Adults love data. They love graphs and statistics and numbers. During workshops with adults, the moment I put up a graph, I have everyone's attention as if I'm finally saying something 'real'.And that's why I started working with real-time polls through Mentimeter. I show my audience a question and all those with smart phones (usually nearly everyone in the room) vote. And they see numbers, which makes everyone happy.Question One: What do you read most often?For this question, I allow participants to choose more than one option. This helps them feel comfortable, not pinned down to choosing one and being 'wrong'.I give them four options:Blue - Newspapers, magazines, etc.Yellow - Facebook/WhatsApp postsGreen - StorybooksRed - OtherAs you can see, there's nothing really, solidly conclusive about this. Yet, on the whole, have a look at this graph, which combines the … [Read more...]
Making Creative Writing Engaging
Sometimes, I wonder whether secretly, I conduct creative writing workshops more to inspire myself than to inspire the children I work with. Whatever it is, I do know that I enjoy myself tremendously whenever I teach creative writing. I feed off the enthusiasm of the children and I come home ready to write, which is invigorating.Children and WritingMany children love to write. I was one of them, and I wrote all kinds of things, mainly inspired by what I read. I wrote about magic and school, and things that I thought would be moving - like earnest poetry about war and poverty. Writing is fun; it may even be good. But when publishing is so easy, I find that many parents and teachers think everything that children write is perfect. I don't always agree. Here are my pet peeves:Forced rhymeI … [Read more...]
Reading Workshops: Why? What? How?
Many, many parents ask me what a reading workshop is. What happens during a reading workshop? Who should attend a reading workshop and why? What will the outcome of a reading workshop be? This post tries to explain all that.What children read and whyOften, at reading workshops I conduct, we talk about books we love. I'm not very fond of the question 'What is your favourite book?' because I think it is impossible to have a favourite book. I do realise, however, that it's a promising start to a conversation, plus a way for me to get an idea of the interest and reading level of the group I'm working with."What do you read?" I ask, attempting to be neutral in my question. I don't ask them how many enjoy reading because that feels like a trick question. They are already conditioned enough to know they are "supposed" to like reading. The question has to feel less threatening; … [Read more...]
World Read Aloud Day at the Writers’ Club
The Writers' Club at St. Mary's School meets only twice a week, so World Read Aloud Day sometimes becomes Writers' Club Read Aloud Day, but so what? I celebrated it for the first time last year and it was so much fun that I did it again this year.This time, children came forward and read work of their own, which was heart-warming. Others read out poetry, including a hilarious poem by Ruskin Bond. Still others read scenes that moved them - excerpts from Train to Pakistan, from Good Wives, and from Wonder.Yet, as the girls came forward to read, I realised that many had no idea what to pick. One child in class IV chose an excerpt from an abridged version of King Lear. She struggled with Goneril, Regan, Cordelia and Albany. Aged nine, who wouldn't?Another child chose to read a section from an encyclopedia. She read fact after fact, stumbling over all the figures … [Read more...]
Working with Librarians
During the first two weeks of the year, I made lists of books I loved, and more than once, I found myself writing about how reading levels differ so much that it is difficult to associate a level with an age. Thinking about all of this, I decided write about a reading programme I've been working with for a couple of years now.Two years ago, I was approached by Experiential Learning Solutions and asked whether I would design a reading programme that can be administered effectively by a group of librarians in municipal schools. As a CSR initiative, D-Mart had invested in eleven libraries for schools and eleven librarians, but they wanted to go beyond that. They wanted to ensure the success of their library programme in the form of children taking a step towards reading.What could we do to get children to read? How could we surmount huge obstacles, including the indifference of … [Read more...]
Big Books at the Writers’ Club
Aren't lit fests delightful? Last week, I was invited to St. Mary's School's first lit fest, and it was lovely. We walked into books like this one ...And we had a panel discussion where we spoke about stories, poems, writing, dancing and music. We then visited classrooms and saw the work the children had put together through the course of the year - book reviews, poetry, charts, models ...And we saw eight big books that the tenth standard girls had made for the prep school children. I saw those books and knew I had to share them with my Writers' Club, so I invited Remanika and Riya to talk to the girls and share their books with us.Here's one of our favourites - Mr Banana Climbs a Tree.Mr Banana wants to meet a lady bird, who lives on top of a tree. He begins to climb, but there are all kinds of obstacles - bats, a noisy crow and monkeys.The monkeys are the … [Read more...]
Our Own Voices
I just skimmed through yet another article about how, growing up, we associated 'white people doing white things' with 'people doing people things'. This is an idea that I have to confront all the time, for racism is everywhere.It has forms that we unwillingly perpetuate too. For instance, I have an Indian friend who is studying in the US, and she is not working on South Asian writers. This is something she repeatedly has to defend. "Why don't you work on your own culture?" everyone asks.In the beginning, this is a seemingly harmless question. In fact, it is a relevant question, even an important one, when we look at representation and diversity. Yet, very soon, this begins, insidiously, to translate into the idea that brown people must write about brown people.Must I write about my own culture? How is this a duty that I must fulfil while western writers may write fantasy … [Read more...]
Reading, Writing, Dancing
Two weeks ago, I asked the children at my Writers' Club whether they would like to make readers laugh or cry. Three girls said they wanted to make readers laugh. 12 said they wanted to make readers cry. When a few said they would like to do both, those who had already raised their hands dithered.Finally, though, most agreed that making readers cry was more important. This was both surprising and not.Funny books that sparkle with humour are wonderful. Yet, I do know that the books that stay with me are books that make me cry. The best ones do both. I then asked the children what makes them cry in books.These were difficult conversations, by the way, and I was warmed by how much the girls opened up. A 12-year-old is not always comfortable talking about crying in front of a 9-year-old. The fact that they did - and passionately - was lovely.They spoke of happy moments … [Read more...]
Bhusawal
About three years ago, I began working on an exciting project with the National Rail Museum in New Delhi. The idea was to create stories set in and around trains in India. It was challenging but fun. I dived into details of engines and their working in a way that I had never done before. Among other things, I needed to ensure that the story led naturally to the technical pages, while also being independent of them. In other words, a reader who was completely uninterested in technical details could still enjoy the story and cheerfully skip the technical pages.So, I launched into intensive research. What trains could I write about? What would my characters do? How would they go on an adventure while also discovering how an electric locomotive works?I set the first of the stories on the Duronto, a train with which I am very familiar. Among other things this is what I kept in my … [Read more...]
Special Events: AFCC 2018
Pop-up readingThe pop-up reading at the Asian Festival of Children's Content is a fun event organised by Denise Tan of Closetful of Books. Authors who are willing to brave the chaos of the book fair read out a short excerpt of one of their books. Though I had not registered for this in advance, I jumped at the opportunity to read from Dragonflies, Jigsaws, and Seashells. It was a brand-new experience for me - reading from a book of mine that I was seeing for the first time!I read an excerpt from "A Drawing Lesson", the story of a colour-blind girl who triumphs in art class.Celebrating Our StarsAn evening event, this was where all the shortlisted contestants were given certificates. I loved it!When I was shortlisted for SABA in 2016, the award ceremony was held on the day before the festival. This meant that right through the festival, I was one of those who … [Read more...]