The report is a soft-copy (upload able) of a document that highlights the student’s investigation, planning, action, and reflections on their learning. It is typically a written report (DOCX), but can take other forms as well. 

When the latest guide was released, there was a great deal of excitement over the inclusion of electronic, oral, and visual reports. However, they tended not to be successful because the students did not structure them as indicated in the Personal Project guide. If you are using a written report, it is very easy to structure the report like a dissertation:

Criterion A: Investigating

  • Personal Context
  • Goal
  • Global Context
  • Prior Knowledge & Research Skills
  • Literature Review

Criterion B: Planning

  • Introductory statement
  • Product Specifications
  • Assessment Rubric
  • Evaluation Methodology
  • Timeline

Criterion C: Taking Action

  • Thinking Skills
  • Social Skills
  • Communication Skills

Criterion D: Reflecting

  • Evaluation of Product
  • Reflection on Topic
  • Reflection on Global Context
  • Reflection on ATL skills
  • Reflection on Learner Profile

Reference List

Appendices

  • Appendix A
  • Appendix B
  • Appendix C
  • Appendix D
  • Appendix E
  • Appendix F
  • Appendix G
  • Appendix H
  • Appendix I
  • Appendix J

However. In our experiences, students struggled to maintain this sort of structure in other formats, which made assessment and standardisation very difficult.  For example, we had students who submitted interview questions to a teacher interviewer. However, the questions had little to do with the assessed criteria. Instead of asking questions like, “What was your global context, which sub-strand did you choose, and why?” the interviewers asked, “What was fun about doing this project?” The interviews were winding and tended to be off-topic. Of course, this was because the students weren’t initially coached on what type of questions to generate for the interviews / documentaries, etc. 

In time, our school stopped doing non-traditional reports. There are sometimes questions about whether learning support students should have access to non-written reports; however, as the Learning Support teachers tell us – sometimes the students have difficulties articulating their thoughts verbally and actually fare better with written scaffolds based on the criteria. 

And so in the end… we only do written reports. Every year we open it up to students by explaining the chart posted above. However, we haven’t had a single non-traditional report in 5 years.