Teaching use
Digital storytelling, media creation, English narrative craft, or digital technologies inquiry with a clear mātauranga Māori frame.
Digital Technologies / English • Years 9-11 • Ready to teach
Digital Storytelling with Pūrākau
Guide ākonga to create digital narratives grounded in pūrākau structures, local place, and whakapapa rather than generic plot templates, so digital storytelling grows from Aotearoa ways of knowing.
Use this as the narrative design foundation
This lesson is free to teach as-is. If you want a different text set, younger language supports, or a version tailored for oral storytelling, short film, or digital comics, Te Wānanga can adapt the same culturally grounded sequence.
- Swap in local iwi, hapū, or rohe narratives with the same planning structure.
- Generate differentiated storyboard prompts, voiceover frames, and peer-feedback questions.
- Save your class version in My Kete and continue shaping the final asset in Creation Studio.
Teacher planning snapshot
- Time: 2-3 lessons. This page gives the planning lesson; production can happen in later sessions.
- Grouping: Whole-class modelling, paired planning kōrero, then small-group or independent story development.
- Prior knowledge: Students need basic familiarity with digital presentation tools, but not advanced editing skills.
- Kaiako focus: Keep the cultural frame explicit: ask who holds the story, who it is for, and what responsibilities come with retelling it digitally.
What to prepare
- Select one example text, oral retelling, or short media piece that shows a strong sense of place, ancestry, and purpose.
- Decide the output format: narrated slideshow, short video, podcast, digital comic, or interactive story.
- Print or share the planning resources below before students begin drafting.
- Clarify whether students are creating from local pūrākau, their own whānau stories, or a contemporary issue explored through pūrākau structure.
Resources already provided
- Story-structure teaching points rooted in pūrākau, not just generic Western plot arcs.
- Storyboard and planning resources you can print or adapt immediately.
- Teacher prompts for ethics, voice, and audience.
- Explicit curriculum companion for planning and moderation.
Ngā Whāinga Ako / Learning Intentions
- Understand how pūrākau carries knowledge, values, place, and relationships through narrative structure.
- Plan a digital story that respects source, audience, and cultural context.
- Use digital tools to shape story sequence, voice, and visual choices intentionally.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can explain whose story is being told, why it matters, and how I will treat it respectfully.
- I can map my digital story using a clear beginning, development, turning point, and closing reflection grounded in pūrākau logic.
- I can justify at least two digital design decisions that strengthen meaning for my audience.
Curriculum integration is explicit
The linked curriculum companion makes the alignment visible across English, Hangarau Matihiko, and local curriculum design. It gives kaiako a clear planning bridge instead of assuming they will map the resource themselves.
Why this matters in Aotearoa
Pūrākau is not just “story content” to decorate digital work. It is a knowledge system that carries whakapapa, whenua, values, warning, memory, and aspiration. This lesson helps ākonga see digital storytelling as a responsibility: who is telling the story, whose voice is centred, and what happens when stories are edited for screens, sound, and audience reach.
Use local stories and community knowledge with care. If students are drawing on whānau or hapū stories, the lesson should include permission, consultation, and reflection about appropriate sharing.
Teaching sequence
- Whakawhanaungatanga and framing: Open by discussing stories students know from whānau, marae, local place, or community. Ask what makes a story feel like it carries more than just plot.
- Model pūrākau structure: Analyse one example and identify whenua, whakapapa, challenge, values, consequence, and what the audience is meant to remember.
- Discuss digital retelling choices: Compare what changes when the same narrative is told as voice, image, text, soundscape, animation, or slideshow.
- Plan the digital story: Students map their own narrative using the storyboard and planning prompts below. Have them identify source, audience, and the tikanga/ethics considerations of retelling.
- Peer review for clarity and respect: Pairs or small groups give feedback on whether the planned story honours the kaupapa, carries a clear message, and uses digital choices well.
- Move into production: Shift the strongest plans into Te Wānanga or Creation Studio for script shaping, resource drafting, and eventual publishing/export.
Core teaching prompts
Questions to ask about the story
- Who holds this story, and what gives them the right to tell it?
- What values, warnings, or hopes sit inside it?
- How is place shaping the meaning?
- What could be lost if this story is retold too quickly or too generally?
Questions to ask about the digital form
- Why is this medium the right one for this story?
- What should the audience hear, see, or feel first?
- How will pacing, imagery, or sound shape the message?
- What should stay understated or protected?
Resources and scaffolds provided
Oral Storytelling Handout
Use this to compare oral delivery decisions with digital narration and scriptwriting.
Story to Life Connections
Supports ākonga to connect narrative themes with lived experience, local context, and reflection.
Storyboard / Comic Planner
A practical planning scaffold for sequencing scenes, narration, and visual focus before production.
If you mention digital planning cards, storyboards, or oral storytelling frames in class, they are already linked here. The lesson should be teachable without inventing fresh materials on the day.
Support and extension
Support
- Offer one shared story source so students focus on digital retelling rather than story selection.
- Use sentence frames for source, purpose, audience, and key message.
- Allow voice notes or rough sketch sequencing before written scripting.
Extension
- Ask students to compare two different digital forms for the same story and justify which is more appropriate.
- Build in explicit audience testing and revision for clarity, ethics, and impact.
- Invite students to add bilingual elements or a locally grounded visual design language.
Print / share / open
- Print the storyboard/planning scaffold before students begin.
- Share one model text or clip that shows strong story purpose and clear audience awareness.
- Open Te Wānanga if you want AI-assisted adaptation, script drafting, or differentiated prompts.
Settle before the lesson starts
- Will students work from an existing story source or generate one from local kaupapa?
- What digital format are you targeting in this sequence?
- What are the tikanga boundaries around retelling and sharing?
What good progress looks like by lesson one
- Students can explain whose story they are telling and why it matters.
- Most students have a mapped sequence, key message, and audience in mind.
- The class is ready to move into script, storyboard, or production development without losing the cultural purpose of the work.
🌍 Inclusion & Accessibility
ELL / ESOL support: Pre-teach key vocabulary before the lesson. Provide bilingual glossaries where available. Allow responses in home language as a first step.
Neurodiverse learners: Chunk instructions clearly. Offer choice in how students demonstrate understanding. Use visual supports and structured templates.
Scaffold & extension: Offer scaffold tasks and entry-level supports for students who need them. Extend capable learners with open-ended extension challenges.
Curriculum alignment
- English — Writing: Students will construct and communicate meaning using language features appropriate to purpose and audience.
- Social Sciences: Understand how people participate individually and collectively in response to community challenges.