Dame Cindy Kiro

 This week I chose our reading text from the NZ Herald. We were reading about Dame Cindy Kiro, the next governor-general of NZ.  

I thought it would be great to do a story about an important woman of colour. I remember as a child never having dolls that looked like me, never seeing people that looked like me on television (except on the Police Wanted program) and never seeing people that looked like me in positions of authority. 

This text generated heaps of conversation. Students had no knowledge of what a governor-general was or the amount of authority they actually have. We discussed stereotypes in society and the expectations of our whanau.

In this lesson, I found it was important to get students to justify/ explain their answers and this led to a higher quality  of discussion. Students were encouraged to use respectful language and tone even when they disagreed with others. The engagement and banter contributed to a successful lesson.