Our Outreach Executive Khyati Datt writes about how v-shesh is using books to help develop language skills amongst children with hearing impairments. 

At a workshop conducted for parents of children with hearing impairments, Kanchan and Tabassum, trained sign language interpreters,  posed the gathering question: 

“What do you see as the biggest obstacle in ensuring that  your child’s learning is not restricted to the classroom only?” 

Most parents spoke about the communication gap that existed between them and their child which often resulted in the child becoming withdrawn from the family. Kanchan and Tabassum gave them a simple solution for this:

“Read to your children.”

Kanchan and Tabassum have always enjoyed interacting with children. They work with v-shesh Learning Services, an award winning impact enterprise that assists persons with disabilities (PwD), with socio-economic inclusion. v-shesh works in the training and education space to assist PwD in accessing formal sector jobs.

The duo are closely involved in the implementation of a project which aims to assist children with hearing impairment develop English language competency. When they joined v-shesh in 2016,  the project had just started, but overtime, being in the field made them realize the needs of the children. 

“Most of our students were either pre-teens or teenagers. We found a lot of interest and enthusiasm amongst the students to learn the English language, but most teaching learning material and methodologies available were not age appropriate to teach basic concepts. This led to the need for continuous innovation and to build upon existing material to make it relevant for students and simultaneously address the core challenge of assisting them with the basics”, Kanchan shares.

Books and beyond

Kanchan and Tabassum have always believed that stories are an important tool in igniting interest in learning a language. They started looking for books that were simple, colorful and had captivating illustrations. While Kanchan decided to divide the children in groups and asked them to read to each other, Tabassum started giving out books as rewards to the children.

v-shesh is a big believer of the PVR (Preview, View, and Review) method of teaching. In this method, a book is introduced to children by giving them a general description of the topic. As a next step, they read the book with the students using some visual effects and end the discussion by asking the children to review the book and share their learnings with each other. Simple videos were also made to explain the concept to the teachers and parents as well.

 

Children reading in pairs in a v-shesh centre in Delhi

Tabassum shares how the books from StoryWeaver were, especially, loved by children with hearing disability; “The children would often read the books on their own and volunteer to talk about the story in the class. ”

Kanchan and Tabassum’s advice to the parents at the workshop ensured that learning did not stop once the children exited the classroom. The parents of  Khushi, one of the students at the center, were the first to read a book to their child. Kanchan and Tabassum noticed a remarkable change in Khushi’s confidence and were happy to see that despite not knowing sign language, Khushi’s parents were able to connect with their child through books. 

Kanchan feels that, “Books are the most effective and the most important means of igniting interest in language among the students . A beautifully illustrated book helps motivate children to read and learn a language like no other”.

 

Source:  v- shesh centre in Delhi

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If you've noticed a spate of translations to Tibetan on StoryWeaver recently, then you can give the credit to Tenzin Dhargyal. An English teacher at TCV School, Suja, Himachal Pradesh, Tenzin came across StoryWeaver while browsing through Facebook. He reached out to us and asked if we could add Tibetan to the platform so that he could translate and create stories for students. 

"I am translating these books so that I can inspire other Tibetan teachers to translate children’s stories to the language. There is a real dearth of good quality stories for kids in Tibetan."says Tenzin.

Tenzin Dhargyal, English Teacher, TCV School, Suja, Himachal Pradesh.

Tenzin has been working with children for a long time now and felt that while his students had many books to choose from in English, there just wasn't enough choice when it came to Tibetan.  

The Tibetan Children’s Village school is a charitable institution with classes from Kindergarten to Standard XII. Tenzin has already shared stories with some of the children online and has plans to download, print and share copies of the stories with his colleagues for them to use in the classroom. 

"Storyweaver can be very helpful indeed! Students can read and get motivated to translate some short, level 1 stories to Tibetan language. This can be also an activity for them. Our teachers can translate some of the stories in Tibetan and use them in class. In fact, some of them have already done this." shares the enthusiastic teacher.

Tenzin reached out to other teachers through a Facebook group he is a part of with links to StoryWeaver and requested them to use the platform for translation. They all answered his call and responded, and Tenzin is confident that others will follow suit. Mr. Tenzin Dorjee la,  the Principal of a Tibetan school in Dharamsala and his children have translated two stories and Dr. Chok who works in the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala and Jigme Wangden la who teaches Tibetan at TCV School have all been active on StoryWeaver. 

You can read all the Tibetan translations by Tenzin and his colleagues here.

 

"All children are equal, they are the future owners of this planet." says Tenzin "Lets  make them good human beings through the morals from these stories we tell."

If you would like to translate or create stories on StoryWeaver and can't find your language of choice, write to us at [email protected] with your request.

Here's to spreading the joy of reading to more children in as many languages as possible.

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Pratham Books is conducting a  special workshop on StoryWeaver -  an open source, digital repository of multilingual children’s stories in Goa on 2nd March (Wednesday) and we would like to invite you!

The workshop will cover the following

• A detailed Demo of StoryWeaver – how to navigate and use the platform
• Examples of how educators are using StoryWeaver effectively in their classrooms
• Dedicated work time for participants to try their hands on StoryWeaver
• An opportunity to meet people from similar field and make interesting conversations

If you are,

• a librarian or resource lead looking for curating stories
• an educator in search of interesting ways to introduce concepts to your students
• a storyteller or a reading champion
• someone passionate about children's storybooks in Indian languages ...

 

... please sign up!

Please note that​ the seats are limited and only confirmed participants will get a separate email confirming their participation and other logistical details.The workshop will be held from 2:30-5 p.m on 2nd March, Wednesday.

There is no charge to attend the workshop.

We look forward to seeing you! If there are any queries, please email them at [email protected]

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