📚Unit Plans → 🌍Kōrero 4: Tōku Pepeha — My Identity → 📖Lesson 6: Pepeha Presentation Day
Years 4–6Te Reo Māori / Learning Languages

🎉 Pepeha Presentation Day

Lesson 6 of 6 — ākonga share a pepeha or mihimihi in a format that protects mana, listen as a community, and choose their next practice step.

🕘 Lesson at a Glance | Te Hōtaka

Do NowReadiness check⏱ 10 min 1 · Mana ProtocolAgree how we listen⏱ 10 min 2 · Share AFirst speakers⏱ 15 min 3 · Share BSecond speakers⏱ 15 min 4 · FeedbackOne strength, one step⏱ 5 min ExitReflect and close⏱ 5 min

Lesson Overview | Tirohanga Whānui

Ākonga present the pepeha or mihimihi prepared across lessons 1–5. They choose a whole-class, small-group, paired, seated, live, or recorded format; listeners practise mana-enhancing response and feedback. The lesson closes with evidence of oral-language growth, not a judgement about the depth of anyone's identity.

Learning Intentions | Ngā Whāinga Ako

  • Deliver a complete pepeha or mihimihi using an accessible presentation mode.
  • Listen and respond in a way that protects the speaker's mana.
  • Name one oral-language strength and one useful next practice step.

⚡ Do Now — Ready, Nearly, or Check-in?

⏱ 10 min

Run it

  1. Choose a mode (2 min): students select whole-class, small-group, pair, seated, live, or a private recording. Reading from the template is allowed.
  2. Final rehearsal (5 min): one quiet delivery to a partner. The listener responds only with “Tēnā koe, [Name].”
  3. Private check-in (3 min): students marked “almost complete” in lesson 5 meet the kaiako. They may shorten their chosen form without penalty or present later.

Teacher: Never require standing, eye contact, memorisation, public disclosure, or whole-class performance. These are presentation preferences, not evidence of language learning.

Activity 1 · Mana-Enhancing Protocol

⏱ 10 min

What it is: The class agrees on the response, privacy, and feedback rules before anyone shares.

Put these four rules where everyone can see them

  1. Listen without checking identity: nobody challenges whether a place, name, whakapapa line, or omission is “real enough.”
  2. Respond together: after each speaker, say “Tēnā koe, [Name].” Applause is optional; the response is enough.
  3. Feedback the delivery: comment on clarity, pace, pauses, and pronunciation effort—not the amount disclosed.
  4. Record only with consent: ask the speaker and whānau first; state where the file will live, who can see it, and when it will be deleted. No automatic public portfolio upload.

🪶 Tikanga note: Pepeha and mihimihi are relational acts, not talent-show performances. Local kawa and speaking practice vary. Follow mana whenua guidance where the lesson sits inside a formal local occasion.

Source (verified): Tāhūrangi — Te Reo Māori, Emergent (Ministry of Education guidance on pepeha structure, context, and local relationships).

Teacher: Model a short mihimihi and deliberately read from a card. This makes the accessible option legitimate before students choose it.

Activity 2 · Share — Round A

⏱ 15 min

What it is: The first half of each circle shares once in the mode selected at the start. One assigned feedback partner listens with the Peer Feedback Form.

Presentation cycle

  1. The speaker takes their chosen position and may hold their template.
  2. The speaker shares their pepeha or mihimihi. If they stop, the kaiako offers the next line privately or lets them finish there.
  3. Listeners respond: “Tēnā koe, [Name].”
  4. The assigned partner records one specific strength and one practicable next step.
Class / settingHonest two-round format
Up to 15 speakersOne whole-class circle; half share in Round A and half in Round B, allowing about 2 minutes each.
16–30 speakersTwo simultaneous circles with an adult or trusted fluent facilitator in each; half of each circle shares per round.
No second facilitatorSplit presentation day across two lessons. Do not rush cultural speech to protect a timetable.
Private / recorded choicesRun these in a quiet adjacent space during the student's assigned round, or schedule a separate check-in.

Teacher: Keep every cycle to about two minutes without cutting a speaker off. If the number of speakers makes that impossible, use a second session.

Activity 3 · Share — Round B

⏱ 15 min

What it is: The remaining speakers share. Students who presented in Round A now hold the mana-enhancing listener role.

Reset and run it

  1. Reset (1 min): acknowledge Round A and change feedback partners if needed.
  2. Share (13 min): repeat the four-step presentation cycle for the second half of each circle.
  3. Close (1 min): thank every speaker and collect forms before anybody begins comparing profiles.

Teacher: Use the Pepeha/Mihimihi Presentation Rubric as a profile. Do not lower achievement because a student omitted private information, read from a template, avoided eye contact, sat down, or chose a smaller audience.

Activity 4 · Receive and Process Feedback

⏱ 5 min

Run it

  1. Feedback partners hand the form directly to the speaker.
  2. Speakers underline one strength they recognise and circle one next step they will use.
  3. Pair-share: “One thing I can now do that I could not do in lesson 1 is…”

Teacher: Remove any comment that judges identity or requests more disclosure before forms are returned.

🔚 Exit — Whakamutunga

⏱ 5 min

Complete three lines:

  1. At the start of this unit, I could…
  2. Now, I can…
  3. My next practice step is…

Close together: Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

Teacher: Keep the exit slips with the rubric profile. Together they show growth across the unit without turning identity into a score.

🎯 Curriculum Links | Te Hononga ki te Marautanga

This lesson's focus: Ākonga use the structure they have built to communicate identity, belonging, and whakapapa in an authentic pepeha or mihimihi.

Learning Languages — Pāhekoheko · Emergent 1

"Pepeha follow a specific structure made up of key elements that each serve a purpose in expressing identity, belonging, and whakapapa."

📑 View the full Kōrero 4 unit overview →

📦 Materials & Resources | Ngā Rauemi
📊 Assessment Framework | Aromatawai

Evidence at exit:

  • A complete or appropriately shortened pepeha/mihimihi delivered in the student's chosen mode
  • Care with pronunciation, pace, and the structure of the chosen form
  • Respectful listening and a mana-enhancing response to others
  • A specific reflection on growth and a next practice step

Do not assess: whakapapa depth, private disclosure, memorisation, eye contact, standing posture, or willingness to be recorded.

🚀 Extension & Differentiation | Rerekētanga

Support: allow template reading, choral rehearsal, a recorded attempt, a trusted partner audience, line-by-line prompting, or a shorter introduction that retains greeting, honest chosen content, name, and closing.

Extension: invite ākonga to refine pronunciation with a trusted speaker, compare formal and informal delivery, or annotate why each line belongs in their chosen context. Extra identity disclosure is never the extension task.

🔗 Unit Progression | Te Ara Whakamua

This lesson completes the Kōrero 4 arc: place and whakapapa lines became a culturally situated choice between pepeha and mihimihi, then a real oral-language act.

📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot | Whakaaro Kaiako

Before the lesson: confirm presentation choices privately; arrange a second facilitator or a second session for more than 15 speakers; print one feedback form per pair and one rubric per speaker.

Privacy: recording is optional and requires informed student and whānau consent. A recording plan must name purpose, viewers, storage, and deletion date. Never make a pepeha or mihimihi public by default.

Cultural safety: a mihimihi is not a lesser fallback. Māori students disconnected from whakapapa must never be made responsible for explaining that disconnection. Tangata Tiriti students must not be encouraged to claim iwi, hapū, waka, or other whakapapa that is not theirs.