Maori Literacy Research | He Matai Matatupu | Kia Ata Mai Educational Trust

Catering for children deemed to be 'at risk'
Use of the Individual Education Programme process for accessing programming as well as resource support in terms of teacher aide/kaiäwhina hours via Special Education Services was the most common process listed. This was used in the majority of eases for one-to-one withdrawal system along with small group work, in some cases the teacher doing the work with the child and in others the kaiäwhina. Three teachers accessed support through senior staff - the Assistant Principal or Support Teacher in the school. Another three teachers used the Otara four-minute reading programme (D. Awatere, 1980) and other teachers built in parent training as one strategy to assist those considered to be at risk in reading and writing. One teacher responded by using tuakana/teina (old child with younger) paired activities and one used worksheets.
Areas suggested that require new assessment tools to be developed were:

focusing on second language learners in areas of oral language competency and written and aural comprehension skills
a 1 to 6 level scale of oral language with the emphasis on spoken Mäori
a sequential developmental checklist with expected rate of progress in both reading and writing Mäori
measuring and assessing comprehension of texts read.

Other areas for development were the provision of an advisory service that ensured access to appropriate expert resource people, the provision of release time for teachers to be able to work one-to-one with children, and developing ways of linking families to give them training and to gain their support in working with their children that complemented the school programme.

Resources
Learning Media (formerly School Publications) have been supplying free to all New Zealand primary schools publications in Mäori since 1980. Currently they produce approximately six books for the primary school market per year, three of which may be appropriate for use in junior Mäori medium reading programmes. They are not specifically designed for use as instructional or guided readers, nor are they intentionally organised to support stages of reading development (emergent, early, early fluency and fluency). Learning Media are at present the major supplier of professionally produced original material in Mäori to schools.
A few other publishers have also provided a limited number of texts in Mäori, which are translations or Mäori versions of texts in English for the junior school market.
In order to provide the quantity of books required to support reading programmes, schools have been buying books in English, staff and parents have been translating these and pasting the translations over the English text. Teachers agree that this is an unsatisfactory method of providing material but necessary in order to offset the present paucity of resources. It is seen to also be a way of addressing the need for material to be written in the local dialect, particularly when this differs from the dialects used in material in Mäori available nationwide.
Teachers indicated that there was a shortage of appropriate reading material for all reading stages but 15 of 18 teachers agreed that the area of greatest need as material for children working at the emergent stage (on average 80% of books consisted of school-based translations of English texts). This was irrespective of which class levels those teachers were teaching at the time. The next identified area of need was material suitable for use at the early stage where on average 60% of the books in schools consisted of translations, followed by early fluency and fluency, where at least half of the material were translations. Teachers identified shortages in other areas. Seventeen teachers out of 21 indicated that a greater variety of genres was required (poetry, recipes, non-fiction, songs, plays, poems and so on). Teachers also identified professionally produced sources other than books that they would like to see developed, namely language activities and games, and large books suitable for shared reading. Schools are again locally producing most of these resources. Audiotapes, computer programs, video and television programmes for young children, dictionaries, books for recreational reading and literature that also had application across the curricula were also deemed to be desirable.

