Whose world changed the most in mid nineteenth century Wellington? The hapu of Te Aro Pa or the family at Nairn Street Cottage?
(Some context: Te Aro Pa was a Maori settlement in the neighborhood where I am currently living. Nairn Street Cottage is a house that remains from colonial settlers who moved in and took over the land of Te Aro Pa. Te Aro continues to be the name for my neighborhood.)
This is the unit question for Year 11 (aka Level 1) history classes at three different high schools in the Wellington area. The teachers at each school have worked together to design the unit, and I've had the unique opportunity to see how the same topic played out in two of the schools, each with very different contexts. (Side note: wouldn't it be great for teachers to do this with one another in the US and then actually visit and observe one another? No matter how many times I've done it, observing teachers always teaches me so much.)
Yesterday I watched a great lesson with Year 11 students that I will definitely take home. In previous days students were reading and taking notes on a collection of sources given to them by their teacher. They were assigned to a group and each group was assigned to focus on a perspective of the events-- either a Te Aro Pa perspective or a NZ company perspective. In theory, yesterday they were done reading those sources and their job was to make a historical plaque commemorating the events that happened at Te Aro Pa/Port Nicholson Block.
Their teacher showed them pictures of historical plaques and gave each group a white board. Then, they proceeded to have 30 minutes of nuanced conversation about how to describe what happened at Te Aro Pa. Was it miscommunication or were people tricked? Was the land settled or purchased or taken or stolen? One group discussed the movement of Europeans from the Lower Hutt area to the Te Aro Pa area and debated whether it could be described as an exodus. Two students thought exodus sounded "neutral" and liked it for that reason, while their two other group members were trying to make them understand that they also thought it was "neutral" but didn't like it for that reason, "because what happened wasn't neutral." The whole thing was pretty amazing to listen in on.
Today I visited an entirely different school on the other side of Wellington Harbor. I guess you could call this the suburbs of Wellington, but unlike the US, the suburbs tend to be where you live if you have less money, not more. At this school I watched Year 11 students working on the exact same unit.
The lesson I observed today was less about class discussion and more about making a chart categorizing their evidence, so it was hard to compare student opinions at each school. I've been at the city school many times at this point, and only visited the suburban school once, but my assumption is that the student body demographics have shaped how each teacher approaches the unit. For example, last week in the city school the students had a long conversation about whether Pakeha guilt had any useful purpose in conversations about Maori history. At the suburban school, where very few of the students are Pakeha, I think the question would be very different. When most of the students are Maork, Paskifika, or immigrants from Asia and Africa, the question of Pakeha feelings is the least of anyone's concerns.
(Some context: Te Aro Pa was a Maori settlement in the neighborhood where I am currently living. Nairn Street Cottage is a house that remains from colonial settlers who moved in and took over the land of Te Aro Pa. Te Aro continues to be the name for my neighborhood.)
This is the unit question for Year 11 (aka Level 1) history classes at three different high schools in the Wellington area. The teachers at each school have worked together to design the unit, and I've had the unique opportunity to see how the same topic played out in two of the schools, each with very different contexts. (Side note: wouldn't it be great for teachers to do this with one another in the US and then actually visit and observe one another? No matter how many times I've done it, observing teachers always teaches me so much.)
Yesterday I watched a great lesson with Year 11 students that I will definitely take home. In previous days students were reading and taking notes on a collection of sources given to them by their teacher. They were assigned to a group and each group was assigned to focus on a perspective of the events-- either a Te Aro Pa perspective or a NZ company perspective. In theory, yesterday they were done reading those sources and their job was to make a historical plaque commemorating the events that happened at Te Aro Pa/Port Nicholson Block.
Their teacher showed them pictures of historical plaques and gave each group a white board. Then, they proceeded to have 30 minutes of nuanced conversation about how to describe what happened at Te Aro Pa. Was it miscommunication or were people tricked? Was the land settled or purchased or taken or stolen? One group discussed the movement of Europeans from the Lower Hutt area to the Te Aro Pa area and debated whether it could be described as an exodus. Two students thought exodus sounded "neutral" and liked it for that reason, while their two other group members were trying to make them understand that they also thought it was "neutral" but didn't like it for that reason, "because what happened wasn't neutral." The whole thing was pretty amazing to listen in on.
Today I visited an entirely different school on the other side of Wellington Harbor. I guess you could call this the suburbs of Wellington, but unlike the US, the suburbs tend to be where you live if you have less money, not more. At this school I watched Year 11 students working on the exact same unit.
The lesson I observed today was less about class discussion and more about making a chart categorizing their evidence, so it was hard to compare student opinions at each school. I've been at the city school many times at this point, and only visited the suburban school once, but my assumption is that the student body demographics have shaped how each teacher approaches the unit. For example, last week in the city school the students had a long conversation about whether Pakeha guilt had any useful purpose in conversations about Maori history. At the suburban school, where very few of the students are Pakeha, I think the question would be very different. When most of the students are Maork, Paskifika, or immigrants from Asia and Africa, the question of Pakeha feelings is the least of anyone's concerns.