COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

APPLIED CURRICULUM PROJECT REPORT

YEAR 4
Bachelor of Education P - 12 (ABED)
Preservice teachers are required to complete an Applied Curriculum Project Report (using this proforma) on completion of their project. This form
is to be completed by the preservice teacher(s). Reference should be made to the ACP Plan developed earlier in the year. A brief comment by
the School Partnership Coordinator (or nominee) is also required. This document must be word processed.
This Final Report must:

Describe the project and its outcomes

Provide evidence of how the aims of the project were met or not met and why with reference to the relevant educational theory and/or
literature or policy cited in the plan

Comment on the progress according to the action plan included in the Plan and advise of any changes to this plan and the reasons for any
amendments

Evaluate the success or otherwise of the expected measurable outcomes with reference to the evaluation methodology described in the
plan.

Describe how each of the five, or more, professional skills (planning, negotiating, project management, problem solving, team work, time
management, evaluating, communicating, reporting and researching) you nominated in your plan where used/applied during your ACP.

Submission Deadline:

Each preservice teacher is required to submit this report to their Praxis Inquiry lecturer no later than the week
commencing 21st September, 2015.
Preservice Teacher to complete
ACP Mentor Teacher to complete

Sections 1 - 5
Section A

Preservice Teacher submitting this report ________Benjamin Snaith____________________ Student ID ___s3913650__________

ACP Title

_____Story Writing in Remote Locations_________

School/Setting

_____Bulman Primary School__________________________________________________

Address
_____Bulman, Northern Territory
___________________________________________________________________________
Phone

___________________________________ Fax ___________________________________________

Partnerships Coordinator ______Lawrence Mahon

__________________________________________________________________
ACP Mentor(s)

_____Irene Singleton
____________________________________________________________________________________

Additional ACP Preservice Teacher (PST) team members (where applicable)

PST Name

_____Sonia Hankova_________________ Student ID _________________ Campus_St Albans

PST Name

___________________________________ Student ID _________________ Campus_____________

PST Name

___________________________________ Student ID__________________ Campus____________

PST Name

___________________________________ Student ID__________________ Campus_____________

Brief Description of the Project and its Outcomes

I participated in the SWIRL Project which allowed me to undertake my 6-week block placement in a remote Northern Territory
community. The goal of SWIRL is to empower students in these areas where academic English can at times feel decontextualised,
to take ownership over their literacy learning by telling and then ideally being apart of the publishing process of their own stories.

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The books/short films that are created from this process can then be used as resources for reading in the future and be looked upon
as a source of pride or achievement by the learner. They are student devised stories that other learners in these areas can relate to.

Provide evidence of how project aims were met or not met and why with reference to relevant educational theory/or
literature or policy cited in the plan.

The aims of this project were met in the sense that every student at the school generated a story and this was turned into a book or
in one case, a short film. Sonia and I worked to build a website (http://bulmanstories.weebly.com/) that will be a permanent home
for this years' student-generated stories that is easily accessible and visible on an interactive whiteboard as well as printing and
binding a copy for each student to take home.
This project is very open as it needs to be adaptable to the changing circumstances that are a reality in remote schools. It is
negotiating a space between the learner's lived experiences and the nature of the skills being taught through the Australian
Curriculum and there is a major disconnect there. The world of remote communities and the world of NAPLAN could not be more
distant.
Actively encouraging these students to be storytellers and to practice their reading skills with each others books is one way of
meeting the learner where they are right now, with their own unique skill set and worldview as opposed to viewing the student
through a deficit model. This is an important part of a democratic approach to teaching and learning.

Comment on progress according to your Action Plan and advise of any changes to this plan and these reasons for any
changes.
Sonia and I went into this without having any idea of what to expect in regards to how this school would accept the program we
were tasked with running. We negotiated with our principal, recognising we really only had about 4 weeks, we originally planned
on having 10 students per week in the hour session after lunch. We ran a pilot week of this but it did not work effectively enough
because of student attendance challenges and it became apparent each student would need to work one on one with a teacher to get
their story told. Then there came the problem of the two of us being needed to run about a fortnights worth of classes essentially as
CRTs because the teachers of those classes went away. We seized the week that Sonia was in the upper years class, we asked these
students to draw a big detailed picture and then worked with them to generate a story out of this image. This became the formula
that we used to efficiently work with each student. Then in the case of the short film, Sonia especially encouraged them to generate
storyboards and script and we worked collaboratively with that group to make that. If the student was particularly engaged with the
task then it was reflected in the book that was generated. In the publishing stage, Sonia had the freedom in the final 2 weeks of our
block to be able to work individually with the students in the class I was teaching so I was sending them out one at a time with her,
then she printed and bound the copy for the student and I would upload the slideshow of their book to the website in the afternoons.

