Karakia Transforms

Overview

In this lesson (Lesson 3 of 5), students investigate a historical cause of change in karakia when Anglican missionaries arrived. They focus on how particular changes altered religious expression (rite, ritual, prayer style, and worship practices) and identify likely reasons and impacts.

Teaching Strategies

• Cooperative learning to encourage discussion and shared understanding.
• Guided source analysis to support critical evaluation of historical evidence.
• Use of sentence starters to scaffold explanation writing.

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Skills Needed

• Critical thinking to analyze historical changes.
• Ability to evaluate evidence from historical sources.
• Understanding of cause-and-effect relationships.

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Learning intentions

• Students will explain how Anglican missionary arrival contributed to changes in karakia expressions.
• Students will outline specific changes and connect each change to its cause and impacts using a cause-and-effect chart.
• Students will use evidence from a short historical source set to support their explanations.
• Students will evaluate how changes affected religious practices within communities.

Success criteria

• I can outline key changes to karakia expressions linked to early Anglican missionary activity.
• I can explain reasons for the changes using a cause-and-effect structure (cause → change → impact).
• I can describe impacts on religious practices (what people did/sang/prayed) and why these mattered.
• I can use evidence from the provided sources to support my explanations.

Curriculum links

• Religious Studies (Understanding Religion): AS90821 — Explain the changes in an expression(s) of a religious tradition (outlining changes, explaining reasons and impacts, and using relevant religious expression types such as rite/ritual and prayer/worship).
• The New Zealand Curriculum (Key competencies): Thinking (reasoning with cause-and-effect), Relating to others (respectful discussion of beliefs and practices), and Participating and contributing (collaborative chart-building and sharing).
• The New Zealand Curriculum: Social Sciences/Religion framing through historical context and interpreting how events influence religious expression.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Hook (belief and practice). Teacher displays 3 “practice statements” (e.g., “prayers were said in a new format”, “ritual words changed”, “worship included new songs/roles”) and asks students which would feel most like a “religious change” and why. Students choose one statement and write a quick justification.

2. 5–15 min · Context input (Anglican arrival). Teacher gives a brief, balanced mini-lecture on early Anglican missionary arrival, emphasising that the goal is historical understanding of how practices changed, not judging beliefs. Students complete a “timeline snapshot” note: 2 events/conditions that led to contact, and 1 possible pathway by which this could affect karakia.

3. 15–25 min · Source study (short evidence set). Teacher provides a curated set of short excerpts/images (e.g., missionary descriptions, examples of translated prayer forms, notes on worship routines, or community accounts) and models how to extract one “change” and one “impact” from each. Students work through the sources in pairs, recording: Source title → observed change → possible cause/impact.

4. 25–40 min · Cause-and-effect chart building. Teacher demonstrates one worked example using a 3-column chart: Cause | Change in expression | Impact on religious practice. Students build their own chart using at least 3 causes/changes from their evidence (minimum 3 rows). Teacher circulates to prompt clarity and accuracy.

5. 40–53 min · Explain (Merit-level focus). Teacher provides sentence starters aligned to AS90821:

• “A reason this changed was…”
• “This led to changes in…”
• “As a result, religious practice…” Students write a short paragraph explaining 2 of their chart rows in cause-and-effect form, using evidence from at least 2 sources.

6. 53–58 min · Share and refine. Teacher invites students to share one “best explained” row and ask the class: “What evidence did you use, and is the impact clearly linked to the change?” Students respond with one improvement suggestion (e.g., clearer impact wording, stronger cause link, or more specific religious expression).

7. 58–60 min · Exit ticket. Teacher asks: “Name one change in an expression of karakia and explain one reason and one impact in 3–4 sentences.” Students complete the exit ticket independently.

Do Now Activity

• Students write down one personal experience or observation of a religious or cultural change they have noticed or learned about.
• Share briefly with a partner to start thinking about how changes affect beliefs and practices.

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Whakataukī / Bible Verse / Proverb

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)

This verse reminds us of the strength and support found in faith during times of change and challenge.

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Resources

• Printed/teacher-prepared source packet (short excerpts and/or images) about Anglican missionary arrival and religious practice change
• Cause-and-effect chart templates (3-column, at least 3 rows)
• Timeline snapshot sheet (2–3 prompts)
• Highlighters/colour coding pens for Cause vs Change vs Impact
• Sentence starter strip aligned to AS90821
• Whiteboard/slide with “religious expression types” prompts (rite/ritual, prayer/liturgy/worship, art/music/architecture)

Assessment

• Formative checks during source study: teacher reviews students’ recorded “change” and whether each claim is evidence-based.
• Formative feedback on the cause-and-effect chart: teacher ensures each row shows a logical link (cause → change → impact).
• Exit ticket: assesses whether students can explain changes in expression(s) of a religious tradition by outlining changes and explaining reasons and impacts using evidence (aligned to AS90821).

Differentiation

• Support: provide a partially completed chart model with example wording; offer sentence starters and a word bank (cause, reason, impact, ritual, prayer, worship, practice).
• Support for reading needs: use shorter excerpts or highlight key lines; allow students to summarise sources in dot points before writing.
• Extension: ask students to include one “significance” detail (why the impact mattered to people’s lived religious practice) and to compare two impacts (e.g., immediate vs longer-term changes).
• EAL/SEN considerations: allow alternative response formats for the exit ticket (e.g., two short cause-effect statements plus one impact sentence) while keeping assessment expectations.