Class Act with Sethu

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Our friend at Sethu, Nandu ( also known as Nandita:-)) , warmly agreed to the idea of enabling us to participate in a teacher training program called Class Act that is organised every year.

We  know sufficient amounts now about our own work with reading, literacy and literature and feel compelled to share this. At Bookworm, we are also promoting our little book fairs. The goal being to
promote and support Indian publishers who make good books for children. So the Bookworm wagon set off with books from Tulika, Eklavya, CLR, A & A, Katha, Bookworm, Jyotsna Prakashan, A & A  and a few others.

Setting books out is always a feast for the Bookworm’s soul. So Karuna, Chetna, Niju and I enjoyed ourselves for a while laying out our books and awaiting the participants. They did not disappoint. At least 50% of the teachers came and looked at the books and many did buy, at least one!

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The session I chose to do for the workshop itself was around the power of the story. I chose a Bookworm favourite – The Mountain that Loved a Bird by Alice McLerran and Illustrated by Stephen Aitken. We used it for visual imagery and then for retelling the story.

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It was interesting to hear later that the participants were more interested in completing some drawing element than listening, the room turned in to a competitive ‘let me please teacher’ classroom when that
was not the objective. But it harks back to the fact that we teach how we were taught, unless we experience a teaching process differently.

For lack of time, we could not pull this together to talk about what we learnt in the process, what we could have done differently, but we persevered and shared.

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Chetna shared how we used the same story and a slightly varied method with the NAB Center children and how we always learn from our children, if we remember to be reflective of our practice.

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We shared the Bookworm outreach film hoping that we inspired and communicated to another audience the power of books, the outreach that is possible if the vision is present and we left   knowing that
because Sethu and Nandu support Bookworm, we are able to tell our story!

1 comment

  1. Nandita de Souza

    Thanks Bookworm for giving the teachers a peek into how stories can come alive, not only in classrooms but as an inspiration for life. I wish that we could have given you at least a 3 hour session. Bookworm brings an invigorating blast of fresh air and creates a contemplative space wherever it goes. Thank You for being!

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