4.4 Interview with the Grade 2 Teacher
4.4.3 Other factors
Ms Miya: Difficult one, because some parents don’t come to the school even if they are called by the principal . It is quite tricky.
Only a certain amount come to the workshop for the parents. It is the same people who come over and over again. The parents you need to see, you don’t see.
Ms Miya was concerned that there were parents who were not involved in the well-being of their children at school, and did not even come to the school for meetings with the teacher or principal to discuss their child. There were only a certain number of parents who were continuously involved.
An extra teacher or teacher aid – that would be helpful.
Ms Miya was concerned with being able to cover and complete the curriculum with her learners within the year, especially while attempting to assist the slower learners and learners experiencing difficulties understanding certain concepts. She was also torn between these slower learners and the stronger learners who completed their work at a quicker pace.
She mentioned the large class numbers and the small space in her classroom, stating that there did not seem to be a solution to these problems, as the classes could not be made smaller in terms of the number of learners and the school day could not be made longer, as that would be too tiring for the younger learners.
She did, however, suggest a possible solution, that of introducing a teacher aid to the class to help her with all the learners.
Differentiated teaching and learning
I asked Ms Miya if she had used differentiated teaching and learning in her class.
Ms Miya: I have done it at the beginning of the term, but then with the work load you tend to be focusing them (the learners) on catching them up, and doing their work individually with them.
Interviewer: How is it for you as a teacher?
Ms Miya: It is a big workload. You have to plan properly to play it out in the classroom.
Interviewer: Would you need more resources?
Ms Miya: Definitely. Everyone would need their own things at those levels.
Ms Miya had attempted to introduce the teaching strategy of differentiated teaching and learning at the beginning of the year to her class, but found the work load was too great. She felt she did not have sufficient time to plan properly or sufficient resources to ensure the effectiveness of this particular strategy.
Assessments
I asked Ms Miya how she assessed the learners in her class.
Ms Miya: Marking, observing them, spelling test.
Each term we send out reports.
We let the parents know, and some will respond and others don’t.
We let the parents know they (the learners) are having challenges and how they can help at home as well.
Interviewer: Have you had a child repeat a year?
Ms Miya: This year I am going to have to, but there is another thing – age.
The Department says that if you have kept the child back one year, you have to send them on. I have had to send a girl on to Grade 3, but she was still catching up Grade 2 work.
I will be keeping back Asanda. He hasn’t been kept back yet. He is going to be the only one.
Ms Miya assessed her learners through observation in the classroom, by marking the learners work on a daily basis, and with weekly spelling assessments. A term report was sent out to the parents. If there was a learner she was concerned about, she would ask to meet with the parents to discuss their challenges, and to offer recommendations as to what could be done to assist their child. If it was found necessary for a child to repeat the year, the parents would be informed, as long as the learner had not already repeated a year in the same phase.
Challenges experienced
I ended the interview by asking the final question of whether or not there were any other challenges that Ms Miya experienced in the classroom.
Ms Miya: Parents and their involvement, which is crucial. When you see your Mom is coming to school and wants to know what you are doing at school and how they can help you while you are at school, it is also encouraging, and when you don’t see that, it is also discouraging to the child.
Language, because they do come from different language backgrounds, but it is also helpful because the Afrikaans learners and Xhosa learners can help others when learning the other languages – sharing of languages.
Bigger classroom, more space.
More resources would be good to have and a teacher aid.
Ms Miya expressed the importance of having the parents involved with their children at the school; this would have a positive effect on their child if they were seen to be interested and invested in their child’s education. The opposite would occur if they were seen to be uninterested. She felt that the uninterested and uninvolved parents continued to be a challenge for the school.
She stated that another challenge was attempting to teach in English to learners who had different home languages. She did mention, however, that there was a positive side to learners having a variety of home languages, as they could help each other in understanding the other additional languages taught, such as isiXhosa and Afrikaans.
She repeated the need for a bigger classroom and more resources, as well as the need for a teacher aid to assist in the classroom.