Bulelani Nameka is the librarian at Isikhokela Primary School. His passion for education, the community and encouraging youngsters to read led to him first volunteering at this school, which he had himself attended when he was young. Now he works there – working alongside some of his former teachers. He invited FunDza to run a ‘Writing Good Essay’ workshop with learners.
We spent time with three Grade 7 classes. We discussed different kinds of essays and learners had to distinguish them through sample texts. This was followed by an exercise of choosing a topic to write about for a descriptive essay, such as travelling by taxi.As a class, we brainstormed ideas related to the topic: drivers, passengers, sounds, etc. Learners were put into groups and asked to write three sentences each around one of these talking points. Each group had to select a sentence written by each person in their group in order to make a short collective essay. It was fun watching them connect the dots of their stories.
“People make conversations in the taxi about what happens in their lives. Some people talk about how they will end up in jobs. People complain about the cassette or the radio. People complain when they don’t get enough change. When someone is drunk they say silly things to a quiet person. People complain when someone coughs in the taxi.” ~ A paragraph by 7C