Session 10

 

In this session I look to give my students a assessment that will test their vocabulary knowledge in Gagana Samoa. Now this Assessment will cover the Target Vocabulary they indicated they didn't understand and also sentences or phrases that have deep meaning to it. This will assess and measure whether the students acquired the understanding after they completed the flipped tasks and teacher teacher tasks. This would also give me an indication of how effective my planning of my programme design was or not lol. I definitely saw some awesome gems during the participation of students. Students will have the opportunity to explain their understanding using Gagana Samoa or English. The purpose of this assessment is not to test the spelling or sentence structure of the language rather the understanding of the phrase and target vocabulary.  in this case completion of task hold small significance. Once this Assessment is completed I will look to analyse and evaluate the data. Fingers crossed Majority of the students understand what I have been teaching. 

Next steps will be to design a programme that consists of 6 sessions which will complete my final cycle. The focus will be on identifying for myself how teaching for transfer is identified, and bring fourth clarity around how do we know the 2 way transfer is happening. Reading Cummins, (2005) he argues the point of the transfer being identified in 5 ways: 

There are five types of transfer:

1. Transfer of conceptual elements – e.g. understanding the concept of the water cycle.

2. Transfer of metacognitive and metalinguistic strategies – e.g. graphic organisers, mnemonic devices, learning vocabulary

3. Transfer of paralinguistic features – e.g. gestures to aid communication

4. Transfer of specific linguistic elements – e.g. knowing the meaning of photo in photosynthesis

5. Transfer of phonological awareness – e.g. knowing each word is made up of individual sounds

After identifying this in the literature I have decided to design my last cycle catering to these 5 types of transfers. Now because I have 6 sessions left I will design a programme that will target all 5 types of transfer. I just need to figure out what my topic would be.

Oral Presentation Today

 

i had seconds thoughts about this assignment because I was thinking man have I done enough to actually present well in from of Herbert. Then I thought to myself wait a minute I have actually done quite a bit. Some would probably say more than others. I am pretty hard on myself when it comes to academics, because lets just say its not my passion lol but I do it because its my calling. I have students who I am going to be teaching next year when I am back in class and I want to use the knowledge I have acquired to to support student achievement in a bilingual education pathway. 

This assignment is a learning conversation to see where my thinking is at in terms of my project purpose and also to see what I have done so far and discuss what needs to be done next. I found it to be a very useful conversation because I needed to hear it from Herbert whether I am on the right track and whether or not my project has merit to pass my Masters qualification. Now in a way I was surprised I answered every question and answered it well. Now this is me just having high expectations of my learning. I realised that I spoke a lot because I knew my why! together with what I have done already it serves to be a good base for discussion. 

If I can remember correctly the questions I need to continue to think hard about was how UDL and Flipped Learning Aligns or doesn't align with bilingual pedagogies?

Why did I pick UDL and Flipped Learning approaches? 

What are my next steps? 

The BIG questions was about the Literature: I cant remember what he said but it was important. I think that this is the big portion of the project which is why its strongly emphasised. Now I think its about reading the literature and comparing it against other literature. 

But when I get the video recording of my conversation I will post here. Saves me from writing it all up lol

Session 8&9

 

Session 8 and 9 was a continuation of the last session. This week went kind of different because there were some students away on a sports trip. Now this didn't stop me from carrying on with the students I did have. I only the girls first which meant that when the boys come back I will have to repeat the same flipped task and teacher task because the students dont have access at home to complete the flipped task. 

Throughout the start of this project students would do the flipped task in the session before teacher provides the actual teacher task. It was very pleasing to see the students engage in talanoa about the Gagana Samoa Phrases. English was allowed to be used as well in these sessions to promoted trans-languaging. The students reading the phrases in Gagana Samoa and when explaining they would use English. a few students could do both. 

the writing output for this activity was really good. I enjoyed reading their responses in Gagana Samoa this tells me that they are soaking up the context in our sessions each week. The tasks that I created definitely reassures me the importance of activating prior knowledge and giving opportunities for students to talanoa about the language being used. 

A lot of the phrases we metaphoric and target vocabulary were explored with they students. I noticed students were so good at code switching which means they were switching back and forth when explaining their thinking. 

Where to from here? Well next steps will be to use my teaching skills in order to actually identify how this transfer is happening when is it actually happen. 

Going to pick a different topic and use this topic to deliver the content for the last 6 sessions going in to term 4. I might use a dual language book if I can find one that suits the year 7&8 level. 

Principal Talk

 

It was good to catch up with my principal today, Sonia Johnston. We had a good conversation about where I am at with my project, and we shared some good thoughts and ideas to think about. These were the take always I couldn't stop thinking about after our conversation. 

-  We spoke about teaching for transfer and the importance of this Bilingual pedagogy. There was a discussion she had with a high school teacher who has an inquiry relating to student's with strong Gagana Samoa but lacking the competence in the English level especially for the NCEA LEVEL. 

- This brought about the connections that teachers need to support our senior students with in terms of teaching identifying this transfer of skills, when and how but also getting the students to make these connections with using their skills in their first language and second language if that makes sense lol 

- We talked about teaching for transfer being a longed researched pedagogy however we feel that its the skill of the teacher to support students with making this transfer happen/the connection happen in Gagana Samoa and in English. 

