Bwacha Highschool

About the methods they use:

Every grade has its own books. 

Every class uses the same books, there is a teacher's guide that goes with the books.
The books which are used at Bwacha Highschool are from the year 1995, and the ones in grade eleven have the same structure for every chapter.
They start with a groups discussion, than vocabulary, reading a story, discussing the story, answering comprehension questions, explaining metaphors, do some rewrites, practice the note-making, composition writing, a project about the subject and an closing exercise.
The contents of the books are quite outdated, and they often imply warnings about what they should and should not do in live. A lot of the stories go about getting pregnant, HIV, drinking, smoking etc. But they are written in strange and not interesting stories for pupils of the age of 15.

The pupils have 5 hours of English each week.

Three of those hours are supposed to be with the books, not every teacher uses the books, and I think the pupils do not know they should (most of the time) have classes with the books.
Most of the time the chapters are not finished, because it would be too much to see in the short time there is to teach, so the teachers choose the most important parts, mostly that is the reading and the vocabulary. They don't have class discussions and don't explain metaphors or other difficult parts from the stories.

About the pupils in my class:

They are willing to learn, they are aware of the fact that they are lucky to be able to go to school, and they need good grades to go to an University. And they all know that the only way to make a better future for themselves and have more possibilities and options to get a good job, is by getting a good diploma. They all want to be a doctor, engineer or accountant.

When I take a look at the books and the stories they are reading in class, you can see that I think its outdated, but last week I taught a lesson about creative writing, we had a good discussion in class about thinking outside the box and other things (it took some time to start the discussion, but once we were going it went fine). And I gave them the assignment to write a story at home starting with: 'What if...' and they had to be creative.  And when I got the stories back a lot of them where about the Government being corrupt, about grown-ups having a drinking problem, that you should go to church and so on. So this means the pupils do take the stories serious and it makes them generalize the problems they see in life, and those are the first things that pop up in their minds if they hear 'What if..." I thought they would not take that much notice of all those stories, but I suppose, because they have heard these stories for so many times, it has influenced their way of thinking.
In the whole class there were only two stories that were about imaginary things.
The pupils are (especially compared to European standards) very quiet in class, and they often do not even ask if there is something they don't understand. When you walk out of the classroom they stay quiet and continue their work. They are really working hard for their future, and they are very polite and sweet kids. It took me some time, but they know now that I want them to ask questions in class, and that they are free to think out loud if there is a problem.

class 11 A

class 11 A

the teacher's room