Evaluation
Evaluate the success or otherwise of the outcomes with reference to the evaluation methodology described in the plan.
We were lucky for the freedom that our principal gave us and that Sonia was not required to be teaching in that final fortnight so
she put that to great use, churning these books out and working collaboratively with students in my class to get the stories made. On
the final day we presented the books, website and short film to the school community, including past students and teachers, in a
crowded assembly. The success of the project in the short term became apparent on this day when we witnessed these students
sharing their stories with their family and friends. I would see long term success being future teachers at this school actively using
the website by allowing students to practice reading with it.

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Professional Skills Utilised

Describe how each of the five, or more, professional skills (planning, negotiating, project management, problem solving, team work, time
management, evaluating, communicating, reporting and researching) you nominated in your plan where used/applied during your ACP.
Professional Skill #1 Name of Skill PLANNING__________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
In the first week we were really unsure of how we would undertake this, our principal had said we could work on the books in the last hour
session of each day. Which meant Monday to Thursday as school ended after lunch on Friday. Our planning skills came about as we
recognised our limitations and the skills that our students had.
Professional Skill #2 Name of Skill EVALUATING_________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Our evaluating skills proved necessary in recognising roughly how long and hard it would have been if we had of kept to our original
plan of trying to work with 10 kids per week as attendance was not consistent and sometimes even In that pilot week we saw it was
completely unrealistic that our expectations would have been met in some of those afternoon sessions.
Professional Skill #3 Name of Skill PROBLEM SOLVING__________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
How would we get 40 kids to make a book each when we can not always assume that all of them will be there when it was there turn
to make one? There were funerals and other family business in other communities that students would need to attend, meaning they could
be away for whole weeks at a time. We came upon the idea of telling stories visually, depending on the student's enthusiasm this might be a
series of images that they could tell a story through, or sometimes just one really big picture that they could conceivably get done in a single
session and then, in the case of the transition (prep) class we had the 2 SWIRLers and 2 local assistant teachers, working with each student
individually, deciphering and generating a story out of a painting that they had made the day before.
Professional Skill #4 Name of Skill _TIME MANAGEMENT______________
____________________________________________________________________________________
When Sonia and I realised it would not be as smooth as 10 kids a week for 4 weeks we became innovative about the pockets of time
that we did have. When we had become efficient with our process: gleaming a story from sometimes a single image with the student
individually, we had a goal to work towards. So if I could see that a student in my class was finished the work they were doing in my class
and I knew Sonia was free I knew it could only take about 20 minutes sometimes for a story to get made between Sonia and the student and
this meant we were able to continually discover these little pockets of time to get the stories made.
Professional Skill #5 Name of Skill __TEAM WORK____________
____________________________________________________________________________________
This also developed our team work skills because we were aware of each others' roles. Sonia definitely did a lot of the physical work
when it came to building the stories with the students and publishing them, whereas my role in the team was to be reflective and have ideas
for ways to solve problems, to proofread, to facilitate student movement and to design and upload content to the website. Our roles were
clear and we tried to pick up each others skills when timing permitted but overall, that sense of communication and teamwork on this project
became intuitive and complementary, in my opinion.
Section A

Professional skills displayed by the preservice teacher in the completion of the project
(ACP Mentor Teacher (or nominee) to complete)
e.g., problem solving, negotiating, project management, planning, team work, time management, evaluating,
communicating, reporting, researching. Also, whether expected outcomes, as identified in ACP Plan, were met.

Swirl is run in a variety of locations in the Northern Territory.

The situations faced by a preservice teachers in these locations is dramatically different to
what they would normally face in placement schools around Melbourne.
It was delightful to note that Ben, who was at first quite overawed with the difference in this
placement to others he had experienced, very soon took a leadership role in his classroom.
Ben developed great relationships with both children and staff at the school he was placed

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in, and learnt new and appropriate ways of working with children who often were very poor
school attenders. His quiet and gentle manner will hold her in good stead for her future
teaching career.
Thank you for your great work, Ben and good luck for your future.

Please note Additional pages may be added if space provided is insufficient.

Signatures

Date

Applied Curriculum Project Mentor Teacher:

School Partnership Coordinator:

Preservice Teacher:
Please Tick

Victoria University may use this information to advertise and report on the work of Project Partnerships

Note
Preservice teachers must ensure that all signatories (above) receive a copy of this ACP plan. Preservice teachers are to submit a copy of this
Report to their Praxis Inquiry lecturer no later than the week commencing 21st September, 2015.
This report is downloaded from the PP Website at http://education.vu.edu.au/partnerships/

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