Your school library provides opportunities for Māori students to connect with a wide range of quality information resources. Here you’ll find information and resources to help you develop a school-wide information literacy programme using an inquiry learning approach.
Students using Windley School’s library for inquiry
Inquiry learning - a library / teacher collaboration
Case study: Pakirehua i ro kura Māori - Inquiry learning in kura Māori
Resources to support inquiry learning with te reo Māori students is a summary list of the resources the Tamaki Makaurau Rumaki ICT cluster developed.
Through inquiry learning, students are guided in developing the ability to:
21st Literacy and Inquiry provides more information on ways your school library team can collaborate with teachers in guiding students through the inquiry process.
Six kura Māori from the Tamaki Makaurau Rumaki ICT Cluster in Auckland share their inquiry learning journey. During 2003-2006 with the support of the University of Auckland Faculty of Education and National Library of New Zealand Services to Schools staff, the teachers learnt about and introduced inquiry learning with their te reo Mäori students using the general theme, ‘To Tātou Wāhi’.
The following processes, resources and quotes have been contributed by:
In the following sections, the teachers outline their journey and share resources they created to assist students with inquiry learning processes:
Inquiry learning is a framework to support students into becoming independent learners. However, in order to carry out successful inquiry students need to be information literate. This means students need to learn how to:
Teachers need to be able to teach our students the above skills but also ‘how to navigate in the ocean of available information and knowledge’. Brown, T.H., (2005). Beyond constructivism: Exploring future learning paradigms. University of Pretoria.
To learn about inquiry learning many of these teachers did the Auckland University’s Infolink course, which focused on identifying and teaching the skills needed for information literacy. It used Gwen Gawith’s action learning model as a framework for inquiry learning.
This inquiry learning approach sets up opportunities for students to drive the research process from creating their own research questions to finding their own resources. It requires the teacher to become more of a guide. This guidance must be structured so the students are set up for success. This is done by teaching the students the skills, processes and strategies, so progressively they can become more independent learners. All guided inquiry / information literacy models follow a stage-by-stage process.
In the third year of the cluster teachers from each kura carried out inquiry units on a general theme: To Tātou Wāhi.
They created the following planning tools:
The key stages were:
It is important to introduce an overview of the inquiry process to the students so they understand it and can see all the different stages. One way doing this is to create a visual wall display. Some teachers used the wall display as a monitor for their students. The students moved their names along as they progressed through the stages.
Front loading: In order for students to engage and ask questions about a kaupapa they first need a basic knowledge about the kaupapa. If they don’t have this basic knowledge then you need to frontload the information by showing videos, displaying books on the topics, visits, and engaging in discussions with your students.
For example one Year 3 and 4 class inquiry topic was kapua. ‘We took photos of the clouds. I downloaded cloud pictures off the internet and put them up in a display area along with some National Library books. I videotaped the weather off Māori TV. We made a 10 piece cloud jigsaw puzzle from a cloud picture. The students were given a card for our topic competition and asked to go home and talk to their parents about what they thought the next topic of study might be and come back with their ideas on the card.’ Marieanne Selkirk
Ohia manomano - Brainstorming:To find out what the students already know, we used the following to guide the students:
Pakirehua ture ohia manomano
Ngā Ture ohia manomano: an example from a kura researching their history
Younger classes need to practise this skill first. ‘I used brainstorming in our writing time. The children talked about weekend mahi and then we brainstormed one as a tauira. Children continued with individual brainstorms in their books then wrote stories. We also practised brainstorming whakaaro about non-fiction books that each group had.’ Sarah Pickering
Mahi Mahere - Mapping: Mapping sorts your brainstormed words into groups/whānau or categories. It helps to have an ‘other’ group for words that may not fit anywhere else. For younger students the teacher will probably have to provide the subheadings.
The following video clips show how the kaiako makes the mapping exercise a tactile experience for Year 1 and 2 students by using hoops.
In the first step she sets up different categories in the hoops and then she demonstrates.
mahi mahere1 from National Library of New Zealand on Vimeo.
In the second step she checks the students have put all the brainstormed words into the correct hoops.
mahi mahere2 from National Library of New Zealand on Vimeo.
Another strategy for older students is to use post-its to map so students can move the brainstormed words into the mapping categories. Once mapping is complete, you can see if you are going to research all categories or select a specific category to concentrate on.
An example of using post-its for mapping categories
Kupu matua – Keywords: The next step is selecting kupu matua / key words and forming the pātai matua / key questions. Keywords are words you use to look up in the library catalogue, the internet, or index and contents page in books to find your information.
‘We selected the words from the brainstorm and mind maps. Then the students highlighted the key words they decided on. We practised looking up these words in the school library catalogue and Internet and on the contents and index pages of the books they had in their classroom. They had to rethink some of the words as it wasn’t always possible to find the information we were looking for using those words.’ Gwendoleine Taare, Resource Teacher of Māori
In this Year 1 and 2 class the kupu matua were displayed on the wall.
Pātai Matua - Key questions: Using the key words, key questions / pātai matua are formed. Key questions need to be open-ended and range from factual, simple questions that can be answered easily to powerful, fat questions that are more complex. Students need to be taught how to ask good questions.
