My Tūrangawaewae by Georgina Barnes is an informative non-fiction text that weaves art-making with personal identity to explore how students express who they are and where they belong. Through a school-wide tapa art project at Sylvia Park School in Auckland, the text follows four classes as they work with artist Alexis Neal (Ngāti Awa, Te Āti Awa) to design individual squares that represent their tūrangawaewae — a place where they feel connected and grounded. The narrative explains how students used symbols and patterns inspired by Pacific tapa traditions to show what makes them unique, including family, culture, memories, and interests.

The text describes the creative process step by step, from planning designs on grids and using mathematical measurement, to making collograph printing plates with textured materials and printing proofs before creating the final artwork. It also highlights the values of teamwork and manaakitanga as students supported one another and celebrated seeing their identities displayed together as one large artwork. Informative, visual, and community-focused, the text supports students to understand identity, culture, and belonging through lived experience and voice.

The text is ideal for integrated learning across literacy, the arts, mathematics, and social sciences, supporting inquiry into identity, cultural expression, collaboration, and creative process in Aotearoa New Zealand.

This Interactive Comprehension Check has been carefully designed to consolidate and deepen students’ understanding of My Tūrangawaewae.

Rather than simply revisiting surface details, the questions intentionally target inference, author purpose, vocabulary in context, and deeper thinking. This resource supports meaningful retrieval practice while maintaining academic rigour and clarity.

The Check can be used:

• As an end-of-text consolidation activity
• As revision prior to assessment
• As a retrieval task in subsequent weeks
• As an engaging formative check for understanding

Each question aligns with key literacy skills, supporting students to think critically, justify ideas, and revisit important language and themes.

 

This pack includes:

• Private access link to the interactive quiz
• Lesson overview slides with learning intention and success criteria
• Reflection / extension task to deepen thinking

This resource is designed to support purposeful teaching, structured discussion, and confident assessment — while reducing preparation time.

 

Curriculum Phase: Phase 2
Year Level: Year 4

English (NZC Levels 2–3): reading for meaning and enjoyment, identifying key ideas and processes, understanding informational and explanatory texts, interpreting visual information, building vocabulary related to art and identity

The Arts – Visual Arts: exploring cultural patterns and symbols, creating and presenting artwork, using materials and texture, reflecting on creative process

Mathematics: measurement, grids and shapes, spatial awareness, patterns and repetition

Social Sciences – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories: identity and belonging, cultural heritage, continuity and change, community participation, understanding place

Text type: Non-fiction, informational text, procedural explanation, cultural narrative

Key words include: tūrangawaewae, tapa, Pacific art, patterns, symbols, identity, belonging, culture, Sāmoa, Pacific cultures, Māori perspectives, Alexis Neal, Sylvia Park School, collaboration, teamwork, manaakitanga, collograph, printing plate, collage, texture, grids, measurement, mathematics in art, creativity, design, visual arts, community, whānau, school community, pride, process, reflection