Pratham Books Champion : Anitha Jebaraj
12 years ago
As part of Litworld’s World Read Aloud Daycelebrations, we decided to ask our community if they would conduct storytelling sessions in their cities. 50 awesome champions decided to take part and ‘celebrate the power of words’. We will be sharing the stories of all our champions through our blog.
Today’s story comes from Anitha Jebaraj who conducted 2 storytelling sessions in Chennai. Anitha is a blogger, trainer, instructional designer, and social media enthusiast. She authors four blogs that include topics such as travel, lifestyle, photos, education, and work environments. She has been working for close to 11 years now. She is a good singer and foodie too. You can follow Anitha on Twitter at @ani_twits and visit her blog.
This is the third time that Anitha has volunteered to conduct a storytelling session. You can read about her previous storytelling sessions here and here.
Anitha conducted her first storytelling session at Violet School. She writes …
I was delighted to meet Violet School Principal Ms. Lydia at 8:45 am in the morning. She said that as planned she wanted std 3rd to std 7th kids to listen to the Yakity Yak story. But the std 1-2 teachers wanted their children to also join the story reading session. So, after the assembly, the tiny tots sat down in a shady corridor for the story.
I (Pratham Books Champion Anitha Jebaraj) started the session with a short intro to the World Read Aloud Day (WRAD). When asked if they read books outside their curriculum, many of them told that they read Comics ( like Toystory) and Fairy Tales (like Cindrella).
We started the story reading by asking three students to hold up the Yak placards. One of the kids could identify the Yak. When asked what was special about the Yak – they said it was the hair (or fur). I read out the Yakity Yak story for them. The children gave quick answers to questions in between. When asked which proverb will fit well with the story the kids said, ” A friend in need is a friend indeed.”
Next, around 10 kids read out the Yakity Yak story – one page each. Prema of Team Everest motivated the kids. We wound up the happy event at 10 am. Then we took group snaps. The school management was kind enough to arrange brunch, coffee, and also dropped us back in main Chrompet in their school bus.
A big thank you to Violet School staff, Pratham Books, Litworld, and Prema. Hip Hip Hurray! Click here for more pics of the event.
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Anitha conducted her second storytelling session at Advesa Trust. From Anitha’s blog …
On the evening of 10th March, around 25 kids gathered at Advesa Trust rural library for kids to read aloud Pratham Books stories. Five children read out stories. Swaathi read aloud the “Yakity Yak” story. Santhosh Kumar read “En Udal Pesuvathai Kelungal” Tamil story. Kavitha read “Nilaavum Thopiyum” Tamil Story. Charumathy read “Kazhugum Aanthaiyum” Tamil Story. Lokesh read “Noyutra Parunthu” Tamil story.
Pratham Books Champion Anitha Jebaraj coordinated the event. She gave inputs on how kids can improve their pronunciation, raise their reading volume/voice, and speak proper English or proper Tamil and not Tanglish!
Click here to view more photos of this event.
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Thank you Anitha for spreading the joy of reading!
Click here to read the stories sent in by all the Pratham Books Champions.
Note : If any of you want to be a Pratham Books Champion and join us on our journey of getting ‘a book in every child’s hand’, write to us at web(at)prathambooks(dot)org.
