Curriculum adviser EMILIA POTENZA answers questions from teachers about outcomes-based education (OBE) and Curriculum 2005.
Q: How do you implement OBE when you are teaching combined classes, e.g. grade one and two together, etc. Our school is a three teacher school with classes from grade one to six. Which syllabus should I follow for a particular year because grade one is not the same as grade two?
BM Moatshe, Radithuso
A: There is no easy answer to this. Multi-grade teaching is a difficult task, especially if you are faced with a lack of space and other resources. With Curriculum 2005, there is no syllabus for each grade as there was under the old curriculum. There is the policy document for the Foundation Phase which includes Range Statements that give pointers about what you should be teaching. Expected Levels of Performance (ELPs) for each grade are being developed, but it will be some time before they reach your school. Many teachers are saying that they need more clarity about what they should be focusing on in each grade. They accept that the old syllabus was too prescriptive, but say that the new curriculum doesn’t provide enough direction about the learning programme in each grade.
You need to follow a different programme of work with each grade for part of the time, and bring learners together to do combined activities at other times. Focus on teaching reading, writing and numeracy skills at all times. Learners in different grades are likely to be at different reading and writing levels, though this may not be strictly according to grade. Group learners according to level. You may have six to eight groups in your class. Adapt your reading and writing programme from group to group.
Some tips for creating a learning environment in this very demanding context:
-Make sure that you have established rules about behaviour in the classroom.
– If you don’t have readers, try to get some. Children learn to read by reading. Ideally, you need a number of books at different levels in your classroom. Children can then move from one level to the next at their own pace. To assist you, contact an organisation called READ at (011) 339-5941.
– Start every day with a dedicated reading hour. If you don’t have enough books, ask learners to bring something to read. Take in what learners bring and reallocate these ”texts” to learners according to reading level. The difficulty here is that ideally these ”texts” should be in the home language of your learners. It is important for learners to become literate in their home language/s first. Research has shown that straight-for-English can lead to learners leaving school without achieving basic literacy in either their home language/s or English.
– Don’t worry if the reading work you are doing doesn’t relate directly to your Programme Organisers. Teaching reading skills is more important than worrying about integration at this stage.
– There are a number of different approaches to the teaching of reading. You need to find out about them (e.g. the phonics approach or the whole language approach) and use whatever combination best suits your situation. READ may be able to assist you.
– Make sure handwriting gets the time it needs every day. If you don’t have enough time in your Literacy Programme, make handwriting part of your Life Skills Programme.
– Don’t make learners work in pairs and groups for the sake of it. Structure pair and groupwork carefully, e.g. a more competent reader can listen to a less competent reader reading and offer support; learners can work in groups to prepare and present role plays.
– Try to get one or two adults from your community to assist you. It’s not possible to manage two different grades in one classroom all by yourself.
Are you one of the many teachers at sea about understanding and implementing OBE and Curriculum 2005? Send in your questions to our curriculum adviser, Emilia Potenza, c/o The Teacher, PO Box 91667, Auckland Park, 2006, or e-mail her at [email protected]
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, May 2000.
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