book “At the Marae” booted by the Ministry of Education

According to the New Zealand Ministry of Education “At the Marae” is available for use by teachers – but not soon. according to the MoE:

“At the Marae is a phonically controlled big book designed for teachers to read with children. The children visit the marae with Miss Lee and Nan. They are introduced to tikanga on the marae. They are welcomed with karanga, listen to the koro speak, stand for karakia, and share kai. The class goes home at the end of the day having enjoyed their visit.”

“Reading with” is shared reading where the teacher reads the text aloud while the children listen and view the text. The children can join in the read aloud, especially on second and subsequent readings. Shared reading can be done as a whole class or with a group of students for a specific purpose. It provides opportunities for teachers to focus on particular reading skills they want students to develop further. The teacher uses “think alouds” to draw attention to the specific focus, such as highlighting punctuation, specific grapheme phoneme correspondences, or other aspects of the text. The teacher supports children with decoding and comprehension as the book is read.”

According to RNZ:

“The Education Ministry has canned a reader for junior children because it has too many Māori words, infuriating Te Akatea, the Māori Principals’ Association.

The association’s president Bruce Jepsen said the decision not to reprint “At the Marae” was racist and white supremacist.

The ministry told schools “At the Marae”, did not fit the sequence that young children were now taught to decode words using the structured literacy approach.

However, it had been re-sized into a “big book format” that teachers could use to read with pupils.”

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