Papatuanuku and Ranginui. The creation Story.

What:
As an adjunct to a Te Reo/Tikanga unit on the Atua and The Creation story the children and I decided to illustrate the story as an enormous poster and add written prompts to help them develop their oral language and story telling skills around this fundamental Maori legend. We worked together to paint the back ground for the poster then after watching the story in You Tube several times each child chose a part that they would like to illustrate and add to the poster. The poster came together to be a visual story which covered many aspects of the creation legend.

So What:
This collaborative art work really paid homage to the Maori tradition of oral histories as it stimulated so much discussion. Firstly the informal chatter among the students about what aspect they had chosen to illustrate and why. This was a wonderful way to start the children talking about the story without any pressure to know the whole thing or present it in a formal setting. Working with the children to record the important points of the story to add to the picture as reminders of the crux of the legend meant they took ownership of the story and began to retell it as a group supporting each other with ideas and links. Finally over a number of weeks the children got together in pairs and small groups to retell the story using the poster as a prompt where necessary. Having worked on the production of the story the whole way through and revisiting it over and over gave the children real ownership of it and eventually a degree of familiarity which meant that they were confident and keen to retell it.

Now What:
Continue to recognise and utilise collaborative opportunities where the children can guide the learning and participate in all steps from planning to creating and presenting it. Use oral language as a way of enabling children to share their knowledge and understanding of a topic without the pressure to record it in written form. For many of the learners in this group this seemed to be a way to allow them to shine and written work can often make a barrier when used to present their knowledge.

Show case the rich culture that Maori language and Tikanga Maori are as often as possible in the classrooms that I work in.


Tamsin

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