The Dinosaurs Died a Long Time Ago: A Story from English in the New Zealand Curriculum

Abstract

It is now six years since English in the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1994) was mandated as curriculum policy for New Zealand classrooms. While the debate that surrounded the introduction of achievement levels for language learning in this national curriculum statement appears to have abated, it is essential that teachers continue to discuss the implications of the levels for literacy programmes. This paper describes a research case study undertaken in two Year One classrooms where the children's work in exploring language is analysed against the achievement levels, raising concerns related to the possible underestimation of their abilities in literacy learning.