All Years
ANZH curriculum content cards
Teaching Guidance
Use these cards and the supporting video to begin planning for including Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories within social sciences.
Use these cards to begin planning for including Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories within social sciences.
There are two parts to the suggested process, which takes 2–3 hours (or you can split it over two or more sessions).
- Part one focuses on the overview of Understand, Know, and Do in the Aotearoa NZ’s histories content.
- Part two focuses on using the progress outcomes of Aotearoa NZ’s histories to start planning for a particular phase of learning.
Planning together with the Aotearoa New Zealand's histories curriculum cards
Voice over
These cards are designed to be used by kaiako in their planning and can be a great tool for discussion. In this video, teachers from a Kāhui Ako are looking at how they can work together to incorporate ANZH in their social sciences.
(Kaiako ANZH planning discussion)
Voice over
When using the cards, a good place to begin is by looking at the content in the book and how it’s structured –
(ANZH Planning together cards sections)
… the purpose statements and guidance for teachers; the Understand, Know and Do overview, and progress outcomes for each phase; and the examples of rich learning experiences that weave the Understand and Know together for you.
(Kaiako ANZH planning discussion)
Voice over
This will ensure you understand how the cards relate to the Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum and your planning.
Read each of the sets of cards from the Overview and discuss.
(Carolyn English speaking to kaiako)
Carolyn, speaking to group
We're going to read each Big idea, cards 4 to 7. And then as you're sort of thinking about it, think about some of the topics you're already doing in social studies, or ones that you'd like to do in the future, and how the big idea relates to those, sort of, topics.
(Kaiako reading from Understand big ideas card 6 - purple)
Unknown speaker, reading from card
“The course of Aotearoa New Zealand histories has been shaped by the use of power. Individuals, groups, and organisations have exerted and contested power in ways that improve the lives of people and communities, and in ways that lead to exclusion, injustice, and conflict.”
(Kaiako speaking to group)
Elaine, speaking to group
So it’s that underlying threat of power isn't it? We often think of conflict as being over land or resources, but actually, it’s power that underlies all of that.
(Kaiako ANZH planning discussion)
Voice over
Now, read each Context card, the cards numbered 8 to 11.
Unknown speaker, talking to group
Thinking from.. through two, sort of, lenses about our relationship to the environment, especially in the past and through colonisation, looking at the environment as a resource to be used and, sort of, conquered versus the other side of it that’s always existed within a Māori context – and that’s that connection and closeness to the environment.
(Do Inquiry practice cards - yellow)
Voice over
Then read each Do card, the cards numbered 12 to 14, and discuss how they support students to think critically about the past.
(Kaiako speaking to group)
Unknown speaker, talking to group
I’ve got students who, like, can’t fathom a world when I describe what dial-up Internet was. And this is, like, blowing their minds. So I’m just trying to think about the extent to which it is our job to unpack even further histories than that so that they can, kind of, understand and put themselves in those shoes to actually make those judgements from that time period. And the difficult task that requires of students.
(Kaiako speaking to group)
Unknown speaker, talking to group
There is a skill set that I guess is implicit in that we’d need to be explicit in our teaching of, around ethical decision making – about surfacing the values that were inherent of those times and are currently in our times. And it was often, a value wasn’t wrong, it’s different; and then deciding which values now predominate and why.
(Carolyn at whiteboard, speaking to group)
Voice over
Before working with each Progress Outcome, choose a meaningful and familiar social sciences topic that is rich and broad enough to link to the big ideas and one or more contexts.
(Whiteboard discussion)
Carolyn, speaking to group
Let's choose one of these that you know something about, so you can think about it for each phase.
Unknown speaker, talking to group
Human settlement, definitely, would flow through everything.
Carolyn, speaking to group
Ok. Let’s have a look at that one. So we'll choose that one there – human settlement. So we’ll have to test it now, to think about human settlement. What are some of the things around Māori history being foundational and continuous that link with human settlement?
Unknown speaker, talking to group
Stories behind the various…
(Kaiako sorting ANZH Planning together cards)
Voice over
Next, focus on the Knows and Dos. Gather all four big ideas and the Know and Do cards from your phase, and put the other cards away.
(Whiteboard discussion with kaiako)
Carolyn, speaking to group
Okay, so I think our big topic works really well. And what we're going to do now is that we're going to give out bits of paper, and you're going to be working in your small groups.
(Kaiako working in groups)
Carolyn, speaking to group
Look at the Know card and choose which ones you think really work for you in this big thing. And while you're doing it, you're probably going to start talking about some resources, some people who would help, who would be really, you know, to make it come alive.
Voice over
Then read each set of cards and identify how they strengthen and refine your topic.
(Carolyn at whiteboard, speaking to group)
Carolyn, speaking to group
After that we're going to do the Dos. Now the Dos, you do all use. And again, it's about the critical thinking, and what you've talked about here. And so, start thinking about some different activities that might link into that. And so this is what you're going to lay out on your paper. So we need to capture this – you can take it away and use it again some other time.
(Kaiako working with Do cards - blue)
Voice over
This is where you will capture some of the activities, resources, and people relevant to your topic that will bring these inquiry practices out.
(Kaiako working with Inquiry practice cards - yellow)
Elaine, reading from card
“I can use historical sources giving deliberate attention to matarangi Māori sources to help answer my questions about the past.”
Unknown speaker, talking to group
A lot of that might be – Have you been able to find a lot of information about this group? Is that coming from that group, or from an outside group telling you about them? And, you know, those kinds of discussions about why could that be.
