Building Classroom Libraries
Featuring Reading Stars India
School libraries and local libraries are familiar concepts that have existed for a very long time. Yet, books don’t find their way easily to children’s hands that easily. The situation is even more grave when it comes to underprivileged children. Without access to a variety of books, fiction as well as non-fiction, it becomes extremely difficult for children to become proficient in any language. This inability is a serious impediment when it comes to studying in schools. Lack of language proficiency hinders comprehension and hence mastery of any concept becomes an uphill task.
Without access to a variety of books, fiction as well as non-fiction, it becomes extremely difficult for children to become proficient in any language. This inability is a serious impediment when it comes to studying in schools. Lack of language proficiency hinders comprehension and hence mastery of any concept becomes an uphill task.
If access to libraries is the issue, why not bring the library closer to the children by making it accessible in a place that they visit daily? All school going children go to their school classrooms everyday. What would happen if their classrooms had libraries? These are the questions that came up in Shahnaz Sultana’s mind when she saw her maid’s children struggling to read and understand English.
Wanting to find the answer to those very pertinent questions is what led Shahnaz Sultana to establish Reading Stars India in 2018. She was joined by Amthul Tabassum, Dr.Padma Baliga and Apoorva Ashok. Together, they have brought books closer to many underprivileged children along with a host of other activities to enable them to read, learn, enjoy and pursue their dreams. Shahnaz holds an MTech in Thermal Engineering degree and has several years of experience in industrial and education fields to her credit. She is currently a visiting professor with PES University. Apoorva Ashok, a software engineer by profession, has been actively involved with Reading Stars India to help build classroom libraries. She supports teachers with tips for selecting suitable books, making lesson plans, pre and post reading activities. Apart from working with Reading Stars of India, Apoorva runs her own book shop and book club- Bee’s Bookspace. Bee’s Bookspace sells beautiful children’s books and organises virtual read alouds for tiny tots (4–6year olds) and for the older age group (7–10). Apoorva also provides personalised consultation and book recommendations.
Reading Journey caught up with Shahnaz Sultana and Apoorva B Ashok to find out more about this novel initiative.
Reading Journey (RJ): How did the idea for Reading Stars India come about?
Shahnaz Sultana (SS): The trigger was my maid’s daughter. My maid’s name is Shanti who is a very hard working person. All that she wanted in her life is to make sure that her three children get educated and lead lives that were a lot better than her own. On one occasion, Shanti’s daughter who was studying in college had come home. I noticed that the girl was hesitant to communicate in English although she had studied English through out her school. When asked to write simple passages, she made a lot of mistakes. When offered a book suitable for a grade 2 she was unable to read fluently and worse could not understand much of what she read. This experience had a huge impact on me as I realized that all the hard work that Shanti had put into to make her daughter well educated was futile. It was evident that the child had managed to pass several levels simply because of her ability to memorize. Disturbed and worried about what the job prospects could like for someone who could not speak and write English well even after going through years of schooling in English, I felt the need to do something to help bring about change at the grassroot level. One thought led to another and the concept of classroom libraries came up.
I realized that all the hard work that Shanti had put into to make her daughter well educated was futile. It was evident that the child had managed to pass several levels simply because of her ability to memorize. Disturbed and worried about what the job prospects could like for someone who could not speak and write English well even after going through years of schooling in English, I felt the need to do something to help bring about change at the grassroot level.
RJ: What were the challenges in building classroom libraries?
SS: After discussing with many heads of schools, I realized that children were not reading story books outside of school and in many cases even school textbooks. It felt like some sort of a change was required to help these children to experience the joys of reading. The best way to do this is by giving easy access to a variety of books. Based on my own experience with my children, I realised that a central library in the school does not help every child become a reader. Children who do not have an inbuilt interest in reading enjoy the library period by finding ways to while away time rather explore books and try reading any of them.
When we visited the schools where we wanted to work, we noticed that there was no space or rooms available in the school building for even a school library. After meeting different stakeholders in the field, we came up with the idea of classroom libraries where books could be stacked up in the classrooms themselves.
RJ: How do you pick books for the classrooms? Grade wise or is there reading level assessments?
SS: We curate books depending on their reading levels which we assess. We also take into account the common interests in each grade. In every class there are children with different reading levels and hence the need to curate books that suits different reading levels even within the same grade.
RJ: Has there been a need to change the mindset that books must be kept under lock and key. Otherwise the books will be torn or misused.
SS: “It is not safe to give books to children,” is a common mindset. So we made it very clear that the books should not be under lock and key. But arriving at that goal, took some time. We feel the need to acknowledge their worry that children may not understand the value of books and hence may not respect it. We initially agree to let them store the books in transparent books shelves with a lock but made sure that the children can find books through out the day when they have a free period. Over time we try and convince them to keep the books open without lock and key once the children have begun to know what it is like to enjoy a book.
