Navigating the Pacific

Overview

Students begin the Stage 4 depth study of Polynesian expansion across the Pacific by investigating how and why Polynesian communities migrated across vast ocean distances. Building on prior learning about Renaissance voyages, students compare European and Polynesian navigation and use evidence to construct a brief historical explanation.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• identify key features of Polynesian migration and expansion across the Pacific
• explain how environmental knowledge, technology and social organisation supported migration
• interpret different historical sources and distinguish evidence from assumption
• use evidence to explain Polynesian perspectives and experiences of migration

Success criteria

• I can locate Polynesia and identify the direction of migration across the Pacific.
• I can describe at least two navigation methods or technologies.
• I can use details from sources as evidence.
• I can explain why Polynesian migration was a significant historical development.

Curriculum links

• Polynesian expansion across the Pacific: significant ideas, groups, practices and events in the medieval world
• Students identify and explain features of past societies, historical periods and events.
• Students explain peoples’ experiences and perspectives using historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and effect, and significance.
• Students use evidence from sources to support historical accounts and explanations about the past.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

Today’s mission: Navigate the Pacific

Mission goal: Use evidence to explain how Polynesian knowledge, technology and community preparation made expansion across the Pacific possible.

Visual route: ① Locate the Pacific → ② Decode navigation knowledge → ③ Use source evidence → ④ Explain significance → ⑤ Exit ticket

Progress tracker: Students tick each box as they finish: ☐ Task 1 ☐ Task 2 ☐ Task 3 ☐ Task 4 ☐ Exit ticket. Work quietly and independently; ask for help using the prompts below.

Response choices for Tasks 3–4: annotated map, voice recording, short paragraph, or labelled diagram.

1. Task 1 — Find the journey (8 minutes) | Must-do

   • Use the Pacific map to mark or point to Polynesia, Hawai‘i, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Rapa Nui. Draw or trace one broad expansion route.
   • Choose one response: annotate the map, record a 20-second explanation, write two sentences, or create a labelled diagram.
   • Model: “Polynesian expansion occurred across the Pacific. A route from central Polynesia to Aotearoa shows long-distance ocean travel.”
   • Self-check: You should have three locations and one route. Answers: Polynesia is the broad Pacific region; Hawai‘i, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Rapa Nui are Polynesian locations.

2. Task 2 — Decode the navigators’ toolkit (12 minutes) | Must-do

   • Read the accessible source cards: A Stars: navigators used rising and setting stars; B Ocean swells: experienced navigators read the direction of waves; C Birds and clouds: birds and clouds could indicate nearby land; D Canoes: double-hulled canoes supported people and supplies on long voyages; E Community knowledge: skills and routes were taught and remembered across generations.
   • Match each card to navigation, survival/technology, or both. Select two cards and explain what each helped people do.
   • Model: “Ocean swells helped navigation because they gave information about direction. Double-hulled canoes supported survival because they carried people and supplies.”
   • Self-check: Stars, swells, birds and clouds = navigation clues; canoes = technology and survival; community knowledge = both navigation and survival. More than one reasonable explanation is possible.

3. Task 3 — Build an evidence explanation (15 minutes) | Must-do

   • Use two source cards to complete: “Polynesian expansion was possible because ___. Source ___ shows ___. This mattered because ___.”
   • Choose an annotated map, voice recording, short paragraph, or labelled diagram.
   • Model: “Polynesian expansion was possible because navigators used environmental knowledge. Source B shows that ocean swells indicated direction. This mattered because navigators could travel without modern instruments.”
   • Self-check: Your response must include two source details, not just a list; it must explain how the evidence made travel or settlement possible.

4. Task 4 — Explain significance (15 minutes) | Must-do

   • Answer: “Why was Pacific expansion significant?” Include one idea about knowledge, technology or community preparation and support it with evidence.
   • Choose any response format. Use the help prompts: “This was significant because…” “The evidence suggests…” “Without this knowledge/technology…”
   • Model: “Pacific expansion was significant because it shows that Polynesian communities used advanced knowledge and technology to settle widely separated islands. The star and canoe source cards show planning and skill, not luck.”
   • Self-check: You should name significance, use at least one source detail, and explain why it matters. If your response only describes a canoe or star, add a sentence beginning “This matters because…”

5. Can-do extension — Compare and question (optional, 7 minutes)

   • Compare two source cards. Which is most useful for explaining navigation, and what can it not prove? Use: “Source ___ is most useful because ___. However, it cannot prove ___.”
   • Self-check: A strong answer identifies usefulness and a limitation or missing perspective.

