"Mā te rongo ka mōhio, mā te mōhio ka mārama"
Through listening comes knowing, through knowing comes understanding
Core classroom match
ENGLISH-0afb53c907: Text complexity — include ideas that invite critical thinking and require inference or judgement. This lesson builds the habit of questioning claims, evidence, perspective, and missing information across any text.
How this lesson aligns
This lesson introduces critical thinking as a shared classroom routine. Students identify claims, question evidence, notice perspective, and produce a reasoned response using discussion and writing.
ENGLISH-0afb53c907
TM-SS-3-D1
Te Mātaiaho English Phase 3. Use as the primary planning anchor for the lesson’s reading, discussion, and short written response sequence.
Strong support
TM-SS-3-D1: Explore perspectives, use evidence to form conclusions, and share ideas — the lesson is built around claim, evidence, perspective, and missing-information questions as transferable inquiry skills.
How this lesson aligns
The entire lesson is built around claim, evidence, perspective, and missing-information questions. Students learn that stronger thinking depends on questioning the reliability and completeness of what they hear and read.
TM-SS-3-D1
ENGLISH-2b7fdf417b
Te Mātaiaho Social Sciences Phase 3. Strongest inquiry bridge when using the lesson before research, social inquiry, or issue analysis.
Supporting classroom practice
ENGLISH-43f06732f1: Text forms and range — students engage with texts from different cultures and contexts. This lesson asks whose knowledge is being centred and who is missing, giving critical thinking an Aotearoa context.
How this lesson aligns
Whole-class modelling, paired kōrero, and group comparison are built into the lesson before independent response. That structure supports confidence and gives kaiako visible checkpoints for who is ready for more complex critical work.
ENGLISH-43f06732f1
TM-SS-3-U1
Te Mātaiaho English Phase 3. Use to justify the lesson’s gradual release structure and to connect critical thinking to Aotearoa bicultural and multicultural text traditions.
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.