‘I used the key words to model framing a question with the question starters we had used with picture sets: kei hea, he aha, he aha ai, ko wai, āhea, ināhea. We spread out two sets of words on the floor: the question starters and key words. Children then chose the key word and a question starter to give something tangible for them to look at, hold and write to.’ Marieanne Selkirk
‘I introduced the tamariki to questioning skills during morning talk sessions. The tamariki could all ask questions but quite often they were not relevant or correct. So we focussed on basic questions to extract more information e.g. Ko wai? e hia? He aha ai?” Marama Tuuta
Aria Matua - Key Concept: The idea for having a key concept / āria matua is to connect the students into why the topic is important to learn about. For example: “Mena kāhore tātou e ako e ana ki te hangarua ka kīkī haere ngā wāhi rāpihi.” Another kura was building a new kura. As shown here, their concept outlined the reason for the inquiry.
Planning: Students need to plan where they will go for resources or sources of information; how they will present their new knowledge; who they will present it to (the audience); and also to plan the time it will take to complete the different stages. See examples:
This stage involves gathering information from different sources and resources and/or making discoveries through exploration.
Year 1-4 students used Kari rapu to record people they were going to interview and the Dewey number of books that had relevant information. Laminated searching cards were also used to write on.
Another finding skill to teach students is selecting and rejecting resources.
‘I mixed up the books I had found on kites with other non-related books. On an A3 green sheet I wrote ‘Kei te Pai’. On the red sheet I wrote ‘Kāhore i te pai.’ I wrote on the board our key words (Māori and Pākehā) Manu aute / kites, build, hanga, make, mahi, fly, flying, rere. We discussed that we were looking for books that could help us build a kite. By using the key words we would select the relevant books. The tamariki looked at the books and then I asked them to place the books we needed onto the correct paper.” Marama Tuuta
“Before starting we learned about the whare pukapuka. I showed the children the Dewey chart in Mäori. We then played games such as ‘kei hea ngā pukapuka e pā ana ki te whana poikiri’.” Sarah Pickering
Online searching: The following worksheet was developed:
Authentic learning contexts: Te Wharekura o Manurewa Year 9 class was doing an inquiry unit on tuna. Their finding stage involved a field trip where they made their own tuna net, got their own bait, set the net and caught their own tuna.
Students at Te Wharekura o Manurewa making a hinaki
Students at Te Wharekura o Manurewa catching tuna
These stages focus on how the information collected is used to answer the questions and develop understandings.
Skimming and scanning English texts using keywords: Often a difficulty for kura is finding print and electronic resources in te reo Māori. One class used the strategy of skimming for keywords in both languages. In the following video you can see the teacher then went on to translate orally the sentence in which the keywords had appeared.
Rapu matua kupu 1 from National Library of New Zealand on Vimeo.
Other strategies for older students involved getting parents to read the information aloud in English to students at home. ‘The tamariki took reading home to matua to read to them. The tamariki returned to kura we discussed ngā whakautu i roto i te reo Māori.’ Sarah Pickering
Note-taking / recording strategies: ‘Prior to the unit I integrated note-taking strategies into the daily programme across all marau so they could transfer skills. I would lead the tamariki and they would write out lists of key words and key phrases. They would read their own paragraphs and then circle key words. After this they wrote in their own words their whakaaro e pā ana ngā kupu kī.’ Sarah Pickering
Organising information: Teaching the students to organise their information is also an important skill. ‘The tamariki all had a folder in which they stored their information they gathered. They found pages in books they wanted photocopied, used post-its to mark these pages and then photocopied them themselves.’ Hinemoa Hunziker
Students need to be taught the skills they need for presenting their new findings and understandings. ‘We practised in our reading programme plays from journals to reinforce their communication skills. It taught the children confidence, voice projection and gestures. They also practised walking while giving morning korero, using hands, speaking clearly and focusing on an audience.’ Sarah Pickering
Spotlight:
Year 9 students fromTe Wharekura o Manurewa used PowerPoint to present their research on tikanga and methods of catching tuna.
This student explains their Deciding stage
Wharekura Manurewa1 from National Library of New Zealand on Vimeo.
Stage 6: Aromātai - Evaluate
The research process and skills used were evaluated as well as the final product. Checkpoints are a method of formative assessment, a way of monitoring the research process and the student’s progress, including checking if they need more scaffolding, or teaching of specific skills. The following resources were used by teachers:
Aromatawai - Assess: The following rubrics were developed to assess product and/or process:
The biggest challenge for kaiako in kura is the lack of print and online resources in te reo Māori. A couple of strategies have already been outlined above under the Stage 2: Rapu - Finding section as to how to use English resources.
Other possible solutions include:
When using electronic resources, it is important to teach your students the strategies to find te reo Māori websites. For example, using websites or portals such as TKI and Te Ara which can be searched using Māori keywords and will return te reo Māori information (if available).
Many kura have their own libraries. It is important that the library catalogue system is set up to enable the students to search in both languages. If Ministry of Education resources, such as Wharekura, are also catalogued on the library system, this will also greatly improve access to these resources (often the only ones available on a topic in Māori) for students and teachers.
You can download the following inquiry learning resources developed by the teachers from the Tamaki Makaurau Rumaki ICT Cluster in Auckland.
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