- Because research states the the skills are transferrable as stated by (Cummins, 2008, McCaffery, 2015) They call this a two way transfer. 

The sessions I have done already, has there been any connection made or transfer made amongst or between students? 

how do you know? can they use it through a variety of inputs??? These are my thoughts so far i dont know if these thoughts connect though.

Session 7

 

So Today's session had mixed feelings, in terms task delivery and how confidence I was in implementing the Skills Flow Task with the students. two students out of the 9 looked very tired today. They confirmed they had extra family events outside of school last night which finished really late. So i encouraged these students to stay strong for me during this block because really in my head I need the data lol. 

The feeling in the room was good as usual but it was more towards my own feelings about the task I prepared. Usually the skills flow task uses a text that kind of has a storyline that happens in chronological order but I flipped it and instead of using a story I used their formal Gagana Samoa speeches. I took phrases and vocabulary from their speeches they did not understand and use this instead. I found images that represent these phrases and called out each phrase and students had to number the picture from 1-6 based on the phrases I called out. The task outcome was about meaning and understanding of these phrases not so much completing the task which has little priority. 

I started with a flipped task and I use a before and after vocabulary grid which was solely to see what there prior knowledge of these words were vs the initial meanings. Things I notice was the opportunity for students to talanoa and unpack their understanding this is such a powerful tool for students. When they have the opportunity to talanoa and connect their ideas with their peers. the UDL model talks about the different ways we can represent content this was evident in my prep today, I had visuals, I had phrases and words, but this leads me to say I need to use videos in the next lesson so that students have this also because UDL how confirms how important it is to have multiple means of representing content. This connects me to the also providing different levels of output. In this session i wanted to cover, speaking, writing, listening and reading at the same time. We only managed to do speaking today due to time restraints. The sharing part was awesome. hearing the students share their thoughts based on the context of the phrases and the images I provided really worked. They mentioned their own words to describe the meanings, so the input was reading the Gagana Samoa phrases and listening to the phrases out loud and the output was speaking through the sharing of their understanding. Very Powerful to see and witness students making connection to their Gagana Samoa Language. 

My thinking now is was their signs of translanguaging happening? 

what about teaching for transfer? 

Students did another google form to see how they thought the lesson went. This was their responses.

 

Just wondering now where to next? What content am I going to deliver? I feel thats enough time spent on the Speeches as long as we covered the parts they did not understand well we can look to use other ways of Learning Gagana Samoa. 

Session 5 and 6

 

Alright, where do I start, Well todays iteration cycle was a good session. I felt like my participants really understood the  vocabulary that they highlighted in the previous session stating they dont understand it. Now with the Gagana Samoa one word could mean many things however in this instance we focused on the context of their speeches which I refer to as the situation. This allowed students to focus solely on the meaning of these words in a specific context. The engagement was there, the communicative skills we there based on my observations students were talking and trying to make sense of the flipped task and connect this to their prior-knowledge. I can definitely see the importance of cummins quadrant framework which seperates the idea of context embedded tasks vs context reduced tasks. I see there is a very important place for this in the bilingual space, especially linking this frame to a task based approach where the focus is not solely on completing the but solely dependent on students finding meaning in the target language. Wow I really enjoyed creating this task for my students where they got the opportunity to mix and match Gagana Samoa word, English word and visual. It was great to see students talk about the visuals which supported them in making their own interpretations, and finding what matches. The question now comes to mind where this rotational model of bilingual education where teachers are delivering the curriculum through Gagana Samoa on one day and than English on another day, Now today I witnessed both languages, in action input and output were both in Gagana Samoan and English during one block and I found this very beneficial with the participants I deliberately selected. Then it raises this question about why seperate languages into slots of days? I dont know if this is relevant, but its my thoughts at this point in time. Why cant the senior students, experience teaching through a language using both languages at the same time through out the day? 

Session 3 and 4

 

You know what I came to a realisation that I think I am targeting too much for my Masters programme. when I reflect back on the 3 questions I have chosen I believe its too much for me to research about let alone implement with my group of students. 

Flipped learning approaches is where there needs to be a bigger focus in delivery. Now on the third iteration we looked at vocabulary and phrases that the students needs to find meanings to or in this case discuss the meanings with their peers, this acted as the flipped task the students needed to complete before looking at the introduction of their speeches. Now I found that there was no connection between the flipped task and the teacher task which was fairly overlooked in my mind. Now even though this was the case it was very interested to see the student discuss these terms and phrases I deliberately chose from the their speeches. I watched and observed and there was some relevant information being shared and some information that was way off in terms of meaning. This is expected based on the data I collected where students noted that they either understood some information or just memorised the speeches. 

Fourth iteration they participated in a Gagana Samoa Assessment which I created myself. I did this because I wanted to test them in the beginning of our cycles and than look to assess them again towards the end. Now this will determine whether their would be academic progress in between with understanding Gagana Samoa content. I have yet to still look at their assessments and their completed flipped tasks. 

I checked the teacher activity the students did which was to find differences and similarities in the introduction only of their speeches, they Identified the key areas of this introduction. 