RJ: How has the pandemic affected this initiative?
SS: We tried using WhatsApp to reach children. We did read aloud videos that were made available on YouTube, sent links to stories on StoryWeaver and also audio book recordings. Along with these we also sent activities based on these resources. This was in 2020. In 2021, we felt that we must find ways to engaged with the children directly.
RJ: What is the role that school teachers play in this initiative?
SS: They play a very significant role in making classroom libraries easy to use five days a week. We have 60 classroom libraries and we are short of hands to organise story telling sessions and book reading sessions across all these libraries. That accounts for something like 300 sessions per week. It is impossible for Reading Stars to intervene in every one of these libraries all five days of the week. We managed to find many volunteers, well meaning people across India who came forward to conduct at least one session at the school and another session that the class teacher conducted.
The initiative worked well thanks to the volunteers who shared their read aloud recordings on Zoom. The story being read was also shown so the children could see the book as it was being read aloud. These sessions immensely helped the children to appreciate the right pronunciation of the words, reading with the right intonation and so on. Hence we provide the teachers training programs to handle the libraries, show them how to do read alouds, how to encourage children to ask questions, discuss books, not to criticise children for the answers they give and so on.
We provide the teachers training programs to handle the libraries, show them how to do read alouds, how to encourage children to ask questions, discuss books, not to criticise children for the answers they give and so on.
Apart from being able to read fluently with right pronunciation and intonation, we at Reading Stars of India, strongly believe that reading must lead children to think, to offer their opinions, to ask questions and seek answers.
Apoorva B Ashok (AA): In 2021 in order to engage more with the children, we decided to move to live read aloud sessions. By then the schools are become accustomed with the online mode of learning and they had also seen the benefit of the read aloud sessions conducted earlier. Thankfully we had many volunteers who contributed their time and effort to make a difference to as many children as possible. We started to send pdfs of stories to children’s homes so that they could read independently. It was extremely heartwarming when we received a call from a school saying that the parents were asking why that week’s story hadn’t been sent yet. It was nice to know that this was becoming a fun activity of the children. Children began to send artwork based on the stories that we sent.
It was extremely heartwarming when we received a call from a school saying that the parents were asking why that week’s story hadn’t been sent yet.
To encourage children to think and participate in discussions, we guided the teachers to ask more open ended questions thus enabling children to express their thoughts regularly with confidence.
SS: We also sent the teachers lesson plans along with stories that they could read aloud in class. The purpose of sending the lesson plans was to help them to take the initiative forward in the lines of our mission. Also, they were loaded as it is on account of the pandemic. We wanted to make their jobs easier. It was well received. We were told that children were very enthusiastic and made sure that they never missed the book reading sessions even if they were unwell. It also became a reason for the parents to sit with the children to see the books that they were sent to them week after week.
RJ: Now that schools have opened up, have you resumed offline sessions?
AA: Schools that have opened up have asked us to come back and help them with their classroom libraries. We have begun our library programs offline too. We conduct paired reading programs in the library sessions. As a part of the library readiness program that is conducted before the library is created in the classroom we conduct a seven week program to enable the children to familiarise them with reading words with card kits and reading level assessments are also done during this time.
RJ: What would your advice be to parents to encourage their children to read?
AA: There is no wrong book. It simply needs to reach the right reader. Every child is a reader, they just need to find the right book that matches their interests. Giving them the freedom to choose and making books easily accessible is the key. Keeping books out of reach at home makes it a task for the child to find and read a book. Needless to say reading also becomes a task and reduces the chances of them growing into life long readers.
Giving them the freedom to choose and making books easily accessible is the key. Keeping books out of reach at home makes it a task for the child to find and read a book.
Equally important is to expose them to a variety of genres. No one likes all the genres. All of us have our own preferred genres. Library membership is a great way to expose children to a variety of books without having to make space for bought books at home. Above all, the parent sitting with children to read a book is the most effective way to enable them to develop a positive association with reading.
Above all, the parent sitting with children to read a book is the most effective way to enable them to develop a positive association with reading.
SS: Allowing children to browse books on their own in bookstores instead of forcing one’s own recommendations on the children, is important. It is also essential that parents read often and talk about books as a means to experience joy. After all children grow up imitating. Having a small common corner in communities where everyone contributes at least two books to the common library, the variety of books would grow and this could be a fun activity. “Reading to think” is something that must be reenforced. Reading to rationally think and not go with herd mentality is something that is important to cultivate in children early on.
“Reading to think” is something that must be reenforced. Reading to rationally think and not go with herd mentality is something that is important to cultivate in children early on.
If you would like to volunteer, donate or invite Readers Stars India to your school, please visit their website- http://readingstarsindia.com/index or contact
Shahnaz Sultana: +91 99456 79991
Apoorva B Ashok: +91 9886493464
Email: readingstarsindia@gmail.com
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