UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNISA)
College of Education
⋄
PORTFOLIO ASSIGNMENT
Assignment 5, due 4 November 2026
⋄
Module Code: TMS3731
Module Name: Teaching Social Sciences in the Senior
Phase (Curriculum Studies)
Assignment No.: Assignment 5: Portfolio
Total Marks: 100
Due Date: 4 November 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
Teaching Social Sciences in the Senior Phase at the University of South Africa.
,UNISA | TMS3731 Assignment 5: Portfolio
Portfolio Task 1: Reflective Narrative on Creating Inclusive Social Sciences Lessons
1.1 The lesson and its setting
During my teaching practice I taught a Grade 8 History lesson on the Mineral Revolution in
South Africa at a no-fee township school. The class had 46 learners. Their home languages
were mainly isiZulu, Sesotho and Setswana, while English was the language of learning and
teaching. Many learners had parents or grandparents who had worked on the mines, so the
topic was personal. About a third of the class read English well below Grade 8 level, two learn-
ers had been flagged by the school-based support team with specific learning difficulties, one
learner had low vision, and one had recently arrived from Lesotho.
I planned the lesson around the two philosophies from Learning Units 1.3 and 1.4. Ubuntu, the
idea that a person becomes a person through other people (Swanson, 2008), decided how I
arranged the room: nobody was meant to struggle alone. Social constructivism, in which learn-
ers build understanding through talk with peers and a more knowledgeable adult (Vygotsky,
1978), decided how learners met the content.
1.2 Inclusive strategies and support for specific learners
Learners worked in mixed-ability groups of five, and each member held a role: reader, recorder,
reporter, timekeeper and encourager. The roles gave quieter learners a legitimate way to
take part. Groups could discuss in any home language and then report back in English, which
treated their languages as a resource and not as a problem.
Support for individual learners was planned in advance. The learner with low vision sat at the
front and received her task card in 18-point print with high contrast, and I read each source
aloud before groups started. For a learner with a reading difficulty I replaced the written para-
graph with an annotated drawing of a mine compound and gave him sentence starters such
as “Migrant labour meant that. . . ”. The learner from Lesotho was seated beside a Sesotho-
speaking peer and used a Sesotho and English glossary. Learners who finished early compared
mine labour in the 1890s with mine work today.
Page 1 of 24
, UNISA | TMS3731 Assignment 5: Portfolio
1.3 How materials and instructions changed
I kept the questions the same for everyone and changed the amount of support (Tomlinson,
2014). Task cards came in three versions: the first had a word bank and a partly completed
table, the second had only the table headings, and the third had an open question. I shortened
the source text without changing its meaning and moved difficult words such as compound,
migrant and shaft to a glossary with isiZulu and Sesotho equivalents. Instructions were given
in three short parts, written on the board, and modelled once with a worked example before
groups began (see Annexure A).
1.4 What went well and what was difficult
Participation rose noticeably. Three learners who had never spoken in my lessons reported
back for their groups, and the Sesotho-speaking pair finished its table first. The difficulties
were just as clear. In two groups the strongest English speaker did the work for everyone,
which showed me that Ubuntu can turn into one learner carrying the group unless each mem-
ber is accountable for something. Noise was hard to manage with 46 learners, and preparing
three versions of the task card took two evenings because the school’s photocopier was often
broken.
1.5 What I learnt
Barriers to learning sit largely in the design of the lesson and not in the learner (DoE, 2001;
DBE, 2014). Inclusion therefore has to be planned before the lesson, because it cannot be im-
provised once the class is in front of me. In future I will prepare a glossary and scaffolded task
cards for every unit, keep a reusable bank of them, give each group member an individual writ-
ten task so that nobody hides, and speak to the school-based support team early about learn-
ers who struggle.
Page 2 of 24
College of Education
⋄
PORTFOLIO ASSIGNMENT
Assignment 5, due 4 November 2026
⋄
Module Code: TMS3731
Module Name: Teaching Social Sciences in the Senior
Phase (Curriculum Studies)
Assignment No.: Assignment 5: Portfolio
Total Marks: 100
Due Date: 4 November 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
Teaching Social Sciences in the Senior Phase at the University of South Africa.
,UNISA | TMS3731 Assignment 5: Portfolio
Portfolio Task 1: Reflective Narrative on Creating Inclusive Social Sciences Lessons
1.1 The lesson and its setting
During my teaching practice I taught a Grade 8 History lesson on the Mineral Revolution in
South Africa at a no-fee township school. The class had 46 learners. Their home languages
were mainly isiZulu, Sesotho and Setswana, while English was the language of learning and
teaching. Many learners had parents or grandparents who had worked on the mines, so the
topic was personal. About a third of the class read English well below Grade 8 level, two learn-
ers had been flagged by the school-based support team with specific learning difficulties, one
learner had low vision, and one had recently arrived from Lesotho.
I planned the lesson around the two philosophies from Learning Units 1.3 and 1.4. Ubuntu, the
idea that a person becomes a person through other people (Swanson, 2008), decided how I
arranged the room: nobody was meant to struggle alone. Social constructivism, in which learn-
ers build understanding through talk with peers and a more knowledgeable adult (Vygotsky,
1978), decided how learners met the content.
1.2 Inclusive strategies and support for specific learners
Learners worked in mixed-ability groups of five, and each member held a role: reader, recorder,
reporter, timekeeper and encourager. The roles gave quieter learners a legitimate way to
take part. Groups could discuss in any home language and then report back in English, which
treated their languages as a resource and not as a problem.
Support for individual learners was planned in advance. The learner with low vision sat at the
front and received her task card in 18-point print with high contrast, and I read each source
aloud before groups started. For a learner with a reading difficulty I replaced the written para-
graph with an annotated drawing of a mine compound and gave him sentence starters such
as “Migrant labour meant that. . . ”. The learner from Lesotho was seated beside a Sesotho-
speaking peer and used a Sesotho and English glossary. Learners who finished early compared
mine labour in the 1890s with mine work today.
Page 1 of 24
, UNISA | TMS3731 Assignment 5: Portfolio
1.3 How materials and instructions changed
I kept the questions the same for everyone and changed the amount of support (Tomlinson,
2014). Task cards came in three versions: the first had a word bank and a partly completed
table, the second had only the table headings, and the third had an open question. I shortened
the source text without changing its meaning and moved difficult words such as compound,
migrant and shaft to a glossary with isiZulu and Sesotho equivalents. Instructions were given
in three short parts, written on the board, and modelled once with a worked example before
groups began (see Annexure A).
1.4 What went well and what was difficult
Participation rose noticeably. Three learners who had never spoken in my lessons reported
back for their groups, and the Sesotho-speaking pair finished its table first. The difficulties
were just as clear. In two groups the strongest English speaker did the work for everyone,
which showed me that Ubuntu can turn into one learner carrying the group unless each mem-
ber is accountable for something. Noise was hard to manage with 46 learners, and preparing
three versions of the task card took two evenings because the school’s photocopier was often
broken.
1.5 What I learnt
Barriers to learning sit largely in the design of the lesson and not in the learner (DoE, 2001;
DBE, 2014). Inclusion therefore has to be planned before the lesson, because it cannot be im-
provised once the class is in front of me. In future I will prepare a glossary and scaffolded task
cards for every unit, keep a reusable bank of them, give each group member an individual writ-
ten task so that nobody hides, and speak to the school-based support team early about learn-
ers who struggle.
Page 2 of 24