First and Second Session

 

My first iteration was completed on the 6th of August 2025, Now I have 9 participants who have signed a consent form confirming their participation in this project. Now before I get into this reflection about my actions, I wanted to touch base about the speech therapist I ran into while waiting for the students to arrive. She showed some interest in what I was doing after I explained to her what my goal is. You know the power of Talanoa is real. It's not until you voice to someone what you are doing that you find that you understand more about why you are carrying out this project. The gem I took away from this conversation was the importance of learning Gagana Samoa for our New Zealand born students who in most cases do not get the Gagana at home. So providing rich activities for them to learn Gagana Samoa in class is important to me. You will get students who are immersed at home with the Gagana Samoa vs Students who don't get the Gagana at all and not to mention students who do get the Gagana but not through deep and meaningful interactions.  This is what my project is really about, being able to provide rich and meaningful experiences where students learn and improve their Gagana Samoa, through reading, writing and speaking. After this conversation I self-regulated my thoughts and spoke to myself about whether or not I should have chosen a group of students that were not getting the Gagana Samoa at home vs those students that are? eh! Yes I had a eh moment lol in Samoan we call this a "Why didn't I think of this prior to starting". Oh well it is actually too late to change it now because I have already started and time is actually on my side at the moment. Now in saying this it was interesting to find out that the students that were getting Gagana Samoa at home did not know what some of the vocabulary were in Gagana Samoa which kind of made sense to in a way that even though they are getting Gagana Samoa at home it may not be in the context of learning, or a context in which students have no experience in. If that makes any sense. e.g being stranded, fishing, students would only know these words if they have been exposed to the experiences. 

First Iteration, Well I can definitely say that I felt really good again to be in front of students, teaching again. It made me realise how much I miss the teacher to students interaction. We started off with an Ice-breaker just to break the ice a bit before getting into some Literacy. Students enjoyed the ice-breaker which definitely gave them the focus they needed to complete the task. I gave them a passage in English to read. After they read this passage they had a short discussion talking about what this passage was about. I then removed this passage and gave them questions related to the characters and how they are processing the event of being stranded out in sea for 3 months. Before they did this activity they did a flipped task for me which was to unpack the meaning of content vocabulary. This gave the opportunity for students to discuss and talk about the target vocabulary before actually reading the passage that contains the vocabulary in it. This flipped task also needed the students to find the Gagana Samoa words for the words I gave out. Very interesting to see the awesome discussion amongst the students trying to find the Gagana Samoa words, for the English words. Like the English Language there are many words that can explain or describe the meaning of words. 

Students also needed to clarify with their peers and teacher, you know this is the learning talk we are trying to encourage with students and this flipped approach gives the children the chance to dig deep into their prior knowledge and talk their way through their thinking. It was also good to see the students made connections with their heritage language and be able to understand the passage more because they had the chance to talk about the target vocabulary first. Once they completed this, what happened was they were given a task to write down all the main points about the short passage using your Gagana Samoa. Here I was wanting to use teaching for transfer where we use one language for input and another language for output. 

Reading some of their responses I can definitely see the connection between the flipped task and the actual teaching task I used. They automatically used the vocabulary they explored during their flipped tasks in their explanations. In some instances the girls have written more than the boys and when reading it the girls had more in depth knowledge about the passage, Why though? Could be the barrier between understanding and knowing how to write their understanding using the correct Gagana Samoa vocabulary and structure? If I was to ask them to write it in English would they have not written more? Probably there is a high chance they would but what's the focus of my project? It's to improve Gagana Samoa through the use of all learning modes, reading, writing and speaking. 

Iteration 2 

This session was good for my understanding. We started with a Whakawhanaungatanga activity followed by time to complete a flipped learning task, and then  got stuck into looking at one of the Gagana Speeches to check student understanding of the speech. Now it was very awesome to hear students' responses on what they understood and what they didn’t understand. One of the words they didn’t understand was the word Fa’avae. They could explain it or express what this word meant even after reading it in a sentence. Now this word is a good example of the motto Samoa uses on their national Emblem  which states “Fa’avae Le Atua Samoa”. Now this word pretty much means foundation, which is an academic word used to describe strong value, or in other words a house with a strong foundation. Now students didn’t understand this word. 

This did confirm for me that students are not understanding what they are speaking about in Gagana Samoa, and I can definitely confirm that this is something that is also evident in the English language as well, but It's a challenge we face as teachers, the question is what actions do I take that would support students with understanding these types of academic language in Gagana Samoa so students have that understanding. 

I remember this Deputy Principal I meet a couple of years ago telling me that there was this student who was in a bilingual unit, they were going through this educational pathway and towards the end of year 8 she told this Deputy Principal that she had no idea what her language meant she didn’t understand anything that was being taught in that specific language. All that student was doing was just participating in the language but had no idea what the songs meant, what the books meant. Now I believe this is relevant to what occurred in my session today. 

Where too from here? Well first I need to support these students in understanding their Gagana Samoa speeches through unpacking the Gagana Samoa, language features and vocabulary being used in a specific context. 

Upon looking at the chosen speech we used to see where students understandings were at I could see alot of similarities in what the students did not understand from the chosen speech. They all pretty much highlighted the words and phrases they did not understand.

 

Whats happening?

