Mātauranga Māori constitutes concepts and principles that are richly detailed, complex, and fundamental to Māoridom. It is important to remember that the practice of these are wider and more varied than their use within the proposed NCEA Achievement Standards and supporting documentation.

We also recognise that the cultures, languages, and identities of the Pacific Islands are diverse, varied, and unique. Therefore the Pacific concepts, contexts, and principles that have been incorporated within NCEA Achievement Standards may have wide-ranging understandings and applications across and within the diversity of Pacific communities. It is not our intention to define what these concepts mean but rather offer some ways that they could be understood and applied within different subjects that kaiako and students alike can explore.

The intent of the Standard

This Achievement Standard is designed to assess ākonga on their ability to develop ideas in writing using stylistic and written conventions. The Standard supports ākonga to find and develop a space to express their identity, and to develop ideas that they are interested in or care about. Ākonga will demonstrate their understanding of stylistic and written conventions, as well as how to write for different audiences and purposes. 

The writing process should inspire ākonga through engaging with texts and experiences that provide joy, nourishment, and models for their own writing. They will explore and learn from the work of writers from Aotearoa New Zealand, the wider Pacific region and global contexts, and applying this knowledge to their own writing. Ākonga will learn that they can shape or influence how people think and feel. By engaging in the writing process, ākonga will also learn that, as text creators, they are participants in an ongoing conversation that spans past, present, and future. 

This Standard aligns with the following items of Significant Learning: 

• communicate developed ideas by selecting and using a range of language features accurately for a variety of effects 
• show a developed understanding of how writers position their intended audience through using the language conventions and techniques, point of view, structure, contexts, and intended purpose that shape a range of texts. 

Making reliable judgements

Ākonga are required to demonstrate their ability to independently develop ideas in at least one piece of writing for a specific audience and purpose. To develop their ideas in writing, ākonga will need to have a thorough understanding of how to plan, review, and rework their ideas. This will help ākonga to compose their writing accurately and appropriately for a specific audience and purpose. Ideas may be developed through detail, examples, explanations, narrative, or research. 

Ākonga will be able to use stylistic conventions that are appropriate to the audience and purpose, meaning there is a sense of coherence and wholeness. Stylistic conventions include stylistic, structural, and language features. Ākonga will need to be able to use written conventions without intrusive error patterns that impede meaning. Common error patterns include incomplete sentences, comma splicing, tense disagreement, and spelling of homophones.  

At higher levels of achievement, ākonga will develop connected ideas using stylistic conventions for effect. Connected ideas are linked so that they build on each other for overall effect and conceptual unity. A range of stylistic, language and structural features used for effect will have an impact, strengthening overall meaning through their cumulative or complementary effect. Ākonga will demonstrate increased accuracy and control in the use of written conventions. Insightful ideas give the reader a deeper understanding of the subject matter, and stylistic conventions that command attention are able to evoke a response that is appropriate to the audience and purpose. 

Collecting evidence

Ākonga will experience a range of writing opportunities throughout a year-long teaching and learning programme. Making a choice to write about something they are interested in or have experienced can help ākonga to express their personal voice and develop their ideas.  

The assessment of writing can be timed flexibly. However, when students are ready for assessment, kaiako should signal a window in which assessment will take place, which includes time for the planning, drafting, and editing of their submission. 

Writing that is submitted for assessment must be the student’s own work. To ensure authenticity, kaiako will need to closely supervise the writing process and use a ‘hands off’ approach to students’ writing pieces. The ‘hands on, hands off’ distinction describes how teacher practice changes between everyday teaching and learning (‘hands on’) and a formal assessment opportunity (‘hands off’):  

• ‘hands on’: where a teacher indicates in detail the areas students should work on, and may provide scaffolding or support to do so. This approach is intended to address specific aspects of the student’s writing and support development of particular knowledge and skills. This work would not be suitable for summative assessment. 
• ‘hands off’: a student is ready for assessment and can plan, draft, and edit their submission independently. The writing can be submitted for assessment because it is the student’s own work. No scaffolding or support is offered. Assessor feedback is limited to general observations directly linked to the achievement criteria in the Standard, without reference to examples or specific details. For example, ‘The language features are used for effect but they do not command attention’, ‘There are intrusive error patterns’, ‘The ideas are insightful’. 

Although there is no minimum word count or upper word limit, in order to provide sufficient evidence, it is recommended that prose is a minimum of 350 words in length. Poetry considered for assessment must be of sufficient length to demonstrate development of ideas and use of stylistic conventions. Where significantly shorter poetry or prose pieces are included in the submission, students may need to submit more pieces to provide sufficient evidence of development for the standard. Connecting these pieces by theme or subject matter may assist ākonga to provide sufficient evidence for the development of ideas. 

The intent of the Standard is to support students in learning how to write for different purposes and audiences, exploring the use of different stylistic conventions as they do so. While learning and experiences outside the writing programme may provide rich and authentic inspiration for new pieces of writing, written work that has been produced for the purpose of formative or summative assessment in the context of other achievement or unit standards is not appropriate for submission. This includes English 91924, 91925, and 91927. Research reports, investigations, or other written work produced for formative or summative assessment in other subjects are also not appropriate for submission. For example, while an essay on a topic of personal interest is appropriate, an exam-style response to text developed in the context of 91925 or 91927 is not, and neither is a report on language that was developed in the context of 91924. 

Possible contexts

Opportunities to engage with different types of writing can be integrated throughout the year of teaching and learning, as part of the study of literary and other texts. Kaiako will give ākonga opportunities to engage with and become familiar with a range of writing types, covering different styles within non-fiction and fiction writing. Formative writing opportunities should include the following stages: planning, drafting, revising, editing, and proof-reading. 

Possible contexts for writing could include writing in response to an event or developing a narrative or poems that develop an idea. They may produce writing in response to or in the style of a studied text or text creator. They may look at researching an issue or event which is significant to their community and writing a report, opinion piece or persuasive essay. 

Standard Exclusions

This Standard has one or more exclusions, or Standards that assess the same or similar learning. These Standards are excluded against one another to prevent assessing the same learning twice. You can only use credits gained from one of these standards towards your NCEA qualification.

Find out more about the NCEA Level 1 Exclusions List.

Literacy and Numeracy Requirements

This Achievement Standard has been approved for literacy in the transition period (2024-2027). 

Full information on the co-requisite during the transition period: Standards approved for NCEA Co-requisite during the transition period (2024-2027).