Creating Children's Literature With Room To Read

Last month I had the opportunity to work with a team of educators to lead a conference with the Nepali faculty of Room To Read, a wonderful international NGO with the motto, "World change starts with educated children".   Quoting from the organization's web page (http://www.roomtoread.org/AboutUs):

We envision a world in which all children can pursue a quality education, reach their full potential and contribute to their community and the world. To achieve this goal, we focus on two areas where we believe we can have the greatest impact: literacy and gender equality in education.  We work in collaboration with communities and local governments across Asia and Africa to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the life skills they’ll need to succeed in school and beyond.

Our workshop, held in Kathmandu, was titled, "Child Centered Pedagogy for Language and Literacy Skills", and consisted of six sessions over the course of three days.  I led three of these sessions and used the time to create a children's writing workshop for the participants.  Since promotion of quality children's literature is one of the cornerstones of Room to Read's mission, I worked with a Nepali colleague to include read-aloud sessions in English and Nepali at the beginning, end and midway through each day's session.  For the rest of the time we worked on creating original books of our own: first a group book based on the participants' experiences observing children in the nearby neighborhood and then individual books composed, bound and illustrated by each educator.

For the rest of this post I'll focus on the read-aloud portion of the workshop.  Then I'll discuss our writing experience.  But first a note on language.

I do not speak Nepali, so obviously all of my teaching was conducted in English and the Room to Read faculty are all English speakers.  For obvious reasons, however, it was important that Nepali writing and language be an important component of our work.  Room to Read is an advocate for creating and promoting children's literature in the local languages of the regions where they work and I wanted to build skills and tools to enrich the workshop participants' contributions to that mission.   For this reason I worked alongside my colleague Ms. Bandana Aryal, a Nepali teacher at the Rato Bangala School.  Bandana conducted some of our read-aloud sessions, selecting Nepali children's literature to share with the group.  Participants were encouraged to compose their books in either English or Nepali and Bandana was consultant on language and composition for those who chose Nepali (our group book was in Nepali as were most of the individual titles).

For more on Nepali children's literature, see my blog post from 2009 on Rato Bangala Kitab (Rato Bangala Books)  http://educationalalternativesworldwide.blogspot.com/2009/03/rato-bangala-kitab-quality-childrens.html. 

The English read-aloud books I chose included the following titles:

The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse, by Eric Carle.

Hairs, by Sandra Cisneros, illustrated by Terry Ybanez.

The Eric Carle book is a simple, beautiful story of one artist's commitment to resisting conventionality.  It's suitable for young children, but if using it with adults be sure and include the tribute in the back to the German expressionist painter Franz Marc.  Sandra Cisneros' Hairs is in both English and Spanish and, as advertised, is all about hair - its varied textures, colors and styles.  

As I stated earlier, Bandana and I tried to include at least three read-aloud experiences per session.  There is no better way to teach the techniques we hope educators will use with children than to model those very techniques, using the best tools at our disposal.   Both of the books I've cited are wonderful examples of quality literature and there is so much more available.  What titles would you choose?

Recognition for Rato Bangala

It's been an exciting week for the Rato Bangala School and Foundation, who have just been awarded the UNESCO- Hamdan Bin Al-Maktoum Prize!  Website http://www.hamdanunesco.ae/ states that the award,

... set up in 2009 and funded by his Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, aims to support, encourage and benefit those working to enhance the performance and effectiveness of teachers towards Education for all.  It attaches particular importance to outstanding practices in developing country contexts or those aimed at marginalized and disadvantaged communities. It also aims to facilitate the global sharing and dissemination of outstanding practices regarding teachers.

I have written a lot about the work of Rato Bangala in this blog and I hope you'll read some of my older posts to learn more about them.  I'm proud to be associated with this wonderful organization.   If you'd like to make a tax-deductible contribution to support their work, please use the link on this page or contact me directly.

Block Work Begins at Rato Bangala

Once we had created block areas in the first grade classrooms at Rato Bangala it was time to let the students explore.  We gave them no particular assignment as small groups of ten began their interaction with the blocks; they were simply instructed to work with a partner and to build.  They tackled the task without hesitation and immediately we began to see rudimentary structures come to life.  Some of the children focused on exploration of shapes. 

For some, the first task was to create an enclosure bounded by the blocks.

Others worked to create tall structures.

In their work with blocks, as with all curriculum areas, children tend to conform to certain developmental stages and patterns.  Three year old block builders often simply carry materials from place to place or place them end to end horizontally.  As they grow, they tend to move on to creating enclosures, bridging spaces, focusing on decorative elements, adding height, naming and labeling their buildings and engaging in dramatic play.  It was fascinating to watch our Rato Bangala six-year olds explore each of these phases and progress quickly through them as they encountered the materials for the first time.  The first-graders proved to be sophisticated builders, collaborators and problem-solvers.   One adventurous pair constructed a "bike ramp", stretching from a height even with the top of the shelves to the floor.  When I asked them how bikes would get to the top of the ramp to begin their downward journey their first response was to say, "They'll fly".  After a bit more questioning and encouragement, the boys came up with the idea of building an elevator and ran eagerly to their teacher to request string and cardboard for the task.  Their creativity was so infectious that soon all of the groups at work in the block area were planning elevators for their structures and comparing ideas for the best ways to build them.

The reintroduction of blocks at Rato Bangala can certainly be counted as a success thus far and when I left the school in September the second grade teachers were eagerly awaiting their own sets.  There is no doubt, however, that with time questions will emerge, problems will arise, and adjustments will have to be made.  I look forward to learning how the groundbreaking Nepali teachers at Rato Bangala will meet these challenges.