Week 6 Term 2 - Samoan Language Week 2023 (May 29 - June 02)

Malo le soifua maua ma ma le lagi e māmā. O lo'u igoa o Vaiao Taulealeausumai Alby Tu'uga Stevenson. O lo'u Tamā o Tofa Safune Tu'uga Solomona Tu'uga Stevenson, sau mai nu'u o Fatuvalu Safune Savaiia ma Saipipi Savaii ma Tufiopa Laulii Apia. O lo'u Tinā o Taulealeausumai Violet Tu'uga STevenson sau mai nu'u o Faletagaloa Safune Savaii ma Vailima Apia. 

The theme for Samoan Language Week 2023 is 'Mitamita i laugagana, maua'a lou fa'asinomaga' which means 'Be proud of your language and grounded in your identity'. The autu (theme) carries a meaning that I resonate with on a professional level as a faiaoga (teacher). I want to reflect on this theme, unpack it and connect it to what I do in a'oa'oga (education).

MITAMITA I LAUGAGANA: Be proud of your language

Gagana Samoa has always been something that I have been around, but not something that I have always fully immersed myself in. It was not until I was in secondary school that I started to pursue and find ways to connect myself to my culture and the language. More recently, my language journey in Gagana Samoa has been nurtured and empowered in my personal spaces - marriage, family, church - these spaces where I have started to use the language. Also in the space in which I work in, I have found ways to incorporate and integrate what I know in Gagana Samoa. It is a journey and one where I am constantly trying to find ways to connect and immerse myself in the language.

As a faiaoga, I have used Polyfest as the platform to explore Gagana Samoa and to use this as a catalyst to highlight the complexities and beauty in the language. As a teenager, I discovered and learnt to appreciate the language in this space. I have the privilege of sharing what I know of Gagana Samoa and learning from other Gagana Samoa experts in the team in this context.

Tamaki College Samoan Group 2023

In preparation for this year's competition, we had trials for the role of the Fuataimi (conductor - time keeper). The role was given to Year 12 student, Mathew Tukuafu (of Tongan and Samoan descent). Like many other students who were in the group this year, Gagana Samoa is something that is not often shared at home (with many of them coming from English speaking homes). Polyfest is an opportunity for our students to discover, explore, learn and be proud of the language. For our Fuataimi, Gagana Samoa is a new space for him and with this being his third year competing in the competition (first year as Fuataimi) we knew and he knew the challenges that lay ahead for him. He had a supportive network in his family and his Fuaitaimi mentor and tutor who unpacked the speaking parts he had and explained what it meant in English in order for him to express it well in Samoan. We integrated both his Tongan language and Gagana Samoa for his opening and closing comments in his role as Fuataimi. Mitamita i laugagana in this space is a result of time (putting in the time to learn and listen to the language) and using what you know and building on it.

MAUA'A LOU FA'ASINOMAGA: Grounded in your identity

You learn a lot about yourself and your culture when you immerse yourself in another culture. Since 2021, the Samoan Staff have used Samoan Language Week as a platform to engage with all students across the school. We started the House Siva Competition in 2021 which sees all students across the four Houses (Kowhai, Puriri, Rata and Totara) create and perform their own Samoan Siva. It is a competition so we encourage the whanau leaders to get as many students involved. Every year, the students are excited to participate and learn something new. It is an opportunity for our Samoan students to lead and teach and for our non Samoan students, it is an opportunity for them to learn about another culture. over the years we have used it as a way to promote the culture and language. Next year we would like to incorporate the language more when we celebrate Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa - whether that be through the learning and execution of the Ava Ceremony (the teaching around this is complex and beautiful and one that we would like to journey through with our students). 

Totara House Samoan Group 2023

I asked some of the students in Totara House what they have learnt through the Siva Samoa. 

• "I mostly enjoyed everything, like learning about a new culture and how they perform. It was good how heaps of Samoans were cheering for us who were not Samoan. It was good to see people who are not Samoan who are actually doing it. In Tongan Group (Polyfest) and this siva Samoa, the style is the same. The hand movements are similar but the music is different" (Sifa V)
• "I liked that we won the house competition. That shows our hard work and practices paid off. I learnt that when you commit yourself something and keen to learn about a new culture and respect the culture, it works out really good" (Milika V)
• "I liked getting to know different people I didn't know, like our leaders and learning the Samoan culture" (Joshua V)
• "I like to learn about different things about a culture and getting to know everyone else because I am Year 9" (Ofa P)
• "I liked learning the dance and getting to know new people and participating and being involved in the culture and learn about the culture" (Motekiai T) 
• "I learnt heaps of moves and how to dance the Samoan way. I had heaps of fun. I really liked the song that we danced too. I liked dancing together with the girls" (Puna F)
• "I liked that I got learn new moves and learn more about the culture. It felt really good to do something new" (Papiloti Pita) 

Totara House SLW 2023

The Polyfest Samoan Group 2023 also performed for the community in celebration of Samoan Language Week. They performed at Panmure Library (SLW Celebrations) and also held a special assembly performance at Glen Taylor School. The students were proud to perform for their community. 