The home - school link
The teachers' descriptions of parent or whänau involvement in their reading programmes included information about how parents participated in the classroom programme directly, the information shared between the classroom and homes, and the kinds of activities that were sent from school to be done at home, that is homework.
Five teachers said they encouraged parents to read to or with their children regularly. Two teachers described parents being involved as helpers in their reading programmes. Information about reading programmes and reading to children was provided in a number of ways. Two teachers from the same school reported that written information about the reading programme and how children could be helped with their reading was given to new parents. One teacher had had an 'open day' when parents could come in and observe the class's reading activities. One teacher said parents were given information about how they could help their children at whänau hui (meetings with families) held every term.
Four teachers described getting information about reading at home from parents. This involved signing homework books or sheets to acknowledge reading activities had been done. In one case parents were invited to write down what had been done and any difficulties and successes that occurred as well as signing homework booklets.
Eleven teachers said they sent reading activities home regularly. These included reading books, letter sound and word activity sheets and booklets. Six teachers said they regularly sent books or photocopies of books home. Poems were the other reading activity sent home by two teachers. Six teachers sent home word or letter activities. Five other teachers said that parents and whänau were encouraged to read with children using reading material supplied by the school. Nine teachers reported that there was a policy of not sending books home. The reasons given for this were that books were a very limited and precious resource in their classrooms and schools and that in the past books had not been returned or were returned damaged. Five of these teachers sent home photocopies of books. Twelve teachers said books were sent home. In three cases there was a policy that families pay repair and replacement charges if books were damaged or not returned. One teacher's policy on books going home included those books being easy for the child, that parents were aware that they were not to expect the child to read perfectly, and to read with the child and provide appropriate sorts of assistance. Another teacher's policy included parents being provided information and teaching about how to use the books with the child before books went home.
The difficulties with sending the books home were described as being a shortage of books, especially at the emergent level, books being lost or damaged because of such things as lack of care, books being shared and read by the children's wider whänau, and because parents sometimes changed the translations in some of the books.
The benefits of sending books home fell into three broad categories relating to children's development, family interaction and processes of te reo (Mäori language) in the home. Sending books home was seen by 14 teachers as having benefits for the children's development and personal enjoyment of reading, confidence and self-esteem. Nine teachers described the benefits as parent support and knowledge of children's reading development, family enjoyment of reading and the development of reading routines in the home. Six teachers thought that sending books home helped resource them with Mäori language, supporting its use and extending vocabulary.
Other things sent home that were seen to do with reading and writing included schoolwork to be completed at home, mathematics activities, games such as housie and children's completed work.
Only one teacher said that English reading went home in the form of library books. One teacher said that children weren't discouraged from taking English books home. School notices were the only English reading material sent home by one teacher.

Advantages and disadvantages of teaching in Mäori
The advantages described by the teachers were of four kinds. Nineteen teachers saw the advantages in terms of the connections between language and culture and the goal of language preservation. Eleven teachers felt that it was easier to learn to read in Mäori than English because of the phonemic regularity of the Mäori language. Learning to read in Mäori was seen by nine teachers as positively impacting on Mäori children's learning because of the match with children's cultural understanding and knowledge and language. Eight teachers described it as having positive benefits for children's individual development in terms of confidence, self-esteem and cognitive development.
The disadvantages identified stemmed mainly from the lack of resources and the inadequate funding and attention given to the development of curriculum resources, unlevelled reading material, the limited people resources in terms of native fluent teachers and the heavy reliance on unpublished or translated material. One teacher described the situation as a dangerous one in that it could limit children's development of mental and oral processes.
Some disadvantages were seen by eight teachers to be located in the child and family. Four teachers from the same school described their children as Mäori second language learners which had teaching and learning implications in the classroom. One saw comprehension being problematic. When children had 'cracked the print code' it was necessary to closely assess comprehension of Mäori text. Three teachers felt the lack of both spoken and written Mäori language resources in the home was a disadvantage when teaching children to read in Mäori.
Six teachers for a number of reasons also saw the community as a source of disadvantage. Firstly, children were described as unable to make use of the many opportunities to engage with print outside of school and in the community, including local libraries, because practically all of these were in English. One teacher felt that the exposure to large quantities of quality English language books and resources was very hard to compete against.

Summary
The Mäori medium programmes from which these descriptions were derived had some common features.

Many of the teachers were new to teaching these programmes.
The programmes shared many similarities with those operating in mainstream classrooms. However, there was some diversity between the classrooms in how much writing occurred and whether peer systems were used.
Teachers grouped children using a range of readiness and ability indicators.
While teachers had experienced some professional development, this was almost exclusively limited to those intended to support programmes in mainstream classes.
Most of the children came from homes where Mäori is spoken to them only some of the time.
Most teachers considered themselves second language learners.
Generally, ratios of adults to children ranged from 1:17 to 1:30.
A range of assessment procedures is used but teachers expressed a need for specific tools especially related to (Mäori) oral language and comprehension.
Teachers generally reported a shortage of appropriate texts.
Links between home and school included sending home reading activities but teachers reported some difficulties related to the scarcity of resources.

