Personal Narrative
Writing for regional, rural
and remote students
English Teaching Unit – Years 10-12

 What is Heywire?
Heywire puts young Australians at the centre
of the conversations that shape their
communities. The ABC has run this annual
regional youth project in partnership with the
Australian Government since 1998.
The Heywire cycle begins with a storytelling
competition open to people aged 16-22, living
in regional or rural Australia. Heywire
encourages young people to tell stories
about their life outside the major cities in
text, photo, video or audio format. Over the
past 20 years more than 11,000 young
Australians have taken part.
The Heywire Personal Narrative unit
empowers young people in rural, regional
and remote Australia to tell their own stories,
in their own ways, and be heard. This unit is a
guide to supporting the writing of students’
Heywire stories for submission. Students view
and listen to Heywire winning stories, which
form the core texts of the unit and inform
their own story writing. These explore a
range of themes which are recurrent in the
senior English curriculum including identity,
place, belonging, community, race and
gender.
Activities may easily be scaled up or down, or
otherwise adapted depending on specific
requirements, student needs and time
constraints. They may be run as a unit of
work, or as standalone activities. Included are
links, resources and templates to support the
delivery of this unit of work.

2

Index
Activity 1: Heywire Competition &
Workshop

3

Activity 2: Storytelling: What makes a
good story?

4

Activity 3: Why are our stories
important?

5

Activity 4: Finding your story

6

Activity 5: Telling your story

7

Activity 6: Your story matters

8

Activity 7: Editing

9

Activity 8: Final drafts and submission

10

Appendices

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Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

 Activity 1:
Heywire Competition & Workshop
THE COMPETITION
Each year, the ABC receives submissions for their Heywire storytelling competition from
students in rural, regional and remote Australia. Winners will work with ABC people to
produce a mini radio or TV documentary version of their story which is broadcast on ABC local
radio, ABC Me and iView (examples below). Winners will also receive an all-expenses-paid trip
to Canberra to attend the Heywire Regional Youth Summit. You need to be aged 15 or over and
living outside a major Australian city, and stories should be approximately 400 words long.
Competition website: http://www.abc.net.au/heywire/competition/
Previous years’ winning stories: http://www.abc.net.au/heywire/winners/
ABC TV videos made from winning stories: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/heywire

THE WORKSHOP
This introduction gives students context for the stories they will write, through providing a
specific purpose and audience for their texts.
A link to this workshop has been included in the email you were sent with this pack. Use the
PowerPoint slides and facilitator notes to deliver the workshop.
Heywire is often able to arrange for an ABC journalist to visit your school and deliver this
workshop.
If you would like to enquire, please get in touch by emailing abcheywire@abc.net.au or calling
1800 26 26 46.

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Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

 Activity 2:
Storytelling: What makes a good
story?
Warm-up: Brainstorm students’ ideas about
what makes a good story.
Discuss the responses and cluster /
prioritise into a list or diagram.
1.

2.

Organise students into pairs and ask
them to recall a good story they have
either heard or read, and retell it to
their partner. Each student in turn
explains to their partner why they
remembered and enjoyed the story.
Students listen to / read a story (either
Trent or Ajay’s) and discuss and
synthesise their responses to the story.
It may help to prompt with some
headings such as: structure, language
features, audience and so on.

Curriculum content:
Understand how language use can have
inclusive and exclusive social effects,
and can empower or disempower people
(ACELA1564)
Analyse and explain how text structures,
language features and visual features of
texts and the context in which texts are
experienced may influence audience
response (ACELT1641)
Analyse and evaluate text structures and
language features of literary texts and
make relevant thematic and intertextual
connections with other texts (ACELT1774)

This is an opportunity to activate students’
prior knowledge and build further skills by
providing guided practice to identify and
describe the typical features of a good
story.
3.

Students create a mind
map/graphic/poster to represent the
characteristics of a good story.

4.

Students annotate a written copy of
Trent or Ajay’s story to highlight
language features and text structure
(exemplar p. 14)

Trent Caldwell, Heywire Winner

Trent Caldwell, Broome WA
http://www.abc.net.au/heywire/heywire-winner-trent-caldwell/8970244
Ajay Williams, Casino NSW
http://www.abc.net.au/heywire/heywire-winner-2018-ajay-williams-casino-nsw/9130594
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Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

 Activity 3:
Why are our stories important?
1.

