The Māori language curriculum for New Zealand schools: Spiral lesson/ lesson sequence design

Abstract

A draft curriculum document for the teaching and learning of te reo Māori as a subject in mainstream schools in New Zealand (that is, in schools other than Kura Kaupapa Māori schools) was designed and trialled in 2004 and 2005. That draft is currently being reworked in line with the advice of those who trialled the document as well as that of a team of advisers set up by the Ministry of Education. The revised curriculum document will be submitted to the Ministry of Education in May 2006. As is the case with all new curriculum documents, the implementation phase will be critical. The extent to which this flexible, outcomes-focused curriculum document will genuinely inform new approaches to teaching and learning will depend not only upon the good will of teachers and communities, but also upon their ability to interpret the curriculum and to use it in a way that informs the design of language programmes, including the planning of units of work and of lessons and lesson sequences. In balancing language development and language practice, a communicative core and spiral approach is recommended, an approach in which there are core lessons (where the focus is language development) and spiral lessons (where the focus is language practice). In an earlier issue of this Journal (Johnson, 2003), one of us discussed core lesson design. Here, the design of spiral lessons is discussed and exemplified in the context of an outcomes-based curriculum.