📚 Unit Plans → 🌍 Literacy Fundamentals: Structured Literacy & Phonics → 📄 Narrative Writing Using Māori Story Structures | English
Years 9–11 Reo Pākehā / English

English • Years 9-11 • Ready to teach

Narrative Writing Using Māori Story Structures

Help ākonga write richer narratives by drawing on whakapapa, whenua, oral-language patterning, and collective perspective rather than relying only on imported Western story arcs.

Teaching use

Junior secondary English writing workshop, narrative craft sequence, or cross-curricular storytelling task grounded in place and identity.

Best for

Years 9-11 classes needing stronger narrative planning, voice, and culturally grounded structure choices.

Prep level

Low to medium. You can teach from the page as written, then substitute local pūrākau, place stories, or whānau narratives if appropriate.

Next step

Adapt the prompt bank, narrative frame, or local context in Te Wānanga, then save a class-specific version to My Kete or Creation Studio.

Use this lesson as a strong narrative base

This lesson is free to teach as-is. If you want a different local setting, a lower writing load, or a more formal assessment outcome, Te Wānanga can rebuild the sequence while keeping the Māori lens and curriculum clarity intact.

  • Swap in local stories, whenua, awa, or maunga so the writing grows from place.
  • Generate differentiated scaffolds for students who need stronger planning or sentence support.
  • Save a reusable class version in My Kete and continue editing in Creation Studio.
Adapt in Te Wānanga Open in Creation Studio View premium workflow

Planning snapshot

  • Time: 1-2 lessons depending on whether drafting and feedback happen in one sitting.
  • Grouping: Whole-class modelling, pair kōrero, then independent writing.
  • Prior knowledge: Students should already know the basics of narrative voice, setting, and paragraphing.
  • Kaiako focus: Make the difference between generic “plot formula” and culturally grounded story pattern explicit.

What to prepare

  • Select one short exemplar narrative or opening paragraph to model with the class.
  • Decide whether students will write from a local place, a remembered event, or an imagined pūrākau-inspired setting.
  • Print or project the planning frame and story-feature list below.
  • Choose whether the final product is a paragraph, full scene, or complete short narrative draft.

Resources provided here

  • Narrative feature guide linked to whakapapa, whenua, and oral-language tradition.
  • Story planning frame and sentence starters.
  • Support and extension pathways.
  • Clear curriculum companion for planning and moderation.

Ngā Whāinga Ako / Learning Intentions

  • Understand how Māori story structures can shape narrative writing differently from a simple beginning-middle-end formula.
  • Use place, ancestry, or collective perspective to deepen setting and character voice.
  • Plan and draft a narrative that uses deliberate structural and language choices.

Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria

  • I can identify at least three features of Māori-informed narrative structure or voice.
  • I can plan a narrative that is grounded in place, relationship, or whakapapa.
  • I can draft a scene or story opening that uses specific language and structure choices rather than generic plot statements.

Curriculum integration is explicit

Use the linked curriculum companion to see how this lesson supports English writing, oral language, and text studies in Te Mataiaho. That makes planning and moderation visible instead of assumed.

📚 English 📝 Narrative writing 🌿 Place, identity, and story
Open curriculum companion Explore wider curriculum coverage

Context, care, and kaupapa

Māori narrative structures are not just decorative alternatives to Western plot diagrams. They emerge from relationships between people, ancestors, places, atua, memory, and collective identity. Teach this lesson by honouring those connections rather than reducing “Māori story structure” to a novelty technique.

If you use local stories, check what is appropriate to share in class. Encourage students to draw on their own places, histories, and communities with care and consent, especially if whānau material is involved.

Story structure focus

1. Whakapapa as beginning

Instead of starting only with a problem, begin by locating the story in relationships: who is connected to whom, what histories sit underneath the moment, and why this setting matters.

2. Whenua as more than backdrop

Place is active. Ask students to show how land, water, weather, sound, or local landmarks shape what characters notice, feel, or decide.

3. Collective voice

Not every narrative has to isolate one hero. Some stories work best when family, hapori, or shared memory sits alongside an individual voice.

4. Oral-language patterning

Use repetition, rhythm, direct address, and memorable phrasing to make the writing feel spoken, carried, and heard.

Suggested lesson sequence

  1. Tuning in: Read a short narrative opening and ask students what makes it feel rooted in place, people, or memory.
  2. Feature noticing: Introduce the four narrative features above and model where they appear in the exemplar.
  3. Planning: Students complete the story planning frame below with a setting, key relationship, and turning point.
  4. Drafting: Students write an opening or short scene, aiming to show place and relationship before rushing to plot.
  5. Feedback and refine: Peers use the success criteria to identify one strength and one next step before revision.

Ready-to-use scaffolds

Story planning frame

  1. Whose story is this? Who is speaking or being centred?
  2. Where does it belong? What place matters, and why?
  3. What relationship matters most? Whānau, friendship, ancestry, community, or another connection?
  4. What change or challenge emerges? What tension enters the story?
  5. How will the ending honour the beginning? What returns, shifts, or is remembered differently?

Sentence starters

  • Before anything happened, this place was already...
  • My grandmother always said that...
  • The awa carried more than water that morning...
  • Everyone in our whānau knew that this road meant...
  • I thought I was walking into the future, but really I was walking back towards...

What to print / share / open

  • Project the feature cards above so students can refer to them while drafting.
  • Print a simple planning template or ask students to copy the five planning questions into their books.
  • If needed, use an additional support handout such as [Future Visioning — Creative Writing](/handouts/future-visioning-creative-writing.html).

By the end of lesson one

  • Students should have a clear setting, relationship focus, and planned narrative direction.
  • Most students should have drafted at least one purposeful opening paragraph.
  • You should be able to see whether students are grounding story in place and relationship rather than only plot summary.

Tautoko / Support

  • Provide one setting and one relationship option so students are not overwhelmed by choice.
  • Co-construct the first paragraph together before students draft independently.
  • Allow oral rehearsal with a partner before writing begins.

Whakawhānui / Extend

  • Ask students to sustain the structure over a full short story rather than a single scene.
  • Invite experimentation with alternating voices or collective narration.
  • Challenge students to weave symbolism, repeated motifs, or whakataukī into the narrative organically.

Whānau / hapori connection

Invite ākonga to ask a whānau member or trusted adult about a place that carries a strong family memory. Students can use that kōrero as the seed for a narrative setting while protecting any details that should remain private.

Where this goes next

Use this lesson before a polished short story, oral storytelling performance, or cross-curricular place-based writing task. If you want a local exemplar set, differentiated writing frames, or an assessment-ready version, adapt it in Te Wānanga and save the next draft in My Kete.

Create a class-specific version Save the workflow in My Kete

🌍 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