Life Orientation writing team

The WCED (Western Cape Education Department) has embarked on a process that will hopefully make it easier for teachers to teach Life Orientation. This is really an exciting process because for the first time the department has involved teachers to develop the material themselves.

An important goal of the exercise has been to clarify the learning outcomes and assessment standards of Life Orientation grades 4-6. This will hopefully mean that everybody in the province should have a similar understanding of the learning outcomes and assessment standards. Another goal has been to specify exactly what content and skills need to be taught in each grade in the Intermediate Phase.

Marco Walters Nederburg Primary	Trovski Jacobs EMDC Central	Lyrice Trussell Metropole South

The first phase in the writing process entailed packaging the content into a standardized work schedule for each grade. It is hoped that this will guide teachers how to pace, sequence and navigate through Life Orientation curriculum without leaving out any aspect of the NCS (National Curriculum Statement)

Liziwe Nkayi Langabuya Primary	Kathleen Maasdorp EMDC East	Tertia Isaacs EMDC Eden/Karoo George

In addition to the work schedules teachers will get a Teacher’s Guide that will provide methods and strategies on how to teach the difficult topics in Life Orientation.

Catherine Langenhoven  EMDC Central	Ursula Esau  EMDC East	Joseph Sitzer Head Office

The authors hope that their work will impact positively on the teaching of Life Orientation because unlike in the past, teachers will know exactly what content to teach.

Report

• Joseph Sitzer - senior curriculum planner: Life Orientation GET