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Activities

Before reading

Prior knowledge

Revise the vocabulary and structures for Matā‘upu 4 and Matā‘upu 11, in particular, the language for weather, months, and seasons. See below for an idea for a revision activity.

Months and seasons

Ask the students to discuss the following in small groups. Encourage them to use gagana Sāmoa as much as possible.

  • the seasons in Sāmoa and the months in which they occur
  • the seasons in New Zealand and the months in which they occur.

Create a table on the whiteboard with columns for the months of the year, the corresponding seasons in Sāmoa, the corresponding seasons in New Zealand, and words to describe the weather in each season. Have the students work in pairs to fill in as much as they can of the table (in gagana Sāmoa). Then have all the pairs share their ideas and complete the table on the whiteboard together.

As a class, discuss the differences between seasons in Sāmoa and seasons in New Zealand. Ask the students to think about how they might feel if they went to Sāmoa or (if they have travelled) about how they felt when they went to Sāmoa or another country. If some of your students have come to New Zealand from other countries, you could ask them if they would like to talk about how they felt when they first arrived.

Pronunciation of new language

If possible, ask a native speaker of gagana Sāmoa 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 the recording to the class.

Introducing the book

Show the students the cover of the book. Ask:

  • What do you notice about the tree?
  • What does the title say? What might this mean?
  • What do you think the book might be about?
  • Is it set in Sāmoa or in New Zealand? How do you know?

Learning intentions

Share the learning intentions, or co-construct these with your students. Some examples of possible learning intentions for reading this story are given below.

After reading the text, I will be able to:

  • read and discuss a text in gagana Sāmoa
  • read and produce statements about the weather in different places at different times of the year
  • read dialogue in gagana Sāmoa aloud with fluency.

Reading the text

Read page 2 of the story aloud to the students and look at the illustrations on the first page (the title page) and on pages 2–3 together. Ask questions like the following to prompt the students to use any familiar language, and the illustrations, to help them understand the text and make predictions about the story.

  • Who are the characters in the illustration on pages 2–3? Where are they? What do you think are the relationships between them?
  • Who is speaking? What are they saying?
  • What do you think ma‘alili lava means? How do you think ma‘alili might be different from mālūlū?

Ordering the pictures

Give pairs or small groups copies of one of the two-page illustrations from pages 4–11 (not page 12) without the text or the page numbers. Have them talk about what they can see in the picture and what they think is happening in the story and then list as many gagana Sāmoa words as they can to describe their picture. Tell the students to get up and work with the other pairs or groups to arrange themselves (holding their pictures) in a line in the correct order. As they do so, encourage them to use only gagana Sāmoa. When they have finished, tell them there is one more page and ask them to make predictions about how the story is going to end.

Tell the students they are going to listen carefully to the story to check that their line is in the correct order – changing their position in the line if necessary. Read the story aloud to the students.

Reading with a partner

Hand out one book to each pair of students. Tell them to read through the story, checking the sequence of pictures, their predictions, and what happens at the end. Point out the glossary on the inside back cover and encourage the students to use the glossary, familiar words, the illustrations, and what they know or can guess about the context to help them understand the text. Tell them to just try to pick up as much as they can. Ask them to discuss their predictions and the ending with their partner.

Have the pairs read through the text together again and fill in a table describing the time of year, the tree, and how Iosefa is feeling. Explain that the story doesn’t give information for all of the boxes, so they will need to make inferences about what could go in them.
 

Time of year

The tree

Iosefa

lē māsina o Iulai ---------- ma‘lili lava
[Iulai or ‘Aukuso] e leai ni lau lē fiafia (i ‘inei ‘ona ‘o le mālūlū tele)

Shared reading

When the students have finished, go through each page together, reading it aloud and prompting the students to use familiar words, your class vocabulary list, the glossary, and the illustrations to help them understand the language. Fill in the whole table as a class, using gagana Sāmoa. Note particular phrases or sentences, such as E mālūlū lava Niu Sila, i le māsina o Iulai and ‘Ua ‘ou ma‘alili lava, that you want to focus on later.

Reading aloud

Invite the students to read the story aloud in pairs, with one student taking Sione’s part and the other Iosefa’s. Their goal is to read fluently with correct pronunciation and expression. Each student can give their partner feedback on this.

After reading

Ask the students to share what they liked about the story or about reading it with their partner.

As a class, discuss different aspects of the story, such as the following:

  • the relationship between Sione and Iosefa
  • Sione’s joke
  • how Iosefa’s feelings change
  • the analogy between the tree and Iosefa’s feelings.

‘Ua ou ma‘alili lava

Revisit the last two statements on page 2, ‘Ua ‘ou ma‘alili lava and E mālūlū lava Niu Sila, i le māsina o Iulai. Write these two sentences on the whiteboard. Erase the words expressing the temperature and the month, ‘Ua ‘ou ___________ and E _________ Niu Sila, i le māsina o__________. Ask the students to name a season in gagana Sāmoa. Co-construct two new sentences as a class, using the appropriate temperatures and an appropriate month. Remind them about using (or not using) lava and tele, as well as ma‘alili, mālūlū, māfanafana, and vevela.

Have the students play a card game in groups of four or six. Give each group cards with the seasons or use some of the weather cards you used in Matā‘upu 11 (you need at least 12 cards in each set). The students play the game as pairs. One person picks up a card, lays it on the table for everyone to see, and creates a sentence using ‘Ua ‘ou ___________ plus an appropriate temperature. Their partner replies, with E _________ Niu Sila, i le māsina o__________, giving an appropriate temperature and month. If the rest of the group agrees that their sentence is correct, they keep the card. If not, the card goes back in the middle. The winners are the pair with the most cards at the end of the game. (You could use Sāmoa as well as New Zealand for the location.)

Comparing countries

Assign different countries to pairs of students. Have them use dictionaries, their notes from their work on Matā‘upu 4 and Matā‘upu 11, reference books, and the Internet to help them:

  • find out the gagana Sāmoa for the country name
  • find out about the weather in at least six different months in their country
  • write sentences about the weather in their country at different times of the year, using the structure, E _________ __________, i le māsina o__________.

Have each pair present their information to the rest of the class. When all of the pairs have presented, ask the students which country or countries they would like to live in.

Reflecting on the learning

Have the students refer to their learning intentions and reflect individually 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?
  • Is there some other language from the story that you want to learn and remember?
  • What do you think are the next steps in your learning?

Click here for the English version of the story.


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