Elaine, speaking to group
We need to present them with a curated range of sources of information, rather than just sending them out into the Internet, to find out, you know, there needs to be a stage before that, where they're actually, they have a range of perspectives to look at.
Voice over
Discuss how students’ learning progresses across the phases, both in the depth of their knowledge and sophistication of their inquiry.
(Primary presentation to group)
Carolyn, speaking to group
Let's hear about years 1 to 3.
Unknown speaker, talking to group
We started off by looking at it as whānau stories, and using our whānau as a starting point of finding out about our place. So the main part of this is people and finding our place. Walking around our place, but noticing the signs, the names of the streets, where we live, why is it called that? Using maps and visual pepeha to make links. Using even belongings.
Pūrākau, and other stories – what’s something that's really important to this area. Interviewing people who've been here for a long time and making that connection back to the people who are here, who remember these things?
As we come up to the 4 and 6s, we talked about… how do people adapt and change to the place. So they come in, they find a place to be, and now they have to adapt to a new place and change things. And that also is part of tools, technology, but also the social side of how do we now work with the multiples of people that are in this area, because it's not just our group of people, it's another group or another culture, who was here before us. Do we integrate or do we keep it separate? So we had a bit of a talk about power, people taking back power that are striking, protest; people trying to get power, but also the rights and things that are important to them. How do we have access to things? How do we fight for that access?
Elaine, speaking to group
So we make change to places but the place also has its effect on us and causes us to change.
(Intermediate presentation to group)
Carolyn, speaking to group
So now we'll see what our next step up, up to year 7 to 8, and the Knows and Dos you've pulled out for your particular topic.
Unknown speaker, talking to group
So we narrowed home settlement down to the impact of urbanisation, and why and how people settled in the places that they settled. And we thought we'd begin by asking that question and hearing from different whānau, their stories, and learning from them, what their hopes were, what was the drive for their shift, and whether they felt that that shift had achieved their dreams.
(Secondary presentation to group)
Unknown speaker, talking to group
I feel looking at the knowledge cards for us, our area is a bit broader. So we're talking about mid 20th century stuff here, and then we also cover that but go back a little bit further. Because we start with especially early settler experiences in New Zealand, and attitudes towards land, and then how different cultures, both Māori and other, come in during the mid 20th century.
And the way we thought we would frame all of this and maybe kind of a step-up, I guess, in terms of a bit of critical thinking and a little bit of economic framework, was just follow that chronological story through with them. And thinking about people's attitudes to resources and place and how it changes over time. Kind of very crudely from an exploitative to, sort of, a recovery type thing, but hopefully, picking up on some of the nuance there.
Carolyn, speaking to group
So far the ākonga are developing conceptual understandings but now you’re, sort of, bringing in an ‘ism’ isn’t it, which is what you’re talking about in social science – you’re giving them a model to then critique outwards. Whereas probably earlier on, they’ve been, they’re just getting some of those generalisations, getting the language of histories and social science.
Elaine, speaking to group
Getting those foundational concepts.
Carolyn, speaking to group
Absolutely.
(Kaiako sharing ideas and learnings)
Unknown speaker, talking to group
You can see the progression and a journey taking place as though we were one school collaborating together. You know, it’s quite good.
Unknown speaker, talking to group
And one thing I was thinking that does, sort of, kind of hold us together, and is a bit of a theme that's running through this, is that urban environment that we're living within. It’d probably very, very different if we were having this conversation elsewhere in Aotearoa.
Unknown speaker, talking to group
I think the way the cards are laid out and everything, it was very nice to be able to go from those big ideas. And really…
Unknown speaker, talking to group
Sharpen your focus.
Unknown speaker, talking to group
Yeah, sharpen your focus, but then also refer back to where am I still on task for this big idea?
Unknown speaker, talking to group
We struggled initially to get it to be narrower. And so being able to get rid of some of the cards helped. But these DO cards really helped us to then start to think, okay, we've got the questions we want to explore, but what would that look like then if we start to create it now? What is it that we actually want them to do at the end of it? That was helpful, really helpful.
(Cover of ANZH Planning together cards)
Voice over
A planning session facilitated by these cards will help enrich the planning and learning of your topics.
Suggestions for facilitating your own planning session
Familiarising yourself with the curriculum overview
(00:54–03:16)
- Look at the layout of the curriculum content in the ANZH booklet to see how the content is structured and the relationships between the parts.
- Read out each card in the overview and discuss – how does this relate to your current or planned topics? How do these support students to think critically about the past?
a. Big ideas (cards 4–7)
b. Contexts (cards 8–11)
c. Do practices (cards 12–14)
Choosing a meaningful topic and unpacking it within a phase of learning
(03:16– 05:58)
- Brainstorm topics that you are familiar with, and could have connections to multiple big ideas.
- Discuss the aspirations, languages, identities, and cultures of your school communities, and how your topics relate to these. Think about how you will bring whānau into your planning.
- Choose a topic to explore today across each phase of learning; test it – how does it connect with each big idea?
- Focus on one phase of learning per group; identify how each Know and Do strengthen and refine the topic.
- In each group, write down these connections, including activities, resources and people relevant to your topic that involve the inquiry practices.
Bringing it all together and understanding/identifying progression
(05:59–end)
- Discuss how students’ learning progresses across the phases in both the depth of their knowledge, and sophistication of their use of inquiry practises.
- At each phase of learning, do they have a mix of specific information and generalisations?
- How does your local context influence your current plan? Would contrasts to other local areas strengthen any parts of the topic?
