ABSTRACT
It was the end of August and I was contemplating the needs of the class I was about to begin working with for a year. They were the youngest class in the year band and although they were to be in primary 2, most of them would not be six until this first term. There was a rather large group of immature boys who had made little visible literacy progress during their first year in school. However, they were bright, alert and articulate and hopefully ready for rapid progress! There was one little girl who was a cause for concern because she had chosen not to speak in the previous class for the two months that she had attended the school. Her only utterances were for essential needs like ‘toilet’. Her parents assured us that she spoke at home, but there had been many upheavals and changes during her short life. There was another child with a heart condition that meant she needed particular care and attention. Of the group, six children had English as an additional language.
