Teachers 'not reading childrens' books'

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 26 May, 2008

Story picked up off the Lisnews blog points to an article in the Bookseller  which says that research into teachers' reading habits by the Centre for Literacy and Primary Education (CLPE) has found that many do not regularly read children's literature, and tend to choose books from a narrow band of authors.

The research was undertaken as part of the Power of Reading programme, which was launched by the CLPE in 2005 to increase children's and teachers' enjoyment of reading. The schools questioned for the research were among 300 that have been involved in the Power of Reading project.

 

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Education Budget Vote

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 24 May, 2008

A link to the speech introducing the Education Department's Budget Vote to Parliament, delivered by Minister Naledi Pandor.

Also a link to MEC Cameron Dugmore's statement about the budget.  

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Report of Survey of e-Learning in Africa

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 21 May, 2008

A link to a  report of a questionnaire survey on e-Learning in Africa .    Respondents  are on the e-Learning Africa database and were from 42 African countries, including South Africa (and the majority were male).  The survey shows that there is a wide variety of e-learning practices in Africa;  that e-learning is very much in its infancy and there is much enthusiasm.

 

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Do we need a four year degree?

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 19 May, 2008

Mail and Guardian reports that the Education minister Naledi Pandor has asked her advisory body, the Council on Higher Education, to look into the viability of a four-year undergraduate degree as a response to South Africa's 50% university drop-out rate.

She is quoted saying "Do we limit a science student to just science courses or do we include literature? Should we have modules on African studies and developmental studies and courses in statistical numeracy? How do we modernise the programme?"  

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What are kids reading?

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 7 May, 2008

  "What Kids are Reading: the Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools"  identifies the top titles that kids in the States are reading.  The study of 78,5 million books read by more than 3 million children from Grade 1 to 12, shows what is read most often, overall and by gender.  In the lower grades, books are read to the students are included. 

Yes, Harry Potter titles make the list, but so does To kill a mockingbird, Charlotte's Web and  of course, a number of the Dr Seuss titles.   As some of the interviewees comment, in the               Washington Post article,  what's missing from the list are historical novels and biographical works as well as nonfiction, informational, humourous, novelty and graphic novels. 

 

 

 

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Would you pass this 1895 Grade 8 Exam ?

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 6 May, 2008

Spotted on IOL this week:  

Columnist James Clarke writes about an exam paper for Grade 8 children in the States, and lists some of the questions...      Apparently the time limit for the exam was five hours!  

These are some of the questions - so how would you have done?   

 Grammar (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.

2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.

3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph.

4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of "lie", "play" and "run".

5. Define case; illustrate each case.

6. What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.

7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

 

  Orthography (Time, one hour)

1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication.

2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?

3. What are the following and give examples of each: Trigraph, sub-vocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals.

4. Give four substitutes for caret "u".

5. Give two rules for spelling words with final "e". Name two exceptions under each rule.

6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.

7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.

8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.

9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.

10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

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