Africa
Trip Leaders in Zimbabwe “Teach” Travelers How to Teach
Overseas Adventure Travel visits three Primary Schools in Zimbabwe: two outside Victoria Falls and one in Hwange. Traveler interaction with students is invaluable, as it provides exposure and an opportunity for the children to listen, build language, encourage learning and hone their English skills.
To ensure meaningful interactions and a mutually beneficial experience for both the guests and the students, the Stellar Wordworks Literacy Program has been implemented in the schools with the travelers as the “teachers”.
Wordworks is a resource based literacy program aimed at early language and literacy development for children where English is a second language . Many primary school children in Zimbabwe struggle to read, let alone comprehend what they are reading. Workworks uses practical fun ideas for the development of language and literacy. Students also receive a small print out of the story that they read to color and keep. Each traveler works with two students, making it highly beneficial as more time can be spent on each child, giving them more individual reading time.
A training session for Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) trip leaders was held to introduce and familiarize them on how the program should be used with travelers and students. At the training session, following a discussion on how to make the Wordworks program work in the best way possible, the trip leaders became the students. In small groups, they went through the kit, reading the stories and “teaching” each other so that they become familiar with the program. It was a lively session filled with laughter and enthusiasm, as each trip leader got fully involved.