POWER UP your literacy teaching knowledge and skills! Learn more about current research into the importance of teacher agency and why we need to engage students in their literacy learning 鈥� and what this looks like in the classroom, at the 美姬社区Vic/ACMI one-day Conference, Friday 12th September 2025. This exciting professional learning event is for teachers of Years 3鈥�9 and is both in-person at ACMI (Fed Square Melbourne) and online via Zoom. Experts will share research-informed strategies and practical teaching ideas, and you will enjoy opportunities to connect with colleagues and refuel your passion for teaching literacy in all contexts.
To be successfully literate in 2025 requires the ability to weave together the many and varied threads that comprise contemporary literacy. It requires the navigation of a complicated fast paced world of information, dynamic communication technologies, and face-to-face and online relationships. Connecting traditional and evolving literacies also requires curiosity, critical thinking and adaptability, and our students need to be deeply engaged with this process across the curriculum.
As teachers, it is our role to teach the skills and knowledge required for effective reading and viewing, writing and creating, and listening and speaking in all subject areas, alongside critical thinking and creative responsiveness. At the same time, it is also our responsibility to build student engagement and motivation through enjoyment.
With a focus on teaching Years 3-9, join us for an inspirational day of professional learning at ACMI (or online) where a range of presenters will weave the threads of research informed practices into the complex fabric that is the literacy of today’s learners. Engage in thoughtful discussions, strengthen professional connections, take away practical curriculum-linked teaching ideas, and refuel your passion for teaching literacy in all contexts.
Reporting on the evidence base: What happens when teachers put the student at the centre of literacy learning?
In this keynote presentation, Beryl explores the transformative impact of student-centred literacy learning across the years of schooling. Drawing on her extensive experience as an early years, primary and middle years classroom teacher, teacher educator and university researcher, Beryl will present an evidence base of what happens when teachers put the student at the centre of literacy learning. She will highlight case studies from recent research undertaken with colleagues to demonstrate how student engagement and learning can be significantly enhanced when their voices and needs are prioritised. Attendees will gain insights into practical approaches for integrating student-centred practices into their teaching, working adaptatively with commercial resources, and fostering a more inclusive and effective learning environment.
Professor Beryl Exley is an experienced early years, primary and middle years classroom teacher who is passionate about student-centred literacy learning. She is currently teaching in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University and conducting research across multiple school systems for the Australian Research Council. She is a member of the recently established Griff Linc, a Griffith University research group focused on “Literacy in Context”. Beryl is a past National President of ALEA, and in 2019 was awarded 美姬社区Life Membership for her services to the association.
Dr. Mellie Green (Southern Cross University):
Weaving joy, justice and professional judgment: Teaching reading for enjoyment in the primary English classroom.
In today’s fast-paced and policy-driven literacy landscape, the thread of reading for enjoyment is increasingly fragile – yet it remains essential. This keynote presentation explores how teaching reading for enjoyment supports the motivation, critical thinking, and creative responsiveness our students need to navigate contemporary literacies. Drawing on research, curriculum analysis, and real classroom stories, I introduce the “Super 7” for teaching reading, highlighting how these can be woven meaningfully across the years and across the curriculum. Participants will be invited to reflect on professional judgment, text selection, and the role of culturally responsive literature in fostering children’s reading identities. Together, we’ll consider how to centre reading enjoyment, connection, and aesthetic appreciation in practices that prepare students not just to decode, but to think, feel, and imagine.
Dr Mellie Green is a lecturer in English/literacy education and children’s literature at Southern Cross University. Her PhD from the University of Queensland, For the Love of Good Stories, explored how classroom reading for enjoyment fosters lifelong reading habits. With over 30 years’ experience across Australia and the UK, Mellie has worked as a primary teacher, curriculum leader, and teacher librarian, developing expertise in evidence-based practice and curriculum innovation. Dr Green is the author of Classroom Reading for Enjoyment: Bestowing the Beauty of Book Blether, which champions dialogue in building engaged reading communities. Her research focuses on reading instruction and aesthetic engagement. A passionate advocate for children’s literature, she is committed to inspiring future educators to nurture a love of reading. Dr Green is a member of ALEA, the CBCA, and a founding member of the DRAW group.
