The Red Sari - (Post-Reading Questions & Language Features) | English

Welcome to another post. For English, we, as a class, read a short story "The Red Sari". Following reading the story, we had to answer some post-reading questions. 

This post is from 21/10/21

Look up one new word from the story you don’t know the meaning of, and re-write the definition in your own words.

Concertina

Meaning to extend, compress, or collapse in folds like those of a concertina - a small instrument played by stretching and squeezing it.

In “The Red Sari,” the narrator experiences a very different world to NZ. What is a quote from this story which shows this?

"There are no formal road rules."

In New Zealand, road rules are followed.

"High above in the smog-filled sky a jet climbs away from it all."

New Zealand has really good air quality compared to India.

What do you think the author, Apirana Taylor, wanted us to understand about experiencing different cultures?

Apirana Taylor describes how India and its people are beautiful.

Does Apirana Taylor encourage us to appreciate people who are different to us? How so?

Apirana Taylor encourages us to appreciate others who are different to us because in this text, it shows poor people, beggars and that's the way how they would survive. Their life is hard because they never know when they could get crushed by a car.

The way to appreciate them is to show kindness to them, respect them, build their happiness - this will improve their self-esteem and relationships between them.

Personalised Passion Project experience | Wānanga

Welcome to another post. For the past few weeks in Wānanga, we (the year 10 & 11s) have been doing Personalised Passion Projects (or Genius Hour), a project for our passion or something that you are interested in learning about - including research and guidance by the passion project teacher. 

I was doing Cryptocurrency as one of my passion projects, in which I was working with Ranit doing candlestick charts. 

Candlestick Chart
Credit: https://stock.adobe.com/ee/search?k=candlestick+chart

In sum, we had to start with an essential question (driving question) - that cannot be answered with a simple Google search and research the question using websites, or any other source. Finally, we had to create something to show our learning that we did over the few weeks - can be digital, physical or service-oriented.

After we presented our work, we need to answer reflection questions.

1. Now that it's over, what are my first thoughts about this overall project? Are they mostly positive or negative?
• They are positive - because Ranit and I did a good job doing our project
2. If positive, what comes to mind specifically? Negative?
• No, I don't think anything negative
3. What were some of the most interesting discoveries I made while working on this project? About the problem? About myself? About others?
• That we can do a project that was new to us and we finished it in a short amount of time (due to lockdown)
• That I can present with a partner in front of the class
4. What were some of my most challenging moments and what made them so?
• That we had to finish quite a lot of work in a short amount of time
5. What were some of my most powerful learning moments and what made them so?
• Speaking in front of an audience (the class)
6. What is the most important thing I learned personally?
• Speaking in front of the audience, which will help me to present in the future.
7. When did I realize that I had come up with my final best solution?
• Sometime before we were up to present in front of the class
8. How well did I and my team communicate overall?
• We communicated really well with each other.
9. What moments was I most proud of my efforts?
• Finishing the project and presenting in front of two classes.
10. What's the one thing about myself above all others I would like to work to improve?
• That I need to memorise the presentation a bit more.
11. How will I use what I've learned in the future?
    
• The presenting I did with Ranit will help me in the future and build my confidence when I do my presentation next time.

Here is the outcome (presentation) I created to show my learning -- and what I did.

How Perl Button Was Kidnapped? (Post-Reading Tasks) | English

Welcome to another post. In English, we have to read the short story, 'How Perl Button Was Kidnapped?' and then answer the post-reading questions by breaking down the story. 

This post is from 27/09/21

Who were the main characters and how they've been described?

• Perl Button
• Blond hair
• Blue eyes
• White shiny teeth
• 
  
• 2 Māori women
• One wearing red and the other dressed in yellow and green
• No shoes and stocking on
• Pink handkerchiefs over their heads
• Carried big flax basket of ferns
• Police
• Little men dressed in blue

What happened to Perl?

• It seemed to the readers that Perl was kidnapped because of how the author wrote the text. But at the end, it was the two Māori women taking Perl to a beach.

The Boyd Incident: Treaty of Waitangi | Social Studies

Welcome to another post. For the past two lessons in Social Studies, we looked at the Boyd incident and answered some questions relating to the two perspective articles.

Full story: The Boyd incident - A frontier of chaos? 

Article 1:

December 1809.

Long story short: European people assaulted a Māori chief. In response, the Māori got revenge by attacking the European ship’s captain. (Utu - balance, revenge)

- Te Pahi (a Māori man who had been with the Europeans to Australia to set up trade) came to stop the violence and rescue the European people. Sadly, the European people blamed Te Pahi and killed him, too.

What are your thoughts? What do you wonder?

Not that many thoughts, but it is sad how Te Pahi was blamed without any reason when he was with the Europeans trading.

Article 2:

How the Boyd (name of the ship) Incident used to be told:

The Boyd was attacked in 1809 by a Māori tribe. The ship captain and crew were violently attacked.

Travel advisory

For some Europeans, the Boyd incident put New Zealand in the ‘avoid if at all possible’ category. A pamphlet circulating in Europe warned sailors off the ‘Cannibal Isles’ - ‘touch not that cursed shore lest you these Cannibals pursue’.

How was the story different (what’s missing)? Why do you think it was told this way?

This story is told from the European’s perspective, whereas the story told earlier was told from both Māori and European perspectives. Also, Te Pahi was missing from the story.

I think the Europeans told this story, showing the negative about the Māori, making them the villains, and not telling the whole story. The European story didn’t tell that the Europeans first attacked them first, and shows that the Māori attacked them without any reason.

Māori Gods and Deities: Treaty of Waitangi | Social Studies

Welcome to another post. In Social Studies, we moved on from World at War to a new topic: Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Te Waitangi. A few lessons ago, we were looking at Māori gods and deities. One of the tasks given was to create a poster of one of the Māori deities given. 

Here is the poster I've created.