Ok so just an update on how this masters journey is going. Let's just say that it's pretty energy draining, especially the literature you have to immerse yourself in. I sent through my first Milestone write up to the Great Herbert Thomas, lol (Our facilitator). He is such a critical thinker he keeps you aligned and focused on the goal. Well I sent it through to get some feedback just to see whether my initial thinking is on the right path. Feedback confirmed all the literature I mention is relevant however there were a few things I needed to take into consideration. The three points noted was, 

- "I think the areas you cover in the lit review are all relevant but there are some key aspects that still need to be included: 

- a short overview of key approaches in the literature to second language acquisition; 

a short discussion of literature-informed views regarding the value of UDL and flipped learning for second language acquisitions 

- importantly, what does the literature say in terms of how one measures second language acquisition. 

This journey I am embarking on is not an easy one. I have pretty much put myself in the middle and made it all about my own teaching practice. Why? When I really reflect on myself as a professional in a Bilingual space I constantly ask myself, do I really know and understand how Second Language Acquisition works?  In what areas of my practice have I confidently and consistently produced positive outcomes in Second Language Acquisition? Do I have the skills needed to ensure Second Language Acquisition is happening in my class? Well the next couple of weeks will test my skills and knowledge about how students engage in the use of Gagana Samoa and English. Now I don't have the answers yet but I am hoping this data I pull together gives me more insight on how I encourage, foster and implement Language learning in my programme. 

I know UDL and Flipped learning approaches are positive and produce better outcomes for engagement and programme design but the question is how does it look and work in a bilingual setting. I have to keep in mind that my classroom is also 50% Gagana Samoa and 50% English. Now I am trying to set myself up for success here in terms of being back in the classroom next year. I want to enter my classroom next year confidently equipped enough to support my second language learners. 

How do you measure Second Language Acquisition? I would think you use assessments, formative assessments, classroom observations, listening, reading, writing and speaking opportunities or tasks in class, Lets see what the literature says. 

ok so at this point in time of my Masters journey I can definitely confirm that this opportunity is not for the faint hearted. I am currently a bit behind schedule and I am worried that I won't have enough data to analyze and evaluate for my final report. At the moment it is just a worry, because I was supposed to start my iteration cycles this week but I haven't even finished my project plan for the first 4 weeks. Also consent forms are not all back yet. Did I leave it too late? Should I have started in term 2? Well what I can confirm is that starting in term 3 is enough time to gather the data I need. Also study leave was a means to have a break from teaching where I focused on myself and cared for the first and second term. So no! I believe that term 3 is enough time to gather the data I need for my Masters. I am so over the literature at the moment I have read so much that most times I forgot what I actually read. Does anyone out there have those moments where you write down your critical thinking about the literature and read back and say to yourself wow did I actually write this? lol for some strange reason it flows well and it makes sense to me lol well that's me at the moment. 

The advice we received from our facilitators was to find the literature that has been viewed the most because chances are these are the most recommended readers which will be good for my report. Once I got stuck in the literature I actually had a surprise moment. No, not those surprises where everyone is on your side and celebrating you but the surprise in terms of saying to myself "do I actually know how bilingual education works"? If someone were to ask me how do you know your teaching practice is working for your second language learners? Well I could say well look at their books, modelling books, their reading and writing? but do I really sit down and make sense of what each child is presenting to me? You know I had this epiphany when I was reading the literature because everything we do is pretty much based on research, our actions, our beliefs about education, our drive for success. I can guarantee you that what we do in class is supported by research but do I know the research? I know, I know I am just blabbing out what's coming to me at the moment. 

All I know is that there needs to be meaningful learning for me to ensure that I am an effective professional in the Bilingual space. It's just not enough just to pass by and pass with the bare minimum I need to exceed all expectations of me as a teacher. I plan to do this! 

Milestone schedule for Project Change.

 

ok so at this point in time of my Masters journey I can definitely confirm that this opportunity is not for the faint hearted. I am currently a bit behind schedule and I am worried that I won't have enough data to analyze and evaluate for my final report. At the moment it is just a worry, because I was supposed to start my iteration cycles this week but I haven't even finished my project plan for the first 4 weeks. Also consent forms are not all back yet. Did I leave it too late? Should I have started in term 2? Well what I can confirm is that starting in term 3 is enough time to gather the data I need. Also study leave was a means to have a break from teaching where I focused on myself and cared for the first and second term. So no! I believe that term 3 is enough time to gather the data I need for my Masters. I am so over the literature at the moment I have read so much that most times I forgot what I actually read. Does anyone out there have those moments where you write down your critical thinking about the literature and read back and say to yourself wow did I actually write this? lol for some strange reason it flows well and it makes sense to me lol well that's me at the moment. 
The advice we received from our facilitators was to find the literature that has been viewed the most because chances are these are the most recommended readers which will be good for my report. Once I got stuck in the literature I actually had a surprise moment. No, not those surprises where everyone is on your side and celebrating you but the surprise in terms of saying to myself "do I actually know how bilingual education works"? If someone were to ask me how do you know your teaching practice is working for your second language learners? Well I could say well look at their books, modelling books, their reading and writing? but do I really sit down and make sense of what each child is presenting to me? You know I had this epiphany when I was reading the literature because everything we do is pretty much based on research, our actions, our beliefs about education, our drive for success. I can guarantee you that what we do in class is supported by research but do I know the research? I know, I know I am just blabbing out what's coming to me at the moment. 
All I know is that there needs to be meaningful learning for me to ensure that I am an effective professional in the Bilingual space. It's just not enough just to pass by and pass with the bare minimum I need to exceed all expectations of me as a teacher. I plan to do this! 

