By John Gerritsen for RNZ

• The draft Year 7-13 English curriculum proposes compulsory Shakespeare and spelling lessons for senior students.
• The draft includes a list of suggested texts but lacks reference to Te Mātaiaho.
• NZ Association of Teachers of English President Pip Tinning raised concerns about the curriculum’s focus and structure.

The draft Year 7-13 English curriculum proposes compulsory Shakespeare for senior secondary school students and spelling and keyboard lessons for children at intermediate schools.

Published this week, the draft came with a list of “suggested” texts, including the World War Two speeches of Winston Churchill and the poem Ozymandias by Percy Shelley.

Missing from the document was any reference to Te Mātaiaho, the framework that underpinned other recently rewritten curriculums.

Development of the draft was controversial because of the make-up of the writing group and early suggestions the curriculum would be heavily weighted toward European male authors.

Association of Teachers of English last year walked away from the process.

Information published with the draft said it was structured so students in years 7 and 8 would “establish foundational skills in reading, writing, and oral language, transitioning into text studies and language studies from years 9 to 13”.

The draft said students in years 7 and 8 should learn to “handwrite with stamina and fluency while maintaining legibility, size, spacing, and slope” and to type efficiently and accurately.

They would also learn to spell, write complex sentences, and use colons and semicolons.

By years 9 and 10, students would know they needed to use accurate grammar and punctuation.

The draft said at all year levels, “students must experience historical and contemporary texts that are widely regarded as high quality”.

Those texts “must include: seminal texts, which are important writings, such as books, stories, or poems, that have played a significant role in helping people appreciate and understand texts; these texts are valued because they introduce key ideas and ways of thinking; texts by Aotearoa New Zealand authors; texts from around the world; texts from popular and youth cultures; texts students have chosen for personal interest and enjoyment”.

At both year 12 and 13, the texts must include a work by Shakespeare and a text from the 19th century.

The draft Year 7-13 English curriculum proposes compulsory Shakespeare. Photo / NZME

The suggested text list included the poetry of World War One poets and Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech for years 9 and 10, and at year 12, 1984 by George Orwell and the World War Two speeches of Winston Churchill.

The suggested texts list also included New Zealand works.

For years 7 to 10, the included Charlie Tangaroa and the Creature from the Sea by Tania Roxborogh, Annual by Kate de Goldi and Susan Paris, and selected poems by Hone Tuwahare.

At year 13, they included, Auē by Becky Manawatu and Shuriken by Vincent O’Sullivan.

Association of Teachers of English President Pip Tinning said teachers would want to know why Shakespeare and 19th century authors should be compulsory for senior students.

She said there were likely to be a range of views about the draft.

“I know that there will be teachers who are looking at this and feeling really happy, but I know that there’s going to be a lot of teachers who will look at this and be questioning some of the choices.

The draft removed previous references to New Zealand literature as a taonga for young people, she said.

“We need to be really clear that our young people deserve to have a really good understanding of what is so valuable and important about New Zealand literature and the writers and thinkers of Aotearoa New Zealand,” she said.

Tinning said other recently rewritten curriculums were structured around the idea students should Understand, Know, Do, but the year 7 to 13 English draft included only Know and Do.

The draft also had no reference to Te Mātaiaho, the framework underpinning the entire curriculum refresh and referred to in the other recently redrafted curriculums such as year 7 to 13 maths.

“It seems strange that mathematics has Te Mātaiaho still very clearly sitting in it in terms of that framework, but that’s gone from English. It seems really bizarre that the Understand, Know, Do structure that is sitting in mathematics, has disappeared or been changed quite dramatically for English. I would love to hear what that philosophy is,” Tinning said.

“All of our curriculum areas, when we look at all the different subjects, there still needs to be some alignment. It needs to have some clarity around what structures we all use and teach, and keep in mind ... so when one is quite different to another, you have a misalignment around how we teach.”

The full draft list

How many of the films have you seen or stories have you read?

Here’s what’s on the list:

Year 7 and 8

Extended text

Charlie Tangaroa and the Creature from the Sea by Tania Roxborogh

Holes by Louis Sachar

The Breadwinner by Debroah Ellis

Poetry

Selected poems by Hone Tuwhare, including Rain

Annual by Kate de Goldi and Susan Paris

The Red Wheelbarrow and other poems by William Carlos Williams

Drama

School Journal Level 4

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (stage adaptation by National Theatre)

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (adapted for stage)

Film

Wonder, directed by Stephen Chbosky

Spirited Away, directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Bridge to Terabithia, directed by Gábor Csupó

Other

School Journal Level 4

Malala Yousafzai’s United Nations Speech (2013)

I am Eleven, directed by Genevieve Bailey

A scene from Hayao Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away'.

Year 9 and 10

Extended text

Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

The Pōrangi Boy by Shilo Kino

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Poetry

Poetry of WWI Poets

Still I Rise and other poems by Maya Angelou

The Shape of Words and other poems by Glenn Colquhoun

Drama

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Maui and Sina by Helen Tauau Filisi

Rēwena by Whiti Hereaka

Film

Fantastic Mr Fox by Wes Anderson

Two Cars, One Night by Taika Waititi

Whale Rider by Niki Caro

Other

I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King

The Dream Sleepers and other stories by Patricia Grace

Pounamu, Pounamu by Witi Ihimaera

Two Cars, One Night, a short film by Taika Waititi

Year 11

Extended text

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

T.H.U.G. by Angie Thomas

Bugs by Whiti Hereaka

Poetry

Ozymandias and others by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Small holes in the silence: collected poems by Hone Tuwhare

Unity and collected poems by Selina Tusitala Marsh

Drama

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Krisnan’s Dairy by Jacob Rajan

Films

The Hate U Give by George Tillman Jr.

Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrmann

Little Women by Geta Gerwig

Other

All who live on islands by Rose Lu

Pūrākau by Witi Ihimaera and Whiti Hereaka

How False News Can Spread by Noah Tavlin

Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet.

Year 12

Extended text

1984 by George Orwell

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Leaves of the Banyan Tree by Albert Wendt

Poetry

Shakesperean Sonnets

Edgar Allen Poe - The Raven and others

The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

Drama

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tenessee Williams

Dawn Raids by Oscar Kightley

Films

Testament of Youth directed by James Kent

Waru Collection by Briar Grace-Smith, Casey Kaa, Ainsley Gardiner, Katie Wolfe, Renae Maihi, Chelsea Cohen, Paula Whetu Jones, Awanui SimichPene

The Truman Show by Peter Weir

Other

The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

World War II Speeches of Churchill

The Truman Show.

Year 13

Extended text

Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen

Auē by Becky Manawatu

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Poetry

The Waste Land by T.S Eliot

Home and other poems by Warsan Shire

Ariel by Sylvia Plath

Drama

Othello by William Shakespeare

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

Shuriken by Vincent O’Sullivan

Films

Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro

Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky

Cousins by Briar Grace-Smith and Ainsley Gardiner

Other

Dubliners by James Joyce

Planet Earth by BBC and David Attenborough

The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 
Natalie Portman in a scene from Black Swan.