AustLit

Teaching and Learning with BlackWords

An AustLit professional development opportunity for school educators and librarians.

BlackWords is a comprehensive resource and database about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and storytellers.

Learn how to use BlackWords and the material it publishes to bring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives to your teaching in English, History, and Studies of Society.

Explore more Teaching with BlackWords resources here.

Beginning in Brisbane at the State Library of Queensland’s The Edge Auditorium in April 2019, the BlackWords Professional Development team is visiting Thursday Island, Yarrabah, and in November Mt Isa, and Rockhampton. Early in 2020 Teaching and Learning with BlackWords will travel to the Cherbourg Community and Murgon in south-west Qld. 

We invite teachers and librarians from local and nearby communities to attend to discover more about how AustLit and BlackWords can help meet Australian Curriculum requirements.

Join Professor Anita Heiss (author and educator), Director of AustLit, Kerry Kilner, and the well-known English Teacher Guru, Lindsay Williams. Anita and Lindsay will help teachers develop teaching strategies for incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the classroom. Kerry will demonstrate how to get the best out of AustLit and BlackWords whether you're a teacher, librarian, student, or community.

A range of hands-on and engaging activities are planned so that participants will leave feeling more confident in selecting Indigenous authored texts to meet the requirements of the Australian Curriculum at both primary and secondary levels.

Writers and educators from each location will join the team to give their perspectives on hearing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in the classroom. 

Localise your teaching, discover Australian stories from your region, deepen your understanding.

Registration for November events coming soon

Cost: $110 for employed attendees ; $75 for students or pre-service teachers

We are enormously grateful for the support of the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund and the State Library of Queensland for assisting us to take this show on the road!