1. How long have you been teaching Grade 3 mathematics?
It's for 2 years now after my resignation, and if I count the previous years before I resigned, it was 5 years.
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2. How much time is allocated for mathematics Grade 3 in the CAPS document? I am not sure.
3. How do you work? Do you adhere to the weekly time given by the CAPS document to teach Grade 3 mathematics?
Of course, I do adhere, but sometimes it happens that you exceed. This is because it depends to the pace of the children. Maybe you exceed a few minutes. It's like when they have to do their mental maths. What is allocated in our school for the m to finish their mental maths is 10 minutes, but you can see that those children who cannot manage to do their mental maths out of 30 in 10 minutes and then you have to give them extra time.
4. What about the timetable? Do you adhere to your weekly timetable for your Grade 3 class and teach according to the timetable drafted by the school? How is it related to the CAPS document?
Yes, I do try. But sometimes because since I have said that there's different pace of children. Try to help them to give them extra time. Because sometimes we find out that when the others are almost finished, but sometimes the others are just starting, you know. Yes, they are not the same pace in the same pace , and since because of the load of the work in Grade 3 you can't have that time of remedial activities. You try to squeeze it to try to explain it further.
5. Are you able to cover all given content each week for your mathematics lessons? Yes.
6. What do you prioritise when teaching? Please explain and give reason.
I stick to curriculum coverage. I cannot just work on my own, my own you know. I stick to what is prepared for that week. This is because at the end of the day I have to give the report, and what I have to do to report it must appear in my learners’ books I have to be honestly. If we are going to have some assessment then I can just try to revise somethings that will be in the assessment.
7. How do you view the time prescribed in the CAPS document? Do you think about it when you plan your lessons or present them in class?
I think the time that is incurred is not enough. There is too much to be done, but the time is too little. When you look at the work that is supposed to be done time is limited, because even if you have to introduce a new lesson, you have to start with the known to the unknown. During that introduction time is elapsing and now you can see that there are
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those children who cannot grasp the concept or focus, and you have to try to make the in such a way that it accommodate all learners you are teaching.
8. How do keep your learners interested in the concept you are teaching within the prescribed time?
I try a lot to involve them, to make them active, to use the things that they know. Concrete things, or, as I have said that even when I'm doing the story sums, it must be a story, they must just imagine something that is happening before they solve the problem. I use a lot of concrete things because they are still young.
9. Which teaching strategies do you find most effective when teaching mathematics? Explain how they are linked or not to the prescribed time in the CAPS document. Most of the time I like to do group teaching, mix the children so that there are those who grasp quickly can also help those who are slow. There are times I feel like I can have extra time to take those who are very slow together and just do things practically with them, but because of the time, sometimes you know you don’t have enough time.
10. How does the use of time affect learner performance for mathematics in your classroom?
It affects them because most of the time I can find out that my children fail, some of them fail to finish the task in the set time. They fail. You need to give them extra time. Sometimes we say okay, you are not going for your lunch break if you have not finished. Of which you know now it deprives a child that time of playing outside with their peers. The time is too little, because these learners, most of them they are too slow. You find out there are a few of those just you know that cannot complete activities.
11. As an educator what do you think needs to change in order to improve the results for Grade 3 mathematics?
Mainly time is a problem, it is not enough to complete the work and use the correct strategies. I suppose I need some in-service training like workshops within the schools you know. If, let's say we are five in Grade 3 teachers maybe I'm much better than the others in the breaking- up method for mathematics I can train the other teachers to better teach that concept and they can do the same with some of the other concepts.
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