DAY 6: Vocabulary (& Decoding)

Tēnā koutou, 

The question below inspired me today following RPI Day 6: Vocabulary (& Decoding). 

What long term plan do you have to systematically develop learners’ knowledge of morphology? 

I would like to start teaching morphology in my program, specifically prefixes, suffixes and root words. I have been exposed to a little bit over the years but it hasn’t been a priority, until now. The RPI space and also BSLA has really exposed this side of learning in my program and I understand the importance of it for our learners to be successful. The challenges that I face are the lack of easily accessible resources in te reo Māori.  

I would like to start with the prefix/kūmua ‘whaka’ and ‘kai’ and introduce root words/ tumu as well. The lessons would be a part of my reading rotations and how I see it working in the future is having a prepared worksheet of words from the text like ‘whakarongo’ and ‘kaiako’. Tamariki then dissects the word into a kūmua and a tumu, they define the two parts and then put the word back together followed by the definition of the word as a whole. See below for an example from 'Paekupu'. 

My ultimate goal is to create generic templates that do not require ongoing work. These templates would have the same instruction on them and ākonga would apply the learning to the text of the week. For example: identify 5 kupu in this text that have a kūmua + tumu. Define the two then define the word as a whole. Tamariki then create a poster on google drawings and then share it to their blogs. This would become a normal weekly activity.  

Another goal of mine after day 6 is to start a word wall. 

Homework is starting to become strenuous but the flip side of that is I am using the content for my Class on Air Episodes so as to not let it go to waste. So, two birds-one stone! 

See you all on Day 7, 

Tiaira. 

Day 5 RPI Homework: Practice Implementation

The above shows my interpretation of incorporating independent activities into my papa mahi or task boards. You will see this in the 'kōwhiringa' section, located at the bottom right-hand side of the task board. My independent tasks include creative activities such as tāoreore (animation), pānui whakaahua (poster), and pixel art.

Although these may not be considered 'high-expectation independent activities' like those on the Epic website, they serve as a placeholder for better things to come (fingers crossed!). As I mentioned in my last blog post, many of the independent activities recommended on RPI Day 5 were in English, which means they don't apply in my kura.

I’ve been discussing with my mentor ways to incorporate high-expectation activities into my timetable—but they require me to create them myself... (sigh). If there are other examples of what teachers in other kura have done, I’d love to hear from you!