Afrikaans Twitter

Our Afrikaans department are using Twitter to help their learners build vocabularly. Read all about it in the article posted in Die Burger.

Teaching Afrikaans in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town certainly has its challenges, as exposure to the language is so limited. The department likes to encourage parents to help their sons spend a bit more time with the language and to this end has opened theTwitter account, @afrpret. Every day from Monday to Friday, they add some new words and sample sentences.Follow them on Twitter - @afrpret- and encourage your children to engage with the words! 

http://www.dieburger.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Selfone-in-klaskamer-ingespan-20130224

Whatsapp in Afrikaans

One of our Afrikaans teachers makes use of Whatsapp to have short bouts of communication about everyday life (in Afrikaans, of course). He has noticed that those who have the opportunity to converse in Afrikaans everyday improve significantly. Unfortunately the curriculum is too full to allow fully conversational classes. Email does not allow for quick conversations. Most of his class use Whatsapp and the learners are comfortable chatting to two or three people at the same time. Using their proferred communication means he has increaded the likelihood of a quick Afrikaans chat! He is initially experimenting with one class and has discussed the rules with them. Anyone who behaves inappropriately will be blocked!  So far so good!

Learning Afrikaans is fun!

What an amazing site this is for Afrikaans teachers. Burgert has developed these resources to share with other teachers and learners.

Afrikaans Poetry in Action

Afrikaans Poetry in Action

Many boys don’t get excited when they hear the word ‘poetry’.  The Afrikaans department has decided on putting students in groups to create their own visual experiences of poetry we have done in class.  This was used as a revision tool and helped the boys to see poetry from a different perspective.

Afrikaans Radio Stations & News Programs

Afrikaans Radio Stations & News Programs

A few teachers tried this as a class activity this year.  Students were put into groups to create their own 1) radio station or 2) news program.  The radio station demanded of students to create their own name, jingle, news reports, commercials and to find a cool Afrikaans song they liked to include.  The news program was based on the same principle.  Students had to video themselves and create their own news channel, news reports, weather reports, commercials etc.  This was an exciting assignment which tested student’s language, vocal and presenting capabilities.  

   

Using PhotoStory in Afrikaans classes

Afrikaans Photostory

This project entailed using Microsoft Photostory 3 and creating your own video album with short descriptions in Afrikaans.  Students could choose a theme or a specific event which took place.  They were encouraged to use their own photos on their laptops and Facebook to make engaging and relevant.  Students had to ensure that they used the STOMPI, Afrikaans sentence structure, as their guiding light for their descriptions and sentences.  

Bishops Boys pay it forward to the blind.

Afrikaans:  Bishops Boys pay it forward to the blind.

Charli Wiggill, one of the Partners in Learning Forum winners of 2012, started a WIKI for students to upload stories they have read in different languages for blind children.  A few Bishop Boys contributed their Afrikaans stories to the WIKI.

Please visit the site:  http://pay-it-forward-for-the-blind.wikispaces.com/%2A+MP3+SA+Languages.  

                   
 

Afrikaans: School of Rock

Afrikaans:  School of Rock (Music Videos)

Gustav Labon stated that an education system is of more importance to a country than its government.  The driving force behind our project is the need for proper and inspiring language education.  

Most educators will agree that the reason why many learners struggle with mathematical problems, history essay writing or long questions in general is because they do not understand the question or because they find it problematic to organize their thought process or express themselves using proper language.  

The grade 8’s had to create a music video by matching images to the lyrics of a song or they had the choice to translate a song and sing it themselves.  This was a perfect opportunity to be creative, improve their comprehension, vocabulary, computer literacy, visual literacy and be entertained while learning.  

One of my main aims was to break away from those things that they were use to in language classes.  Students had to find a song the liked.  Thereafter they had to interpret and understand the lyrics.  They had to understand the words and the meaning of the song.  This was followed by matching the proper images to the lyrics and being creative or translating an English song to Afrikaans.  

Throughout the process they were using technology to learn Afrikaans, enjoy Afrikaans and to be resourceful in Afrikaans.  The words and pictures were embedded in their minds and the project addressed their experience world every step of the way.  Suddenly their second language became relevant to them because they were having fun and using technology at the same time.  

Afrikaans Movies

Our grade 9’s must create their own movies at the end of the year based on a fairy tale.  This year students were also allowed to base their movies on other movies they have watched.  Students must bring their own interpretation to the table.  Students work in groups with different characters, props and settings.  This project requires group work, delegation and creativity.  

   

Afrikaans Magazines

Afrikaans Magazines

Magazines are all around us and play an important role in young people’s lives.  Students were asked to compile their own short electronic magazine with a proper front page, a well written article, news alerts, cross word puzzles, advertisements etc.  They were encouraged to be creative and think out of the box.  Many boys chose sport magazines but there were also very interesting compilations, from Pokemon to camping magazines. 

	





Creating comics in Afrikaans

Afrikaans Cartoon Strips

The grade 9’s read ‘Harlekyn’ as their prescribed book and were asked to create their own cartoon strips based on a circus theme.  The aim was to create flowing comic strips with interesting dialogue and storylines.  They were asked to work in pairs and to also include voice recordings for each character.