Engaging students: The integral role disciplinary literacies play in connecting students to learning in the disciplines. (Years 3-8)
Dr Lynne Bury (RMIT University)
Having fun with language and literacy: Learning through play, videogames, and the Australian bushland – inspiring inquiry about Place and Belonging. (Years 5-6)
Kate Ficai (ACMI)
This session is an interactive discussion with teachers around the videogame Paperbark. Who wants to play a sleepy wombat snuffling through the Australian bushland? Who wants to learn about cooking with bush tucker, caring for country and the Seven Seasons of the Kulin People? Playing the beautiful videogame Paperbark provides a springboard for students to learn about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures curriculum while developing language and literacy skills. Find out more about how engaging game-based learning can be with ACMI’s Game Lesson, Paperbark.
Kate Ficai is an Education Producer and for five years facilitated the Game Lessons program for ACMI as the Education in Games Coordinator. Kate is a Primary trained teacher and held numerous roles with ACMI, ATOM and the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival, developing quality screen education resources and events that leverage her former career in the film and television Industry.
Exploring the possibilities: Creating personalising reading texts for disengaged readers using AI technology, and student created prompts. (Years 4-10)
Sarah Prior & Rob Brown (Department of Education Victoria, Teachers)
Faced with the challenge of inspiring disengaged Year Eight students in reading, this classroom pedagogy experiment was based on the student feedback in which students reported that there was ‘nothing good to read’. The teacher, in collaboration with a small group of colleagues, threw the problem back at students supporting them as they created prompts for AI to be able to create texts that, according to student criteria, would be interesting. What transpired was a process of learning how the prompts given to the AI Chat Bot impact what is created. Students were hypercritical of the results and blamed the Bots for all manner of literary inadequacies. The teaching process turned towards the need for carefully constructed prompts to better inform the ‘stupid’ Bots about what should be in the stories. This presentation shares a story of what happened when the possibilities of using AI generated text to personalise reading material for disengaged readers was explored in a Middle Years English classroom.
Sarah Prior is an English and Humanities teacher in a regional Victorian secondary college. She is passionate about creating and teaching engaging units for students who struggle to engage with a traditional school setting. Sarah has a personal passion for reading and her goal is to encourage this passion in students by assisting all students to reach their personal best in the literacy space.
Rob Brown is the Eaglehawk Secondary College Literacy Specialist. He has worked in regional and remote schools in Victoria and Western Australia focussing on engaging students. Rob’s current work is in the intervention space, providing students with additional support to reengage then with mainstream learning. Rob loves reading creepy fantasy books almost as much as he loves reading to his young son and daughter.
Conference Workshops:
If you want it… put a ring on it: The challenge of building student engagement with reading. (Years 5-8)
Robyn English (Department of Education Victoria, Teacher Leader and Coach)
Comedy Script Writing – How writing comedy can creatively boost students’ writing skills and storytelling. (Years 5-7)
Bridget Hanna (Australian Children’s Television Foundation, ACTF):
Why Younger Readers Love Crime… Fiction. (Years 7-9)
Amy Doak (author)
鈻�When: Friday 12 September, 2025 9:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M. (AEST)
鈻�Location: ACMI Fed Square, or Online Via Zoom
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION COST (full day program)
ALL Costs are inclusive of GST.
Registration type |
Full rate |
|
美姬社区individual members (non-student) |
$165 |
|
美姬社区student members* & retired members |
$120 |
|
美姬社区institutional/ school sub-members |
$195 |
|
Non-members |
$250 |
|
Online |
$140 |
美姬社区MEMBERSHIP:
*NB: Student membership to 美姬社区is free during initial teacher education. For information about joining ALEA:
**美姬社区Individual MEMBER reminder: please use the email address associated with your 美姬社区Membership when registering, to ensure you are charged Member prices. For help with membership status, contact the 美姬社区National Office at office@alea.edu.au
**SCHOOL SUB-MEMBER reminder: To ensure your school sub-members are charged the Sub-Member price, firstly, make sure each person attending is listed as a sub-members on your school membership profile. Then, register each person separately. This includes your school's primary email contact if they are attending the conference.
Early Bird Terms and Conditions
REGISTRATIONS CLOSE 5:00 p.m. (AEST) Wednesday 26th August, 2025.
If Registrations are closed, please email Annemaree O'Brien.
To contact the event organiser:
Email Dr Annemaree O’Brien, State Director, 美姬社区Victoria: aobrien.alea.victoria@gmail.com
Online participants:
A Zoom meeting link will be sent to registrants one day before the Conference date.
ALEA’s Online Professional Learning guidelines, Privacy Statement, and Refund and Cancellation Policy apply to this event.
View the policies at www.alea.edu.au/about/alea-policies-and-procedures/
Please note: By registering to attend the one day conference, you are agreeing to the following statements:
Please download the conference flyer to share news of this event with your colleagues.
