Khyati Datt, a member of our outreach team writes about two of our recent workshops in Mumbai and Mysore.

It’s not often that you have 25 Master Teachers from different walks of life, speaking 5 different languages, living in 4 different states and still engaging with each other and sharing their thoughts.

This was the scene at our recently conducted StoryWeaver Workshop in Mysore. Pratham Education Foundation invited their wonderful Master Teachers for a training workshop in Mysore and we, at StoryWeaver, got the chance to interact with them on the last day of their training. Our facilitators, Mala, Shruthi and Payoshni ensured that the session was multilingual- in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, English and Hindi.

The beautiful weather at Mysore served as the perfect setting for a 3-hour long session where interesting teacher practices came to light. As the session progressed, we deep dived into the intriguing world of stories and explored how stories open a child’s eyes to a world filled with joy and learning.

The teachers, then, went on to try their hands at StoryWeaver. They decided on themes and explored the platform for five stories/flashcards that talked about their theme. Their biggest takeaway from this exercise was that they can use the platform in their classrooms and combine storytelling with teaching. The second part of their task was getting down to becoming authors! Each group was given a task sheet with a specific theme and encouraged to create a story/flashcard. The most exciting bit was teachers realizing how easy it is for them to create in their regional languages and taking it to their classrooms back home.

 

We got some great stories from the teachers, who presented their idea for the story and the flow behind it. With so many tongues in the room, everyone promptly translated what was being spoken in the room which ensured language was not a  barrier for a fantastic session of  idea-exchanges.

A discussion ensued on what are the different ways in which the teachers can use StoryWeaver in the classrooms. It was wonderful to see how the teachers could align their existing classroom ideas with storytelling practices, like by getting their students excited about a topic by narrating them a story about it. Using illustrations as writing prompts, and spotting books for teaching sight words were one of the many ideas that the teachers dwelled on.

We closed the session by showing the participants videos of teachers using StoryWeaver to build a reading culture in their classrooms. The rain shower that followed was the perfect end to a wonderful workshop!

In the previous week, a similar workshop was conducted in Bombay with 30 teachers from Pratham’s ECE wing from Maharashtra and Gujarat. The crackling energy in the room led to a session that was interactive and fun! The teachers came up with ideas to use stories in the classroom to make the lessons engaging and to ensure that the students learn in a different manner. As Smitin Brid, Program Head of Early Childhood Program for Pratham Education Foundation, puts it, “ I’m thankful to the StoryWeaver team for conducting wonderful and useful sessions at Mumbai and Mysore workshops. The key resource people in both these regions have got information about this platform and we’ll ensure continuous engagement with them on using the resources available on StoryWeaver.”

A big thank you to Pratham Education Foundation and its ECE wing for giving us the opportunity to interact with the teachers and their consistent support.

If you are interested in hosting a similar workshop for your organisation, drop us an email on [email protected]

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Q:  What do you usually read? Which language do you prefer to read in?

A:  I read whatever I get to and whatever I find interesting: from newspapers, magazines, online articles, my children's academic books to everything! I prefer to read in English the most.

Q:  Do you have a favorite book / author and why is it a favorite?

A: I find no particular book or author as my favorite, I love many books, many authors and many languages.

Q: You have contributed for us immensely. How has the StoryWeaver journey been?

A: Simply GREAT! I have learnt many new things, I discovered the ability to express my thoughts in a simple manner.

Q: Could you share with us a story or anecdote from the translations / reviews? Or one big thing that you take away from this experience?

A: Not just one or two things, I have learnt so much and experienced so many things from these children books. In one of Pratham Books’ Annual Storytelling sessions in Delhi, I went to a Telugu school to conduct a Telugu story-telling session, I was apprehensive about the response of the staff and most importantly the kids with whom I was supposed to interact. But to my surprise, at the end of the session I was very emotional with tears in my eyes, I was encircled by so many small children, requesting for more stories.  I was totally a stranger to them but the stories made me their favorite, the feeling was indescribable. It was a moment I will treasure all my life.

Q: How does it feel when your story gets published online?

A: Great! Because being a person of seventies and eighties, that too coming from Odisha a state, wrongly labeled as backward and poor it feels GREAT when I think I am not lagging behind with the modern time and methods, and whatever I am doing I am repaying my debt to my mother state.

Q: You have translated / reviewed a handful of stories for us. Which one has been your favourite and why?

A: My favorite book is 'We Call Her Ba', the book is about Smt.Kasturba Gandhi. Though I had read about the freedom struggle and Gandhiji in my student days, this book took me to a period of time not familiar to me. I loved the language, narration and everything about it.

Q: What is your key driver in taking this up?

A: The driving cause is the concept of introducing children to stories of languages other than their mother tongue. The exposure to different kinds literature in one’s childhood  transforms the child into a person of responsible nature, knowledgeable, and more tolerant towards other cultures which is the need of the hour at present.

Q: How else do you think we can join hands in taking bigger steps for children’s literature?

A:  I feel I have no such high intelligence to offer any constructive ideas but in my small mind I feel that, in these TV addiction days it will get more attractive for children if the story telling or narrating session could be telecast on television.  

Q: How has the overall experience with StoryWeaver been?

Ans.  ବହୁତ ବଢ଼ିଆ , ତୃପ୍ତିକର କାମ |  Very Pleasant, Highly satisfying .  

Q: How did you cross the technology barrier for this?

A: Without facing much difficulty. I always want to change with times and like to keep pace with my grown up children so my children taught me everything . They encouraged me a lot and boosted my confidence. So it was smooth sailing.

To read all the wonderful translations by Indugu on SW, click here!

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 Zarif Hussain, is a first year student at the Symbiosis Law School, Noida. As part of his course he is  doing an internship with Servants of the People’s Society that runs Balwadis for very young children from underserved communities across Delhi-NCR. Read on to find out how Zarif used StoryWeaver in his sessions with the children.

I was asked me to take interactive sessions with the children at Trilokpuri Balwadi and I currently conduct one-hour sessions everyday with the little kids on different topics like GK, math and health education. The children love to listen to the stories and they ask me bring a new story almost every day for them.

At first finding stories for them was a difficult so I asked my mom to help me out. She recommended Pratham Books’ Storyweaver platform where she translates stories to Surjapuri for children and uses them extensively in education centers in Kishanganj, Bihar.

I checked the StoryWeaver platform and found that it was simple and beautifully done with stories across reading levels in multiple languages. I downloaded stories from StoryWeaver and the first story I narrated was “Fat King, Thin Dog” in Hindi. During the session I realised that StoryWeaver was just what I needed. The children loved the story and did a drawing of the Mota Raja. One of the children Faizan recited the story back to the class. In fact, when I did a recap of the story after few days they all remembered the story so well.

The next story we did was “Bunty aur Babli” which was about washing hands with soap with an emphasis on personal hygiene. The children learnt to wash their hands before eating food and after using toilet.

The most impressive thing I found about the stories on StoryWeaver was that they all had large, colorful pictures. The easy-to-use interface made it simple to download stories. I prepared activities for each story I narrated and that helped me retain the interest of the young children in class. Listening to the stories is the most enjoyable part of their day!

The stories on StoryWeaver are a great tool for teaching children. Thank you for making my sessions interactive and fun-filled with the children!

If you are using StoryWeaver in your classroom, library or after-school centre and would like to share your story on our blog write to [email protected]

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