FunDza is in the process of developing an online curriculum which we mainly piloted last year with the Western Cape’s Year Beyond project in eight high schools. However as the computers and Internet were not always functioning at these schools, and so the learners often had to use our books instead, we also approached two other organisations with operational computer labs to trial the material as well.
The African School of Excellence in Gauteng piloted our curriculum with a grade seven class, and OLICO, an NGO working in Diepsloot, piloted it with a range of high school learners. Both groups used it very much as a self-directed individual programme, so they did not use our discussion, drama or writing activities that were available with each module – rather learners just read our stories and answered the multiple choice questions at the end of each of the chapters.
We were concerned that this might have got dull without the discussion and ‘fun’ drama activities. We were delighted to get the following message from Olico: “The learners are LOVING the FunDza course. There was a group of learners that stayed at OLICO until 5pm on Friday. They were reading The Big Crush and kept jumping up and running around each time they got a question right in the quiz :)”
The African School of Excellence also reported that learners enjoyed the programme. The stories got the usual enthusiastic responses, as learners could recognise their own lives and worlds, and they also enjoyed the online aspect of the comprehensions, and how their work was immediately marked and their results fed back to them.
Feedback from the Year Beyond project was more critical from both groups that used our books and those that did manage to participate in the online programme. Volunteers here asked for a more varied range of texts as well as more explicit ‘language curriculum’ work. The African School of Excellence and OLICO also thought that this would be a positive improvement. So this year the foundation phase course we are testing is more than just short stories, it also includes inspirational non-fiction texts, blogs, and some language activities.
This year we also aim to extend our trial to a rural Eastern Cape project, the Sifunda Kunye Literacy Project. They were very excited to hear about the online curriculum as they have the resources available to run it. We’re keen to see how students in a rural environment enjoy the stories and curriculum.
We will be watching with interest to see how our ‘new improved’ curriculum will go down. We are able to monitor all learners’ activities and results, and so can get a picture of how the different groups are responding. This will in turn help us develop even more refined courses for particular groups. Watch this space…!