NZC aligned

Built for the curriculum
NZ is moving to.

The updated New Zealand Curriculum describes itself as knowledge-rich and grounded in the science of learning. Shift & Spark was built on that same evidence base, which is where the alignment comes from.

Read the research base
"When leadership asks how classroom practice reflects the curriculum's evidence base, a card in use is a direct answer."
Shift & Spark Teacher Guide

The same evidence base.

The science of learning named in the updated curriculum is a specific research tradition: retrieval practice, spaced practice, elaboration, dual coding and metacognition.

Every card names which of those five it runs on, with the study cited on the back.

We were working from this evidence before it became the official direction, and the citation on each card back shows where the strategy comes from.

Five pillars.

Retrieval Practice

Spaced Practice

Elaboration

Dual Coding

Metacognition

Every card names which of these five it runs on, with the study cited on the back. English, Mathematics and Statistics, Science, Social Sciences, Health and PE, Technology, the Arts and Learning Languages all have In Practice examples on the cards.

The command words.

Every card names the command word it practises. These are the words that appear in exam questions and marking schedules, so teachers and students already use them. If a class keeps losing marks on one of them, this is how you find the cards for it.

Command word
Cards
What the card asks students to do
Explain
31 cards
Say how or why something works
Create
29 cards
Make something: a question, an analogy, a plan
Justify
24 cards
Defend a position with evidence
Evaluate
21 cards
Judge quality, significance or which option is stronger
Identify
17 cards
Give the right answer, name, or term
Describe
17 cards
Recount from memory in a sentence or more
Compare
11 cards
Set two things against each other
Bicultural practice

What is in the box, specifically.

Boards are required under the Education and Training Act 2020 to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Here is what is in the box.

Te reo Māori on every card

All 150 cards carry a te reo name with its meaning alongside the English title. Students and kaiako meet reo in the ordinary business of a lesson rather than in a themed week.

Tikanga concepts woven through the pedagogy

Seven concepts run through specific cards and are unpacked in the teacher booklet: ako, tuakana-teina, manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, whakamana, kaitiakitanga and mauri.

Aotearoa contexts throughout

The In Practice examples draw on Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the New Zealand Wars, Bastion Point, the Dawn Raids, the 1981 Springbok Tour and the 1893 suffrage petition alongside science, mathematics and literature.

Made for this system

NZ English throughout, and examples that assume a New Zealand classroom.

See it in the cards.

Browse all 150 cards, or get school and department pricing.