कहानियाँ बच्चों को शिक्षण की तरफ आकर्षित करने का बेहतरीन माध्यम हैं। दुनिया भर में कहानियों की एक लंबी परंपरा रही है। यह कहानियाँ हमने अपनी दादी और नानी से भी खूब सुनी है।

मिलते है हमारे सहयोगी, i-सक्षम से जो बच्चों की साक्षरता के स्तर को बढ़ाने के लिए कहानियो का इस्तेमाल कर रहे है। i-सक्षम बिहार के जमुई और मुंगेर जिले के गांवों में स्थानीय युवाओं को सामुदायिक ट्यूटर सह उद्यमी के रूप में बनाता है जिसे 'सक्षम-मित्र' कहा जाता है। यह सक्षम-मित्र मुंगेर और जमुई गाँव के विद्यालयों में बच्चो को शिक्षा प्रदान करते है।

i-सक्षम संस्था से जुड़े अध्यापक बिहार के मुंगेर गांव में कस्तूरबा गाँधी विद्यालय की बच्चियों तक कहानिया पढ़ने का आनंद ले जा रहा है। मिलते है लक्ष्मी से । लक्ष्मी इस विद्यालय की एक छात्रा है ,जिसे स्कूल आना, किताबों का संग्रह करना और साथी बच्चों के साथ खेलना-खासा पसंद है। लेकिन i-सक्षम के सक्षम मित्रो ने देखा कि लक्ष्मी और उसकी कक्षा में पढ़ने वाली बच्चियों को किताबे अपने आप पढ़ने में दिक्कत हो रही थी। वो ना ही कहानी को मज़े से पढ़ पा रहे थे, ना उन्हें समझ पा रहे थे।

उन्होंने सोचा की क्यों ना बच्चिया कहानियाँ पढ़ने के साथ-साथ उन्हें सुन भी सके? उन्होंने समझ बनायीं की बच्चियों के साथ रीड अलांग कर सकते है।  इसके लिए उन्होंने स्टोरीवीवर का इस्तेमाल किया क्यूँकि उसमे अलग-अलग स्तर की किताबें थी जिनसे बच्चे जुड़ सके । उन्हें यह लगा की रीड अलांग किताबों के होने से एक तो बच्चियों को अक्षर जोड़के शब्द पढ़ना आसान हो जायेगा और दूसरा, कहानी पढ़ने वालों की आवाज़ें उतार-चढ़ाव भरी है जिससे बच्चियों को ख़ूब मज़ा आएगा ।  

फिर उन्होंने ऐसी कहानियाँ चुनी जिनमे ज़्यादा लिखावट न हो और न कहानी ज़्यादा बड़ी हो । ऐसी कहानियाँ चुनी गयी जो मजेदार हो और जिनसे बच्चे आपने अनुभवों को जोड़ पाए । ऐसी ४ कहानियो को चुना गया -  

1. सालाना बाल कटाई दिवस

2. चूहा सिकंदर घर के अंदर

3. कचड़े का बादल

4. अक्कु हुई ग़ुस्सा  

प्रोजेक्टर का इस्तेमाल करके बच्चो को यह चार कहानियाँ सुनाई और पढाई गयी | हर कहानी को शुरू करने से पहले बच्चियों को शीर्षक दिखाकर उनके विचार जानने का प्रयास किया गया - की उन्हें क्या लगता है क्या होगी कहानी मे ? प्रत्येक कहानी पे कुछ प्रश्न भी तैयार किये गए थे जिनमे से कुछ तो किताब से सीधे जुड़े थे और कुछ उनके अनुभवों से जुड़े थे ।  हर कहानी के बाद, बच्चों से कहानी के बारे में सवाल पूछे जाते हैं।

यह देखा गया कि सही प्रश्न पूछने से बच्चे वास्तव में तेजी से सीख सकते हैं। शिक्षक ये भी ध्यान रखते है कि प्रश्न सिर्फ़ सीधे-सीधे कहानियों से जुड़े न हो, बल्कि ऐसे भी हो जिनपर बच्चियों को सोचने का मौक़ा मिले।

बच्चियों को श्रिंगेरी श्रीनिवास की कहानी पढ़के खूब मज़ा आया, ख़ासकर जब श्रींगेरी श्रीनिवास के बाल उड़ जाते है |

i-सक्षम  कहानियो का प्रयोग करके न सिर्फ बच्चियों की साक्षरता के स्तर को  बढ़ने कि कोशिश कर रहे है,  पर यह भी कि बच्चिया बिना संकोच के अपने विचार अपने साथियो के साथ बाँट सके |

हमें उम्मीद है कि आप भी अपने बच्चो और छात्रों के साथ इस विधि का उपयोग प्रयोग  करेंगे | प्रथम बुक्स कि सारी रीड अलांग कहानियो आप यहाँ पढ़ सकते है |  

 

Be the first to comment.