Reviewing Literature

At the library today thought I will change the environment so my mind is free to engage in the literature I have to read in order to prepare myself for my encounter with the students. Based on the sprint on LMS I really need to take in to consideration the group of participants I intend to work with because the mythology approach needs to align with the world views of these students. Why though? thats a good question I think it is because the quality of the learning design is based on how well the world views of these students are represented in this project. Todays education view on society is that we are a multicultural country where we are accompanied by so may cultures therefore I need to ask myself is my design for learning able to cater for many cultural world views or could what I am doing be appropriate for all cultures around me? 

The sprint also mentioned thinking back on whether my project is culturally responsive to my context and is it culturally sustaining my practice for my learning environment which is in a Samoan Bilingual Unit. I definitely would like to think that my teaching practice is culturally responsive and sustaining because I am trying to prove to myself that Bilingual education is in fact the most effective way to support out first language native speakers in becoming speakers of heritage and english language. 

Now because my project is closely aligned with the world views of my participants it is suggested that this process should be a process in which the project is co-constructed by the students. The Mythology approach I am choosing is the Talanoa research approach and supposedly what I read on LMS is suggests that these pasifika approaches are closely relatable to critical theory in other words critical pedagogy. This could be a sign that I need to read this to support my implementation of my project. 

Academy Ex presentation Day

So Today AcademyEx Masters students dud their final presentations for their change projects. I can definitely say that it was worth going. This meant that I got to see others present their project and get an idea on what my presentation could look like or could turn out to be like. It just put into perspective that what my project needs to cover and be about when completing my iterations. 

I noticed that the questions the panel were asking really leaned towards how the data you collected has informed your iterations with your participants or stakeholders. Another questions was what have you learnt and what do you intend to do further in order to engage with your community? 

The Data part of my project is or could be the most important part of this project. Thinking back to my project there are many things that are going through my mind right now in terms of bilingual education. Like I mentioned in the beginning of my project that most of the students that are coming through to our bilingual unit are New Zealand born where their parents were born here which therefore meant that the only language they indulge in is English. 

This is a constant battle my teachers are facing in todays bilingual units. I spoke to one of my colleagues today and they confirmed that they feel really sorry for the students are better in English than Gagana Samoa. At this point in time the junior classes are following our new policy of 80% Samoan and 20% English are to be allocated to lessons in class. Which means that everything they read, write and speak about is in Samoan. 

When they say they feel sorry for the students who are stronger in English this means that they dont understand the lessons in Samoa rather they understand content better in English. This colleague feels that this is unfair for these children who are stronger in English. 

These students are reading higher levels in English than Samoan. Other students are reading higher in Gagana Samoa than English. What does this tell us? Researchers state that we need to use the language that the student is most stronger in to support the language that is lagging behind. So then what needs to be done here? 

Should students who are stronger in English be taught in 80% English and 20% Samoan and Those students who are stronger in Gagana Samoa be taught 80% Gagana Samoa and 20% English? 

What would this programme look like? and how would this classroom programme be managed to inform students progress and raise achievement? When I think about more we actually need to identify the language the students is more confident in and then meet the needs of the students this way in the other language? This has really stirred the pot for me because I am about to embark on my change project in term 3 and just a lot more ideas and thinking is coming to my brain all at once. 

This is my research objective: I will implement Universal design for learning  together with flipped learning approaches in order to develop an online tool that provides more engaging ways in improving the understanding of Gagana Samoa in  our senior year levels in our Samoan Bilingual Unit. 

From this research object stems 3 main questions that will help me with the planning and delivery of my change project. There are 5 main elements that will guide my literature research and inform my iterations in term 3. 

Universal Design for Learning:

Flipped Learning Approaches:

Student Engagement with the Gagana Samoa Content

Rotational model of Learning Gagana Samoa and English

Assessment for Learning In Gagana Samoa:

I said to that colleague that you need to go back to our Vision for our Bilingual unit what is it about and what are we aiming to accomplish with the students that come through our unit? is it as easy as this? or is there more thinking required for this situation? 

I mentioned in my research objective a online tool but this is probably something for further down the track but in the mean time what I am more interested in is my own classroom practice when it comes to bilingualism and finding out what works for my English Language Learners and what works for my Gagana Samoa Language Learners. I thought about what we constantly say about billingual education and all I hear is the same things, like if we teach using L1 then L2 will develop more and more and I thought to myself how do we know this? is there evidence we can source that supports this way of learning where use the stronger language to improve English? could we collate a series of evidence from students who started the Bilingual Pathway in year 1 to year 8 vs students who started mid way? I dont know but this is my thinking at the moment. Definitely worth digging more into this. I hope I am not wasting my time because you know how sometimes we take things at face value but its us that are in the classroom research says this but how do I know it works? frick there better not be a one answer to this lol all this thinking and then the answer is basic as lol 

- Universal Design for learning and Flipped learning will support the development of the programme I am going to take my students through. 

- The content will be in Gagana Samoa. 

- Data might be a survey to start off with about how these students see themselves as Gagana Samoa

- Learners, also could see if students could share their experiences with learning Gagana Samoa. 

- Assessment could be another way of Gathering Data, Maybe Assessment in where they need to show their understand of formal language in Gagana Samoa? May a story and speech could be used to support the teaching and learning and then tested again at the end?  

