education and youth, Laura Kings will also bring along some of ours.
If you have feedback or ideas around these sesisons then please drop us a line
If you are not an AC+ subscriber send us an email to [email protected] and we can tell you more about how it works.