Accord Teacher Only Day | Monday 16 May 2022

As a Co-joined Department (Māori and English) we discussed the following….

Upcoming Changes to NCEA and Literacy 

Questions explored: What are the changes to NCEA? What are the changes to literacy? What are the big ideas in the literacy learning matrix? What do they entail? What are the effective literacy practices they have outlined that will support/strengthen NCEA?

Information about the NCEA Change Programme can be found on the NCEA website.

We unpacked the above questions on the following google document.

As a kaiako Māori who teaches te reo Māori in an English-medium school, I wanted to know how this impacted the Te Reo Māori curriculum. I was surprised to find that Te Reo Māori is not included in the tagged list of pilot achievement standards. It would appear that Te Reo Matatini is applicable only to Māori medium settings. More clarity is needed around Te Reo Matatini and what it means for our kaiako of Te Reo Māori in kura auraki.

In our accord teacher only day, English literacy was discussed in detail and plans of action were devised. There is clear direction for the English department, but what about the Māori department? Tāmaki College uses Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs) to assess students’ mathematics, listening and reading comprehension, punctuation and grammar, and reading vocabulary. Our school also uses e-asTTle to assess students’ achievement and progress in reading, mathematics, and writing. e-asTTle has many benefits. e-asTTle is a measurement tool used to track student progress in their literacy and numeracy over time. It gives kaiako of English the much needed data that not only indicates how well students/classes/schools are doing, but it provides rich interpretations and specific feedback about student performance. E-asTTle also provides direction by allowing kaiako the opportunity to discuss next steps with students, parents and boards of trustees. There are solid tracking systems in place for English literacy, but little has been put in place for Te Reo Māori literacy.

E-asTTle is a bilingual assessment tool that has been developed in both English and te reo Māori. So why does our school not use e-asTTle to assess student’s pānui, pāngarau, and tuhituhi? Results from these tests could be of immense help to the Māori department and kaiako. How are we at Tāmaki College, and other kura auraki, checking student progress in their Te Reo Māori literacy over a period of time? Why are tracking systems not in place in our kura auraki? When will te reo Māori (the language of this whenua) be treated with the same urgency and importance as its English counterpart? These are questions that continue to plague my conscience as a kaiako and as a wahine Māori.