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Curriculum Alignment

Comic Strip Story Planner

3
Key alignment areas
English
Primary learning area
Phases 2-4
Most useful progression range
Strong fit
“Students shape ideas into structured texts that suit purpose, audience, and form, drawing on planning and revision to strengthen meaning.”

How this handout aligns

The planning boxes and panel sequence support deliberate structuring before drafting, which is especially useful for learners who benefit from visual planning.

📚 English📝 Planning and structure📊 Phases 2-4

Best used when students need stronger pre-writing structure before composing a larger narrative or digital text.

Strong fit
“Students use visual, oral, and written elements together to communicate meaning, mood, and sequence.”

How this handout aligns

The comic-strip format helps students combine image, caption, and dialogue in deliberate ways, making it useful for visual literacy as well as narrative writing.

🎞️ Visual literacy🗣️ Dialogue and voice🎨 Multimodal meaning

Useful for learners who communicate strongly through image as well as written language.

Supporting fit
“Students connect storytelling forms with culture, identity, and place, recognising how narrative can carry values and knowledge.”

How this handout aligns

The pūrākau and local-story extension keeps the planning scaffold connected to Māori storytelling traditions rather than treating comics as culture-free text structures.

🌿 Story traditions🪶 Pūrākau📍 Place and identity

Strongest when the planning task is linked to a shared text, local history, or oral storytelling source.

Puna Kōrero — Sources

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Learning Media.

Ministry of Education. (2021). Te Mātaiaho: The Refreshed New Zealand Curriculum. Ministry of Education.

Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. (2021). Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners. Teaching Council.

Mātauranga Māori Lens

This curriculum companion is informed by mātauranga Māori — the holistic body of Māori knowledge, values, and practices. Kaiako are encouraged to draw connections between the content and tikanga, whanaungatanga, and students's turangawaewae (place and belonging). Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles of partnership, participation, and protection should shape how this material is introduced and discussed in the classroom.