Visualisation
We discussed how folk tales (being a verbal way of learning)
require a large amount of visualisation. We spoke about how this may be difficult
for students. This might explain why some students were able to give the
definitions (the ones who were able to visualise) while others weren’t (the
ones who found visualisation more difficult).
Verbal story telling is traditionally done by the grandmother.
These days this is done less. Groups of children would sit in a circle and
listen to stories. Very few students knew that it was grandmothers who told
stories like this, highlighting the gap in experiences between generations.
Behaviour
We noted how students were over all very well behaved. This
may be due to the circle nature of the discussion or whether it was because it
is a new arrangement in the class.
- Students were continually tracking the speaker and were not physically moving much.
- There was no shouting out – hands were raised politely when preparing to answer questions.
Opportunity for students to each speak plus the opportunity
to get up and go and write down notes once they had got something right was a
good combination for the following reasons
- It allowed students to have a purpose when they were walking to their desk
- It allowed students to have a purpose when needing to write something down so they didn’t forget to write it down, or get distracted halfway through
- If students forgot what they needed to write down, they could listen to the others who were still busy reciting.
English-home-language learner
- Very engaged
- Seemed to understand most of the lesson
- Asked person sitting next to her to clarify when needed
- Once asked in English for the question to be repeated
- Spoke 4 times in Setswana
