Nurturing Reading

Gen1Can sets up comprehensive reading programs in your school with measurable results in:

1. Increased fluency in teachers and students with English and the native tongue, where fluency equals reading with comprehension, speaking with understanding, functioning in the language-environment.

2. Increased usage of language (widened vocabulary) in the use of debate, discussion and expression of opinion in verbal and written form.

3. Increased engagement with language-rich environments such as participation in seminars that are language-rich, increased usage of library, engagement in school and community projects that require language usage and development.

This program was first tested to provide career related opportunities to students of the Hope Project Charitable School. To be considered indicators of success, the engagement with language took various forms:

1. The Apprenticeship Program (for Language teachers):

As a result of an exercise to explore dreams for their future, students whose aspiration was to be part of the childcare and development industry were encouraged. It has resulted in 8 current students of the school being trained as apprentices, an increase in the number students attending the classes that they teach from 35 (taught by the Support teacher) to 113 (divided amongst students that the teacher trained).

2: Debates on current affairs:

The country had been torn on the argument about reservation of sets for specific social castes and classes in institutions of higher education, for some time now. The Social Sciences classes with the senior students had been discussing the issue in their classrooms for a while. In order to make sure that students understood the issue and came to hold an opinion for themselves, it was decided to do a debate on the issue as part of the Language Program.

3. Integration of strategies across subjects for whole-school impact:

The students who did not travel to Rajasthan used three days to read, comprehend and translate from research on Jodhpur from English to Hindi. It was an assessment of how much the children are able to use dictionaries. Several copies were bought for this workshop and are now housed in the Language Lab.

4. Identification of parts of the syllabus that students find difficult and finding ways to reach multiple intelligences:

The workshop on poetry was started because introducing the subject of poetry to the students was proving difficult for the senior classes as in the way it is suggested in the NIOS course. By the time that the students reach the Xth standard and above, the material that needs to be digested gets to be so lengthy, there is no time to relish the beauty of the work that they are required to study.

The Hindi teacher felt that the students needed a background in poetry and literature, which was delivered at length in a workshop format so that they could be prepared academically as well as in spirit to receive the information in their course later. The timetable was adjusted such that, ince every week, the students experience recitations, exposure visits to listen to recitations and authors as well as book releases, as well as discussions on the life and times of various poets and authors. The works of Hazrat Inayat Khan were also discussed under the section of Sufi poets and Saints and their philosophy. The intervention ran three months in duration.

Please contact us for short and long-term engagement to facilitate Reading at your school - whether it be low-cost private schools, community schools or NGO schools and centres or high-end private schools.