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Learning task 1

Activate prior knowledge

1. Ask the students to think about how their culture may be different from that of the New Zealand way of life. They could complete a same / different list individually or in nationality groups on aspects such as food, houses, family life, values, traditions, manners.
2. Provide some background information about the traditional Māori way of life, the arrival of the Europeans and the Treaty of Waitangi. See New Zealand History Online.
3. Question them about the kinds of problems and issues they face trying to fit into a different culture. The teacher could make a spider diagram that illustrates these issues on the board.
4. Find out what the students already know about issues that affect Māori by having them complete the Yes-No-Partly Activity (Word 44KB) .
5. Have the students read the text The Story of the Maori (Word 29KB) to confirm their answers to the previous activity. Further questions or discussion may occur while reading this text.
6. Look at the Read NZ Te Pou Muramura website and discuss the backgrounds of the two authors - Patricia Grace and Witi Ihimaera. Ask the students to find out where the authors are from, what they like to write about and what has influenced their topics for writing.

Close reading of two short stories

In this unit, students read two short stories - Journey by Patricia Grace and Big Brother, Little Sister by Witi Ihimaera.

1. Before reading each story, get the students to make predictions about each story from the titles and the first paragraphs, for example: What do you think the story will be about? Where do you think the story takes place? Who do you think the main people in the story will be?
2. Pre teach some MaoriVocabulary (Word 34KB) that is in the short stories. Teach some strategies for students to use to understand the meanings of unfamiliar vocabulary or idioms from the stories.
3. Read each of the stories aloud to the students. Take the time to pause often to check for understanding and to make predictions about the next part of each story.
4. It will probably take at least two to three lessons to read each story. After having listened to a new part of the story in each lesson, students could either create a story map (pictures drawn of the main ideas or events in each story) or a written summary of the main ideas or events. This could be done in groups or as individuals for homework. You may want to read the stories again for the students to confirm their story maps/summaries and to consolidate understanding of the plots of both stories.
5. After having read both stories, use a running dictation or a dictogloss activity with the JourneyPlotSummary (Word 25KB) and the 'Big Brother, Little Sister' - plot summary (Word 50KB) to help the students to become familiar with what happens in each story.
6. Get the students to write a personal response to each story (supported with details from each text). Before writing the response help the students become familiar with response starters by doing some AuralPractice (Word 34KB) with responses to texts of the language needed.
7. Help the students to become familiar with the Terms (Word 37KB) (plot, theme, character, style and so on) by cutting up the names of the terms and matching them with the explanations. This will help to prepare them for the next parts of the unit.

Story type

1. Both short stories are "slice of life" type stories in which the stories are taken from the lives of ordinary people but which centre on an interesting experience or event. Tell the students to think about the stories that they have read and find evidence for both stories being slice of life types. Both stories both make a comment on difficulties that Māori face in the modern day. Ask the students to think about the difficulties that are faced in both stories. (This will help to prepare the students for work on 'theme' later on in the unit).

Viewpoint

1. Refer to the Building a Vocabulary and Grammar 'toolbox' (Word 39KB) for expressions used when talking about viewpoint.
2. Journey is narrated in the third person with the old man as the main character of the story. We see everything from the old man's point of view. Big Brother, Little Sister uses an "eye of god" or external narrative, however it does focus more on Hema and his sister Janey than the other characters.
3. Ask the students the following questions about each story.
   • From whose point of view do we follow the events of the story? Find evidence from the stories to support your answer.
   • Why do you think the authors chose to use these particular viewpoints? What effect do they have on you as readers? Try reading 'Journey' and 'Big Brother, Little Sister' in the first person narrative. Try reading parts of Journey with an external narrative. Discuss how this changes the way we perceive the characters or events

Supporting Māori learners

Questions | Examples | Literacy resources | General resources

Successful literacy learning is the backbone of success at school. All learners in New Zealand classrooms need to have strong literacy teaching. Teaching in a way that is responsive to the diversity in our classrooms has the most profound effect on our literacy learners. Strong school–whānau relationships, culturally responsive classrooms, and the deliberate use of effective teaching strategies can help Māori learners succeed as Māori. 

There are a range of resources and readings to help us begin to understand and use appropriate pedagogies that will enhance learning for Māori, and all learners in literacy programmes at all levels of schooling.

Questions to think about in your school context

• What is Māori literacy?
• What are Māori perspectives on literacy?
• What does literacy look like for Māori learners outside the classroom?
• How can Māori literacy perspectives be implemented in the classroom?

Examples

Kimi Ora Community School
Bridget Harrison's class at Kimi Ora Community School is made up of 100% Māori and Pasifika students. Many of the students have English as a second language. In this clip she shares how they are using digital stories to scaffold the writing process. 

Using Māori and Pacific Pedagogies in Literacy Learning
An example of how a wharenui with carving, weaving and poi inside can be used to enhance reading, literacy, and language.

Multiple Literacies
Cheryl Stevens, Director of the National Institute for Māori Education, describes the importance of recognising visual and non-visual literacies, and how these are represented in Māori literacy.

For ways in which you can support bilingual and multilingual Māori students in English medium schools, see  Supporting Māori learners on ESOL Online.

Literacy resources

Supporting Māori learners
This section provides information and advice on delivering school library and information services that are inclusive and responsive to Māori learner needs in all New Zealand schools.

