Evidence Over Time

Overview

Students investigate the 1970s Dawn Raids in Aotearoa New Zealand through a varied collection of primary sources. In groups, they annotate evidence, arrange a supported timeline, and explain how sources reveal differing perspectives and changing public responses over time.

Learning intentions

• WALT select and use a variety of primary sources to investigate a historical event.
• WALT identify the main ideas, perspectives and limitations within historical evidence.
• WALT arrange evidence chronologically and connect sources to change over time.
• WALT communicate a supported historical explanation using specific evidence.

Success criteria

• I can place sources accurately on a timeline and explain what each shows.
• I can identify whose perspective is represented and explain how it may differ from another perspective.
• I can comment on the strengths and limitations of the source collection.
• I can support my explanation with specific details, such as names, dates, events or short quotations.

Curriculum links

• Engage with a variety of primary sources in a historical context by selecting, annotating and evaluating evidence.
• Demonstrate understanding of perspectives on a historical context by identifying differing values, beliefs, experiences and motivations.
• Demonstrate understanding of the significance of a historical context through the event’s impact on identity, community relationships and collective memory.
• NZC key competencies: thinking; using language, symbols and texts; relating to others; participating and contributing.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Hook and prior knowledge. Teacher displays a photograph or short extract from a contemporary account of a Dawn Raid and asks, “Who gets to decide whether government action is fair?” Open with the hook and learning intention slides. Students complete a silent quick-write, then share one observation and one question with a partner. Teacher briefly establishes that the Dawn Raids were immigration enforcement operations, particularly affecting Pasifika communities in the 1970s.

2. 7–15 min · Modelling source analysis. Teacher introduces the focus question: “How did perspectives on the Dawn Raids change over time?” Model annotation of one source, identifying its creator, date, audience, main idea, perspective, useful evidence and one limitation. Use the source-analysis modelling slides and record a simple structure on the board: What does it show? Whose view? How reliable or limited? Students annotate the model source and suggest one piece of evidence that could be used in a historical explanation.

3. 15–20 min · Group roles and task briefing. Teacher places students in five groups of four and distributes the primary-source timeline analysis worksheet and one source pack per group. Each pack contains six to eight sources, including a government or police statement, a newspaper report, a photograph, a protest or community publication, an oral-history extract, and evidence relating to the 2021 government apology. Students take roles: reader, evidence recorder, chronology checker and discussion leader. Teacher explains that sources must be placed in date order and supported with annotations rather than simply summarised.

4. 20–38 min · Source investigation and timeline construction. Teacher circulates, checking that groups identify dates, creators and perspectives before accepting a source on the timeline. Students read, annotate and rank the sources in chronological order, recording the date, source type, main idea, perspective, evidence and limitation on the worksheet. They connect sources with arrows and add brief captions explaining changes in government action, public attitudes, community responses and later remembrance. Encourage students to distinguish between what a source directly shows and what they infer.

5. 38–50 min · Group presentations. Teacher displays the presentation prompts and discussion slides and gives each group two minutes to present its timeline, followed by one minute for a question. Students explain three significant points: an early perspective, a contrasting or changing perspective, and what later evidence suggests about significance or collective memory. Audience members record one similarity and one difference between the presenting group’s interpretation and their own.

6. 50–56 min · Whole-class synthesis. Teacher draws a class timeline and asks, “What changed, what stayed the same, and why might different people have understood the event differently?” Students contribute evidence from at least two different source types. Teacher explicitly reinforces that oral histories, official documents, media reports and visual sources can provide valuable but partial perspectives, and that the collection is stronger when sources are compared rather than used in isolation.

7. 56–60 min · Exit assessment. Teacher returns to the focus question using the plenary and exit-question slide. Students answer independently: “The sources show that perspectives on the Dawn Raids changed over time because…” They must include one specific historical detail and one comment about a source’s strength or limitation. Collect responses to identify students ready to write a fuller evidence-based paragraph.

Resources

• the Dawn Raids evidence and timeline slide deck
• the primary-source timeline analysis worksheet
• One source pack per group of four
• A3 paper or whiteboard space for group timelines
• Sticky notes, coloured pens and rulers
• Projector or interactive whiteboard
• Timer
• Teacher background notes on the Dawn Raids and the 2021 apology

Assessment

• During modelling, check whether students can identify a source’s creator, date, main idea and perspective.
• During group work, question students about why a source belongs at a particular point on the timeline and whether it is corroborated by another source.
• Use the exit response to assess chronological understanding, use of historical evidence, recognition of perspectives and evaluation of the source collection.

Differentiation

• Provide a source pack with graduated difficulty: begin with clearly dated visual or written sources, then include more complex oral testimony and official language.
• Give students sentence starters such as “This source suggests…”, “The creator’s perspective may be influenced by…”, and “A limitation is…”.
• Support literacy needs with shortened extracts, glossed vocabulary, audio versions where available, and colour-coded dates; allow oral annotation before written recording.
• Extend confident students by asking them to explain contradictions between sources and judge which combination of sources best answers the focus question.