Gauteng Grade R Improvement Project Advocacy Learning Briefs
In 2020, Wordworks was commissioned to design the materials for the Gauteng Grade R Improvement Project, building on its Stellar Grade R Home Language programme.
Two Learning Briefs (see below) came out of this project. We also wrote a reflection on CAPS Home Language (Grade R).
Teaching Language and Literacy in Grade R
Drawing on research and best practice for teaching young children, we wrote two briefs that highlight key principles that underpinned the development of materials to teach letter–sound knowledge and strengthen oral language in Grade R. These materials were developed as part of a story-based Home Language programme for the Gauteng Grade R Language Improvement Project, a provincial teacher training programme targeting all Grade R teachers in public ordinary schools, special needs schools and registered ECD centres in Gauteng.
Learning Brief 1 describes the code-related aspects of the programme (letter–sound knowledge and phonological awareness).
Learning Brief 2 concentrates on those aspects of the programme focused on strengthening the teaching of oral language through a focus on oral storytelling. Read More
Read the Teaching Language and Literacy in Grade R Learning Brief (Letters and Sounds) here.
Read the Teaching Language and Literacy in Grade R Learning Brief (StoryTelling) here
Reflection on CAPS
To ensure coverage of and alignment with the curriculum, we looked at the content, concepts and skills covered in the CAPS document for each of the four terms in the Grade R year. We found the CAPS document challenging to navigate and therefore began by grouping related content, concepts and skills and tracking them for developmental progression across all four terms of the Grade R year. The process revealed several issues in the CAPS document: inconsistencies, repetition, a lack of conceptual coherence, incorrect use of terminology, and challenges with developmental progression across the Grade R year. We reflect on these issues in this brief. Read More
Read Reflection on CAPS Learning Brief here
Roger Federer Foundation Grade R Interventions Mapping Report
This important study maps various Grade R interventions in South Africa in 2023. Wordworks interventions (with different partners) feature strongly, with the following being covered in this Report:
Wordworks Stellar programme
Wordworks Home-School Partnerships programme
Wordworks TIME programme
Read the full report here
(See more about these programmes here: https://www.wordworks.org.za/our-early-literacy-programmes/)
A study of the Emergent Literacy Project rollout in the Western Cape | 2017
In 2015 the Curriculum Directorate of the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) partnered with Wordworks to take its Emergent Literacy project (ELIT) to Grade R classrooms across the eight education districts of the Western Cape. ELIT incorporates the STELLAR Programme (Strengthening Teaching of Early Language and Literacy in Grade R) which Wordworks developed, implemented and refined over several years.
The purpose of this qualitative study was to deliver findings which illuminate the effectiveness of the ELIT ‘cascaded training with support’ dissemination model. By drawing on the key implementers’ accounts of the rollout, the research seeks to provide insights for future dissemination, refinement or replication of the ELIT project or similar large-scale training interventions in state primary schooling.