Group discussion: In groups, students
listen to / view two winning Heywire
stories to compare and contrast. The
aim of this activity is not to judge one
story as 'better' than another; rather, to
formulate a preference based on
structural features and personal
connection, and to highlight the fact
that different texts can appeal to
different people.
Key questions for group discussion:
• Which story appeals to you more and
why?
• Did you make any personal
connections to these stories?
• Compare your response to other
group members’.
• Explain and justify your preference,
e.g. I connected to Molly's story

because I play AFL.

2.

Written response: Have students write
their responses to the following
questions, encouraging them to use
their own ‘authentic’ voice to do so. Be
clear that this exercise is not for
submission, but that you would like to
hear them respond to these question in
their own particular way, using their
own voice.

Key points to draw out:
• Stories convey and reinforce values /
morals / beliefs / societal norms.
• Good storytelling creates empathy by
allowing us to experience another’s
world.
• Stories elicit emotional responses and
help us to connect and understand.

Curriculum content:
Reflect on, extend, endorse or refute
others’ interpretations of and responses
to literature (ACELT1640)
Analyse and explain how text structures,
language features and visual features of
texts and the context in which texts are
experienced may influence audience
response (ACELT1641)

• What do you think these storytellers
are trying to say?
• Why is it important for them to tell
this story?
Molly Hunt, Heywire Winner
Molly Hunt, Broome WA
http://www.abc.net.au/heywire/heywire-winner-molly-hunt/8969656
Leshae Beck, Biloela QLD
http://www.abc.net.au/heywire/heywire-winner-2018-leshae-beck-biloela-qld/9138130
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Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

 Activity 4:
Finding your story
Your students have a lot to say but may
need a little help to get the pen moving
across the page. Young people commonly have
trouble seeing that they have a story
to tell. This activity challenges that
mindset and encourages them to see their
life events as significant stories worthy of
telling.
In this session, students talk and
brainstorm answers to prompt questions which
will help them think of their lives as
a unique story.
Warm-up: Ask students to complete three
(true) sentences which begin ‘I remember…’
Encourage them to write about things unique to
them. This can be modelled to the class by you
initially, to get students thinking along these
lines, e.g. I remember the day I got my drivers’

licence for the first time, after failing the first
time because I couldn’t reverse
park.

These sentences can be shared or kept private
depending on your students. They may want to
compare with a partner briefly, or they may
prefer to keep it to themselves.

1.

Students brainstorm to respond to three
questions:
What do you care about?
What is an event that has had a big
impact on you?
What is a challenge you have overcome?

2.

Review the Heywire workshop slides
with students.

3.

Students write individual responses to
one or two prompts chosen from the list
below. It is important students
understand that the events they choose
to tell do not have to be big, lifechanging moments. They can be small,
everyday occurrences. The story’s power
will come from their feelings, responses
and thoughts – not the events
themselves. This is what makes their
story unique.
• Write about a time you were brave
• Write about a lesson you learned
• Write about something you once
wanted more than anything else in
the world
• Write about a time someone
encouraged you
• Write about your favourite place
• Write about something you love
doing

This activity is suitable to individual, paired, grouped or whole-class work. Writing about
personal moments may be challenging for some students, sharing them with the class
confronting. For this reason, it is important to group students using your own understanding
of their needs so that they are most comfortable when doing this activity. The aim is for them
get writing and to feel good doing it.

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Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

 Activity 5:
Telling your story
Students can now begin to crystallise their
ideas into one main theme, event or central
point of their lives.
In this activity, students will practice using
words which invite the reader into their
world.
1.

Using their written responses to the
previous session’s prompt, students
rewrite them using the following (or
similar) sentence starters:
• ‘I will never forget the moment I…’
• ‘It all began when…’
• ‘I will always remember how I felt
when…’

Curriculum content:
Review, edit and refine students’ own
and others’ texts for control of content,
organisation, sentence structure,
vocabulary, and/or visual features to
achieve particular purposes and effects
(ACELY1757)
Create literary texts with a sustained
‘voice’, selecting and adapting
appropriate text structures, literary
devices, language, auditory and visual
structures and features for a specific
purpose and intended audience
(ACELT1815)

2. Choosing one or two key ‘moments’ they
have identified, students begin to focus
on how they felt, what they saw and
heard in that moment, and how to write
about it. Encourage students to be
specific, focussing on moments to start
with, and expanding their story from
there. You may need to help students by
starting with senses: I could see / I
could hear / I felt etc.
3. From here, students can move on to
include the other moments or key
points in their story and prepare their
notes to be ready for drafting.

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Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

Ajay Williams, Heywire Winner

 Activity 6:
Your story
matters
Warm-up: referring to previous lesson, ask:
What makes your story important? Why do
you have to be the one to tell your story?
Discuss.
For this activity, have one or more Heywire
stories available for students to refer to.
Their annotated copies of Trent’s story
could be useful..
1.

