Two versions of this lesson. This is the full runsheet — every activity written out so you can teach it without prior preparation. If you already know the material and just want the shape of the week, use the one-page weekly planner instead. Same lesson, same outcomes, different amount of scaffolding for the kaiako.
Everything the rubric asks for already exists in their books. Today is assembly, craft and revision — not invention.
Te Whakatakotoranga | Run of show
- Do Now — Find your evidence 8 min
- Act 1 — One message, not five 10 min
- Act 2 — Build it 22 min
- Act 3 — Thirty seconds, out loud 10 min
- Synthesise — Two stars and a wish 10 min
- Exit ticket 4 min
Tirohanga Whānui | What this lesson is doing
This lesson is where evidence becomes persuasion, and the risk is that persuasion quietly replaces evidence. A poster that says "SAVE OUR BIRDS" in large letters has communicated nothing that the class learned.
The two structural defences are the data requirement and the quote requirement. Both force the poster to carry something specific that only this class could have produced. The rehearsal step then catches the posters that look finished but cannot be explained — if a student cannot say it in thirty seconds, the poster is decoration.
You'll need
- Poster Rubric — one per student
- Their tally sheets, cause-and-effect organisers and interview quotes
- Poster materials, or devices if you are going digital. Decide in advance and tell them.
- A visible timer for the rehearsal round
Do Now — Find your evidence 8 min
What it is: Students physically locate the two pieces of evidence the rubric requires before any design begins.
Run it
- Books open (5 min): each student writes, on a sticky note or the top of a draft page, the exact number from their count and the exact words of their interview quote. Copied precisely, not from memory.
- Partner check (3 min): the partner asks "where did that come from?" for each. A number without a source goes back in the book.
This is the whole lesson's insurance. A student who starts designing before locating evidence will produce a poster that needs evidence retrofitted, and retrofitted evidence is where invention creeps in.
Act 1 — One message, not five 10 min
What it is: Students reduce everything they know to a single claim the poster will argue.
Run it
- Model the difference (3 min): put two messages on the board. "Birds are important." — true, and says nothing. "There is nowhere safe for small manu to shelter on our field, and planting one shrub group would change that." — specific, arguable, and belongs to this class.
- Each student writes their message (5 min): one sentence, must name a place and a change.
- Partner test (2 min): "Could this sentence be on a poster in any school in the country?" If yes, it is not specific enough yet.
That last test is the anti-slop check and it applies to adult writing just as well. Say so to them.
Act 2 — Build it 22 min
What it is: Production time against a rubric, with targeted kaiako circulation.
Run it
- Set the five requirements visible (2 min) — message, data, quote, kupu Māori, call to action — and start the timer.
- Independent work (20 min).
Circulation priorities, in order
- No data on the poster. Most common gap. Send them to their tally sheet.
- Quote paraphrased. A quote is the person's words. Restore them.
- Kupu Māori used decoratively. If a word could be deleted without changing the meaning, it is decoration — ask what it is doing there.
- Call to action aimed at nobody. "Save the birds" asks no one to do anything. Who, specifically, and what?
Act 3 — Thirty seconds, out loud 10 min
What it is: Rehearsal, which is also a diagnostic.
Run it
- Model it once (2 min): thirty seconds, covering message, one piece of evidence, and the ask. Nothing else.
- Pairs, both directions (6 min): 30 seconds each, timed, twice each so the second attempt is better.
- Two volunteers to the class (2 min).
What this reveals: a student who cannot fill thirty seconds has a poster without content. A student who overruns badly has not chosen a message. Both are fixable in the ten minutes that follow — which is why rehearsal comes before feedback, not after.
Synthesise — Two stars and a wish 10 min
Run it
- Swap with someone outside your group (1 min).
- Structured feedback against the rubric (6 min): two things this poster does well, naming the rubric box, and one improvement, naming the rubric box. Written, not spoken — the author needs to read it while revising.
- Return and make one change (3 min). One. Not a list.
Hands forward to Lesson 6: these posters go on display at the action day, where whānau and visitors will read them. That audience is real, and it is worth telling students now rather than on the day.
Exit ticket 4 min
On a slip:
- My message, in one sentence.
- The one change I made after feedback, and why.
- The rubric box I am least confident about.
Reading these: question 3 tells you exactly who needs five minutes at the start of Lesson 6, and for what. A student who says "none" is usually the one who has not reread the rubric.
Ngā Huarahi Ako | Differentiation
Tautoko / Support
- Provide the message frame: "At ______ there is not enough ______ for manu. If we ______, that would change."
- Allow the poster to be spoken and recorded as a PSA rather than written.
- Pre-print the data and quote onto a label the student can position rather than transcribe.
Toitoi / Extension
- Produce a second version aimed at a different audience — students versus the board of trustees. What changes, and what must not?
- Add a counter-argument and answer it. That is a harder and more honest poster.
Te reo Māori
- The rubric requires kupu Māori used accurately. Check macrons and check meaning — a wrong macron changes the word.
- If a student uses a whakataukī, they should be able to say where it comes from. If they cannot, use plain te reo instead rather than borrowing something unattributed.
Mātauranga Māori | Whose words go on the poster
If a student's interview quote came from a Māori speaker, or their whakataukī from a specific iwi tradition, attribution is not a citation formality — it is a matter of respect for whose knowledge it is.
Two working rules for the posters: name the person you quote and get their permission, and do not use a whakataukī you cannot source. A poster that borrows authority it has not been given is a weaker poster, not a stronger one.
Hononga Marautanga | Curriculum
Evaluating ways humans can positively impact ecosystems and communicating actions that support kaitiakitanga (e.g. planting trees, composting, recycling, growing food, planting native species)
Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Science · Phase 3 · Ecosystems · statement id 19821
The second half of this statement is the whole lesson. Students have already evaluated in Lesson 4; today they communicate — to a real audience, with their own data and a named person's words, aimed at someone specific who could act. The rubric's five requirements exist to stop that communication drifting back into slogan.
Sources and checking
- Students' own evidence: their Lesson 2 counts and Lesson 3 interviews. These are primary sources and should be attributed on the poster as such.
- Any additional figure a student wants to add must come with its source and date. If they cannot produce both, it does not go on the poster.