Although English is accepted as a global language, in most Indian schools, English is not the language of instruction. Because of this, students in rural India face difficulty learning it at school. Moreover, using incorrect English remains a problem for students, even in urban areas. While they try their best to grasp the subject, they often fail at sounding correct, mainly when speaking. Moreover, there is a general trend of students losing interest in English by the time they finish class XII because of excessive rote memorization of rules. Storytelling helps develop English proficiency – a basic understanding of how language works, acquire new w ords, phrases, and aptitudes as they build their communication skills.

Importance of storytelling

Throughout history, stories have been a way to pass on traditions and beliefs across generations. From Ramayana, Puranas, Panchatantra, and Jataka tales to Mahabharata, stories from Indian epics have helped children learn the nuances of a language. And since stories have been the most effective way of propagating a linguistic tradition, learning English through stories can help children learn the language in a fun and engaging way. 

Telling stories is more than just writing out what happened in chronological order. It requires children to use their imagination and convey emotions through words alone. This helps develop their communication skills, especially when writing essays or giving presentations where they need to convey information interestingly.

Storytelling allows students to express themselves freely by discussing things that interest them or make them happy or sad. It is an effective way to build empathy and understanding between people. With the right encouragement, children can speak out and express themselves clearly. Telling a story in English helps children develop their vocabulary and grammar skills as they use new words while communicating with others through stories and anecdotes.

English Storytelling in Classroom & Home

Stories are full of new words. From character names to locations, from verbs and adjectives to nouns and adverbs — all serving a specific purpose within the narrative. And because there are so many different words in a single story, it provides lots of opportunities for students to practice their reading and listening skills. Thus, stories can be used in many ways in the classroom – read aloud, acted out, dramatized or used as models for writing activities. Educators should consider several factors when selecting stories for the classroom. The stories chosen should appeal to their students, be appropriate for their purpose, and provide opportunities to practice the language.

Here’s how storytelling helps develop English proficiency:

The purpose of storytelling is to enable children to enjoy hearing English in a dynamic and often stylistic way. It is very participatory and immersive, giving the children an awareness of rhythm and structure. In addition, storytelling can be a very effective method for introducing new vocabulary and phrases.

• Accustomed to short bursts of language in the classroom, students are hungry for more stories. As they listen to you include some details about characters or setting or give some background information on context, they become motivated to do the same thing when speaking in English. 

• When children tell stories in English, they learn to describe intonation patterns, natural expressions, phrasing, and interactions between indigenous speakers. For older young learners, the activity gives them practice retelling stories or paraphrasing or rewording them.

• The use of stories also allows young learners to link their reading experiences in the classroom to those at home. For example, students have books at home, which can be read with a parent or other family member. In addition, the child can identify household vocabulary, which will ease the understanding of the English language within their household.

• Storytelling is one way that teachers can inspire language learning through discussion and activities. Moreover, parents can help their children at home by reading stories in English, especially ones with interesting characters who do unexpected things or someone who solves a problem.

The following are ways that teachers can use Storytelling helps develop English proficiency:

Use storytelling in conversation class.

Ask your students to share personal experiences or discuss their favorite books, movies, or TV shows. This will help them become more comfortable speaking in English and allow them to use the vocabulary they already know.

Have students tell a story in pairs or small groups.

You can do this as part of a warm-up activity before class starts or after class ends as a way to review everything children have learned during the lesson. This can be especially helpful if you teach elementary school students who often struggle to speak in front of others!

Tell stories that involve your students.

This allows students to see how the story is told, which helps them understand the context of the sentences and phrases. You can also ask them questions about the story after reading or listening together so they can think about their answers before speaking out loud.

The Bottom Line

Adding storytelling tactics to a teacher’s established array of teaching skills can boost student engagement and retention of their material. Square Panda India’s programs focus on the art and strategy of using exciting stories to help students understand new concepts at a deeper level. Our programs give teachers a solid foundation in delivering joyful education that engages and connects with students and inspiring change that impacts communities. To know more, visit ecce.squarepanda.in

School closures were a bittersweet solution to battle COVID-19. While the intention of this was to stem the spread of the pandemic, recent studies show that it has had alarming consequences for students, who have made little progress after schools closed. In addition, remote learning has significant limitations in the Indian context as students missed out on school resources, social interactions with peers, and learning in a classroom environment, leading to children experiencing learning loss.