Curriculum content:
Create literary texts that reflect an
emerging sense of personal style and
evaluate the effectiveness of these texts
(ACELT1814)

Students revise their understanding of
narrative structure and write some
basic ideas for an Orientation,
Complication and Resolution using the
linear organiser template (p. 11) and
notes from previous sessions.

2. Once a basic structure has been
established, students may further
develop their story structure and begin
to expand on their linear organiser
points.
3. If students are filming their story, they
should still construct a written version
from which to work initially.
4. Using their notes and completed
graphic organisers, students write a
draft story.

8

Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

Leshae Beck, Heywire Winner

 Activity 7:
Editing
Students pair with an editing buddy
to review and edit their stories in this
activity.

1.

Students begin by revising their
understanding of evaluative language.
Listen to / view Finbar Kinna's Heywire
story and think about how he creates a
sense of place: what does he see, hear,
feel? What words convey this?
(Students will use this as a modelled
example of how to enhance their writing
when editing)

Curriculum content:
Review, edit and refine students’ own and
others’ texts for control of content,
organisation, sentence structure,
vocabulary, and/or visual features to
achieve particular purposes and effects
(ACELY1757)
Refine vocabulary choices to
discriminate between shades of
meaning, with deliberate attention to the
effect on audiences (ACELA1571)

2. In pairs, students begin by reading their
stories aloud, while partners listen for
repetition, lack of fluency / cohesion
and so on.
3. Using the Peer Editing Checklist (p. 13)
students review written copies of
stories, while also using post-it notes to
highlight any questions or suggestions
as they go, e.g. I want to know more

about this, I am confused by this part of
the story.
Finbar Kinna, Heywire Winner

Finbar Kinna, Jan Juc Victoria
http://www.abc.net.au/heywire/heywire-winner-finbar-kinna/8969932

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Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

 Activity 8:
Final drafts and submission
Provide students with ample time to review
and edit their work as necessary, or hold a
session in which students who are
comfortable doing so may view each
other's work in the classroom.

Once stories are completed, they can be
submitted to the Heywire website:
http://www.abc.net.au/heywire/competiti
on/enter_now/

Alternatively you may want to allocate a
time in which students can present their
stories to the class.

All submitted stories are read and
reviewed by ABC staff, and will be
published online under students' chosen
pseudonym.

If submitting a video story, students will
need adequate time to film and upload
this.

10

Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

 Linear organiser template

Beginning

Middle
Problem, Main Events, Climax, Development

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Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

End

 Peer Editing Checklist

1. ________ Read your story out loud. Does it make sense? Have words been left
out?
2. ________ Use sensory words that help the reader see, hear, smell, taste and touch.
Add more that appeal to the reader’s senses.
3. ________ Place a triangle around the beginning word in each sentence. If they
sound alike, change the beginning and length to add variety.
4. ________ (Optional) Highlight in yellow any dialogue in your narrative. Add
additional purposeful dialogues if you can.
5. ________ Add descriptive adjectives that will help the reader remember your
main character (you).
6. ________ Place a line through the “to be" verbs (am, is, are, was, were, being, been)
and replace them with action verbs. For example, change was running
to raced .
7. ________ Stories need both short and long sentences. Read your narrative aloud
and ask yourself if more short sentences are needed, or if two short
sentences may be combined to make a longer one.
8. ________ Find any word repeated more than once and replace it with a
synonym.
9. ________ Reread the ending. Will the reader remember the ending? How does it
reconnect with the beginning of your narrative?
10. ________ Proofread for spelling, punctuation and grammar by reading your
story aloud. You may need to draft, revise, and edit several times.

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Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

 Heywire winner Trent Caldwell, Broome, WA.
As a teenager, I lived in a tough neighbourhood in the northern suburbs of Perth.
I saw fights, drugs, and gangs fill thestreets.
I got caught up in it, and was addicted to the danger.
I thought living like this made me tough.
But my life turned on Good Friday 2012.

Orientation –
Strong sense
of place

Turning
point

I was 19 and down the park with mymates.
I decided it would be a good idea to do chin-ups on a soccer crossbar.
It wasn't bolted in properly.
The goal post crushed my head, and instantly put me into a coma.

Complication

My skull fractured in several places and I lost sight in one eye.
And when I woke up, the accident had brought on a shopping list of mental illnesses - epilepsy,
ADHD, PTSD, anxiety disorder and major depressivedisorder.
I started to self harm and needed medication and regular admissions to mental hospitals to
Evaluative
keep me sane.
language
I couldn't work, so chose to move to Broome to live with my mum.
It took months but the relaxed lifestyle of the Kimberley started to help me recover.
I got well enough to getwork.
I loved my new job and my new community, but depression still made the smallest issue feel like
the end of the world.
And I would sink back into depressive habits.
I needed help, not justmedication.