Help prompts: Re-read the source-card heading; underline the evidence word; point to the map; use one sentence stem; ask the teacher for a location clue, a source clue, or a model sentence. Students may submit a voice recording instead of writing.

Quiet early-finisher challenge: Design a labelled “navigator’s toolkit” diagram using at least four source cards, then add one possible challenge such as clouds, changing winds or limited food and explain how a community might respond.

Exit ticket (5 minutes): Complete one format—one sentence, labelled mini-diagram, or 20-second voice recording: “One reason Polynesian expansion was possible or significant was ___. My evidence is ___.” Before leaving, submit it and circle one tracker status: I can explain it / I can explain it with help / I need another example.

Resources

• the Polynesian expansion teaching deck
• the Polynesian migration evidence worksheet
• the question stems poster
• Projector or interactive display
• Six short, accessible primary or secondary source extracts/images
• Pacific map for display
• Timer
• Coloured pens or highlighters
• Seating plan and group-role cards

Assessment

• Entry check: During the visual hook and stand-up prediction, note whether students can propose a plausible reason for Polynesian expansion and revise it after discussion.
• Inquiry and source evidence: During paired decoding and the navigation mission, check whether students ask or respond to historical questions, identify a relevant source detail, distinguish what a source shows from what it cannot prove, and revise a decision when new evidence appears. This assesses NSW Stage 4 HI4-INQ-01 and HI4-SOU-01.
• Team briefing: Listen for the structure claim + specific source detail + explanation. Prompt: “Point to the detail that supports your decision.” Accept spoken, card-based, drawn or recorded evidence.
• Historical explanation: Collect or record the student’s chosen response. Look for accurate knowledge of Polynesian wayfinding/community preparation, at least two relevant pieces of evidence, and an explanation of how the evidence supports significance or causation.
• Exit ticket: Accept a sentence stem, labelled diagram, pointing/card response, teacher scribe, or voice recording. Minimum success is: one accurate reason and one relevant source detail. Record students needing a follow-up model or conference.
• Immediate feedback: Narrate successful behaviours (“You used the source before choosing”), correct misconceptions in one sentence, and award team progress for evidence use, participation and safe movement rather than written volume.

Differentiation

• Chunking and access: Display one instruction at a time, read it aloud, model the first example, and use visible 3-minute or 60-second timers. Keep the source extracts short, enlarged and colour-coded; read them aloud and pre-highlight one possible detail.
• Student choice: Allow students to answer by speaking, pointing, moving, drawing arrows, arranging evidence cards, using a mini-whiteboard, dictating to a partner/teacher, or recording a voice response. Do not require a full paragraph from students who can demonstrate the same evidence-based thinking another way.
• Language support: Provide a word bank: wayfinding, migration, expansion, navigation, evidence, source, perspective, significance and limitation. Display stems: “I notice…”, “The source shows…”, “This suggests…”, “We chose ___ because…”, and “This was significant because…”.
• Roles and participation: Use mixed-ability teams with role cards and rotate roles after the mission. Pair reluctant students with a supportive peer and give them a defined first action, such as moving the canoe token or locating a highlighted detail.
• Engagement and behaviour: Seat students where the visual timer and teacher are easy to see. Give brief private corrections, use countdowns, and narrate specific positive behaviour: “That pair has found the detail and is waiting for the next instruction.” Offer a two-choice prompt rather than a public confrontation.
• Minimum-success pathway: If a student refuses the main task, offer a quiet choice: (1) point to one useful evidence card, (2) repeat or record the stem “The source shows ___”, or (3) place the canoe token after hearing a teammate’s evidence. Count this as the first achievable step, then invite one further contribution without penalty.
• Extension: Ask confident students to compare source usefulness, identify perspective or limitations, explain why evidence is stronger or weaker, and defend a revised route decision.