I've been waiting to do this activity ever since I thought of it, and it was well worth the wait -- particularly because two children said this was the best Writers' Club session ever!Receiving a letter is lovely. I enjoy every part of it - the anticipation, seeing something in the postbox, seeing that it is addressed to me, opening it and reading it. That's why I decided to bring that to the Writers' Club. I asked each of the girls to bring an envelope to class; I brought the rest.For me, the first and biggest surprise was that children don't know how to address an envelope! My instructions were poor - simply because I didn't realise how clueless they would be. Many children wrote the address at the back of the envelope. Several others wrote their names in big bold letters and then somehow squeezed the address in below. Many didn't know that a stamp would normally be stuck at … [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...]
Journeys with Shakespeare
When I was asked to speak about Shakespeare at a gathering of school principals and English teachers, I was more than a little nervous.I borrowed and read books; I watched DVDs about his life; I pulled out notes from my Master's course on Shakespeare ... And I enjoyed myself thoroughly! Reading about Shakespeare again made me chuckle and wonder at the amount people have read and written about him. The interpretations people have come up with are amazing! From saying that he was (definitely) a moneylender to saying that he was a butcher's son who would make a speech while killing a calf, I read a range of stories, and that's why I decided to talk about just that - a few of the stories that make up the Shakespeare that we "know" today.After my talk, Mr Sridhar Balan spoke about the First Folio, a delightful session that drew the audience in and explored Shakespeare's journey … [Read more...]
Workshop on Communicative English
The six-hour journey from Pune to Beed was lovely. I love travelling in the monsoon through pouring rain, looking at all the shades of green passing by. I love the hills in the rain. They're so full of life, so different from the parched summer browns!My workshop last weekend was with Gurukul English School in Beed. Like so many other schools, it is an English medium school that is attended by children from non English-speaking families. It's a huge challenge for the teachers, one that we can barely begin to tackle. Walk through the corridors and you'll hear a mix of Marathi and Hindi, with just about a word of English thrown in.And so, my workshop was on Communicative English with Functional Grammar. Led by an enthusiastic vice principal, the teachers came forward to participate, interact and share. They laughed as they donned roles of reporters and sportspeople. … [Read more...]
Workshop at Mane’s International School, Ratnagiri
People on the road selling karvand, mangoes and jackfruit. The lilting language that makes me listen to the tune rather than the meaning. The dark sand and the crashing waves. Joy!And Mane's International School was beautiful. It's a small school as of now, just a baby. There are mango trees everywhere, and the principal spoke of how the children run round and round the trees as they play. Apparently, the rains night before last made the mangoes come crashing down, but until then, the boughs were heavy with fruit!On the way to Ratnagiri, we stopped to buy karvand, offered to us in cups made of velvety leaves. (What a city person I am! I don't know what leaves they were ...) What was most charming was that each cup of fruit cost ten rupees. Some of the leaves were small, with the cups holding barely a dozen berries. Some were huge, with over thirty! But the rate was the … [Read more...]
Workshop at Ahmedabad
Here are a couple of photos from the workshop I conducted at FD School, Ahmedabad, under the banner of Ratna Sagar. It was a lovely experience, working with enthusiastic teachers. We worked on the story of Pinocchio, exploring integrated learning and the importance of conducting different kinds of activities while teaching. We spoke about reading and why we enjoy reading. We discussed the role of non-language teachers in the teaching of English. All in all, it was a rewarding session! … [Read more...]