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- Activities
Activities
Before reading
Prior knowledge
Establish the students’ prior knowledge of family reunions by asking questions such as:
- What is a family reunion?
- Has anyone been to a family reunion?
- What happens at a putuputu‘anga kōpū tangata? (Introduce this phrase.)
- Hand out photocopied outline maps of New Zealand and of the world. Have each student record, on these maps, where the different branches of their families live. The students can share this information in groups.
- Quickly revise the words for colours from Unit 5. Then revise terms for family relationships (from Unit 4), such as tōku tuakana and tungāne … tō‘ou māmā. Students can use these to discuss their own families with a partner.
Pronunciation of new language
Check the words in the glossary (on the inside back cover of the book), which may be new to you. If possible, ask a native speaker of Cook Islands Māori to model the correct pronunciation of any unfamiliar words for you and the students. This person could read the story to you and the class as the first reading, or you could record them reading it and play it to the class.
Introducing the book
Ask the students what they think the picture on the front cover is telling them and where they think the story is set. They could record their predictions for later reference.
Learning intentions
Share the learning intentions and discuss them with your students. Some examples of possible learning intentions are given below.
After reading the text, I will be able to:
- describe a putuputu‘anga kōpū tangata
- introduce myself and members of my extended family
- write sentences using words such as tōku tuakana, tungāne, pāpā, and māmā to ask and answer questions about the relationships of people in the story
- ask and answer questions about the colours of people’s clothes and hair
- identify the relationships of people featured in a family tree
- discuss the value of gift-giving in the Cook Islands culture.
Talk about how the students will know they have met the learning intentions, and decide on success criteria together.
Reading the text
Read the story aloud to the students, beginning with the text on the outside front cover. To confirm that the students have a clear understanding of the story, pause on every page to ask questions. For example:
Page 2: Ask the students if their prediction about the setting was correct and what they think is happening in the picture.
Page 3: Focus on the following words and discuss them with the students – Autereria, tungāne.
Page 5: Ask the question Ko‘ai tērā? while pointing to Ngātamā‘ine. The students respond by saying Ko Ngātamā‘inetērā. Discuss or revise the question-and-answer structure.
Page 8: Discuss or revise the question-and-answer structure Tei ‘ea tō‘ou _____? (Where is your _____?) Ko tōku _____ tērā/tēnā (My _____ is there/here).
Page 10: Prompt the students to identify and describe the ‘ei-pārau in the picture.
Page 12: Read the text: Kua ‘ōake atu au ‘i tōku ‘ei-pārau. Discuss why the narrator gave the necklace to Rongo and ask the students if they would do this. Talk about the importance of gift-giving in the Cook Islands culture and in other cultures that the students know of. If possible, draw out students’ prior knowledge that it is common for Cook Islands people to gift an item to someone who admires it. Provide this information if necessary.
After the first reading, go through the text page by page again with the class. Prompt the students to use the illustrations and the words they know to work out what each page means. Write key phrases on the whiteboard.
Invite students to read the story aloud with a partner, with one reading the narrator’s part and one reading Rongo’s. Their goal is to read fluently, with correct pronunciation and expression. Each can give their partner feedback on this.
After reading
Ask the students to share what they liked about the story, or about their partner’s reading.
Talk about the differences and similarities between Cook Islands families and those in other cultures that the students know. Talk about the family relationship between Rongo and the narrator. Discuss the differences in meaning between the words brother, sister, cousin and the words tuakana, teina, tungāne, tua‘ine. Compare them with equivalent terms in other known languages.
Think, pair, share
Prompt the students to share with their partners what they know about the different people in the story and their relationship to the narrator. Give each pair a card with the names of each person in the story down the left-hand column and the relationship terms down the right-hand column. Each pair matches each person with the correct relationship to the narrator and shares some of this information with the class in Cook Islands Māori sentences.
| Name | Relationship to narrator |
|---|---|
| Rongo | Ko tōku tuakana |
| Ngātamā‘ine | |
| Tiaki |
Family trees
Have the students work in pairs to revise their “family tree” language from Unit 4 of
I-E-KO-KO! Each partner displays their own personal family tree. One asks the question “Ko‘ai tērā?” while pointing to a name on their partner’s family tree. The second student answers using the relevant relationship term, for example,
“Ko _____” or Ka ‘akatuakana au _____”.
Each pair then draws a similar family tree that shows Rongo, the narrator, and their mothers and fathers. Under the tree, the students write sentences using the terms tuakana, tungāne, pāpā, and māmā to describe the relationships of the characters in the story.
Students can then add more people to the tree and ask their partners more complex questions. For example:
Q: Ko‘ai te pāpā o [name]?
A: Ko _____ te pāpā o [name].
Q: Ko‘ai te tuakana o [name]?
A: Ko _____ te tuakana o [name].
Class discussions
As a class, talk about the place of gifts in our family life. Who do we give gifts to, when, and why? How do we feel when we give them and when we receive them? How does the narrator’s gift to Rongo compare with gifting in cultures that the students know? Have the students find ways of recording some of the values associated with giving in Cook Islands and other cultures. Make links to other special occasions, such as weddings and hair-cutting ceremonies, and describe the typical gifts given at these occasions.
As a class, share what you know about family reunions. Create a class mind map around the concept of a putuputu‘anga kōpū tangata. The students can use the mind map to write their own short description of a putuputu‘anga kōpū tangata.
Role plays
In groups, students can take on various roles and introduce themselves and various members of their extended family, using Cook Islands Māori.
Each group could then prepare a short play that involves asking and answering questions about the colours of people’s clothes and hair. As they present their play to the rest of the class, each student says who they are in the play and what their relationship to another character is.
Reflecting on the learning
Have the students refer to their learning intentions and reflect individually about (or discuss in pairs) whether they have fulfilled the intentions. Ask the students questions such as:
- What helped you understand the story?
- How can you use the new language and remember it?
- What have you learned about being part of a family in the Cook Islands culture?
- What have you learned about giving gifts in the Cook Islands culture?
- What do you think are the next steps in your learning?
The students could record this information.