Journal: Practicum Lesson Reflection for 28/08/2014

Subject: isiXhosa (3^rd Additional)
Class: Grade 8
Date 28/08/2014

This was my fourth class presented to the learners at Edgemead High School. During this lesson the usual teacher who’s class it is was not present and I had to take the class ‘by myself’ (there was another teacher present for observation purposes). I decided to challenge the class, a group of fluent isiXhosa speakers, with a lesson on words that they were probably not familiar with as they do not often use them in their day-to-day interactions with their friends. The class was present and engaged as I was showing them new things and challenging their knowledge. I also had them learn about tenses with regards to these new words and this challenged them further. What I noted was that I expect the learners to keep up with me by writing down what I am showing them (which is relatively little, a word or two) and also to answer questions related to the content. It appears that this is asking too much of this young group of learners – they do not yet have the skills to write and listen at the same time.  In my next lesson I will take this into consideration.