Pasifika Manaiakalani Workshop.

 

I was actually contemplating not going to this workshop because I have been so relaxed lately it has rubbed off on my participation levels lol. I attended with the mentality that i am sure I will learn something relevant to my Masters programme. Out of all 3 workshops that I attended I think that the most valuable information that pulled on the heart strings was the korero from the Va'atele Team. Sharing the importance of billingual education in the classroom where we support out tamariki with the navigation of their world through the strengths and prior knowledge they bring in the classroom. 

- They touched based on how culturally responsive practice is stated in our NZ Curriculum 

- Mentioned the idea that represents stigmatisation that English only submersion approaches presume that other langauges will interfere with the learning of English and result in "cognitive overload" for students. 

- As mentioned by Stephen May (2020)  a more effective approach of language learning is underpinned by the principle of linguistic interdependence. Linguistic Interdependence highlights the interconnectedness of language learning specifically, how knowledge of one's first language supports the development of a second language or target language. 

Throughout my time as a bilingual teacher I have always been driven by teaching through English submersion approaches because of the fact that I was brought up in New Zealand and really had no connection to my heritage language. I came connected to my language though my participation in church where reciting the language was the way to learn. I know know that this way is not enough to fully be immersed in a language. Listening and observing a language is not enough to attain the full understanding of the context. Although there was a place for reciting but this was not the solution to fully understand my heritage language. 

Throughout my teaching career I have always put English first because this was my comfortable. Stepping out into really learning the why's and the how's of my heritage language was just too much for me at the time and I opted out to just stick to english and only us my heritage language for code switching. When I think about it this was a disservice to my students. I've let a lot of students down because of this fear of making mistakes and just being scared to get out of my comfort.  I shed tears yesterday after singing Toku Reo Toku Ohooho because while I sang it I straight away look at the english translation and it said "My Language my awakening". For most of the students it is a awakening for them, that feeling when you awaken their missing connections to their language and experiences. Did I see it as an interference with learning the english language? teachers do seem to use this as a way to justify teaching only english but is it right? or is it good for the child? well can there be ways that are good but no right? and right but not good? I think this is one of those situations when it comes to teaching heritage language. What I can say is that teacher beliefs do have a impact of what type of classroom environment I am fostering. Did my classroom relfect that of a cultural responsive classroom? or was it predominantly english disguised to be Gagana Samoa? 

I need to reflect on my practice and my past classrooms, and really get a sense of what sort of classroom environment do I want in a Bilingual unit. There is definitely changed needed in my classroom practice and how I am going to pin point what exactly is going to be through this change project I am participating in this year. I know there needs to be change in the way I deliver my lessons and how it is recieved by the students. Well will soon find out how effective my practice is or how effective my approach is or how effective am I in supporting my Samoan children. 

So'otaga with O Le TA'IALA (Finlayson Primary School Samoan Billingual).

 I had the privilege of attending the So'otaga (connection programme) with Finlayson Primary School. It was a joy to be apart of because I got the opportunity to witness first hand the formal language of the Ava Ceremony performed by our very own year 7&8 Students. The programme was amazing everything ran smoothly, and like all Samoan Language Weeks its a epic opportunity to be apart of. 

What was my take away or thinking process at the time? 

- I was trying my best to think about my change project for my masters and really connect what was going on with what my research objective is. Everything was in the Samoan Language which is what our parents, teachers and community expects from a Samoan Billingual Unit. 

- did the ceremony sound rehearsed?

- Did the students that took part in the Ava Ceremony understand what they were saying?

- is their understanding of the Gagana Samoa surface level? 

- could the students conversate back confidently what they learnt about the ava ceremony? 

-How much of my classroom practice reflect that of a bilingual unit programme? 

- Does my classroom programme reflect effective billingual practices which therefore supports students with understanding Gagana Samoa in a deep meaningful way? these are many questions that go through my mind during the time of the So'otaga. Do I have the right this of these questions? am I thinking too much in to this situation? What I do know is that we need to set up our studens for success. The best way to do this is to change or improve classroom practice so that billingualism is being improved for our students. 

My first original Survey for my participants.

 

In this survey I created a variety of question that would give me insight into how the students view themselves as second language learners and what why think about learning Gagana Samoa in class. Now from reading their responses they all confirm that they have a positive affirmation about using the Gagana Samoa in class. 

-Students confirmed that it supports them by using their language to communicate with students who are strong in the English language, 

- They also mentioned that it has improved the way they speak the language, it has developed their confidence in speaking the language

- They are proud when they show others what they can do when using Gagana Samoa Language This gives me the idea that it is much more uplifting when you know you can use your heritage language and show others that you can use it well. 

- Learning new words in Gagana Samoa. 

- Students said that using both languages helps them translate and or switch to both English and Samoan. 

- "My Gagana Samoa Language is my first language yes english can be everyones number one language but for me speaking my Samoan Language keeps it alive and that I can use it to speak with my grandparents and family in samoa"

There was a question in the Survey that asked the students if they were to explain their Gagana Samoa Speeches to me in a clear way could they? 

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This answer from one of my participants is powerful why? because it gives me a purpose as a bilingual educator. This student says maybe which send the impression that she is not confident enough to explain her speech. But her last sentence where she mentions she wished she knew what it all meant because she knew it meant something meaningful. 

