Level 8: Assessment activities
8.1 Communicate about certainty and uncertainty, possibility and probability
Students could be learning through:
- role-playing an interview on Māori television about a political and/or environmental issue (for example, to what extent tino rangatiratanga is a viable possibility for the twenty-first century);
- ranking significant life events (for example, marriage, overseas travel) in terms of probability in their own lives and writing text relating to each event, using the language of probability and possibility;
- writing three statements describing what events they believe will take place this century (two of these statements genuinely reflecting their own beliefs, the other not) and assessing which statements in other people’s lists are genuine beliefs, giving reasons;
- reading a short fiction story that predicts future events, listing those events, and explaining how likely they are to happen;
- writing about how society might change if a given scenario took place (for example, if te reo Māori were made compulsory in schools; if a Māori parliament were established; if global warming were to continue at its present level; or if there were to be a pandemic);
- debating the probable/possible effects of a given scenario on people’s way of life (for example, the effects of global warming on the availability of resources such as native flora and fauna);
- describing to a first-time visitor to Aotearoa what they could do during their visit.
8.2 Develop an argument or point of view, with reasons
Students could be learning through:
- putting forward a proposition (for example, that it is healthier to be a vegetarian than a meat eater) and providing supporting details;
- preparing a package holiday within a particular region of Aotearoa and presenting the package to the class, attempting to persuade the audience of its merits;
- writing to a local firm to apply for a weekend job, explaining why they are suitable and including promises (for example, punctuality);
- telephoning a friend, asking to borrow money, explaining why they need it, promising to repay it within a specified time, and offering to do something for the friend in return;
- interviewing friends about what they would do to improve society if they were in positions of power and why they would choose these actions rather than others;
- reading, listening to, or viewing a recent news item about an environmental issue and writing a newspaper editorial on the basis of it;
- reading (or writing) a letter to a newspaper in which the victim of a robbery expresses their opinions about how criminals should be treated, and taking part in a class discussion about those opinions;
- preparing a computer-assisted presentation on the implications of a particular scenario (for example, the possible consequences if Aotearoa were to become a republic and the Treaty of Waitangi were to be excluded from the constitution);
- reading or viewing advertisements for products that the manufacturer claims will solve specific problems and creating their own advertisements for similar products;
- examining how a character in a story responds to a problem and talking or writing about different possible responses;
- researching an important social topic (for example, genetic engineering), identifying the central issues, and listing the arguments on either side;
- role-playing a television discussion of a problem that has contemporary relevance;
- looking through job advertisements, identifying jobs they would like or dislike, and discussing their reasons in te reo Māori;
- conducting an Internet search to identify Māori technological inventions, researching one of them in more detail, and writing an article that states the problem the inventor identified and how they set about finding solutions.
8.3 Recount a series of events to inform, persuade, or entertain
Students could be learning through:
- producing a story in groups, using a plot, setting, and characters supplied by prompts in the form of picture cards and guide questions, with each student adding a section, and then repeating the process with their own plot, setting, and characters;
- competing in groups to reassemble a short narrative that has been cut into sections, with a different section being given to each student in the group;
- preparing a radio broadcast for the anniversary of a significant event and discussing in the broadcast the consequences of the event (for example, the events surrounding Bastion Point);
- downloading from the Internet some Māori songs (for example, mōteatea) that describe a sequence of events, performing them in groups, and writing a summary of the events recounted in each song;
- analysing and discussing some of the imagery and symbolism in selected mōteatea;
- preparing a multimedia presentation on an issue of significance to Māori (for example, attitudes towards the foreshore and seabed situation).
8.4 Communicate the same information in different ways in different contexts
Students could be learning through:
- researching Māori public figures and using the information to create a profile of one of them for inclusion in a national newspaper, write up an imaginary interview with that person, and prepare a fictional diary entry for an important day in his or her life;
- reading several newspaper reports about things that have happened in a small community and writing an eyewitness account of the events;
- reading an article from an online Māori publication (or parts of an article) and rewriting the article to make it suitable for a magazine for young teenagers;
- selecting newspaper headlines and preparing alternative headlines in Māori that would be appropriate for different types of publications;
- describing events in which they participated to (a) the principal of their school, (b) their grandmother, and (c) their best friend while a partner lists the differences in the accounts;
- discussing the food in the school canteen with friends and writing a letter of complaint or praise, summarising the views presented in the discussion.
8.5 Respond to selected and adapted Māori language texts about te reo Māori and tikanga Māori (for example, from literature, film, newspapers, magazines, television, video/DVD, and radio)
Students could be learning through:
- designing a cover for a book, CD, or video;
- writing a book or film review;
- retelling the story from a poem or song in the idiom of today and presenting it as if it had been written for a different context (for example, a newspaper report);
- using a picture of people as the basis for creating a dialogue between them;
- using a picture as a starting point for a description;
- telling a friend about a book they have read and reviewing it for a magazine;
- researching a major political event in Māori history and writing a story based on the event and the leading figures involved;
- preparing and acting out a short radio play based on a photograph, painting, or historical event;
- exploring Māori websites and writing a report on two of them for a magazine that advises Internet users about interesting websites;
- visiting Māori websites that provide information about entertainment opportunities, such as films, television, or radio plays, and discussing which websites appeal to them and why;
- reading a newspaper account of a recent political or social event and preparing a talk about the central issues;
- listening to a short narrative, which is then divided into sections for pairs or groups to dramatise;
- preparing a news segment for Māori television.