Reading_champion

READING CHAMPIONS

The Reading Champions movement is a localised, self-organised, volunteer-driven series of events that encourages people to conduct storytelling sessions in their neighbourhoods.

READING CHAMPIONS

The Reading Champions movement is a localised, self-organised, volunteer-driven series of events that encourages people to conduct storytelling sessions in their neighbourhoods.

Galvanized annually on International Literacy Day through the ‘One Day, One Story’ campaign, the idea is to use storytelling as a tool to help children fall in love with reading.

Through this initiative, we encourage our community of volunteers to use a book to conduct reading sessions in their own communities to spread the joy of reading. These sessions are conducted free of cost and mostly with children from underserved communities.

5700

Reading Champions

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Languages

6300

Storytelling Sessions

  • Download the book chosen for the year / Choose a story from StoryWeaver.
  • Choose the place and time you want to conduct the session. Identify places where you can conduct this event in your city – a government school, an NGO, a library, a bookstore, a park, a train, your building – any place with regular kids’ footfalls. Approach the organization and explain the concept to them. Most of them will be happy to host you.
  • Read the book a few times. If you are reading to a younger age-group, see how you can tell the story without actually reading the book (to retain their attention). Think of activities that you can do after storytelling to engage the children (example : can the story take on a skit form, can the story be a way to talk about an important issue, etc.).
  • After the session, send us a short write-up or send us some photos from the event and we will feature on the blog. Mail us at [email protected].

Stories From the Field

Our army of Reading Champions brings the power of storytelling to children in their communities – be it in big cities, small towns, or rural areas. Each of them has a story worth sharing.

STORY 1
STORY 2
STORY 3

Shyamala introduced the children of construction workers to the charms of Kottavi Raja And His Sleepy Kingdom at a Mumbai Mobile Creche center, in Airoli. She narrated the story in Hindi, adding bits of music and movement, improvising as she went along. The children were eager to colour, sing, and hear the story. Shyamala found it to be a wonderfully enriching experience.

Aarti first volunteered to be a Pratham Books’ Reading Champion in 2013. After her first session with the children at BJ Home, an NGO in Mumbai, she was hooked. Fast forward to present day, Aarti has started her own free library to allow more children to discover the joy of reading in their mother tongues.

Snehadara Foundation conducted multiple storytelling sessions across government schools and venues in Bengaluru. After all, the joy of reading spreads when it is shared. Children from Grades 1 to 9 were enthralled by the characters in the stories. They enthusiastically participated in the sessions, named the characters, took on their unique traits, sang and emoted with gusto.