Language and Math skills
At Thulir many children came initially with the very specific request that they be taught English. We sincerely started with teaching English and while explaining English stories/ passages we realised their command over Tamil usage [basic grammer/ vocabulary] is also shockingly poor. So we started teaching Tamil too.
For English we have started with small games that help them to understand verbs [follow the leader] and nouns ['bingo'!]
Story tellingOne reason we felt the language skills are bad is due to the fact that they hardly ever hear 'Standard Tamil' or English being spoken around them. So we have regular Story reading sessions so that they get to hear the languages spoken.
Reading books
Children do not have access to books to read other than textbooks. So we have set up a library at Thulir. However we found that due to lack of confidence, children were afraid to take books and read/ browse. So we started reading out stories to the children to get them interested in reading. This strategy seems to be working as many children have overcome their inhibitions and have started to pickup books from the library shelves to browse/ read.
To induce confidence in the children we introduced exercises in making small books in Tamil/ English along withi llustrations:
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Riddles:
There is a rich oral tradition of riddles. One of the exercisies was to collect riddles from friends and elders in the village and write it down. Some examples:
" kitta irukkira pattinathai ettiparka mudiyadu" [mudhugu]
Poetry sessions:
We introduced "cinquain", a French form of poetry that we read about, to the children. Cinquain is a five line poetry form where the first line is a single word that represents an object which is the subject of the poem; the second line of two words which are adjectives; the third line of three words, are verbs which describe actions that can be attributed to the subject; the fourth line has four words describing how the poet feels about the subject and the fifth line is a one word that conveys the sense of the first word. For example:
Delicate, graceful
Flutters, finds, sips,
Seems weak but isn't
Beauty,
An example:
niramanadhu neelam
kuzhambukku udhavum kathiirikai
vidhayum adhigam, suvaiyum adhigam
azhaganavan
Math sessions:Math textbook was another major hurdle and we had frequent requests to clear doubts. This again lead us to feel stronlgy that their basic concepts [subtraction/ division/ fractions etc.] need to be clarified. Many of the older children find it difficult to accept that they donot know basics in Tamil and Math. So we started introducing games/ puzzles etc. that help them to clarify basic concepts by themselves through repeated 'playing'.
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