Topic 2: Social responsibility
You will begin this topic in Term 2 of each year. Another broad aim of the Life Skills course is to make sure our ‘Rainbow Nation’ really works and that our learners become good citizens, free of discrimination and able to take responsibility for their actions. One part of this topic deals with the different religions practised in South Africa. Although the religion followed by most South Africans is Christianity we also have a significant number of people who follow other religions such as Islam, Judaism and Hinduism. It is important that learners grow up knowing something about all religions. When you teach these sections encourage learners in your class who follow different religions to share their knowledge and customs with the rest of the class. On special days encourage them to bring to class examples of festival foods. The more we can share in each others’ cultures the easier it will be for society to develop in a peaceful way.
Also included in this topic are issues such as gender stereotyping and abuse. We introduce these issues in the Intermediate Phase because this is when it is important for learners to become aware of them. Learners will be able to identify with examples in the textbook. Encourage them to discuss other examples from their own experience in class. In this way you will give learners the opportunity to work through the issues to a point where they know the correct behaviour and can advise others.
Topic 3: Health and environmental responsibility
South Africa has many statistics that we are not proud of – such as the high number of road accidents, the increase in obesity (especially in children) and our high incidence of HIV/AIDS. This topic contains a range of practical life skills such as traffic rules, hygiene, basic first aid, safety and healthy eating and each year there is a section on HIV/AIDS education. Make sure that learners do all the activities and the extra ones in the Teacher’s Guide. For many of these topics, such as first aid, it is only practice that makes perfect. Encourage learners to do a first aid course. Once you have finished a section, refer back to it in future lessons so that you consolidate. For example, take an empty container of bleach to class and ask learners where it should be stored and what to do if a child drank some of it. Or hold up a road sign and ask the class what the sign means and what they should do to obey it. You can also keep referring back to healthy eating. Get different learners to talk about what they have eaten and to analyse whether it is healthy or not. This then grows into a habit.
Reading
Throughout the Personal and Social Well-being course there is an on-going Reading section at the end of each Unit. This is designed to improve learners’ reading skills by reading material that relates to the Life Skills topics. We have chosen a whole range of different materials from newspaper articles and case studies to cartoon strips and games. We hope that this will encourage learners to not only read more fluently but also to enjoy what they are reading.
In Grade 4 the emphasis is on reading for enjoyment, without having to worry about remembering or answering questions on what you have read. At this stage, just
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