Verbs were on the agenda when Grocott’s Mail visited a local literacy project this week.
Sisipho Fatyi, one of the Grade 5 pupils proudly wrote her first attempt: “I play at home”. Delighted with Sisipho’s success her teacher, Andrea Viaene, rewarded her with a chocolate.
Verbs were on the agenda when Grocott’s Mail visited a local literacy project this week.
Sisipho Fatyi, one of the Grade 5 pupils proudly wrote her first attempt: “I play at home”. Delighted with Sisipho’s success her teacher, Andrea Viaene, rewarded her with a chocolate.
Sisipho is one of almost a hundred Grade 4 and 5 pupils who meet regularly at Tantyi and Samuel Ntlebi primary schools after school-hours for English lessons. Every Wednesday afternoon, between 2 and 3.30, the children gather in groups of 10 and practice their English reading, writing and speaking.
The project, now several months old, was highlighted during the Rhodes Community Engagement week recently. M-J Jackson (she uses her initials as her name), language lecturer for Postgraduate Certificate in Education students at Rhodes University, initiated the literacy project after nine of her students approached her with the idea.
Jackson also trains in-service teachers studying for an Advanced Certificate in Education. Three of them, who teach at Tantyi and Samuel Ntlebi schools, showed interest in a partnership between themselves and the postgraduate certificate students.
Jackson delegated her advanced certificate teachers the responsibility of setting up and maintaining libraries in their classrooms, and this has become a project in itself. She promoted a book drive at the start of the project, and still encourages people to donate second-hand or new books, saying, “Donating a book is a charitable thing to do.”
The workshops focus on reading skills, specifically comprehension, fluency and vocabulary. Nicola Cormack, postgraduate certificate student, explains that there are three steps: reading, writing and speaking.
Noting the pupils’ second-language barriers, Cormack said, “To simplify everything is not as easy as it seems.” During Wednesday’s visit by Grocott’s Mail, the pupils explored verbs, by creating sentences related to pictures.
They also had to write two sentences, one saying something about what they do at home and the other related to school. “The most important thing is to expose the learners to English,” Cormack said. Jackson is impressed with the turnout so far, even though there has been no incentive “other than to come for fun and because they feel that they’re gaining something from the workshops”.
The postgraduate certificate students have been sacrificing one of just two free afternoons every week, but their study schedule is now too heavy and so workshops will soon come to a stop for the year.
The students say they have enjoyed their work with the young pupils and they encourage other Rhodes students to get involved next year. Jackson said, “The students have felt that maybe they haven’t had the impact that they thought they might have, but improving somebody’s reading and writing skills is time consuming and long-term.
"I think that if every child has learnt something then it has been great.” Viaene, a postgraduate certificate student, agrees.
“It’s nice to see the penny drop. Even if it’s just one child, we tried.”
