Te Reo in the classroom

This year I have been working collaboratively with Shellee in Room 15 to run a Te Reo program that fits our needs and timetables without being too forced or false.  Three terms in, there is clear evidence that our model works for our learners (this year anyway).

In term 1 we met together to go through the Toku Reo online program - this runs on Māori TV and there are episodes available on the website. With 5 seasons available online and around 100 episodes per season there more episodes than we could possibly watch in a year. 

In term 2 we worked on cultural narratives - first we watched several sand art videos showing the creation story through Māori perspective.

Then in mixed groups of 3-4 students they planned their representation of the story of Papatūānuku and Ranginui. This was done in two ways - visual and narrative. The result was a series of triptychs and stories.

In Term 3 so far we have worked on our mihi - a number of students have been able to share their mihi on the school radio station over this last week - and clear evidence that regular contact with Te Reo Māori has been the speed and enthusiasm at learning their mihi. 

Over the latter part of this term we are going to be learning some new songs - we already have a number that we sing on a regular basis: NZ National Anthem; Poi-e; He Honore; and more recently Stan Walker's new release - Aotearoa. We are learning Raumati-e, Rona, Utaina, Ka Mate, and have requests to do Toia Mai and several others. 

We haven't planned term 4 yet - we'll see what the students want to learn.

What we'd change - not sure really - except that Toku Reo being so huge I think we'd plan specifics - phrases etc - so that we could use target episodes instead of just trying to work our way through the episodes. I'm also going to try and use the videos from Te Kupu o te wiki more in my classroom.