---

It’s that time of the year again, for One Day, One Story – Pratham Books’ annual storytelling campaign celebrating International Literacy Day on September 8th. Last year, we had over 6700+ Reading Champions conducting 5500+ sessions, reaching out to 40,000+ children all across India with the stories of Gappu and Nila. And this year, we hope to make it extra special!

Why One Day, One Story?
To help children discover the joy of stories, and fall in love with reading. On September 8th every year, Pratham Books Champions all over India use two books to conduct reading sessions for children in their communities.

What’s the story?
Typically, One Day, One Story is a volunteer-led on-ground event where Reading Champions conduct storytelling sessions with groups of children all over India and the world. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, this year is a little different, since children everywhere are still at home and on-ground storytelling sessions or book dispatches won’t be possible. So we’re taking One Day, One Story online, where we invite you to conduct virtual storytelling sessions and readalouds over the internet, to continue to spread the joy of reading far and wide!

The storybooks for One Day, One Story this year were chosen keeping in mind that children have been at home for many months now and could use a little bit of humour along with some insight on managing their emotions through these uncertain times. The two books for ODOS 2020 are Angry Akku, a Level 2 book written and illustrated by Vinayak Varma for younger kids, and The Girl Who Could Not Stop Laughing, a Level 3 book written by Meera Ganapathy and illustrated by ROSH for older kids. 

How does this work?
You could conduct a storytelling session online – through Zoom or Whatsapp with a group of children, or on Facebook or Instagram Live.

OR you could record your storytelling of either (or both!) of the books on your mobile phone and share it on social media with the hashtag #OneDayOneStory2020 and then tag a friend to do a reading of the books! (Don’t forget to tag us too!) Check out some basic tips on how to record yourself telling the story.

Whichever storybook or platform you choose, we would love for you to use it in creative ways – read, narrate, enact… so that it’s fun for children to watch and listen to.

Sounds interesting? Mark your calendar for September 8, and join thousands of other Champions sharing their love for reading with the children who need it the most!

Note: If you have any queries, please mail [email protected] before you fill in the form.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. This is the first time I am conducting an event. How should I prepare for it?
Read the book a few times. If you are reading to a younger age group, see how you can tell the story without actually reading from the book (to retain their attention). Think of activities to engage the children after the storytelling. Alternatively, read a few more stories around the same theme.

2. Can I conduct multiple storytelling sessions online?
Oh, yes, you can! The aim is to reach as many kids as possible. You can do more than one session on more than one day, on or after September 8th.

3. Will I be receiving physical copies of the books?
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing logistical difficulties, we will not be dispatching physical copies of the books and banners for One Day, One Story this year. But once you sign up, we’ll be happy to share e-copies of the books in multiple languages. You could read the story aloud from a digital device, like an iPad or a mobile phone, or you could print out the book and hold it up while you read.

4. Should I document the event?
Yes please! You can send us the storytelling video you make, a write-up and tag us on social media when you share your video – just share with us the “real impact” you’ve helped make.

5. I really want to conduct a session but I am not free on September 8? What should I do?
The aim of One Day, One Story is to spread the joy of stories. In case you are unable to, you can still conduct it on a day close to the chosen date. Because children getting to listen to a fun story is much more important than a date, right? This year, we are running One Day, One Story all through September 2020.

6. How do I do a virtual storytelling session?
Once you sign up for One Day, One Story, check out these tips on how to take a video of yourself reading out the story using a mobile phone. If you are conducting a live storytelling session with a group of children on Zoom, Whatsapp or Instagram/Facebook Live, you would need to keep in mind all the things you would normally do when doing a storytelling session in-person – the only difference this year is that it’s online!

Check out some online readaloud videos that others have done with our stories over the past few months here!

Sounds like something you would like to do?
Hop on board! Individuals sign up here and organisations can sign up here.

