African Storybook

Guide for Making

and Using Stories
 African Storybook

Guide for Making and

Using Stories
Contents
1. What is the Guide for Making and Using Stories? .................................4
Using the Guide ......................................................................................................... 4
Resources .................................................................................................................... 4
2. The role of stories in learning to read ....................................................... 4
Activity 2.1: My favourite story............................................................................... 4
Activity 2.2: How do children learn to read?......................................................... 6
Children learning to read ......................................................................................... 6
3. Creating your own stories .......................................................................... 8
Exercises for creating stories .................................................................................... 8
Activity 3.1: Creating a new story - the two-person play .................................... 8
Activity 3.2: Creating stories from pictures ........................................................... 9
Activity 3.3: Connected and unconnected words ................................................. 9
Activity 3.4: Creating a book plan ......................................................................... 10
Activity 3.5: Feedback and reflection on story creation ..................................... 11
4. Let’s make books........................................................................................ 11
Activity 4.1: Turning your story into a book ....................................................... 13
Activity 4.2: Illustrating your story ....................................................................... 18
5. Using stories with children ......................................................................19
5.1. Choosing stories for children ............................................................... 19
Activity 5.1.1: Observing children reading .......................................................... 20
5.2. Preparing to use stories with children ................................................ 21
Activity 5.2.1 Preparing to use stories .................................................................. 21
Adapting stories ...................................................................................................... 23
Activity 5.2.2: Adapting a story ............................................................................. 23
Translating stories ................................................................................................... 24
Activity 5.2.3: Translating a story.......................................................................... 24
5.3. Preparing the children for stories ........................................................ 26
Activity 5.3.1: Preparing for stories....................................................................... 26
5.4. Reading stories ....................................................................................... 27
Activity 5.4.1: Reading from printed books ......................................................... 27
Activity 5.4.2: Reading from projected books...................................................... 28
Activity 5.4.3: Linking Reading and Writing ....................................................... 29
Activity 5.4.4: Reading on computers ................................................................... 30

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 5.5. Language in stories ................................................................................ 30
Activity 5.5.1: Vocabulary ...................................................................................... 30
5.6. Asking questions .................................................................................... 32
Activity 5.6.1: Adults asking questions ................................................................ 32
Activity 5.6.2: Children asking questions............................................................. 32
Activity 5.6.3: Talking about stories with children ............................................. 34
5.7. Children making stories ........................................................................ 35
Activity 5.7.1: Children making their own stories .............................................. 35
Activity 5.7.2: Story bag or Story box ................................................................... 35
Activity 5.7.3: Children illustrating their own and other stories ...................... 36
Activity 5.7.4: Children making new endings ..................................................... 37
Activity 5.7.5: Children acting out stories ............................................................ 37
5.8. Finding other ideas for story use and trying them out ..................... 38
Resource Pack: Guide for Making and Using Stories .................................. 40
1. What is this Resource Pack? ....................................................................40
An Introduction: What is the African Storybook Project? ................................. 40
Icebreaker activities ................................................................................................. 41
Icebreaker Activity 1.1: ........................................................................................... 42
Icebreaker Activity 1.2: ........................................................................................... 42
2. The role of stories in learning to read ..................................................... 43
Activity 2.1: My favourite story............................................................................. 43
3. Creating your own stories ........................................................................ 53
Activity 3.2: Creating stories from pictures ......................................................... 53
Activity 3.4: Creating a book plan ......................................................................... 59
4. Let’s make books........................................................................................ 62
Activity 4.1: Turning your story into a book ....................................................... 62

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1. What is the Guide for Making and Using Stories?
The Guide for Making and Using Stories is a resource from the African
Storybook Initiative that can be used by fieldworkers, community
librarians, teachers, parents and others who are working with young
children. There are different kinds of activities for you to use. The activities
give ideas on how to create, translate, adapt and use stories from the
African Storybook (ASb) website found at www.africanstorybook.org.

Using the Guide

You are free to use this pack in any way that you want to. You can use it on
your own or with a colleague to think about the ideas, or you can use it to
run a workshop with other people who work with children. If you want to
run a workshop you don’t have to use all the activities. Choose which
activities you want to use and work out how much time you will need for
each activity. Then plan enough time in your workshop. You can adapt or
change the activities to make them more suitable to your situation if
necessary. After most of the activities you can read the notes under ‘Think
about this’ to check your own thoughts, and to get other ideas.

Resources
There is a Resource Pack linked to the activities in the Guide. You will see
links to different sections of the Resource Pack throughout this Guide. You
can click here to see the Resource Pack. You can use the Resource Pack in
different ways. For example, if you want to run a story development
workshop, you can click here to see an Introduction to the African
Storybook Project, and some ideas for Icebreakers to use in your workshop.

