Week 7 Term 2: Teacher Practice: NCEA Level 1 English Term 2 Unit: Our Stories + Our Histories (through Poetry) Reading 1+ Post Reading Update (June 10 - June 14)

This term for our NCEA Level 1 English program we have been working through our term 2 unit 'Our stories and our Histories (through poetry)'. In my previous post I documented on what the plan is for the unit and what each phase will look like. Please my last post detailing the outline of the unit here - see Alby's Blog Post Entry (19/05/24). Since the post, we have covered the following tasks in the unit: 

• Pre Reading Exercises (A Year in Review 2020 + the Stuff article on Tusiata Avia)
• Pre Reading Exercises for Pacific Forum 2019
• Read through two poems from the collection that are a part of our workbook - Jacinda goes to the Pacific Forum in Tuvalu and my family colonizes her house
• Working through the reading log for the poem Jacinda goes to the Pacific Forum in Tuvalu and my family colonizes her house 

I want to give a brief review on how the term 2 unit Our stories and our Histories (through poetry)' is going so far. 

PRE READING EXERCISES

Post reading for 'The Savage Colonizer Book' poem 1

The pre reading exercises was a good introduction into the 'context'. The students were around Year 5 or Year 6 when the Pacific Forum and COVID 19 took place, so their lens and perspective on the events was that of a young child. Revisiting both events through the pre reading exercises was a good move in that it almost reintroduced the events to the students. Particularly the Pacific Forum in 2019, most of the students did not know what it was about so reading the background information on what it was centered around was helpful in supporting the student's understanding. I was not expecting the students to fully understand the nuts and bolts of each event but I wanted them to see what it was and have an understanding on what it entailed. 

READING

The first poem that when looked at was Jacinda goes to the Pacific Forum in Tuvalu and my family colonizes her house. Going into the first reading, the student's had some idea on what the event was about but I will admit that Tusiata Avia's poem on it (the title alone) threw them off a little bit. We read through the poem 3 times with breaks in between and some light discussions on what the poem is about. After each reading I spoke to the students about their first initial response and it took them a while to get their head around the text. After the second reading we started to talk about the language feature of 'tone' and they were able to identify that Avia's 'tone' was built on sarcasm and frustration. 

Language features we discussed as a class

We discussed three language features that stood out from this poem which were tone, anecdote and symbolism. Identifying language features that were used well was the hook that I used to get the students engaged. The students then underlined examples of tone, anecdote and symbolism that they thought were used well. They were particularly interested in Avia's use of 'anecdote' in her writing that helps to tell her story and it helps to give her story weight. In particular they loved the anecdote that she used where she describes the crisis that many students in Tuvalu were facing as a result of climate change when she writes "And the school kids have to sit cross-legged in their classrooms up to their waists in seawater, but they still wear their uniforms proudly with that lovely shiny black hair that Island kids have" Avia mentions the Ihumatao protests - again another event where my students had little understanding of. So during the reading, we had to read up on it and understand what it was. 

My take away from the first initial reading is that understanding the 'context' with this particular text (and the text as a whole) is so important. It gives a deeper insight into Avia's frustration and dark humor that she uses in her storytelling to talk about how colonization has forced indigenous and minorities to fight for things that is rightfully theirs. I think that I will need to go through the context again so that the student's understand it and see how important it is to the text. The context of climate change, Pacific Forum 2019 and Ihumatao has influenced the language used to craft the text and the text as a whole body of work. We have just started BLM - which I will document in my next post. 

READING LOGS

101ENG E working through the reading log

We have spent three sessions on the reading logs. I walked through each part of the reading logs with the students to ensure that they knew how to complete each section. The reading logs is a good way to collect evidence from the text, reflect on the text and how the context shapes the language in the text. I went through each part: 

101ENG E working through the reading log 

Understanding the context - which asks the students about the context in the text and what the author's take on it is (as seen in the text) then adding evidence to support what their interpretation is. The context that the student's understand and can identify is 

• Pacific Forum 2019, Climate change (Referring to the references to Tuvalu and sea levels (a quote from the poem that references this is "similar to Tuvalu where their prime minister is sitting on the roof of his house")
•  Ihumato (a quote that references this is "They’re walking around and sitting down and taking over the village. Ihumatāo village.")
• The media's questioning of Jacinda Ardern's leadership (a quote that references this from the poem is "It’s a crisis all right, but it’s also tiring and Jacinda goes back to her house which she paid for out of her prime minister money")

Language Features - finding language features that were used effectively - which is where they bring in examples of: 

• Tone (Avia's sarcastic tone towards Jacinda's privileges')
• Anecdote (stories of the Prime minister of Tuvalu having to sit on the roof on his own house whilst doing press conference)
• Symbolism (the symbol of 'the house' referring to the land of Ihumatao) 

Getting Critical - discussing how the events surrounding the text have influenced the text in itself. The student's and I discussed that what this text is telling us about the times, circumstances, society and politics at the time that the text was crafted is that: 

• Aotearoa New Zealand particularly the Maori community were frustrated with the lack of support from the Prime Minister. 
• Pacific nations were in a crisis with Climate Change and world leaders, whilst it appeared that they cared, were able to have their privileges even though their neighbors were suffering. 
• Indigenous peoples were/are in a crisis with land ownership and with their homes being destroyed by climate change yet leaders and the colonist system could not support them. 

GOING FORWARD

• I want to continue this same pattern for the next two texts that we will look at from the collection - BLM and Covid in the time of Primeminiscinda
• Document the same process