Tension builds

I needed to talk to someone.
I decided to visit a Headspace youth health centre, even though I was pretty sure they wouldn't
be able to understand.
After all, even I couldn't find the words to explain what was going on in my head. But as I talked I
found myself saying things I had never even considered before. It was like my brain was saying
things that I had no control over.
I started attending a church, and was able to slowly ease off my medications.
The best part was knowing that I was actually healing.

Resolution

It's now coming up to three years since the accident and I've become a youth mental health
advocate here in Broome.
I guess I have also learned a lot about what it really means to be tough. It isn't about how many
dangerous situations you put yourselfin.
It's about fighting through the trials life throws at you.
It's not about acting like you're invincible; it's about being brave enough to ask for help when you
need it.
Message /
learning

14

Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

 Heywire winner Trent Caldwell, Broome, WA.
As a teenager, I lived in a tough neighbourhood in the northern suburbs of Perth.
I saw fights, drugs, and gangs fill the streets.
I got caught up in it, and was addicted to the danger.
I thought living like this made me tough.
But my life turned on Good Friday 2012.
I was 19 and down the park with my mates.
I decided it would be a good idea to do chin-ups on a soccer crossbar.
It wasn't bolted in properly.
The goal post crushed my head, and instantly put me into a coma.
My skull fractured in several places and I lost sight in one eye.
And when I woke up, the accident had brought on a shopping list of mental illnesses - epilepsy,
ADHD, PTSD, anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder.
I started to self harm and needed medication and regular admissions to mental hospitals to keep
me sane.
I couldn't work, so chose to move to Broome to live with my mum.
It took months but the relaxed lifestyle of the Kimberley started to help me recover.
I got well enough to get work.
I loved my new job and my new community, but depression still made the smallest issue feel like
the end of the world.
And I would sink back into depressive habits.
I needed help, not just medication.
I needed to talk to someone.
I decided to visit a Headspace youth health centre, even though I was pretty sure they wouldn't
be able to understand.
After all, even I couldn't find the words to explain what was going on in my head.
But as I talked I found myself saying things I had never even considered before.
It was like my brain was saying things that I had no control over.
I started attending a church, and was able to slowly ease off my medications.
The best part was knowing that I was actually healing.
It's now coming up to three years since the accident and I've become a youth mental health
advocate here in Broome.
I guess I have also learned a lot about what it really means to be tough.
It isn't about how many dangerous situations you put yourself in.
It's about fighting through the trials life throws at you.
It's not about acting like you're invincible; it's about being brave enough to ask for help when you
need it.

15

Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12

 Heywire winner, Ajay Williams, Casino, NSW
There are good and bad things that come with being a Bundjalung man in Northern NSW.
It is not easy.
There is a lack of employment, a lack of schooling, and a lack of trust from largely white-owned
businesses that all lead to a continual cycle of mistrust, unemployment and prejudice.
There is the temptation to do drugs, drink alcohol, and waste your potential.
I believe this temptation is greater for Indigenous men who don't have the role models or
encouragement to step up.
Two hundred years ago my land was invaded. The old history books call this time colonisation.
My people have been exposed to segregation and assimilation.
Now I think it's time to go past self-determination and move onto "this is my land and my life …
and I can be a success".
It is heartbreaking to see good family members, that have a bright future ahead of them, throw it
away by hanging with the wrong people and doing the wrong thing.
But you can only do so much for that person to get them back on track.
"You need to start coming back to school, Brother. You had a great job and good classes. What
is wrong with you?"
Why are those who step up viewed by other Indigenous men as weak? And the biggest insult of
all — coconuts.
Why do my fellow people insult each other? Why do my cousins say I talk like a white fella?
It's sad but it only makes me dig a little bit deeper and work a little bit harder to change the next
generation.
Every day I wake up and know the last name I carry represents a whole lineage of people who
have come before me.
I am proud to be from an ancient culture.
It is time to step up and be a positive role model for the next generation.
Maybe one day we will have an Aboriginal Prime Minister of Australia, someone who all
Indigenous Australians can be proud of.
My parents have stressed the necessity and importance to show respect. To value education. To
lead by example.
I have been able to step up and become a proud man.
Why don't you step up too?

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Heywire storytelling for regional, rural and remote students English Teaching Unit - Years 10 -12