Wordworks in Gauteng!
June 2022
The Grade R Home Language Improvement Program is fully CAPS-aligned and designed to strengthen oral language development and early literacy skills in Grade R learners.
Wordworks has broadened its horizons to support early language and emergent literacy teaching in the Gauteng Province. Wordworks has been appointed the Language technical partner to the Gauteng Grade R Improvement Programme and has been responsible for materials development as well as the training of trainers, which started in the 4thTerm of 2021.
The Grade R Home Language Improvement Programme is fully *CAPS-aligned and designed to strengthen the oral language and emergent literacy of Grade R learners. It is organised into two-week cycles of teaching built around a story which is brought to life for the learners through fully interactive activities.
The programme is supported by the following resource components that were developed in close collaboration with the GDE: A Concept Guide which sets out the educational and curriculum principles that underpin the programme design; Read Less
Activity Guides for each term which provide stories (with a total of 19 stories throughout the year), songs, whole class, and small group activities for a daily 50-minute focus on Language; Resource packs for each term which include a Big Book, puppets, sequence pictures, games and templates for each story-based cycle of activities.
Wordworks Master Trainers have been diligently working with 174 GDE trainers. Once they are comfortable with the resources and have gained all the necessary skills and expertise the GDE trainers go on to provide monthly teacher training and support approximately 4000 Grade R teachers across all public primary schools. The high level of commitment of the GDE officials and trainers has been inspiring and it has been exciting to see how teachers implement the programme in their classrooms.
In the end; this intervention is hoped to help enhance Grade R teachers’ confidence, skills and creativity as they lay an important foundation for our children and ensuring their readiness for Grade 1.
*CAPS – National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement
