Penpals!

My Grade 6’s have been learning about the writing process for the past couple weeks [due to our fragmented classes], and we are just finishing up writing letters! I’m corresponding with a class back in Chevy Chase at Blessed Sacrament School, through the World Wise Schools Program Peace Corps has, which matches teachers in the US and PCVs for cross-cultural learning! My learners are SO excited to hear about America and to tell the Grade 5s in America about their country.  I’m crossing my fingers that my letters arrive in a timely manner, apparently it takes three times as long for mail to get from Namibia to America than it does the other way around.  For this reason I asked the kids to introduce their penpals to Namibia, talk about their culture, their town, and their families, in case these are the only letters to arrive before the American school year ends. Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to share with you two of these letters that reveal the very wide gap in abilities of my learners [although I should mention that the handful of kids who can’t read or write didn’t complete this assignment or turn in anything for me to mark]. Figuring out how to plan a lesson that helps this wide of a spectrum of skill levels is something I really hope to improve upon throughout my service. These learners had the same time to complete this in class -- I’m not changing any spelling/grammar/punctuation mistakes, this is exactly what they look like.

Letter #1:

My name is Patresia, and I’m in grade 6. I’m schooling at Diaz primary school in Luderitz. I like people who are fun and loving people. My hobbies are playing and singing. I speak oshiwambo, but I come from Angola, I’m just schooling in Namibia because I don’t know Portuguese. My culture, we eat beans, porridge, spinach and meat. I live in Luderitz in the south of Namibia. Namibia is a very beautiful country. But I will tell you about Luderitz where I live, here in Luderitz we don’t have many bricks house we have shacks, but we love our homes. I’m not rich, I’m a simple girl. I’m poor. I’m proud to be a poor person. We have natural resource such as diamonds, we use diamonds to make our shoes, shirts and trouser beautiful.

The president of Namibia is Hifikepunye Pohamba he’s living in Windhoek the capital city of Namibia. In Luderitz we have a beach and it is a big sea and in Luderitz its very cold. In Luderitz some people catch fish. We have many festivals. We have also a Waterfront where we enjoy our crayfish festivals. We have crops such as mahangu, Maize and Wheat in our country, but not in Luderitz. We sell mango’s, apples for a business. My parents both work we just sell for extra money.

My dream is to become a doctor cause I want to help people who are sick. My mother’s name is Miss Josephina she works at pescanova. My father works at diamond motor his name is Pedro. In grade 1 I got 1 diploma in Afrikaans and I was so happy and my parent were also happy and proud of me. I grade 2 I got 5 diplomas in all subjects and I got N$200.00 and a trophy. In grade 3 I got 1 diploma and my parents were not so happy because I went down behalve of going up.

I want to know whats your name, where do you live in America, have you ever been with beyonce, Rihanna and maybe chrisbrown? Hows America, do you play netball Me I’m fantastic in 100meter and long jump. Do you do kind of sports. My favourite song is if I let you go by West Life. I like to buy my things in pep, spar, ok and shoprite. Does America have store like ours, how old are you/Me I’m 12 years old and I’m brown with black hair. I’m short, I’m a little bit fat. Please sent your picture/photo Me I will send oneday cause my photo are in our capital city where my auntie is living ok.

Letter #2:

My Country

I love Namibia namibia is a good country namibia is my home namibia have moundens namibia moundens is very long and big namibia also have animals and many trees biutife trees.

Questions I live in Ludritz my stree is Jakals draai my frind’s name is Moses he lives in 7 areas. I school at Diaz Primary school it is very nais we keep the school very clean.