Tebogo began grade 3 not being able to speak, read or write in English. Now, a year and a half later, he’s presenting in front of his class with a confi dence that simply wasn’t there before.

How the iPad made literacy possible against all odds.

From the age of six, life and learning came with their challenges for Tebogo Phetlha ,With the passing of his mom and a move from Gauteng to Kwazulu-Natal with his aunt, Vivian Phetlha, Tebogo made the di∑ cult adjustment to a new home. In January 2013, Tebogo started grade 3 in Shanaaz Omarjee’s class at Clarence Primary, an English medium school in Durban. With no understanding of English or Zulu, only of Tswana from where he grew up, Tebogo was unable to process instructions and new concepts that were being taught at school. Furthermore, he struggled to make friends and settle into his new environment. His confi dence levels and emotional wellbeing were a∂ ected to such a point that Mrs Omarjee saw the need for a drastic change.

It was during that time that iSchoolAfrica, an education initiative that facilitates providing Apple technology to schools, began the iPad implementation at Clarence Primary School. With the assistance of their sponsor, the Victor Daitz Foundation, and constant support from the iSchoolAfrica facilitator Mike Notley, Clarence

Primary School is seeing excellent results in Maths and English specifi cally and now has 60 iPads at the school.

Mrs Omarjee began to experiment with iPads in her class, and Tebogo was instantly enthusiastic about using them. She sat with Tebogo at break times and after school to fi nd ways of improving his English with the iPad. Using various apps and di∂ erent ways of practising reading and writing, Tebogo steadily began to show progress. At the end of 2013, the school and his family decided to keep Tebogo back in grade three to continue under Mrs Omarjee’s care and guidance. With the iPad, the support of his aunt and the constant guidance and commitment from Mrs Omarjee, Tebogo’s life completely changed. From being unable to understand English at all in 2013, he can now read and write and is a confi dent young boy creating and presenting his own Keynote presentations. At 9 years old, he has already encountered numerous obstacles, but through persevering, and working closely with his teacher and iPad, he has successfully overcome every single one.

“When I look at Tebogo, he has come such a long way overcoming his obstacles. Now he’s on an equal platform just like all the other children. He’s confi dent that he’s made it this far, and that he’s going to make it even further in life.” Shahnaaz Omarjee, teacher, Clarence Primary School

Turning Things Around with iPad

• With iPads easy to use interface, Tebogo was able to teach himself how to use it without the need for instruction. Soon after he started using the iPad, he was able to navigate his way around and begin experimenting with di∂ erent apps.

• Handwriting and letter formation was the initial objective and this activity was transformed from the mundane into something interactive and fun. Soon Tebogo was able to start putting together a list of vocabulary which he saved on the Keynote app. A few months later, Tebogo started practising reading aloud which he did through recording his own voice and then playing it back to himself to check his fl uency and pronunciation. This style of learning enabled him to grow in confi dence as he learnt at his own pace and grew in independence.

• While Tebogo needed to focus primarily on his language skills in order to grow in other areas, subjects such as Maths were still critical to his learning and development. With intuitive

“While the other children were busy with their work I would give him an iPad and tell him to record himself reading the book. He is reading much faster now because he is listening to himself read, which has helped with his pronunciation.“

Shahnaaz Omarjee, teacher, Clarence Primary School

“I think the iPad was the perfect tool for Tebogo and his learning. He had such a specifi c problem as he wasn’t able to understand my instruction in the classroom.”

Shahnaaz Omarjee, teacher, Clarence Primary School

and interactive apps on the iPad such as Pop Math, Tebogo was able to complete the tasks in front of him through natural inference, without having to fi rst understand the instruction in English on what to do. This allowed him to continue with concepts in other subjects while he worked on his English.

• With his newly found confi dence and enthusiasm, Tebogo continues to explore his creativity through project work, presentations and content creation in apps such as Keynote and iMovie.

Apps Used:

Blackboard! - Nostalgic Blackboard SimulatorThe Blackboard! app was instrumental in helping Tebogo learn to read and write in such a short space of time. He used it to develop his basic letter formation and letter recognition. The choice of colours and chalk thickness in this app attracted Tebogo because he could be more creative and in turn he was making his own decisions rather than using a pencil. Later on this app was used to copy and break up words that assist in reading.

KeynoteKeynote makes creating a world-class presentation, complete with animated charts and transitions, as simple as touching and tapping. For Tebogo, he used it as a platform for building sentences and it was ideal as he could easily rearrange words and construct grammatically correct sentences. He also used the app to produce engaging and animated presentations in class.

Grammar JammersCatchy animated songs and rhymes made the English language exciting for Tebogo. He was drawn to the music and his attention was held as this app taught him grammatical concepts through songs. Each animation unlocked a short quiz to test if Tebogo had grasped the concept. As he was rewarded for passing each quiz, he became more motivated to try the tests that were given in class.

Toy Story Read-AlongA fully interactive reading experience packed with games, movie clips, colouring pages, sing-along tunes, and surprises on every page. Tebogo had the option of hearing the story read aloud, recording his own narration, or exploring at his own pace. This helped him with pronunciation, word recognition, listening, speaking and reading and allowed him to link this to his comprehension of the story.

Show meThis interactive app allowed Tebogo to record his work and play it back to himself so that he could learn from his mistakes and improve in the areas he was struggling. He would use it to record himself reading a sentence that he created himself. Afterwards he would listen to the recording and correct himself where he had gone wrong, giving him the ability to teach himself at his own pace.

“The iPad has helped to fill in all of the things that he needed to continue with his learning for him to grow up and be a life long learner.”Shahnaaz Omarjee, teacher, Clarence Primary School

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