You know times have changed when you meet learners in grade 7 who are more concerned with their families and being anywhere else besides school. I'm sure some of us had our bad days at this age both socially and educationally but the grade 7 learners at St. Leo are quite unique. When I first found out that I was going to be teaching English, I was nervous that I wouldn't know English well enough myself to be able to teach it to others which is partially true but we have also found the opposite. The extreme differences between the highest and the lowest levels of learners throughout the school is incrediable but the most previlent extreme is within the grade 7 learners. The smartest learner in the school is Ntuthoko who always stumps Matt and I with "exception" questions to the English language. We have a group of 9 advanced learners who we are working extra hard with but I will go into details later on about them. There are some "B" or average learners who can speak well but their writing is rough and then there is everyone else. I hate to clump these learners into "the rest" but their skill level is significantly below all the others and could probably be compared to some of our grade 4 learners.
There are 5 classes in grade 7 including 4 groups of "regular" learners and one advanced group. For the four groups, we have dug ourselves a big hole when we tried to shove noun, verb, adjective down their throats and in their brains for weeks now and they still aren't getting it. This made both Matt and I as well as the learners very frustrated with Fridays at St. Leo. The abnormal scheduling of St. Leo has caused us to not have grade 7 every week and if we missed a group, we have played hangman and had dance parties with some of them which is of course fun but can't happen every week. After a couple weeks of frustration, Matt and I talked about what our goals for grade 7 were and decided that we would try to teach more practical English that will be useful for the learners who will probably not succeed in high school. Some of these subjects will include themes of health, occupations, around the kitchen and others that will help build their vocabulary and English. These average learners who do not succeed in high school will most likely get jobs that will be part of some of these themes and hopefully they can use the words we teach them to speak to their employeers or other people they come in contact with. In the States, it's expected that you continue on to high school and although some people don't end up graduating from high school, it is not really an opinion not to try. In South Africa, it is not necessarily an option either but it can be for some people/Zulu families. All schooling, including high school, has a price and some can be quite expensive. The public valley school is where most of the grade 7 learners will be going if they pay their school fees and make the effort to learn. Unfortunately, we have heard that this "blue school" (they have blue uniforms and is near St. Leo) is very similar to St. Leo in that the structure is disorganized and there is not much learning going on during the day. The other schools in the area are much better but are harder to get into and cost more money. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is a scholarship program for two learners to go to Hillcrest High School which is one of the best in the area and a good number of them will go to Wybank which another good high school. The goal is for all of the advanced kids to go to either of these schools as well as maybe some of the average learners.
Matt and I teach the advanced group for an hour every Friday which is their normal English class. In this class we have been teaching them noun, verb, adjective, adverb, contractions, pronouns, subject/object, a/an, this that these those, and subject verb agreement. They know most of this stuff very well in addition to parts of the body both internal and external. We are testing them on Friday so hopefully they all do well! In addition to this Friday class, Matt and Kevin have an extra hour on both Tuesday and Thursday afternoons where they have been taking the advanced group during that time for extra tutoring. They will be teaching them maths (no that is not a spelling mistake mom!), a review of English, and some reading comprehension. We have asked the local parish we attend to donate the first Harry Potter book so they advanced group can read that together and have practice with reading comprehension. We will also be giving them homework that they are expected to do and hand in each week. Our expectations for this class are very high and we hope that all of our effort and extra help will help them to succeed in high school and get good marks. This group is one of my favorites because they are excited to learn and ask tons of questions. They are also very social and have great personalities. Londeka is quite the diva and always struts her way into class but does it with a smile! Last week, Kevin told her to challenge me to a dance contest so at the end of their class, some of the kids drummed a beat on the tables and we had a little dance contest. It was quite entertaining and I'm sure everyone thought it was amuzing to see me dance! I have so much faith in this group but I'm sure they will have plenty of struggles both this year and in high school. In addition to the educational help, we are going to try and talk to them about the socialization of high school and what to expect. Unfortunatley, Matt and I have never been the minority in a school like they will be but hopefully we can talk through some of their concerns and give them a positive outlook on what their experience will be in a South African high school. Its going to be a long road for these grade 7s but Matt, Kevin, and I are excited to see how the program expands throughout the year and how the learners group both individually and as a group. I will keep you posted with more information about these special learners as the year goes on!
South Africa Fact: On Wednesday, their was a national strike in South Africa but the reasons for the strike were quite different according to different people. One person said it was for roads that need to be fixed and another person said it was for the teachers who want more money. It's quite ironic because most of the teachers at St. Leo left for the day to go to the strike but the education they give and the work they do is a pretty low amount compared to teachers in the States and within South Africa as well.
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