Delving into the data reveals that students performed poorly while studying from home, and it was little surprise to see that children in rural areas were most affected. Nearly half of grade school children in India’s rural areas were unable to read more than a few words, and the gap between digital natives and those who live in rural areas continues to widen. It is a matter of concern to see that only 8% of students in rural India regularly accessed online education mediums, while 37% gave up studying entirely.

For many of these children and communities, education is an enabler that gives them the opportunity to improve their life circumstances, and school closures have stymied learning. Given that about half of the households in rural areas have no smartphones, the lack of online learning starts to add up. But even among households that have some kind of digital connectivity, only 15 percent of rural children are studying online regularly, as opposed to 31 percent of urban children.

Although state governments have made considerable efforts to improve internet connectivity, the lack of digital devices and digital literacy have adversely affected remote learning. Moreover, poor governance within government bodies, pre-existing capacity deficits in schools, and lengthy lockdowns have compounded India’s learning lacunae.

Impact of Learning Loss in India

The impact of learning loss in rural areas is more significant as opposed to the loss felt by students in urban areas, where resources are readily available. Moreover, as literacy rates are low and schools remain understaffed, the effects of learning loss in students extend beyond academic outcomes to psychological well-being and social-emotional adjustment.

Almost 1.5 years have elapsed since students learned in proper classrooms. Up to this point, the students in the current class only had minimal learning from the previous grades, and there have been learning regressions, to the extent that they’ve forgotten most of what they learned from the previous grade. Some reports have also shown a decrease in their ability to read with understanding and perform mathematical tasks. These abilities are foundational. Therefore, their absence will impact not only other skills, but also a child’s conceptual understanding beyond the subject area where the deficit occurred. 

Surveys have also revealed that over 48% of children in rural India are unable to read even a few words — an indication of the extent of unmet needs of children. These children have lacked necessary learning opportunities due to a growing number of schools that are either shuttered, too far away, or curriculum that doe not match their learning needs.

The prolonged lockout has hurt the education of many children. A significant challenge for children has been attending school and interacting with other students outside their immediate social circle. Given how much parents have been affected by difficult economic conditions, education is often their only hope for their child to have a better life in the future. Parents are eagerly waiting for their children to go back to school. Reopening schools with preventive measures have been all the more imperative to mitigate learning loss due to covid. 

To bridge the learning gap caused by school closures, the parliamentary panel has suggested reopening schools with the following measures:

• Conduct vaccination programs for students and school staff
• Conducting classes in two shifts or alternate days to control crowds
• Stepping up preventive measures of maintaining physical distance 
• Mandatory wearing a mask and frequent hand sanitization
• Thermal screening to test infected individuals

Along with this, schools should be subjected to frequent inspections by COVID administrators to ensure strict adherence to hygiene, COVID protocols, and facility maintenance. The good news is that many schools are now reopening or planning to reopen, which will help redress educational setbacks. 

Mitigating Learning Loss

To help improve the quality of education delivered, it is essential to open schools and invest in tomorrow’s educational standards. We believe that a holistic approach is needed to help alleviate learning loss among students.

• Embracing Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)
  
  PPPs in education can play a critical role in the Indian context, serving as innovation centres for deepening access to and improving the quality of education. More critically, as they are run in government infrastructure with tightly monitored processes, pre-defined and measurable outcomes, and stringent performance metrics, they are replicable across the board. A Public-Private Partnership offers specific knowledge, expertise, and technological innovations that draws on the best of both worlds to make education affordable, increase accessibility, improve efficiency, and deliver speedy execution for better outcomes.
  
  At Square Panda India, we strategically collaborate with government and impact organizations to create a holistic impact across the education ecosystem by building learning programs, opening learning centres, and creating access to advanced learning tools. 

• Upskilling Teachers
  
  The pandemic has caused a pivot to a digital or blended model of education, which neither teachers nor infrastructure is wholly prepared for. Simply put, educators across the nation are at different levels when it comes to technological literacy and competency, and so we need to coach educators on the use and role of technology in driving optimal learning outcomes. 
  Empowering our teachers, Anganwadi workers, and other educators on the optimal use of technology to deliver an effective education is a must, since they hold the key to unlocking our student’s potential. Only then will it be possible for each student to receive a similar quality of education wherever they are. It is also essential that we focus on improving the digital and human capital infrastructure of government schools, if we are to achieve 100% literacy in India.
   