- Other students mentioned they do understand because their uncle explained every word and sentence. 

- All the students are proud of their language and make the feel unique. 

- All students confirmed that using a 50/50 percent rotation is not confusing for them. I found this comment very intriguing lol 

Students mentioned that using both in a positive for them because there are students who are trying to improve their English Proficiency. Also Majority of the work is English. This does bring up the idea around  Translanguaging where Baker 2003 suggest that this way is an arrangement that normalises bilingualism. if students are doing most of their work in English are we then empowering our students or removing the power away from them in terms of developing their heritage language.

All there parents encourage the use of Gagana Samoa at home.

Most use both languages to communicate with their peers others English, Others Gagana Samoa

Good to know that Gagana Samoa is mostly used at home. Now I wish I did my project on a larger scale of students not just 9. Maybe this could be one of my next steps.

There was a mixture in reponses in terms of being able to Read, write, speak in Gagana Samoa

The mixed responses stated that they could maybe write but not speak confidently, because most of the time English is spoken at home. others said Yes because they speak Gagana Samoa all the time at home.

There was a comment that mentioned that most times they dont know the meaning of words and phrases in Gagana Samoa. One student mentioned they need help from their peers.

These responses speak volumes in terms of opportunities provided for our student to participate and learn about their heritage language, culture and identity. The leave with rick knowledge that can be passed on forever. Man going these surveys brings new insights to what student actually go through in the bilingual setting and its also clear to say that they appreciate the opportunities to learn our treasure of Gagana Samoa.

Whats bugging me?

My Parents. 

My blessings.

My Family!

Today I decided to make an effort to not only exercise but cap the time I eat during the day. So first real meal at 2pm and last meal before 8pm. I have no idea what to expect but it is worth a try. Also at the back of my mind are a lot of other priorities that you know every other person might be thinking about as well. Our mortgage is so expensive at the moment and my wife is on minimum wage. Me and my beautiful wife are also blessed with 4 beautiful blessings, Faith, Hope, Anayah-Rose and Prince Jireh. Lord I acknoledge without your forgiveness and your blessing upon my lil family we wouldn't have any children let alone have anywhere to raise our children. Although the Mortgage is expensive I am grateful and blessed to have our own home to raise our blessings. 

budgeting in todays day is very hard. Sometimes we live on pay check to pay check. I hate that I always have to go in overdraft all the time because we just dont have enough. It so hard to get out of overdraft when everything just comes up like family stuff and church commitments. Sometimes I wish I just had some breathing space. My bank is probably thinking why am I also going in overdraft? it is definitely not a good look for me as they do lend or let alone help anyone who continues to go in overdraft. Arrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhh! 

I have also come to a reality that I have to sell my Toyota Crown Athlete which is dear to my heart. I love this car, I love the way it drives, the exhaust sound is loud how I like it and the interior shouts the word luxury. Although this car is very important to me it is not important than my family. The phrase I used in my previous paragraph stating "I need breathing space" well selling my car is going to provide that for me and my family. I know further down the track I will be able to buy me another JDM car that makes me happy. 

A win for me lately is getting the warrant of fitness passed for both our family car and my JDM. took a while to get it but we made it. Another win for my is my wife is finally going to get her level 7 qualification which will mean she will get paid what she is worth and she will be able to working a primary as well. You know I love my wife so much she is such a hard working person also serves her family, church and community well. The fact that she is trying to start her learning again again is a win for me I love seeing my wife get ahead in life not only for her family but for herself because she can do all things through christ. 

The Tatau! you know what I really want this so traditional treasure so bad I dont care about the pain it is going to bring. After seeing my brother in law get the tatoo it drew me closer to the art. Not because I wanted to show off or wanted to copy my brother in law but I wanted it because it is apart of my identity and its the mark of a leader who serves his family, church and community It bring so much Mana and ancestry connection. This the reason why I want it. Although I was born in New Zealand, I feel this urge or this voice telling me to get it. I feel a responsibility not only to get the markings but to live the  Gagana Samoa way. There is only one thing that is holding me back and only my wife knows lol but it shouldn't be a problem but it is a problem for being a big guy! I spoke to Vaga who got his Tatau done he said he was conscious of being big as well and what people would think but he looked past this and got it done anyway. I also look at it as if I am going to sell my car the tatau will be a reminder of this sacrifice lol but yeah money is going to be the challenge. It is going to cost $10,000 for me and my wife. I really want it done before 2026. 

We went to see my parent's today it is always a blessing to go and see my parents and siblings and the uso's. My poor parent's one day they are going to leave. I dont think I will ever be ready for this to happen but god knows my prayer. I remember crying out to the lord to please provide many years for my parents to live on this temporary world so we can continue to show them our love. My parents are such obeying parents. What I mean is that they honoured there parents so well. The promise in the bible states if you honour your mother and your father you will live a long life on earth. Thats my parents. My father who is a hard working man and my mother who is a loving mother. They both have the love of GOD in them through the way the speak and live through action.  I there are many who have lost their parents and wish they were here today. I cant begin to imagine what that is like. All I know is that when this day does come I need to be confident that I done everything in my power to make my parents happy. 

