Training guide
5. Supporting reading and writing across different levels
5.2. Supporting older learners with literacy
As learners progress through school, they are expected to read and write in different styles depending on the subject they are studying. It is important that learners in upper primary grades begin to understand how science and social studies use a different style of writing, for example. You can help your learners by introducing them to different types of text, for example, through science experiments, social studies reports etc.
Activity 5.10: Understanding syntax and synonymsThis is a lively activity for older learners. Use your time in the TGM to try it out on each other. Copy onto the board a short factual reading or paragraph of approximately four or five sentences that your learners have recently completed in one of their textbooks. Get a learner to read it aloud. Ask another learner to come to the front and erase all the adjectives. Then ask the class or a volunteer to read it aloud again including the now-missing adjectives. Ask another learner to erase all the nouns. Then ask the class or a volunteer to read it aloud again, including the now-missing adjectives AND nouns. Repeat with verbs, adverbs, articles, punctuation until there is virtually no text. You can then, if you want to, rebuild the paragraph using learners to come up and write in the missing sentences. Another way to use this activity could be to ask learners to replace the words with synonyms. For example, after you have removed all adjectives, ask learners to add a suitable synonym. |