  
• Innovative Solutions
  
  The pandemic has been a double-edged sword for education. Even as it cut short learning years and eroded knowledge bases for students, it caused educators and administrators to move existing classes to a digital medium in order for it to be accessible. This fully remote or blended learning model can maximize student learning, but in order to do so, we will require a research-based understanding of the optimal amount and mix of learning activities for diverse sets of learners. 
  Blended learning is the right segue for this, allowing students to re-enter classrooms, explore learning material remotely, and ask their queries through a virtual medium, such as websites, email, video, or chatbots. As students get more comfortable in this new normal, the degree of self-paced, asynchronous learning will rise. Connecting the virtual and physical worlds can achieve remarkable outcomes if paired with inclusive, research-derived, and technology-enabled learning models. This is aligned with the objectives of NEP 2020, which looks to embed technology across the education ecosystem through platforms such as DIKSHA/SWAYAM.
  
  
• Tailored Learning Experiences
  
  Each of us understand that each child is unique, but we don’t often tailor their education to reflect this. By embracing the latest technological advances, such as AI and Machine Learning, to provide personalised learning paths, students can be fully engaged in the learning journey. 
  Founding education experiences in a data-driven approach has other benefits too. Educators will find that they can tailor curriculum to match a student’s pace of learning; policymakers too can leverage this approach to pursue an evidence based approach to policymaking as well. Doing so can drive improved learning outcomes at scale. 

Technology too can be a key lever. For instance, AI allows for the identification and tracking of “knowledge points” that accurately reflect an individual’s “knowledge state” for any given subject. This allows for a world of personalised learning experiences and content formats that deliver essential knowledge as per each student’s unique requirements. Embracing innovations such as these, and more, could be key to building a better, more literate India where everyone reaps the rewards of a world-class education.

Our multifaceted programs help each stakeholder of the Indian Education System – educators, students, Anganwadi workers, and the Government – reach their learning and developmental goals, leveraging technology and data to create replicable and scalable models of intervention. Click here to better understand how we’re creating long-term change centred around the most pressing challenges across India’s education landscape.

When society makes failure synonymous with all things bad or something to avoid at all costs, children are learning at an early age that their worth is tied to the success of their actions. Failure can be scary. Failure is a part of life, whether it’s a 5-year-old finger-painting a masterpiece or a 55-year-old failing to use a new computer program. It doesn’t matter if the failure was avoidable or not, failure will happen to the best of us. 

But how do we help kids deal with these failures? How do we teach them that failing is okay and that they should try again?

It’s hard for most educators to cede control of their children. But allowing them to make mistakes and stay safe is vital in the learning process. Here are some ways you can help your child learn to fail safely:

Emphasize their growth mindset

A growth mindset changes the way the brain reacts to failure, and it helps children learn from their mistakes. They don’t interpret failure as a reflection of their self-worth, and quickly bounce back to recover from their mistakes. Failure is inevitable. That is why it’s so important to encourage your children to embrace a growth mindset. When kids feel empowered to improve, that’s when they’re most likely to succeed — and with a growth mindset, they’ll be more open to trying new things and embracing challenges.

Let them fail

Since the time our children were infants, we’ve offered them a safe, secure life. When they fall, we rush to their side and make sure they’re okay. We go to great lengths to avoid adversity and challenge because we want to protect them from experiencing hardship or failure. But shielding children from adversity isn’t the same as protecting them. It’s essential to allow your child to experience failure. Without difficult situations to navigate, kids won’t develop critical problem-solving skills—and nobody expects a baby to ride a bike without training wheels. Teach them how to cope with failure, so they don’t fear it — and make sure they earn prizes when they overcome a challenge.

Share your experience

Children like to emulate what they see. You can model positive ways to handle setbacks and challenges by being open about your struggles. You can point out that when we fail at something, we often learn from it and even get better for having tried. Likewise, when you learn to fail forward, your kids will learn from painful experiences and grow from mistakes.

Kids can be a little unrealistic in thinking their ideas and plans will always lead to a remarkable life. So you need to teach them that it’s okay if things don’t always work out the way they think.

Empathize with them

By meeting your children with empathy when they fail in front of their peers, you’re modeling that emotion for them. They can see what it looks like when someone is hurt or disappointed and find the words to express those feelings. This doesn’t mean they should be immune from all criticism. But it does mean that if they make a mistake, it’s okay, and the sooner you teach them that, the better!

