A Visit To Apii Te Uki Ou

 He taonga te mokopuna, kia whāngaia, kia tipu, kia rea.

A child is a treasure, to be nurtured, to grow, to flourish.

Apii Te Uki Ou, a small school on the island of Rarotonga. A school where confident students, strong in their identity, language, and culture grow and learn in a beautiful nurturing environment. 

I was extremely lucky to visit Apii Te Uki Ou on a Manaiakalani MIT trip to the Cook Islands. 

Welcomed onto the school grounds with an official welcome, the students then performed to us and their school oozing pride and talent. 

After Kaikai (beautiful food shared with us), we partook in set cultural activities presented by the students. These included making Partau, weaving flax, drumming, and husking a coconut. The student's confidence, knowledge, and understanding of their cultural practices were amazing and made me think of those students in my class that have experienced culture and language loss since moving to New Zealand and ways in which I can help them to grow their cultural identity.

A tour of the classes in the school highlighted students' engagement, wellbeing, and holistic development in their learning. The feel of the school was beautiful.

Educational environments as special as this don't just happen by chance. They are created. 

Thank you so much for your beautiful hospitality Apii Te Uki Ou You have made me reflect on cultural responsiveness, holistic models of education, and the importance of honoring cultural identity.

Using Old Telephones To Develop Oral Language

When our office received new telephones our wonderful Principal put the old ones aside for Room 2 knowing what a fantastic tool they would be for developing oral language.

T set up the experience, I did virtually nothing. All I did was put the 4 telephones on a table in pairs so that students could sit next to each other with a telephone between them and allow time for the children to explore using them when they saw them. 

What happened? 

Wow, what an amazing oral language activity;

Two of my students both with speech difficulties sat side by side. One of these students has amazing vocabulary and concept understanding, she oozes confidence and doesn't let her speech stop her from getting her message across. The other student has a lower level of vocabulary and will often sit quietly and let others share. 

Conversation 1

B- "I at the pool"

G- "What you doing there? (then corrects herself) What are you doing there? Are you swimming or something?"

B- Thinking... I dit (I did)

G- " At the school holidays I went to Granny's"

B- Copies sentence structure "At the school holidays I went to Inflatable World.

G- "I went to Gravity and it was a lot of fun and I can't even breathe when I'm jumping too fast."

B- "What?"

G- "I can't even breathe when I'm jumping"

B- "I can not breathe."

G- "Bye-bye"

Conversation 2

L-"Hi, who is this?

B- says their name

L-Stutters then says "Where do you live?"

B-" Somewhere. In the clean house."

L-Thinks... "What way does (pauses) it go to?" (meaning 'how do you get there?')

What oral language are students developing from this activity? 

Students modeling oral language for each other:

• Asking and answering questions
• Rephrasing  "I can't even breath when I'm jumping"
• Being cognitive of what they are saying, thinking about what they are saying and what they want to say to get their message across. L- Thinks... "What way does (pauses) it go to?" (meaning 'how do you get there?') It may not be correct but they are making conceted attempts
• Copying sentence structures G- " At the school holidays, I went to Granny's" B- Copies sentence structure "At the school holidays I went to Inflatable World.
• Extending their speech through listening to each other.

This is a great example of using props and role-play to facilitate oral language development. The cognitive process involved was evident and it gave an opportunity for multiple aspects of oral language to be developed in a hands-on real-life, social context.

What other props can I use for students to develop their oral language through role-playing such as this?