Following Gold by Chris Tse explores hope, migration and belonging through the imagined voice of a Chinese gold miner in nineteenth-century Aotearoa New Zealand. Through vivid imagery and symbolism, the poem invites students to consider the challenges of leaving home and pursuing an uncertain future.

This pack supports explicit teaching, guided discussion and independent learning, helping students explore poetic language, make inferences and support their interpretations with evidence.

This pack includes:

• Guided reading plan: Questions exploring comprehension, inference, stanza organisation, poetic devices, perspective, themes and author’s purpose, with reflection prompts connecting learning to students’ own lives.

• Independent learning contract: Response activities that support students to revisit the text, practise literacy skills and develop their ideas independently.

• Lesson overview slides: A five-slide sequence supporting explicit teaching through a learning intention, success criteria, warm-up questions, vocabulary and language exploration, exit questions and self-assessment.

Curriculum Phase: Phase 2

Year Level: Year 5

English: Reading for meaning, inference, imagery, symbolism, poetic structure, perspective and evidence-based responses

Social Sciences – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories: Chinese migration, gold mining, identity and belonging

Text type: Poetry, free verse

Key words include: Chinese migration, gold mining, hope, identity, belonging, resilience, imagery, symbolism, poetry, Aotearoa New Zealand histories