Final Thoughts

Learning to fail can be painful at first, but it is an essential part of the learning experience, for children will only succeed in life if they can acquire the knowledge and skills needed to handle whatever life throws their way. Our young learners need to know that failure is an integral part of the learning experience. Else they may become afraid of trying anything new for fear of doing it wrong. 

Educators and parents can be a key part of bringing in this cultural change. Educators can design and build schools, pedagogy, and curriculum in a manner that encourages students to learn from failure. This can truly prepare students for transformative success.

Parents too are an essential cog of the learning experience. By providing a nurturing environment, they can be a much-needed guide to children. So that they learn that getting it right at the first time of asking isn’t essential, and that it is more important to do the right thing. The best education doesn’t necessarily come from the classroom. But from how adult role models teach kids to be resilient in the face of whatever life throws their way. 

Know of an inspiring educator or educational story that encourages life-long learning in students? Send us a message at marketing@squarepanda.in or comment below, and we’ll feature your story!

*While the article lists guidelines for young learners, they could apply to adult learners in teacher training sessions as well.

As the Government of India takes several steps to ensure an independent future for the country, we support the cause by coming up with these guidelines, which help children across grassroots levels become self-reliant learners.

1) Avoid Overwhelming Learners: Refrain from assigning a significant workload for the home or for after-school hours as much as you can. This is because young children learn best when they work with bite-sized units of knowledge at a time. Starting small (e.g., introducing only a few letters at a time) and repeating the lessons in a fun way (e.g., making tunes with the letters, playing letter games) will provide better learning outcomes for the classroom.

2) Repetition Is Key: First, introduce your learners to the concepts and then repeat with higher-level tasks or different contexts. We recommend including context wherever possible, as this helps children remember their lessons more clearly. For example, if you’re teaching children letter sounds, teach them how to use them in words. If they’re learning words, then teach them how they’re used in sentences and if they’re learning sentences, then learn to make stories with them. Educate parents on the importance of giving context, as they are equal partners in the early childhood education process.

3) Meaning Matters: As with contextual learning, associating meaning to the lessons taught increases retention. In an early years’ classroom, stories are one of the best options to assign meaning to lessons. For example, if you are teaching vocabulary, link words to respective images via picture books. If sentence comprehension is the end goal, use stories to check students’ understanding of statements, story sequence, and character development. 

4) Don’t Be Afraid To Play: Once you’re done with a lesson, expand on what you’ve learned by playing games. E.g., if you have learned to rhyme, then brainstorm more rhyming words with your students. If you have studied the word families or opposites, think of other words in those families and other word families. If you have read a story, think of alternative endings, discuss what happens, think of background stories for the characters, draw the characters/story sequence, or enact the story in a bit of play. If simply brainstorming is not fun for your learners, then add a ‘speed’ element and race the clock. In short, encourage children to discuss and expand on what they have just learned. This helps them engage with the material more and remember the lessons better.

5) Switch Between Oral And Print Tasks: Try the same tasks with and without print. For example, if you have taught children to write rhyming words, try to play around with the identical/similar rhymes verbally.

NOTE: Oral tasks don’t require children to know the alphabet. So, if your students only know the letters A, B, C, D, there’s still nothing stopping them from orally rhyming other sounds.

6) Make Learning Interactive: Instead of making students sit and repeat words or answer questions, allow them to watch, listen, touch, and feel the material they are learning. This helps them engage much better and pay attention, and internalize a concept by remembering how it sounded, looked, felt, and what it meant.

7) Build Interest In Learning: Keep boredom away by getting students interested in whatever they’re about to learn, even before the lesson starts. E.g., make reading more enjoyable by teaching them about books and print; make them realize that print has a meaning and that stories can come out of books. Expose them to exciting stories with characters they like. Read books around them, even your own books, so that they are intrigued and curious about it. If you’re reading on multiple devices, focus on the stories and how interesting they can be on such mediums.

8) Start Easy And Scaffold: Avoid teaching complex concepts before easy ones on the belief that more straightforward learning will come more easily to children after they master tough topics. This becomes demoralizing to children and could even hamper learning in the long run. Instead, start with a simple topic that children will succeed at. Their success determines how their lessons proceed and their attitude towards learning. Once they have mastered simple concepts, gradually increase complexity, one step at a time in a gradual, scaffolded manner.