---

Illustrations by Vinayak Varma and ROSH

comments (10)

---

Jala is a translation platform that combines human skill with translation technology to make high quality translations accessible to those who need it the most. It collaborates with organisations, communities and individuals to help bridge the language barriers and increase access.

Earlier this year, Jala teamed up with StoryWeaver to help build a high quality repository of openly licensed storybooks in Chinese and Bahasa Indonesia. To get some insight into the translation process, they interviewed Sophia, a Jala user and hobbyist/ freelance translator, who translated five stories on StoryWeaver from English into Bahasa Indonesia. You can read an excerpt from the interview below. 

---

Sophia, who translated storybooks from English to Bahasa Indonesia.

Hi Sophia! Thanks for being such an active user on Jala! Can you tell us a little about why you decided to translate the StoryWeaver books?

Hello! It was my pleasure. Well, firstly a little background about me. Bahasa Indonesia is my native language, but I moved to Singapore at the age of 15, and then later moved to the UK. So English has been the language I have spoken more actively. But ever since I started working in the publishing industry and have focussed on developing Singaporean content for Singapore, I began to miss home, and I began thinking about reconnecting with Indonesia. I feel a little like an outsider to Indonesia now, and I was not sure how I could help local readers in Indonesia. So when the opportunity to translate children’s books on Jala into Bahasa Indonesia came along, I was quite excited by the idea! It felt quite perfect. While my Indonesian language abilities have withered a little, mainly due to lack of practice, I felt that working on translation really helped to revive my language skills! Translating children’s stories had its own challenges for me. For example, word choice, which had to be suitable. I had to be sensitive about how an Indonesian child would understand the words I had chosen. It made for an interesting puzzle for me!

That’s great. What did you like most about the stories that you translated?

Like any children’s book, there was a nice rhythm to the stories. There were moments when I felt that the words in English had a rhythm, which I tried to capture in my translation. Knowing the natural rhythm of the book, I tried to ensure my translation stayed true to the original in terms of sentence length and word choice.

I liked that the stories were upbeat and (mostly) positive. For example, in Fati and the Honey Tree, even though the girl (Fati) fell down and hurt herself, there was still a positive message at the end. I also enjoyed the unique settings for the stories, everything from the environment to the characters and how they interacted with their surroundings. 

Fati and The Honey Tree

The Indian and Ghanian cultures were very refreshing to me, and something I feel that is lacking in publishing, as most settings are very Western-centric. Finally, I liked how each story teaches something. For Let’s Play, it was science, through the introduction of simple concepts in a child’s everyday world.

This is really great to hear! What was the translation process like for you?

I was very methodical in my translation process, after the first one, I actually figured out what worked best for me and then came up with my own methodology which I actually have written down on my phone!

To start off I usually skim the original text first. I then proceed to do the translation line by line on Jala. I go through it once and have a first draft ready. I then go through both the original and the translation, by carefully comparing the two, and making any corrections along the way. I then read through just the translation to see how it flows and if I’m comfortable with it on its own. When I’m happy with what I have, I leave it for a day and then come back and read the translation again and do a final comparison with the original before submitting the piece. I like how Jala will always save my work, and I know that my progress will be safe until the next time I revisit the project!

Stories on the Jala platform

Of all the translations that you worked on, which was your favourite story to translate, and why?

I liked Fati and the Soup Pot the best. 

Fati and The Soup Pot

Fati’s attitude was really funny in the story. I also liked how despite the fact that Fati’s mother knew that Fati had done wrong, she did not punish or scold Fati in the way you would expect parents to. In addition, I felt that the description of the cooking process and the listing of ingredients was a nice touch! If you are curious enough, you could attempt to recreate the dish! It also really liked that the child was involved in the cooking process!

What do you enjoy about freelance translation?

I think what I find most appealing is the extra income. But I also do believe there is a more interesting aspect to freelance translation. For instance, gaps in languages can be filled by multilingual individuals or translators. Being able to help and contribute to a specific skill is really interesting! I also think it’s a really great cycle, the more you do, the more interested you are, and the more that you learn! For example, when there are natural disasters, you see NGOs making open (and urgent) calls for translators for a specific language. Often, contributions can be through knowledge instead of money or goods, which is so meaningful when you are filling a gap. Even in non-dire circumstances, I believe that translators can make a difference.

---

To read the original interview, click here. 

You can read the stories translated by the Jala Community on StoryWeaver here. 

Please join the conversation by leaving your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also reach out to us through our social media channels: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Be the first to comment.

---