The Lead Up to Ti Tiriti: Knowledge-Rich NZ History and Literacy Integrated Unit Phase 2

Description

Develop your students’ reading comprehension, writing, and literacy skills through this comprehensive whole-class teaching resource, focused on the key events leading up to the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi—one of the most significant moments in Aotearoa New Zealand’s history.

This resource is an excellent addition to your structured literacy program, combining rich historical content with effective learning strategies.

Engage your students in the principles of the Science of Reading, concentrating on:

• Deep comprehension strategies
• Vocabulary building
• Grammar and syntax
• Sentence structure
• Verbal reasoning
• Content knowledge

By immersing students in a pivotal historical event, you’ll not only enhance their reading and writing skills but also foster a deeper understanding of Aotearoa New Zealand’s past.

How It Works:

This resource is designed for whole-class teaching and comes with a slideshow of 65 slides, additional worksheets, and graphic organizers to support your students’ learning.

Simply display the slides on your projector or TV screen, and give each group of 2-3 students a copy of the text. With the slides in Presenter View, you’ll have all the tools you need for a successful lesson—just click and go!

The text is broken into three manageable sections for reading across three sessions, allowing time to explore vocabulary and content in depth. The resource also includes discussion prompts to inspire critical thinking about the text.

On days four and five, deepen the learning with:

• A GIST summarising activity
• A Compare and Contrast text structure graphic organizer
• Critical thinking questions to encourage deeper connections and inferences

Key Features:

• Focus on comprehension monitoring, summarising, drawing conclusions, and using evidence (aligned with the New Zealand English Curriculum for Year 5 and 6 students).
• Activities that go beyond simple recall, promoting critical thinking.
• Literacy tasks that strengthen writing skills, including:
  • Complex sentences
  • Sentence combining
  • Speech marks and commas
  • Morphology: -un prefix
• A GIST summarising activity, helping students condense the text into a 20-word summary for improved understanding and memory.
• A Compare and Contrast graphic organizer for analysing the structure of the text.
• Explicit vocabulary instruction with definitions, examples, and semantic activities such as synonyms and antonyms.
• 22 additional pages (text to print, teacher tips, graphic organisers, follow up activities)

Benefits of This Resource:

• Encourages active learning and engagement through a combination of reading, discussion, and critical thinking activities.
• Designed to build vocabulary and improve comprehension, making it suitable for all learners, including those struggling with reading.
• Helps students connect the content to their own experiences, enriching their understanding.
• Students gain knowledge about significant events in Aotearoa New Zealand history.

Aligned with the New Zealand English Curriculum for Phase Two – Year 5:

This resource supports students in:

• Monitoring comprehension by annotating, rereading, asking, answering questions, and visualising.
• Summarising and drawing conclusions, identifying key details to support the main message.
• Making inferences based on both explicit and implied ideas, drawing from prior knowledge.
• Analysing text structure and language choices for effect.
• Thinking critically about a text, analysing perspectives, and making connections.

Tips for Use:

• Use the PowerPoint in presentation mode for smooth delivery.
• Display the text on the screen and have students read together in pairs or small groups.
• Follow the suggested activities across three sessions, and extend learning with additional follow-up activities on days four and five.