Picking up the pace
This research project delivered concentrated professional development in literacy instruction to groups of early childhood and new entrant teachers in decile one schools in Mangere and Otara. The outcome was a substantial lift in the reading and writing achievement of new entrants.

General resources

Ka Hikitia — Ka Hāpaitia
Ka Hikitia is a Ministry of Education strategy, designed to rapidly change how the education system performs so that all Māori students gain the skills, qualifications and knowledge they need to enjoy and achieve education success as Māori.

Te Kōtahitanga: Raising Māori student achievement
An initiative developed to improve teaching strategies and the effectiveness of teachers to increase the engagement and academic achievement of Māori students within mainstream secondary schools. As part of this project, an Effective Teaching Profile was developed, giving teachers an inquiry framework from which to develop a Culturally Responsive Pedagogy.

Te Mana Kōrero
The Te Mana Kōrero series has been developed by the Ministry of Education to help teachers focus on quality teaching practices that can better engage Māori students in learning and improving academic and social outcomes. The film clips from Te Mana Kōrero, along with key questions and reflections are available from the Te Mana Kōrero kete.

Te Mangōroa
Te Mangōroa is a resource for English-medium schools. It is a portal to stories, reports, statistics, and reviews from across TKI and other sites that reflect effective practices to support Māori learners to achieve education success as Māori.

Te Tere Auraki: Māori students' success in English-medium
Te Tere Auraki is a Ministry of Education professional development strategy focusing on improving outcomes for Māori students in English-medium schools. This strategy supports four main Te Tere Auraki projects: Te Kotahitanga, Te Kauhua, Ako Panuku, and Te Mana Kōrero.

Effecting change for Māori students
A summary that starts to align NZ Curriculum with Ka Hikitia and Te Kotahitanga. 

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Library resources

This page contains a number of resources suitable for librarians (and teachers) under the following headings.

Libraries |  Library resources |  Reference resources |  Book-related sites

Libraries

• Christchurch City Libraries – Kids A great site for students. Read about New Zealand authors, download fact sheets on New Zealand topics and find some good books. The Internet Gateway lists all the best sites for homework help.
• National Library of New Zealand The National Library offers a gateway to a wide range of online and collection items.
• Services to Schools, National Library of New Zealand This form enables teachers, home-schoolers and school librarians in New Zealand to request curriculum-related resources online to support teaching and learning.

Library resources

• Any Questions
  Online librarians help students, in real time, find and use quality internet sources for their homework, while building their search and information skills.
• Create Readers
  This New Zealand blog reviews and promote children's and YA literature (especially New Zealand), events, literacy research, and ways to get, and keep, kids reading.
• EPIC
  Provides access to an extensive range of quality databases holding millions of electronic resources (covering all aspects of the curriculum from literature to science to Encyclopedia Britannica Online). EPIC is available for use by teachers and students from all parts of New Zealand.
• PapersPast
  Papers Past contains more than one million pages of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals from 1839 to 1920. It includes publications from all regions of New Zealand.
• The Researching Librarian
  Web resources for librarians doing research. Although American in focus, NZ librarians will still find it useful.
• Joyce Valenza’s Neverending Search
  A blog for librarians and other educators that focuses on emerging technologies, searching, and information fluency.
• School Library Association of New Zealand (SLANZA)
  The School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (SLANZA) supports teaching and learning by providing a national voice for school libraries throughout New Zealand and representing all school library staff.

Reference resources

• Acronym Finder
  Contains over 60,000 acronyms. Results can be sorted alphabetically and by category filters. Also provides an extensive definition of a word and a link through to The Free dictionary.
• New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
  The New Zealand Electronic Text Centre is a free online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials, offering an ever expanding, fully searchable, set of images and full-text books, manuscripts and journals.
• NZ History Online
  The site features information and resources from within the History Group of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Wellington, New Zealand. Three broad categories showcase themes in New Zealand history: Culture and society, Politics and government and War and society.
• Te Ara
  Te Ara is a comprehensive, free multimedia online Encyclopedia of New Zealand produced by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. When complete, it will be a comprehensive guide to the country’s peoples, natural environment, history, culture, economy, institutions and society.
• Your Dictionary.com
  A comprehensive online dictionary that includes: definition, idioms, synonyms, usage examples, and quotes.
• Wikipedia
  Wikipedia is a popular collaboratively edited web site encyclopedia. Articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information. While an excellent place to begin research, the quality and accuracy of information may vary from article to article.

Book-related sites

• 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know
  Annotated list (with book covers) of 100 popular picture books from the New York Public Library.
• Google Books
  Lets you read, rate, review or preview historical and contemporary books that have been digitised by Google.
• International Children's Digital Library
  Presents an online collection books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary picture books from throughout the world.
• LibraryThing
  Developed for book lovers. LibraryThing lets you catalog your books online, connect with people who have similar reading tastes, and rate and review books.
• Read NZ Te Pou Muramura
  Helps grow generations of readers by advocating for reading in Aotearoa New Zealand and delivering programmes that incentivise reading and writing in schools and communities.
• Sofa Adventures: Reading Suggestions for Kids, Tweens, and Teens –a list of book choices for kids of all ages.
• Stone Soup
  The only magazine made up entirely of the creative work of children. Young people ages 8 to 13 around the world have contributed stories, poems, book reviews, and artwork to Stone Soup since 1973.
• Storylines
  Promotes and provides information on children’s literature in New Zealand including awards, news, Storylines Festival and the International Children’s Book day.