Literacy-based Summer Camp: Day 10

Salim and his friend came early to author their stories on the Storyweaver website. They had written their story two days back. However, because of limited devices children had to take turns to author them online. As Salim began to author his story, one letter at a time, I continued to help him translate his story from Dakhini to English. At some point I asked them, why not write it in Dakhini? Salim’s friend made a face with a tssk sound (colloquial way of saying no). This led to the following conversation

Ekta (me): But why?

Salim’s friend: Acha nahin lagta. (It does not look nice)

E: Par tumko acha lagta hai na. Tum toh bolte ho. Samajh may aana chahiye (But you understand. You speak it (the language). It should be comprehensible).

Salim’s friend: (still making a face and now looking at Salim)

Salim: Nahin, teacher. (Smiles at his friend) (Teacher no)

E: aasan hoga likhna. Tum khud lik sakte ho. (It will be easier to write. You can write on your own)

Salim (to his friend): Hindi (referring to Dakhini) may lekhte hai. (Let’s write in Hindi (i.e. Dakhini))

We begin writing the story in Dakhini.

Salim’s friend (to me): Teacher, aap muslim ho? (Teacher are you Muslim?)

E: Nahin, par may north India say who, toh mujhe Hindi aati hai. (No, but I am from North India, so I know Hindi)

Salim’s friend: Smiles and they continue to type

Salim: Teacher aap type kardo, jaldi ho jayega. (Teacher you type it, it will be faster)

I continued to type as Salim now voiced his story out loud, without any hesitation. However, we could not finish it in time and decided to continue it after the end of the day.
    I continue to have hope with Salim. I remember the day Salim’s father came and told me in front of Salim, that he did not know how to read or write. And only if I could teach him to. I often wonder, if only we dissociate reading and writing from the language of the school, we will know that all children have things to speak and write. The disconnect between the language of the home and the school often leaves children in a limbo. Even in the case of Salim, he had a lot to speak and write, but the language of the school stopped him. Once we created a possibility for him to write Dakhini in the Roman script, he began to write things on his own. See the activity on the interview, where he interviewed his father and wrote it entirely in Dakhini.


Picktionary

As children entered the class while I was still working with Salim and his friend, they began to pick up books from the reading corner or sat and spoke to their friends.
    We began the day with Picktionary, where children had to draw a scene, and others had to guess. Today, Sahil was also present in class, and as usual, he began to disrupt and cause commotion. While playing with two younger children, they got hurt and blamed him for it. I had to raise my voice and ask him to be careful. Children who are older, like Khwaja, like Sahil’s company and came to his support when I scolded him. It is, nevertheless, difficult to manage the mixed groups and competing interests in the same classroom where one wants order to get some productive work done as well as have children enact their agency. To do this safely also means that as an adult, one has to create boundaries, rules, and enact consequences when those rules are broken. For Sahil, this often meant making him sit in a corner while others participated or asking him to take a round outside the class to cool down.
    In this activity, children began drawing sports-related scenes, which were easier to guess. I had to guide children to think of other scenarios they were familiar with but would be challenging to guess. Salim drew a game of hide and seek, another child drew a scene of a stone falling from the top of a mountain and falling on someone’s car, and Sahil drew a scene of a computer repair shop.

Interview an adult around you

I had asked the children the previous day to interview one adult in their lives as homework; however, many of them had forgotten to do so. I wrote the set of questions on the blackboard and asked children to interview adults around them in the school. For children who lived close by, they could also go home and interview their parents or neighbours. Many girls chose to interview people in the school, while boys took their bicycles and went home or around the neighbourhood. Girls reported being scolded by parents if they ventured out without permission. Another sign of how girls from an early age are taught to be careful of their movement.

Interview questions for children

 
    Through this activity, I wanted children to engage in reading and writing. Many children came back with one-word responses. For those who had interviewed adults in the school, I asked them to go back and probe people around them. I asked them to imagine themselves as journalists who need to find ways to get responses from their respondents, even if they might not want to speak to them. Children went back and added to their initial responses.
    The activity required children to move, remember, and ask questions. While some were intimidated by it, I continued to push them to try it and ask as many questions as possible. Once children came back, having interviewed an adult, I asked them to pen their interview on a sheet of chart paper. Most children wrote the interview in English; however, Salim wrote the interview entirely in Dakhini. Children asked their peers or me for spellings or clarifications. Some of the people that children interviewed included the watchman of the school, the cleaners, teachers, older children in the school, like the principal’s daughter, the shopkeeper in the neighbourhood and parents. Children’s charts with their interviews were pasted on the wall for everyone to see and read.

                                                

Salim's interview with his father, which he wrote entirely in Dakhini without any help

Some children also got the adults to write for them

Child who interviewed his mother

Khwaja's interview with his mother, who was a school staff

Games

By the end of the previous activity, which lasted up to an hour, I was quite spent and did not have the energy to start anything new. I let some regular children teach new children some origami animals. While the others decided to play some games like Fire in the Mountain and Simon Says, Dinner time.
    Before leaving, I asked children to be regular the next week so that we could start preparing for the exhibition, as well as told them about Jeenath Rehman from Azim Premji University, who is coming to engage children in mathematics-related activities in the coming week.


Salim’s story in Dakhini

I ended the camp early by 11.30 am so that I could help complete Salim’s story online. We selected images and text. I typed while he narrated the story. In some cases, he used words that I was completely unfamiliar with. In such instances, he used gestures or detailed descriptions to explain the words. Following is the story about a farmer that Salim composed in Dakhini.

In olden days, one man went into the jungle for a stroll

After walking a while he stopped somewhere

He heard a voice from a cloud that said, "Find a way to get water to a farmer's land".

Three or four clouds began to pour on a barren land

That water began to flow in the form of canals

That man began to walk behind the water

He stopped at a place

He saw that with a plow a farmer was digging for water

He asked the farmer what kind of good work do you do? The farmer said, "I usually do not tell this to anyone; however, since you asked, I am telling you this, that when this crop is ripe, I do four parts of it".

First we eat, second part we give to Masjid or Madarsas, third part we distribute among the poor and the fourth part we sow for the next crop.

Salim's story was reminiscent of the stories he often heard from his father, who worked as a teacher in the local Madarsa or stories he heard around him at his home.