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Tongan Language Week: Research and Activities

Tonga Language Week research and activities. Mālō e lelei! Mālō e lelei! Tongan Language Week - Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e Lea Faka-Tonga is coming up from Sunday 6 September - Saturday 12 September in 2020. This blog post highlights some exciting resources I have so you can explore the Tongan culture and language in your classroom during Tongan Language Week and throughout the rest of the year.

Mālō e lelei! Mālō e lelei! Tongan Language Week – Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e Lea Faka-Tonga is an exciting time of the year. If you are looking for the dates when Tongan Language Week is, in 2023 it is from Sunday 3 September to Saturday 9 September 2023. This blog post highlights some exciting resources I have so you can explore the Tongan culture and language in your classroom during Tongan Language Week and throughout the rest of the year.

Before getting into that, currently, there are some fantastic research projects and work being done around Pasifika achievement currently. These projects explore the shifts in education needed to ensure all Pacific students achieve. I’ll highlight these below and link to them so that you can explore them further. If you are a teacher of Pasifika students, this is for you!

And if anyone is thinking, “Nah, this isn’t important for me!” you may want to check out Tapasā from the Ministry of Education and hosted on the Teachers Council website, which is the Cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners.

A Great Blog Post Around Pasifika Education

Dr Vicki Hargraves from The Education Hub put out a great blog post titled, “Four strategies to effectively support Pasifika students” (check it out here).

  • My brief takeaways:
    • Culturally responsive teaching can be enacted when teachers work on:
      • Having high expectations for Pasifika students
      • Knowing students as individuals, knowing the cultures they identify with and what this means for them
      • Developing strong relationships with Pasifika students and families
      • Effective pedagogies which are discursive and collaborative
        • Each of these is discussed in great detail and examples are given for what this looks like – I love when people do this! I am always like, yeah, but what does that mean for me in the classroom?? Nicely done, Dr. Hargraves, nicely done 👌🏽
    • Pasifika students want their teachers to know their culture and know about them as people. They want to read, learn and write about their own culture. They don’t want to be put in the “Pacific” or “Pasifika” box, but to be known as Tongan, Samoan, Niuean etc. Apparently, two-thirds of teachers know the ethnicity of their students. What are the other one-third doing? I was surprised by this!
    • One way to provide culturally responsive teaching is to, “Integrate Pasifika culture into classroom content, for example, bringing Pasifika music, dance, drama, art, myths and legends, literature and journals into classroom activities, or basing numeracy or literacy activities in Pasifika contexts.” I know DMIC is very good at encouraging Pasifika contexts in numeracy discussions.
    • The following quote stood out to me:

 “Even the slightest recognition of students’ first language helps to build students’ confidence and their sense of being cared for”.

Read this full blog post here.

Dive Deeper with this Research

Education Counts, part of the Ministry of Education, put out a research document titled, “Best Practice for Teaching Pacific Learners”. You can find it here.

  • There is a BIG focus on having high expectations for Pasifika students.
  • This quote stood out to me:

“As Pasifika students, we acknowledge our culture as an important theme in our life… if our learning had something to do with our culture, our learning would become important to us.” – Pacific fono youth, Ministry of Education 2019b

  • Part of a culturally responsive pedagogy includes “Making learners’ cultural and ethnic identities and knowledge fundamental dimensions of curriculum design.”

My Tongan Language Week Resources

Before I share, just a reminder. While Tongan Language Week is one week to highlight and celebrate the Tongan language, don’t make this tokenistic by only exploring the Tongan language and culture for this one week a year.

Click here to see our full range of Tongan Language and Culture resources. 

Tongan Language Week puzzles

Tongan Language Week activities. This Tonga Literacy Bundle of differentiated reading, writing, thinking activities and language posters is a great way to focus on the Tongan language and culture. This would be perfect to use during Tongan Language Week – Uike ‘o e Lea Tonga.

Tongan Scavenger Hunt. Engage your students with our interactive Tonga scavenger hunt and puzzle pack. Your students will learn about the geography, history, language, and culture of the Pacific nation of Tonga. This would be great for Tongan Language Week, as a social studies product, and in your guided reading program!

Pacific Islands Culture and Languages. Create an engaging and inclusive classroom environment while introducing the languages of Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Tokelau and Tuvalu. This Pacific Islands Classroom Display Bundle features posters, classroom labels, flash cards, and a collaborative poster to ensure you provide your Polynesian and Melanesian (Fijian) students with a classroom environment that positively reflects their culture.

NEW RESOURCE: Pacific Myths Passages and Activities for Year 3-4

Improve reading comprehension in your classroom with our Pacific Myths and Legends Reading Activities. This pack includes SEVEN narrative passages aimed at the Year 3-4 level with a page of engaging follow-up questions. These activities are great for your reading program and would complement each of the Pacific Language Weeks. Click here to see more.
 
Myths are included from the following countries: Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Fiji, Niue, and Tokelau!
Improve reading comprehension in your classroom with our Pacific Myths and Legends Reading Activities. This pack includes SEVEN narrative passages aimed at the Year 3-4 level with a page of engaging follow-up questions. These activities are great for your reading program and would complement each of the Pacific Language Weeks. Click here to see more.   Myths are included from the following countries: Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Fiji, Niue, and Tokelau!

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And remember, when your teaching connects to your students’ cultures, it becomes more powerful.

Onwards and upwards,

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