Foundations for Learning

 Build foundations with Maskew Miller Longman's courses!

1.  Foundations for Learning Policy
2.  Foundations for Learning Milestone checklists
3.  Classroom Resources
         Formal Assessment Task Workbooks
         Readers
         Foundations for Learning Kits
         Mental Maths
            Three-in-one for Grades R - 3

Introduction to the Foundations for Learning Campaign

The Foundations for Learning is a four-year campaign to improve the  reading, writing and numeracy abilities of all South African children. This campaign was launched in 2008 and hopes to have all schools obtaining no less than 50% in external assessments. The National campaign is a direct response to the low level of learners not able to read, write and count at expected levels and therefore not able to execute key skills associated with Literacy and Numeracy.

The initial focus will be on primary schooling - starting with the Foundation and Intermediate phases - with the intention to ensure that learners across the system acquire and sustain a solid foundation for learning. All primary schools will be expected to increase average learner performances in Literacy and Numeracy in the Foundation Phase to no less than 50%. Milestones have been established for performance in Numeracy/Mathematics and English and Formal Assessment Tasks have been specified for each term.

The Foundations for Learning campaign will culminate with a national evaluation at the end of 2011 to assess Literacy/Language and Numeracy/Mathematics for Grades 3 and 6 learners to determine the impact of the campaign.

The Foundations for Learning campaign states that teachers must have sufficient resources to ensure that effective teaching and learning in Literacy and Numeracy take place. These resources should include wall charts, number and phonic friezes, suitable apparatus for teaching concepts, textbooks, reading series, workbooks and writing materials.

Foundations for Learning Milestone Checklists: 

Grade 1 - 3 Numeracy checklists for New Day-by-Day

Grade 4 - 6 Mathematics Milestones for New Day-by-Day

Classroom Resources for the Foundation Phase

Maskew Miller Longman is committed to supporting the Foundations for Learning campaign and has produced resources to support the campaign.

Formal Assessment Task Workbooks

The New Day-by-Day Formal Assessment Task Workbooks have been written to use with the New Day-by-Day course. The Formal Assessment Task Workbooks are aligned with the Foundations for Learning milestones in the Foundation Phase.

The New Day-by-Day Formal Assessment Task Workbooks provide support to teachers as well as alignment to the required programme of assessment.

The New Day-by-Day Formal Assessment Task Workbooks meet the assessment requirements for the whole year. The learners are able to write in the workbook, which  facilitates reporting on the learner's performance. The Formal Assessment Task Workbooks have the required rubrics at the back of the workbooks, which facilitates assessment recording.

The New Day-by-Day Formal Assessment Task Workbooks are available in all three learning areas, in all eleven languages, for Grades 1, 2 and 3

Readers

Every learner in primary school must read at school for 30 minutes per day. Maskew Miller Longman has a range of reading series, which include Big Books.

Kagiso Readers is a colourful, beautifully illustrated graded reading series for the Foundation Phase. It represents a range of authentic contexts and situations.   The Classroom Libraries offer multiple sets of the readers and copies of the new Big Book versions and are available in all official eleven languages.

Textures Readers are suitable for individual and class reading and are written at different levels of difficulty to interest and motivate new readers. Textures is an English Home Language course, but can be adapted for use in any classroom.

Stars of Africa Readers are designed for learners of English as a first additional language. The series provides beautiful full colour illustrations to capture children's interests and to support their reading. It has fictional and non-fictional stories as well as poetry to build confidence, widen knowledge and increase reading pleasure. It is carefully graded to meet the needs of learners at each stage of their intellectual and psychological development. The series is also supported with a Teacher's Guide with photocopiable worksheets for use with the series. The Classroom Libraries consist of 4 copies of each reader, copies of each Big Book and 1 copy of Reading in the Primary school. 

Four Corners Classroom Libraries are the best non-fiction readers for integrated teaching. This range of non-fiction readers offers outstanding cross-curricular coverage for literacy teaching. Illustrated throughout with authentic photography including photographs from the world-famous DK books, these books will motivate children to read!

Sunny Day Readers are designed to make reading stimulating and fun while building vocabulary. The readers can be used on their own or in conjunction with the New Daybreak language course. Each Classroom Library features multiple copies of readers and the Wordpower Foundation Dictionary.

Foundations for Learning Kits

?Maskew Miller Longman provides a range of kits, which support the Foundations for Learning Campaign.?

Foundations for Learning Literacy kits for Grades R to 3 are comprehensive and useful kits compiled to meet the resource requirements of the Foundations for Learning Campaign. The kits cater for classes of 40 learners and contain a range of exciting components to improve literacy levels.
The Foundation for Learning Literacy kits are available in the following languages: English, Afrikaans, IsiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, SiSwati, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga.

Click here to find out more about all our Foundations for Learning Literacy kits!

The New Day-by-Day Grade R Numeracy Kit contains a comprehensive collection of items, including games, number cards, dice and pairs of scissors that all help build numeracy skills.

The Foundations for Learning Numeracy kit for Grades R to 3 has been compiled based on the resource requirements of the Foundations for Learning campaign. The kit includes 40 exciting mini-kits, which are very easy to use, and contain essential tools for Numeracy development.

The Numeracy Kit for Grades 1 to 3 contains a comprehensive selection of items to support Numeracy.

Mental Maths

The Foundations for Learning policy requires every learner to do mental maths for 10 minutes per day and written maths for 20 minutes in the Foundation Phase

The Mental Maths series:

• helps teachers meet the requirements of the Foundations for Learning Campaign.
• engages the learners in 10-minute daily mental maths activities - and makes learning fun.
• 32 page weekly units are divided into four terms of work to help the teacher with pace setting for learners.
• quick mental exercises constantly practice the necessary maths facts.
• provides an explanation and practice of a mental strategy to encourage mathematical thinking.

Each unit ends with a Problem of the week to help learners apply their newly developed mental strategy in context.  Mental Maths is available for Grades R - 6.

Instamaths/Kitsreken covers essential mathematics for the and is the solution for teachers who want their learners to have a clear and confident understanding of mathematics. The material covers all the Learning Outcomes and the Assessment Standards for Mathematics and ensures learning levels are appropriate and adequate progression takes place. The material is also suitable for extension and remedial activities.  Instamaths/Kitsreken is available for Grades 3 - 9