Samoan Group '23 @ Panmure Library

Samoan Group '23 @ Glen Taylor School

Samoan Group '23 + Glen Taylor School group shot

O le Gagana, o le malaga o le tagata. The language is a journey, a journey to self and a journey in exploring one's identity. I am looking forward to exploring this journey more with our students and to see how we can use it in a meaningful way in their own learning and understanding of themselves. 

Week 5 Term 2 - Teacher Practice: Inquiry 2023: Reading Groups + Tailored Writing Activities (May 22 - May 26)

Over the first three weeks of Term 2, I have made some progress with my inquiry for 2023. My inquiry focus for this year is to see  how I can help improve reading and writing engagement with my Year 9 students through creating mixed ability groups within my Year 9 class. I have written two reflection posts on this so far  - defining what my inquiry is for the year (see Alby's Blog Post Entry - 02/04/23) and what I have done so far (see Alby's Blog Post Entry - 06/05/23). I have really enjoyed the journey so far and I am encouraged by the student's positive response and efforts. Here is my reflection on what we covered in Week 3 and Week 4 of Term 2. 

READING GROUPS: 

In the first three weeks of Term 2, my focus class (Year 9 - 9TKl) have been put into their reading groups according to their Term 1 PAT Reading data results. There are four groups which have been identified as a color (for now, eventually I would like to rebrand/name the group to something that is more localized and relevant). We have the: 

• Green and Grey groups (Level 1, Level 2 and lower end of Level 3 stanine reading group)
• Pink group (Level 4 stanine reading group)
• Yellow group (higher end of Level 4 and Level 5 stanine reading group)

Grey Group working Dear Ex Dad reading log/questions

Green group working on their reading logs

The students have responded well to the reading groups and they have started to feel comfortable and settled in the new grouping system. We have covered the following texts in class so far this term. 

• P.O.W (Alicia Keys)
• Sometime I Cry (Tupac Shakur)
• Dear Ex Dad (Jillian Sullivan)

For each reading, we have read the texts together as a class and we have had a whole class discussion around the text. The students have also discussed certain aspects of the text in their groups and they have fed back to the class in a wider class discussion. At first, the students were shy to share to each other in their groups because they were not used to each other. However, once we started the discussion for our first text (P.O.W) the students were comfortable to share when we moved onto our next two texts (Sometimes I Cry + the short story, Dear Ex Dad). 

Yellow group completing their questions

Pink group peer checking/editing each other's reading logs

The small group discussions were awesome as they were able to share freely in a smaller group setting and they were able to bounce ideas off each other. The Green and Grey group's discussions were facilitated and supported by myself and our teacher aide Mrs Jenson-Jones. Also, with the reading of the texts, students had turns to read the text to the class and also amongst their groups. 

TAILORED WRITING ACTIVITIES: 

In week 3 and 4, I started to differentiate the writing and reading comprehension tasks for the four groups. For our third text, Dear Ex Dad, we read the text together as a class (we did 2 rounds of reading of the text) and then we discussed the text in small groups and in as a whole class. From here I gave the four groups different sets of questions to answer. All questions were designed for each group based on their comprehension skills. 

Group questions for Dear Ex Dad

The Green and Grey group had the same set of 5 questions which took them just over three periods to complete. The Pink group had 7 questions to complete and the Yellow group had 7 questions to complete which took them both two periods to finish. This activity was good as the students were able to work together in their groups, discuss the questions, craft their answers together - deep diving into the texts. The differentiated questions were good in that they were able to specifically hone in on that specific area in their groups and they were able to talk about it amongst each other. 

The students then had to complete a reading log. They had to choose ONE of the texts that we have covered so far and write a reading log for that text. The reading is broken up into three phases (essentially three paragraphs). Like the reading comprehension questions, I designed a specific reading log template for each group. Each template had similarties for phase one and phase two. However the third phase (paragraph 3) was different for each group. 

Green + Grey group Reading Log Template

Pink group Reading Log Template 

Yellow group Reading Log Template 

The students responded really well to this activity. With most of them completing their first draft of the reading log in one session. Students in the Green and Grey groups responded well, as they had spent time unpacking the texts and they were able to transition confidently into the reading log where they had to talk about the text. The students will use the first two sessions in Week 5 to complete their final draft of their reading log. The students have chosen either P.O.W or Dear Ex Dad as their chosen text for their reading logs. 

I am encouraged by how well they have responded to the group set up and also to the texts. They have done extremely well so far and I am looking forward to the next part of our learning journey. I think if anything, building a safe and positive culture around literacy is a priority for me. 

Next steps: 

• The students will read their final text for this unit in Week 5 - A short story (NZ Writer)
• They will go their another set of group questions
• We learn about the conventions of how to craft a text
• The assessment task: Creative Writing
• The students will write their own short text + complete their final draft on the app Book Creator 

Week 4 Term 2 - Totara House: Understanding our House Values (May 15 - May 19)

Nothing is more important when building a structure than a strong foundation. Poor foundations make for unstable buildings 

Year 12 Totara House students leading assembly Term 1 2023

Creating a healthy and safe culture in the classroom is something that takes time and that requires preparation and good intent. Creating a healthy, safe and nurturing culture across year levels - in a House system - requires not only preparation, good intentions but also vision and direction. Since the beginning of the full House system was introduced in 2021, Totara House have come up with their own set of values. The purpose of this is to give our students and house overall, a sense of identity and purpose. I wrote a reflection on how the students came up with our House for 2023 (see Alby's Blog Post Entry - 27/03/23). 

