Implementing Wordworks ECD program in KZN
2022
The Wordworks team recently hosted their second Community of Practice session with Lulamaphiko, focusing on drawing and emergent writing activities to support early literacy and language development.
Lulamaphiko’s 2022 Classroom Library Project followed a Wits University research project in 2021 that aimed to get children to build the habit of borrowing books to read at home. The project has been drawing on the Every Word Counts and Little stars programme. Speaking about how the programmes have helped the project, Director Lynn Stefano had this to say “EWC and Little Stars have helped us to understand how children begin to learn to read and write, and the important role that educators and parents play in supporting these skills to emerge over time. We believe that Gr R is a critical transition year between home and/or pre-school and Gr 1. Unfortunately, many Gr R teachers are not supported or equipped to make the most of this year, so learners start Gr 1 having lost many opportunities to put in place reading and writing skills needed in ‘big’ school”. According to Lynn, the Foundation phase teachers they work with now have a better understanding of how to encourage their young learners to begin to read and write. They understand the importance of drawing as one of the foundations of writing and children delight in new opportunities to read and draw.
The Wordworks team recently held their second Community of Practice session which Lulamaphiko is part of and the focus of this session was on Drawing and Emergent writing activities. Lynn shares that this is a “very difficult approach for teachers to adopt” because Teachers become wary of being scrutinised by their inspectors. “Teachers want their children to produce beautiful, perfect letters and words and don’t appreciate the real value of children’s learning from their mistakes and that it is part of learning”, she continued by saying, “we encourage teachers to let children ‘have a go’ and explain that they need many opportunities to master a new skill, something we learnt through Wordworks”.
Sharing learnings on how she and her team respond to those challenges , Lynn said “Teachers often talk about the ‘fast’ learners and ‘slow’ learners and want to showcase to others the best work from their classes. After our workshops they understand that as teachers they can adapt how they teach according to what different children need, and that it is important to encourage, praise and showcase all their children’s work.”
Below we see Sthembile Zikhali who is one of the Early Literacy Facilitators at Lulamaphiko, supporting a young learner in a drawing activity. She read the Jabulani and the Lion story to learners and asked them to draw their favourite part of the story. She supported one of the learners by showing her a picture of a cow that is in the story, encouraging the learner to look at the different body parts of the animal eg: the head, eyes, the nose, tail etc. This helped this learner to get started and complete the exercise.
This is what Wordworks means about providing support to a learner or a child, by making the time, space and providing materials for drawing. To talk and ask about the picture and keep on encouraging the child to continue drawing. The intention is not to make the exercise easier but to provide support that will allow the child to complete the task without doing the activity for the child.
