A large number of children in
rural schools are first generation learners without books at home or access to
good libraries. Text books are the only reading material available to them.
There is a growing body of
research which says that when children have access to a wide variety of stories
their reading skills improve and they learn language with ease. Yet there is a
dearth of easily accessible story books and supplementary reading materials in
most primary schools.
The aim of the story cards
project is to promote reading among underprivileged children in schools. One
Story Card set is a collection of 100 illustrated four page A-3 sized laminated
reading cards with stories from India and many other countries. It includes
traditional folktales as well as modern stories, nature stories and stories
about everyday experience. Interspersed among the stories are groups of riddles
requiring ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution.
The story cards were originally
published in Tamil, in 2003, as “Kathai Aruvi.” The collection was born out of
the desire of four educationists, Ms. P. Saraswati, Ms. V. Vijayakanthi, Dr.
L.S. Saraswathi and Prof. S. Rajalakshmi, to provide rural children with access
to good reading material. Subsequently they were brought out in other Indian
languages (Hindi, Marathi, Kannada Oriya) called “Katha Jharna”, and in English
called “A Cascade of Stories”.
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