Totara House Values 2023

The values for 2023 are 'Integrity, Leadership and Gratitude' supported by the House quote created by the House leaders - which encompasses the values - Together we will lead, show no greed, do what is right, Totara Unite. Since then, we have used the end of Term 1 and the first 3 weeks of Term 2, to talk about the values and what it means to us. Over the last 4 weeks, we have explored each value and what it means and how it applies it us. I wanted to use this time to go through each value and what can look for our house and more importantly, what it can look for the students individually. 

I believe that it was good for the students to understand the values and to see what it means for them as a collective. At our most recent assembly, the some of our Year 10 students shared what the values meant to them. The questions that the student's were given to help them for their presentation on our House Values were: 

• What does the (value) mean to you?
• What does the (value) look for Totara House?

The purpose of getting the students to do this was to get them to share their understanding of the values and how they want the House to understand or action the value. The students respond well and listen well when they are lead by their peers. 

Y10 - Omid Hessari - presenting on Integrity

Y10 - Benjamin Kava - presenting on Leadership

Y10 - Papiloti Pita - presenting on Gratitude

Some highlights from the sharing was "Leadership to me means to maturely contributing to anything to help out and also doing things your own way" (Benjamin Kava), "Integrity for Totara House means that we should try and be honest in everything that we do, even if we do the wrong thing, be honest about it and take responsibility for it" (Omid Hessari) and "Gratitude is for Totara House is doing things with a grateful heart" (Papiloti Pita). This was an awesome opportunity for the students to reflect and lead. Leadership is a value that we have being exploring this term, with our Year 10 students leading assembly to our Year 12 students preparing the House for Samoan Language (week 6) - we are excited to venture out and delve into what these values look like for our whanau group. 

Week 3 Term 2 - Teacher Practice: Inquiry 2023: The journey so far... (May 08 - May 12)

 At the end of Term 1, I finalized my teacher inquiry goal for 2023. I wrote a reflection on this (see Alby Blog post entry - 02/04/23) My inquiry goal for this year is to How I can help improve reading and writing engagement with my Year 9 students through creating mixed ability groups within my Year 9 class. In this post, I am going to share on what I have done so far this term with my inquiry goal. 

READING GROUPS

My plan for Term 2, was start with grouping my Year 9 students into their reading ability groups. My focus class is my Year 9 English class (9TKl). I have gone through the PAT Reading data for Term 1 and I have had look at the reading levels across the class. I have organized my students into 4 reading ability groups. The 4 groups are based on the reading levels from the class (Level 2, Level 3, Level 4 and Level 5). I have allocated a color to each group (green - Level 2/3 group, grey - Level 2/3 group, pink - Level 4 group, yellow - Level 4/5 group) 

Inquiry focus class: 9TKl - 4 reading groups

I spoke to my students about the groups and why I have placed them into their respective groups. I wanted to make it clear that this approach is to help them work in their individualized ability group and to encourage collaboration and safe discussion around the learning and texts that we we will cover this term. The student's response to the groups has been positive, we also have our awesome Teacher Aide - Mrs Jenson-Jones, working with us this term (in particular with the green and grey groups). 

TEXT FOCUS + ASSESSMENT FOR 9TKL - TERM 2

This term, our focus is a short text study where we will look at different short texts - poetry, short written texts, short films. The theme that we will look at is 'Our Voices' - looking at how writers and creatives use their voice to express their opinion in their respective art form (performance, written and oral). The hope with this thematic study is that will give the students across all reading levels the opportunity to explore different types of texts and to learn how to identify the writer or creator's voice - identifying what language features they have used. The hope is that the students can use the same language features when they craft their text. Ultimately, I want to expose different types of texts to all the reading groups and give the students the opportunity to study them in their groups. 

Some of the short texts that 9TKL will cover this term. 

The focus CAT (Common Assessment Task) for this term is Creative Writing. The students will craft a text (creative writing) - a short story - producing a short text online book via the app Book Creator. 

We have started to look at the poem and spoken word performance of 'P.O.W - Prisoner of Words' by Alicia Keys. The students have spent time watching the performance (as a class), we have read the text together and they have started to look at the following features of the poem:

Pronouns - identifying what the pronouns are, where are the pronouns in the poem and what is the impact of using them in this poem?

WHERE TO FROM HERE?

• For our first text study of P.O.W - The students will then choose ONE stanza/verse from the poem and write their own version of the verse. They will write it individually, share it amongst their group (feedback session) and then create a poster for their verse via the app CANVA. 
• For our next short text 'Sometimes I cry' Tupac Shakur - I want to read the text as a whole class and then provide different 3 level guide questions for each group (according to their ability). I will get the students feedback to their groups about the text. 
• For text 3 I will mix the groups up. The purpose of this is to encourage collaboration and learning across reading levels.