6.6 Teacher Jane’s story
6.6.5 Analysis of Teacher Jane’s lesson 4 in school 3
Jane is a well-respected and valued teacher in school 3, in relation to the African norms (respect of older people in a social context). She is well known for her motherly love to all the children and willingness to learn new methodologies of teaching.
The following is Jane’s lesson 4 descriptions, constructed from the video transcripts of the data collected during phase 2 in August 2014. See table 6.3 in section 6.4.5 for the lens used to engage with this data.
Date: 29-08-2014 Topic: Guided reading Duration: 46 minutes Class: 2C Episode 1
The teacher had photocopied a story from a Grade 2 textbook (FAL), but since there were not enough copies, she distributed a copy per every two learners. The class was noisy as she distributed the copies which had clear images and text, but in black and white. Using the textbook, she teacher explained the title of the story and read the story below twice to the class.
The healing tree
Nandipha’s family lived in a small village far away from the doctor. Nandipha’s mother was ill. Nandipha’s granny knew how to help her. Nandipha and her granny went to the big, dark, cool forest. They walked down narrow paths until they were deep in the forest. Often, Granny bent down and looked at a plant. Each time she shook her head. Sometimes she sniffed the air and then shook her head again.
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Suddenly, Granny stepped off towards a tall tree. She scraped a little bit of the bark of the tree. She picked some of the leaves. “These will help Mama,” Granny said joyfully. When they got home, Granny made a special tea with the bark. She put the leaves on Mama’s forehead. “Don’t worry, Nandipha your mama will be better very soon,” said Granny.
The story was long, some learners seemed attentive but the majority did not follow or focus on the teachers’
reading. The third reading was done by the learners alone, where the majority struggled to the extent that most of the time I was not able to hear the English words clearly, because most of them were just chanting and stammering. The class’s focus in the reading was poor and it seemed like less than 15 learners were actually reading. The class applauded themselves for the reading and moved to the next task.
Episode 2
The teacher moved to the back of the class and requested two groups to read the story in turns as the class listened. The rest of the class was busy doing their own activities, not related to the lesson. Some learners seemed bored, tired and played quietly with their pens, books and handouts, while the others whispered to their buddies in their groups. The teacher did not control or even notice the distraction as she was busy concentrating on the reading from the two groups. After the reading, the class applauded their peers for the effort put in the reading. Then the teacher summarised as follows:
T: Did you hear the story?
Class: Yes!
T: whose mother was sick in this story? Whose mother was sick? (Silence) Nandipha’s mother was sick
Class: Nandipha’s mother was sick T: Who tried to help Nandipha’s mother?
L:(isiZulu) Gogo
T: What is Gogo in English Class: Granny
T: What did she do to help Nandipha’s mother?
L(isiZulu) She made Nandipha’s mother a special tea
T: (English) Good, did you hear that? Granny made Nandipha’s mother special tea. And what did she put on Nandipha mother’s forehead?
L:(isiZulu) Leaves Episode 3
Orally, the teacher guided the learners to match the five incomplete sentences at the end of the story. Sluggishly, individual learners matched the sentences and each time, the teacher wrote the complete sentence on the chalkboard and explained in isiZulu. This task was very difficult for the learners and they struggled to put the sentences together. At the end of the task, the class loudly read the five sentences written by the teacher on the chalkboard.
Figure 6.4: Descriptions of Jane’s EFAL Lesson 4 Video recorded on 29-08-2014
Table 6.8 demonstrates how the lesson was deductively coded. For illustration purposes, the fifth aspect of the principles: ‘To what extent does the classroom portray a print rich environment?’ had only a single sub-category, coded as 5.0 (print-rich learning environment).
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The main objective of this aspect is to have an insight into how the teacher created and managed the classroom environment to enhance effective teaching. The aspect was deductively connected to pieces of text from the transcript and corroborated by the researchers’ field notes to generate the codes. Aspect 5.0 for Jane’s lesson 4 was coded at 2, recorded as 5.2 and 3B.4.
This means that Jane’s classroom did not present a print rich environment which is vital for teaching and learning at the FP. Table 6.8 below shows the coding of Jane’s lesson 4.
Table 6.8: Analysis of Jane’ lesson 4 using principles of teaching EFAL at the FP
Concept Definition Implications for practice
1.0 To what extent is bilingualism evident?
1A. Both HL and FAL
must be fully developed The teacher used code switching to explain the story to the learners and encouraged the learners to respond either in English or IsiZulu in all the episodes. Coded as 1A.3
1B. Receptiveness to
acquiring FAL The majority of the children repeated whatever the teacher said and hardly understood the long reading from the teacher. The teacher tried to communicate and praise the learners, but the majority was not attentive and seemed bored or not interested in the revision. Coded as 1B.2
2.0. To what extend did the lesson present explicit opportunities for learning and acquiring FAL in an authentic way?
2A. Formal (traditional) approaches to learning FAL
The teacher did not capture most of the learners’
attention during the four reading sessions. The teaching strictly followed the DBE learners’ book and themes.
Coded 2A. 2.
2B. Krashen’s natural approaches to acquiring FAL based on the 5 hypotheses
The teacher did not provide adequate informal opportunities for the acquisition of FAL. She occasionally appreciated correct responses and encouraged them to speak in both languages throughout the lesson, especially in the last episode where individual learners attempted to construct sentences by matching the incorrect phrases given. Coded as 2B.2
3.0. To what extent did the teacher provide meaningful opportunities to enhance the building of vocabulary and oral sentences fluency?
3A.Developing listening and speaking skills
She provided one photocopy of the story to each pair of learners and and talked about the story to create a conversation with the learners. Coded as 3A.2
3B.Building vocabulary and develop oral sentences in FAL
She focused on the reading and learners followed the story and explanations from the black and white photocopies made. The teacher’s talk about the story was minimal. majority of the learners were not fluent readers and thus, struggled to read by themselves. Coded 3B.2 4.0. To what extent
does the teacher use balanced strategies and routines that support meaningful reading and writing?
4A.Strategies and routines that support meaningful word study and reading
The learners were given the opportunity to read the story as a class and two selected groups also read the story.
One oral exercise was done by individuals to match the incomplete sentences, followed by the whole class’s reading the completed sentences written on the chalkboard. Coded 4A.2
4B.Strategies and routines that support meaningful writing.
The teacher wrote the five sentences on the chalk board in the last episode, but no opportunity was provided for the learners to write these sentences or new words.Coded 4B.1
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5.0. To what extent does the classroom portray a print rich environment?
5.0 Print-rich learning
environment The room is relatively small for the 54 learners, with a small lockable cupboard loaded with DBE workbooks.A long table with piles of different books on the side, Old numbers, shapes, colours charts, lists of isiZulu and English words, a clock, calendar, life skills pictures, and old drawing of the SA flag by the learners. All these materials were mounted all over the walls, even below the chalkboard and did not look impressive. Coded as 5.2
The next section provides a summative description of Jane’s observed literacy lessons analysis.