	page 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 Catering for children deemed to be 'at risk' Use of the Individual Education Programme process for accessing programming as well as resource support in terms of teacher aide/kaiäwhina hours via Special Education Services was the most common process listed. This was used in the majority of eases for one-to-one withdrawal system along with small group work, in some cases the teacher doing the work with the child and in others the kaiäwhina. Three teachers accessed support through senior staff - the Assistant Principal or Support Teacher in the school. Another three teachers used the Otara four-minute reading programme (D. Awatere, 1980) and other teachers built in parent training as one strategy to assist those considered to be at risk in reading and writing. One teacher responded by using tuakana/teina (old child with younger) paired activities and one used worksheets. Areas suggested that require new assessment tools to be developed were: focusing on second language learners in areas of oral language competency and written and aural comprehension skills a 1 to 6 level scale of oral language with the emphasis on spoken Mäori a sequential developmental checklist with expected rate of progress in both reading and writing Mäori measuring and assessing comprehension of texts read. Other areas for development were the provision of an advisory service that ensured access to appropriate expert resource people, the provision of release time for teachers to be able to work one-to-one with children, and developing ways of linking families to give them training and to gain their support in working with their children that complemented the school programme. Resources Learning Media (formerly School Publications) have been supplying free to all New Zealand primary schools publications in Mäori since 1980. Currently they produce approximately six books for the primary school market per year, three of which may be appropriate for use in junior Mäori medium reading programmes. They are not specifically designed for use as instructional or guided readers, nor are they intentionally organised to support stages of reading development (emergent, early, early fluency and fluency). Learning Media are at present the major supplier of professionally produced original material in Mäori to schools. A few other publishers have also provided a limited number of texts in Mäori, which are translations or Mäori versions of texts in English for the junior school market. In order to provide the quantity of books required to support reading programmes, schools have been buying books in English, staff and parents have been translating these and pasting the translations over the English text. Teachers agree that this is an unsatisfactory method of providing material but necessary in order to offset the present paucity of resources. It is seen to also be a way of addressing the need for material to be written in the local dialect, particularly when this differs from the dialects used in material in Mäori available nationwide. Teachers indicated that there was a shortage of appropriate reading material for all reading stages but 15 of 18 teachers agreed that the area of greatest need as material for children working at the emergent stage (on average 80% of books consisted of school-based translations of English texts). This was irrespective of which class levels those teachers were teaching at the time. The next identified area of need was material suitable for use at the early stage where on average 60% of the books in schools consisted of translations, followed by early fluency and fluency, where at least half of the material were translations. Teachers identified shortages in other areas. Seventeen teachers out of 21 indicated that a greater variety of genres was required (poetry, recipes, non-fiction, songs, plays, poems and so on). Teachers also identified professionally produced sources other than books that they would like to see developed, namely language activities and games, and large books suitable for shared reading. Schools are again locally producing most of these resources. Audiotapes, computer programs, video and television programmes for young children, dictionaries, books for recreational reading and literature that also had application across the curricula were also deemed to be desirable. The home - school link The teachers' descriptions of parent or whänau involvement in their reading programmes included information about how parents participated in the classroom programme directly, the information shared between the classroom and homes, and the kinds of activities that were sent from school to be done at home, that is homework. Five teachers said they encouraged parents to read to or with their children regularly. Two teachers described parents being involved as helpers in their reading programmes. Information about reading programmes and reading to children was provided in a number of ways. Two teachers from the same school reported that written information about the reading programme and how children could be helped with their reading was given to new parents. One teacher had had an 'open day' when parents could come in and observe the class's reading activities. One teacher said parents were given information about how they could help their children at whänau hui (meetings with families) held every term. Four teachers described getting information about reading at home from parents. This involved signing homework books or sheets to acknowledge reading activities had been done. In one case parents were invited to write down what had been done and any difficulties and successes that occurred as well as signing homework booklets. Eleven teachers said they sent reading activities home regularly. These included reading books, letter sound and word activity sheets and booklets. Six teachers said they regularly sent books or photocopies of books home. Poems were the other reading activity sent home by two teachers. Six teachers sent home word or letter activities. Five other teachers said that parents and whänau were encouraged to read with children using reading material supplied by the school. Nine teachers reported that there was a policy of not sending books home. The reasons given for this were that books were a very limited and precious resource in their classrooms and schools and that in the past books had not been returned or were returned damaged. Five of these teachers sent home photocopies of books. Twelve teachers said books were sent home. In three cases there was a policy that families pay repair and replacement charges if books were damaged or not returned. One teacher's policy on books going home included those books being easy for the child, that parents were aware that they were not to expect the child to read perfectly, and to read with the child and provide appropriate sorts of assistance. Another teacher's policy included parents being provided information and teaching about how to use the books with the child before books went home. The difficulties with sending the books home were described as being a shortage of books, especially at the emergent level, books being lost or damaged because of such things as lack of care, books being shared and read by the children's wider whänau, and because parents sometimes changed the translations in some of the books. The benefits of sending books home fell into three broad categories relating to children's development, family interaction and processes of te reo (Mäori language) in the home. Sending books home was seen by 14 teachers as having benefits for the children's development and personal enjoyment of reading, confidence and self-esteem. Nine teachers described the benefits as parent support and knowledge of children's reading development, family enjoyment of reading and the development of reading routines in the home. Six teachers thought that sending books home helped resource them with Mäori language, supporting its use and extending vocabulary. Other things sent home that were seen to do with reading and writing included schoolwork to be completed at home, mathematics activities, games such as housie and children's completed work. Only one teacher said that English reading went home in the form of library books. One teacher said that children weren't discouraged from taking English books home. School notices were the only English reading material sent home by one teacher. Advantages and disadvantages of teaching in Mäori The advantages described by the teachers were of four kinds. Nineteen teachers saw the advantages in terms of the connections between language and culture and the goal of language preservation. Eleven teachers felt that it was easier to learn to read in Mäori than English because of the phonemic regularity of the Mäori language. Learning to read in Mäori was seen by nine teachers as positively impacting on Mäori children's learning because of the match with children's cultural understanding and knowledge and language. Eight teachers described it as having positive benefits for children's individual development in terms of confidence, self-esteem and cognitive development. The disadvantages identified stemmed mainly from the lack of resources and the inadequate funding and attention given to the development of curriculum resources, unlevelled reading material, the limited people resources in terms of native fluent teachers and the heavy reliance on unpublished or translated material. One teacher described the situation as a dangerous one in that it could limit children's development of mental and oral processes. Some disadvantages were seen by eight teachers to be located in the child and family. Four teachers from the same school described their children as Mäori second language learners which had teaching and learning implications in the classroom. One saw comprehension being problematic. When children had 'cracked the print code' it was necessary to closely assess comprehension of Mäori text. Three teachers felt the lack of both spoken and written Mäori language resources in the home was a disadvantage when teaching children to read in Mäori. Six teachers for a number of reasons also saw the community as a source of disadvantage. Firstly, children were described as unable to make use of the many opportunities to engage with print outside of school and in the community, including local libraries, because practically all of these were in English. One teacher felt that the exposure to large quantities of quality English language books and resources was very hard to compete against. Summary The Mäori medium programmes from which these descriptions were derived had some common features. Many of the teachers were new to teaching these programmes. The programmes shared many similarities with those operating in mainstream classrooms. However, there was some diversity between the classrooms in how much writing occurred and whether peer systems were used. Teachers grouped children using a range of readiness and ability indicators. While teachers had experienced some professional development, this was almost exclusively limited to those intended to support programmes in mainstream classes. Most of the children came from homes where Mäori is spoken to them only some of the time. Most teachers considered themselves second language learners. Generally, ratios of adults to children ranged from 1:17 to 1:30. A range of assessment procedures is used but teachers expressed a need for specific tools especially related to (Mäori) oral language and comprehension. Teachers generally reported a shortage of appropriate texts. Links between home and school included sending home reading activities but teachers reported some difficulties related to the scarcity of resources.
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