9) Bright Colours: There is a reason many early years’ classrooms and learning centers have pops of color and elements of play everywhere. For young children, color is infinitely more attractive than simple black and white designs. So dress your learning materials with the same color to catch students’ attention. Add little splashes of color, use cute characters, and lean on adorable props or games for some fun with learning.

10) Language Immersion: Most Indian children are bilingual or even multilingual, learning English in addition to their native languages like Hindi or Marathi, for instance. Using native or fluent speakers for instruction helps children develop correct tonality, pronunciation, and speech clarity. 

We believe turning young children into lifelong readers and learners is a delicate task that requires wholehearted support from the entire learning community — teachers, educators, parents, Anganwadi workers. Square Panda India’s suggested guidelines are intended to usher early learning stakeholders towards building a foundation for learning right from the early years.

See our efforts towards building an impactful educational landscape in India: https://ecce.squarepanda.in/

What makes a teacher? 

Is it age? Experience? Or the ability to impart learning in a manner that stays with the student forever?

Teachers at all levels have the power to turn the tide and transform the Indian education system into a multidisciplinary, holistic, progressive, and skill-focussed landscape. They mould our children, and thus, directly impact their futures and the future of the nation.

Given the very special occasion we celebrate tomorrow — Teacher’s Day — we decided to compile the stories from our Behind Every Step series that feature an educator at the helm. 

A young child of only ten, a corporate-trailblazer-turned-ECCE educator, a historical legend, a counsellor, and many more — our series highlights every person who has been responsible for helping others acquiring knowledge and skills, including parents, Anganwadi workers, and more.

About Square Panda India’s ‘Behind Every Step’ series: For every child who learns something new, there is a person behind them, supporting them as they take new steps along their educational journey. Each week, we showcase a new and inspiring tale from everyone who teaches, including educators, children, parents, and other stakeholders across the education landscape.

Have an inspiring educational story or know someone who has been a part of path-breaking work? Contact us at marketing@squarepanda.in or comment below, and we’ll feature your story in our upcoming Behind Every Step post.

STORY 1: Savitribai Phule

The very first teacher to set an example was born in a time when women teachers were practically non-existent in India, and the caste system held sway over such matters. See how this brave woman turned the tide for education in Maharashtra, and indeed, India: Read More >>

STORY 2: Chitra Chaugule

After becoming a teacher through fateful circumstances, she fell deeply in love with this profession. See how Chitra Chaugule’s journey saw her swap a corporate job for impacting early education: Read More >>

STORY 3: Unnati Thakkar

Inclusivity in education is her passion, as Ms. Thakkar came to realise. To think, she almost chose a completely different career for herself! Read about her story: Read More >>

STORY 4: Vaishali Nandoskar

Education is about the school, teachers, AND parents, as this mom and dad realised. See how they support their child’s school learning – at home – to help her gradually choose her own independent path in life: Read More >>

STORY 5: Veronika Brighteen

As we celebrate teachers, let us also acknowledge the little ones doing their own teaching. Like 8-year-old multilingual Veronika, who helps her Amma and her little brother learn different languages. Get inspired by her efforts: Read More >>

STORY 6: Saanvi Sinha, Grade 3

Meet yet another young learner-turned-teacher, who is using school closures to guide herself in her studies. This little learner has discovered a love for writing and uses that to alleviate her boredom, she says. Read her story in her own words: Read More >>

STORY 7: Meenal Gawlani

See how one person’s determination to leave the world a better place resulted in an inspiring tale of education, mentoring, and giving back to society: Read More >>

STORY 8: Lokesh Sharan

For teachers, it is not about the money, but the learning they can impart to their students. Read this tale of an extraordinary person striving to teach children for the cost of just one rupee: Read More >>

STORY 9: Jyoti Pande

Being a teacher is about more than teaching, as this story demonstrates. Especially an early years’ teacher. They have to be teachers, guides, life coaches, disciplinarians, and peacekeepers too. We hope Ms. Pande’s incredible story guides your own actions while teaching younger generations. Read all about it, here: Read More >>

STORY 10: Yogendra Bangar

For our final pick, we chose the tale of a school where no student is below 60. Curious? Click this link to read about Fangane village’s Aajibaichi Shaala: Read More >>

Teachers have long been the most crucial part of the education sector in India. Their efforts have doubled over the past year, and they have adapted to new styles and modes of teaching despite being unfamiliar with it themselves. We take this opportunity to thank every teacher for making sure childrens’ learning never stops.