The booklet developed by the Mangere Home and School Project to help parents help their own children.
Classroom teachers report on their success with the Māori version of the highly proclaimed Pause Prompt Praise reading tutoring programme. In a surprise result, student tutors improved their reading skills while helping their peer learners improve.
Kaupapa Māori principles have the power to transform the educational experience of Māori students in mainstream classrooms. For example, tino rangatiratanga requires both children and parents to be involved in school decision-making. Taonga tuku iho requires schools and teachers to create contexts where to be Māori is to be normal and where Māori cultural identities are valued, valid and legitimate – that is, where Māori children can be themselves. Through ako, reciprocal learning, teachers and students take turns in storying and re-storying their realities.
Ngā Kete Kōrero (The Language Baskets), a national research study commissioned by the Ministry of Māori Development Te Puni Kōkiri in 1993, has provided comprehensive information about the development of appropriate language assessment and teaching resources. It will help teachers to accurately identify levels of language and literacy in Māori and thus better inform teaching practice in this sector. This article outlines specific aspects of the Kete Kōrero Framework project and discusses some of the implications for teaching reading through the medium of Māori.
Many students in an Auckland primary school were able to decode adequately, but still had difficulty in understanding what they read. A modified reciprocal reading programme was shown to improve students’ comprehension.
These days, everyone has a mobile phone, even if they might not have a landline. Vardon School recognised the potential for texting to be an effective way to give parents regular feedback on their children’s behaviour in the school playground. By using texts as part of a carefully planned strategy for partnering with parents, Vardon School was able to dramatically improve student behaviour.
This is one teacher’s story of how connecting her science teaching to the cultural background of her Māori students increased their motivation and enthusiasm. By linking a topic on forest ecology with the students’ existing interest in the school’s new tuata (carved ceremonial post), she was able to develop a collaborative inquiry-based project with her students that had them asking “Is it science today?”
When a teacher let her Years 4 and 5 class chose their own science topic to study, they settled on—what else?—farting. This article shows how letting students pursue their own interests led them to real science learning.
When their funds of knowledge and experiences from home and the community are connected to their school learning, students' learning is supported. In this study teachers used "home learning books" to invite contributions from home into science teaching and learning in the classroom. The flow of knowledge between home and school engaged students and whānau and enriched the science learning.
