Teaching and writing materials for migrant learners in Australia
2025 Nov 04

Decodable readers for adult and young adult learners

Intro pic for decodable readers from ESL Reads

Decodable readers for adult (or young adult) multilingual learners, anyone? It sounds like an obvious part of a literacy program, but they are SO hard to write as relatable stories, with meaningful context. (I say that as someone who has tried – and given up!) So it was wonderful to discover that someone else has persisted – Lauren Piovesan, from … Continue reading

2024 Nov 27

Writing from your own migrant heritage: thoughts and tips from Lauren Piovesan

Introduction to article

I interviewed Lauren Piovesan about her ESL Reads project back in 2022 and 2023.  As always, it’s so exciting to have Australian resources written for multilingual learners. However, this time I wanted to talk about how her own family’s migrant experience had informed her writing of EAL/D resources – like her latest reading book, ‘Linda’s Busy Week’. I also asked … Continue reading

2023 Sep 05

What’s new at ESL Reads? An interview with Lauren Piovesan

Lauren Piovesan ESL reads

How things change! Back in March 2022 I talked to Lauren Piovesan about her new readers. The stories offered terrific cultural and language support for learners with low literacy / refugee background, at four reading levels. She had so many plans and goals for her ESL Reads project, and such a lot has happened since then, including an expansion of her … Continue reading

2023 May 17

The Initial EAL Workbook: An interview with author Assunta Crupi-Pogliano

Assunta Crupi-Pogliano has just launched her resource, The Initial EAL Workbook, designed for learners doing the Course in Initial EAL, and coming to grips with learning and with literacy. It’s an amazing 205 page book – that’s 195 pages of worksheets, covering all 67 of the performance criteria in the six units of the Course in Initial EAL. It features charming … Continue reading

2022 Feb 12

PRACE Pageturners: an interview with Anne Dunn

the three Pageturners writers with their work

I have my own set of ‘yellow Pageturners’, which I love so much – and of course we have all the colours in our college library. They are genuinely funny, they make me want to keep reading…and yet they’re so simple and accessible. So I was excited to be able to ask Anne Dunn, one of the team, some questions: … Continue reading

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