Lord I know in the bible you mentioned that I dont need to worry because you have everything under control. I believe this so much. All these materialistic things are nothing what matters is the love of god that I need to lead my wife, children to the king. Lord I ask for your guidance your protection and your miracle working power to sort out my dads name. It has been such a long time and I am going to attempt it again to get my dads name cleared so they can buy their very first home. I pray this in the name of Jesus you will provide the outcome. There are so many things going on at the moment I just need to clear the closet and maintain discipline. Easier said then done. lol 

Talanoa Roscommon School Principal

 

Have you ever felt like you were out of your depth or think you're out of your depth where you constantly overthink things when really the answers are staring right in front of your eyes? Wow Part 2 of my Masters qualification is finally over and I can definitely say that “God is good? All the time! All the time “God is good”. I sit in my office and reflect back on the many occasions I have spoken to God requesting wisdom and support. You know he really hears your prayers when  you really call out to him and acknowledge you are nothing without him. Thinking back to when I had to give an oral presentation about my research project I was always thinking about my bilingual students but most of my bilingualism! My own personal bilingualism where a New Zealand born boy didn’t have the luxury of being immersed in the Gagana Samoa but through the opportunities I did receive tried to soak up the Fa’a Samoa way as much on my own as I could. I came to a realization that learning the language this way was never enough to really understand my Gagana Samoa. You know I definitely feel that we have a lot of students who are just going through the motions and hoping they learn what they need to learn by accident. 

Deliberate teaching of the Gagana Samoa is needed in order for our students to really experience the true representation of what it means to be fully immersed in our Language. I am probably not doing a good enough job as a teacher teaching the Gagana Samoa but I can bet damn well I look to change this for myself and our generation to come. Oh well back to my oral presentation, well I was so worried that my project did not have enough merit and wasn’t worth diving into but as I presented my project my facilitator was very moved and confirmed to me that this is a project worth doing! Sometimes we go through life and we think what we have ideas about are not enough or not worthy enough for others but really you just have to run it straight and follow through with what you initially thought of doing! I call this not backing yourself on a hundred! I think its because you have at the back of your mind that you weren’t always the smartest kid in school but I can definitely say I was the bravest! Especially all the primary and Intermediate plays I had to endure and face in my younger years. You know you are never too old to learn. There is always going to be something to learn, something to improve, something to increase and something to change, and because of this there will always be new learning and new perspectives! 

Now that part 2 is over, Part 3 of my Masters programme is on the rise! At this moment in time I am waiting for my ethics forms, and learning agreement consent to be approved and then I finally gather data for my project. You know I never thought I’ll be doing research but I am going to have to in order to pass this Masters. I really should say I get to be a researcher which sounds more positive lol. 

Today I went to school to meet with my principal and just have a chat about the Masters programme and run through some ideas. It was definitely worth the time which is always when talking to Sonia, she is such a wise and critical thinker when it comes to teaching and learning. She explained how hard it was for her to complete the masters programme because of the passing of a family member and grandchild which I can't fathom because I have never been through it myself but when it comes to it losing anyone is the worst experience ever! She managed to get her focus back and successfully present her final report to pass her Masters. This tells us that we just never know what this life will throw at us at any given time we can lose someone close to us or something out of the ordinary just happens to stop by and we can never be prepared for this type of situation but what we can hope for is the love of god to get us through to the other side! Sonia Johnston well done on just being strong for you and your family and God sees your heart for service which will always go unnoticed. 

Some of the discussion we had was about the flipped approach to teaching and learning and how I am going to do this with Gagana Samoa Language. She mentioned to me that you know our student’s do not have the privilege of being fully surrounded by our Gagana Samoa richness because of the context they are currently living in “New Zealand”. But what we can do is provide this to them every chance we get through education.  My research objective involves me 

implementing  Universal design for learning  together with flipped learning approaches in order to develop an online tool that provides more engaging ways in improving the understanding of Gagana Samoa in  our senior year levels in our Samoan Bilingual Unit. 

It is not so much the tool that I am solely focussing on but its the context within that tool that will provide a more deeper learning experience for our students. 

There are so many resources for our te reo students where they provide different modes of literacy for them to learn the reo where as Samoan I don't think there is ever a tool created where students dive deep into the formal ways of our Gagana Samoa. Sonia mentioned that now that you have your research objective it's working out how to narrow this right down into small chunks where each step is considered a step closer to your change project. 

How are you going to deliver content through a flipped approach? What content are you looking to use with your students? How are you going to reflect and keep a record of what you are doing? 

• There was a mention about using what you have done prior with the students instead of creating the wheel. There was a mention about Formal speeches with the students, maybe attend and record these speeches and unpack it with the students check for understanding and structure, 

• Also think about other ways of delivering Samoan content e.g audio, stories, there was an idea that te reo Maori are using their grandparents to retell stories so they capture, keep and pass down to generations. 

• You know what I was thinking about as well, was the fact that AI is comin on strong nowadays and people can just AI the Samoan Language. I don't know if this is relevant but it was just a thought that dropped in my mind. Lol  Our sacred traditional ceremonies as well like ava could be used to explore with the children. 

• Thinking about how students learn because some students do prefer face to face conversations instead of online tutorials but I guess this is something that we do need to think about as well.  

• Going back to see for another conversation. 

• Overall a very productive conversation with Sonia and now its back to getting prepped for the implementation of my change project.