Building relationships with communities is essential to Indigenous education. This task requires you to formulate a Community Engagement Plan for a school or learning facility of your choosing. A detailed rubric for the standards and criteria against which this task will be assessed are supplied in the Assessment section in iLearn

Step One: Decide on the specific learning centre you would like to form a Community Engagement Plan for.

Step Two: Outline the centre (for example, name of the school or centre, location, socioeconomic details about the area, the Aboriginal country it sits on, Indigenous population of the area etc)

Step Three: Outline your plan for Community Engagement with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people connected to your learning space or school. This includes the students, their families and communities, the local Indigenous community based on the location of the learning centre. Sometimes these are not the same.

You can use tables and text in this plan. This assessment task must:

• Times New Roman font only
• Size 12 font only
• Black font only
• Word count should not exceed 2500 words and should not be less that 2000 words
• Must be saved as a Microsoft Word document

Task: You are to create a Teaching Resource Folio of 6 resources, focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, histories and peoples. A detailed rubric for the standards and criteria against which this task will be assessed are supplied in the Assessment section in iLearn.

Step One: Decide on a focus unit of study (year level, topic of the unit) 

Step Two: Look for six exceptional resources regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, histories and peoples that you would use within this unit of study

Step Three: Compile your Teaching Resource Folio including the resources and your reasoning behind this selection.

For each of the 6 resources you have selected, you must give:

• The details of the resource (title, author, year, format (DVD, Book etc)
• Why the resource is culturally appropriate
• The reasons you chose this particular resource
• How you know the resource is culturally relevant
• Details as to how the resource would be used with a class

You can include images and text in this assignment. The layout of the text/images must be of a professional standard, easy to read and include all relevant details outlined above.

Your folio must be:

• Saved as a Microsoft Word document
• Only have Times New Roman font - black font only
• The document must be prepared for printing (therefore no embedded videos will be accepted. If you choose a video as a resource, all details must appear in writing regarding the resource itself.)

Pick ONE of the suggested topics and write a 4,000 word essay. A detailed rubric for the standards and criteria against which this task will be assessed are supplied in the Assessment section in iLearn. References are included in the Word Count. It is expected that the essay is will be structured with a clear introduction, body and conclusion.

It must have:

• 12 point Times New Roman font
• Double line spacing
• All pages numbered
• All pages include a footer with the your name and student number
• A minimum of 20 relevant references (please ensure these are quality and fairly recent)

ESSAY TOPICS (Select ONE of the following):

• TOPIC ONE: What impact does the embedding of Indigenous perspectives have on student learning within Australian classrooms? Discuss drawing on relevant research.

‘Successful schools and governments work closely together in curriculum consultations as with Indigenous peoples. What has been shown to work in schools is Indigenous content in the curriculum, both vertically as ‘Indigenous studies’ and horizontally across the entire curriculum as ‘Indigenous perspectives’. This is done best when community involvement in program design and decision-making takes a bottom-up rather than top-down approach. Indigenous children look for affirmation of their identities in their schooling. Building tomorrow’s classroom will fail miserably if it relies on a subject core that educates Indigenous children out of an Indigenous education’ (Rigney, 2011, p. 39).

• TOPIC TWO: Discuss the impact of teacher perceptions, expectations and knowledge on Indigenous learners and their outcomes, drawing on research.

"A teacher, whose first move when they encounter challenging behaviour from a particular child, is to find a way to stick a special needs label on them, is colluding with low expectations… The teacher signals a high expectations relationship when they reflect on their own classroom practice and learning environment to consider what they might need to adjust, before going down the route of special needs labels." - (Chris Sarra, chrissarra.wordpress.com)

• TOPIC THREE: The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers requires all teachers of all levels in Australia to demonstrate proficiency in teaching Indigenous students, and delivering Indigenous content and culturally appropriate ways. Outline at least three ways teachers can ensure they are meeting the Cross Curriculum Priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and peoples in safe, meaningful and relevant ways, drawing on research.

"Across the Australian Curriculum, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures priority provides opportunities for all learners to deepen their knowledge of Australia by engaging with the world’s oldest continuous living cultures. Students will understand that contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities are strong, resilient, rich and diverse. The knowledge and understanding gained through this priority will enhance the ability of all young people to participate positively in the ongoing development of Australia" (ACARA, 2015).