Supporting transition or playing catch-up in Grade 4? Implications for standards in education and training

Pretorius, Elizabeth J.2016-07-212016-07-212014Pretorius, E. J. (2014). Supporting transition or playing catch-up in Grade 4? Implications for standards in education and training. Perspectives in Education: Standards in education and training: the challenge, 32(1), 51-76.0258-2236 (print)2519-593X (online)http://hdl.handle.net/11660/3616This paper describes an intervention programme that was originally intended to support transition to English as language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in Grade 4 in a township school, using a pre- and post-test design. Because the pre-tests revealed very poor literacy levels in both Zulu home language and English, the intervention programme was modified in an attempt to fast-track the learners to literacy levels more appropriate to their grade. This paper outlines the intervention, presents the pre- and post-test results of the English literacy assessments, reflects on the effects of the intervention, and briefly considers some of the reasons for the initial poor literacy performance. Finally, a model for literacy development in high-poverty contexts is proposed to minimise the need to play catch-up in the Intermediate Phase.enLiteracyDecodingComprehensionGrade 4Foundation PhaseIntermediate PhaseHigh-poverty schoolsSupporting transition or playing catch-up in Grade 4? Implications for standards in education and trainingArticleFaculty of Education, University of the Free State