La Constitución política de 1993

During surveying (skimming and scanning) learners were still seated in groups but worked individually and then shared their ideas with the group. The pace of some groups increased, since they were now familiar with the text. Some learners seemed to understand surveying. The learners' reflections were as follows:

• I like it I've done exactly what has been told. to me its easyer.it is the

easiest way to understand a comprehension.

• Survey showed me how to have a general idea of comprehension.

• We were taught how to survey and the story was simple so it was easy to get to

know what the story is about. (see Appendix 7a)

Some groups had learners who were slow readers and that caused them not to finish on time. In as much as there were groups that improved, some still produced poor quality of work. The weaker learners needed more attention as it was hard for them to understand the text and identify key words. Here is an example of a weaker learner's response on surveying the first paragraph:

• My name is James Banda and arrived from Malawi in few days ago. (see Appendix 3 a)

The sentence shows how difficult the activity was for the weaker learners.

4.5.11 Lesson 3: Day 3 Summarizing

Learners had to summarize using guiding questions. Some responded positively to these questions. They were able to select main points. Some learners were able to write short sentences with meaning, but some were still writing long sentences. I think using guiding questions can be of help to learners when summarizing. During their discussion learners were free to talk whether they said something correct or not. They had gained confidence. A learner in his reflection said:

• The comprehension is not difficult I need to learn to write short sentences (see

Appendix 7a).

I think before learners embarked on the activity on summary writing, I should have scaffolded the whole class using the chalkboard, showing them how to get rid of unnecessary words when summarizing.

On the other hand, there were still learners who were battling to identify main ideas in the passage. They could not understand the text or the questions, and as a result they were not participating in their groups. The non-participant observer commented:

• There were learners who did not participate who were difficult, ask them more

questions until they develop a good attitude that a question can be posed to them and an answer is expected (see Appendix 5a).

This comment caused me to devise another strategy in the next lesson that would cause the learners to participate. I had to dissolve groups and each learner had to work individually.

4.5.12 Lesson 4: Day 1 Surveying (skimming and scanning)

The text used in Lesson 4 (Appendix 3b) was taken from (Reading level 1 of START, 1995). The learners at this juncture worked individually. Most learners found the story easy and understandable. They managed to grasp the meaning of the first and the last paragraph and their pace increased. However, some learners still had problems with pacing and writing sentences in their own words. For example on Worksheet 4 on surveying a learner wrote:

• The fall guy's father had an injury on his foot and that made him angry.

• The fall guy started a new life where he had peace at last and what his father

did to him, he will never do it to his son. (see Appendix 3a)

These sentences were taken from the text as they were. They were not modified at all. During this lesson, dictionaries were made available; the school had bought 35 copies.

4.5.13 Lesson 4: Day 2 Vocabulary development - using vocabulary

Still using the same text, the task was done individually with no assistance from other learners. The aim was to train learners to work independently and demonstrate how much they had attained from working in groups. The learners attempted their individual task on vocabulary development, matching words with their meanings, but there were a few learners who found it difficult to work alone. During the second interview, a learner commented:

• It was difficult when you separated us. It was not easy but I got used to that (see Appendix 4c).

Most learners were focused on their task as matching words was a new method introduced to them. A learner reflected:

• The activity was interesting. I like to think which meaning for this word if I got

it wrong then I will look it's meaning from a dictionary. (see Appendix 7a)

The non-participant observer commented:

• / think this is a good approach because it stimulates thinking. I observed that

they were quiet and thinking trying to relate a word with its meaning. I think you can use this approach frequently. (see Appendix 5b)

The strong and average learners made few mistakes which showed that they understood the task. In my reflection I wrote:

• Some were serious about their work. They were clever enough to go back to

the comprehension passage and read the sentence where the words were taken from in order to understand/guess their meanings, (see Appendix 7b)

The learners finished on time but the weaker learners inaccurately matched the words without giving any thought to this. Dictionaries were issued for them to check the meaning of words and write their corrections. The availability of dictionaries made learners work faster.