Reading books and stories can change lives

Important literacy skills:Vocabulary, grammar, comprehension, language acquisition

Thinking skills:Logical progression, cause and effect, critical and creative thinking

Personal development:Empathy, widening of worldviews, ability to hold different points of view, health & choices

Professional development:Communication skills, argument and debate

Popularising Reading

Growing Communities of Readers

Developing Young Writers

We create, collect and distribute exciting

locally-written stories and books that are

relevant to the lives of young South Africans from economically-

stressed communities.Deepening

Reading Practice

Multiple access points

Getting readers hooked… it starts with the story

“I like to read fundza. It gives me a boost every day. The authors are clever and the stories are great. It teaches us what’s happening in real life.”

“Good story fundza. Although its fiction, these things happen in real life. I’m on mxit because of your stories. Keep up the good work”

“OMG. What a beautifully written story, I cried when I read it as I can relate to so much. My mother passed on when I was 7 years old and my father is a criminal. This story has given me so much courage to review my past and accept reality.”

Case Study

BUILDING AN ONLINE READING CURRICULUM

Using online reading content in formal learning environments

• Designing an online supplementary reading curriculum that is CAPS-aligned for Grades 8-12.

• Courses include a variety of reading modules.

• Each module contains:• A short story• Linked to quizzes at the end of chapters (comprehension,

language and vocabulary questions)• Discussion activities• Writing exercises• Drama and role-play

• Linked to theLMS - a custom-built LMS teachers/group facilitators can monitor learner progress and access resources.

Profile page for learner

Progress report for teacher/facilitator

Activities for one of the stories

Piloting with the Year Beyond project

Activity timeline

Term 1 Term 2 Term 3 Term 4

2015 academic year

• Training of volunteers

• Pre-test and survey

• 2 reading modules

• 4-5 reading modules

• 4-5 reading modules

• Post-test and survey

• 3 reading modules

• Training of volunteers

• Pre-test and survey

• 1-2 reading modules

• Problems with ICT utilisation

• Offline solutions

1. Volunteers

• Some drop-outs and some new recruits (who then hadn’t received the initial training).• General work overload• Varying digital literacy skills (sign-in and registration problems)• Other programmatic issues (no lunches for learners, security issues, etc)

2. Learners

• High absenteeism and ongoing learner recruitment • Low digital literacy skills (sign-in problems)• Limited reading and writing skills

3. ICT Resources

• Not all schools had operational ICT labs at the start of the programme.• Not all schools had iPads available and registered for use.• Ongoing connectivity issues, which necessitates offline learning material

backup plans.

4. Following the programme

• Not all volunteers feel confident running the prescribed activities, especially role-play/drama

• Not all learners felt comfortable participating• Some volunteers resorted to ‘easy’ activities, such as spelling exercises…

5. Using FunDza’s custom-built technology

• Many volunteers struggled to work with the FunDza theLMS system• Problems with registering new learners and then registering them for the courses• Problems with volunteer’s logging in to theLMS• Problems with accessing the prescribed activities

1. Ongoing training of volunteers2. Training of ICT facilitators3. Provision of offline resources4. Additional monitoring of the programme5. Streamlining of the registration and course creation software

Where to from here?

See what we do!

Web: http://fundza.co.za

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FunDzaLiteracyTrust

Twitter: @FunDzaClub

Read on our mobi network:

Web: http://fundza.mobi

FunDza app on Mxit

FunDzApp in the Google Play store

Connect with me:

mignon@fundza.co.za or @mignonhardie on Twitter