2. The role of stories in learning to read

As part of working with children and children’s stories we need to
understand something about how children learn to read and the role of
stories in this process. These next few activities will help you to think about
some important ideas related to young children’s stories and reading.

Activity 2.1: My favourite story

1. Think about when you were very young. What do you remember
about the stories that adults and other children told you or read to
you?
2. What was your favourite story? Why was it your favourite story?

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 3. From your experience, what do you think makes a good story for
children?
4. Find a story of your own or click here to see an online story, or go to
Kalabushe the Talkative in the Resource Pack.
a. Why is the story you have chosen a good one, or not?

Think about thisMost of us have a favourite story that we remember from

when we were young. Some of us might have a favourite
story that we used to read or tell to our own children, or
grandchildren. Usually the stories that we loved or our children loved most
are stories that have pictures that help us to follow the story, or actions that
we can do with the story. Sometimes the stories are scary, or the person in
the story gets into trouble or finds herself in danger and we wonder what is
going to happen next. Not all of us like to have a happy ending because life
does not always have a happy ending, and we like our stories to be a little
like real life.

So what makes a good children’s story? There are many answers to this
question. We came up with the following list in a workshop we had. Do
you agree with our ideas? How would you add to them?

A good children’s story:

 is enjoyable
 is ‘authentic’- arises out of and speaks to children’s contexts and
realities
 has rich illustrations that support the text, but also that may suggest
other meanings or feelings and extend the text
 is not necessarily ‘real’, but logically developed – make-believe that
is believable or nonsense that makes sense.
 has interesting language - rhyme, rhythm, repetition, word play
 has suspense (or danger) to encourage children to say ‘What will
happen next?’ or ‘What if?’
 has something unexpected, against the rules, or a ‘twist in the tale’
 has a beginning, middle and end

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 Activity 2.2: How do children learn to read?

1. Read the short piece below, called ‘Children learning to read’.

a. Which points do you agree with and which do you disagree
with?
Children learning to read
When children learn to read they go through a long development
process from the age of one or two years to the end of the first three
years of formal schooling.
Children in the first few years of learning to read:
a. Listen to and repeat words and phrases – they learn to
distinguish between different sounds and words;
b. Name objects and people and actions of people in their
immediate environment;
c. Recognise different shapes and colours (this prepares them to
identify letters and ‘read’ pictures);
d. Understand that a sound or word can be represented by letters
on a page;
e. Say the sound or word that matches the symbol (letters on the
page);
f. Remember the shapes of more and more sounds and words.

In other words, they learn to decode what is written on the page.

Instead of repeating letters and words they have learned by heart,
they learn to ‘sound out’ words they may not have seen before.

But they also need to engage with stories they are told or read from a
very young age. They need to be encouraged to:
a. imagine;
b. notice;
c. predict;
d. guess the meanings of words they don’t immediately recognise;
e. remember what they have read, going back to find things they
have missed on first reading/hearing the story.

In this way they prepare to make meaning out of text for themselves,
and build an attachment to books and reading. If they get enough
practice in decoding and making meaning,
 their 'fluency' in reading increases, and letter recognition, simple
word and then phrase recognition become automatic;

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  their attention span increases;
 they are willing to re-read stories themselves that the adult has
read with them; and eventually
 they read on their own – read the words and understand them –
rather than just looking at pictures and turning pages.

Even from a young age, children need:

a. encouragement to write as well as read – creating stories, first
orally with the teacher doing the writing, and then gradually on
their own or in groups;
b. opportunities to ask questions and think critically;
c. to practice dialogue;
d. learn to relish the richness of words;
e. enjoy the silly logic of nonsense;
f. be exposed to different genres (types) of writing.

This leads to a deeper appreciation of narrative and text in the

older child.
a. Children learn to recognise the turning point in a story.
b. They enjoy both what is predictable in the way that a story
unfolds, as well as the surprises the writer sets up.
c. They re-tell the story, but in their own words, with a sense of the
shape of the story and the way it unfolds.
d. Or if it is an information text, they understand not only
individual facts, but how they are related to each other.
e. They learn to interpret pictures and the design of the book.
f. They become sensitive to stylistic and linguistic features of the
text – for example, why certain punctuation is used, or a different
font, or upper and lower case, or repeated words or phrases.
g. They can ‘hear’ the tone of the story – realise when the author is
being serious or sarcastic or playful.

2. Look again at the example of Kalabushe the Talkative.

a. Think about some of the things you have just read, and identify
how this story helps children who are learning to read.

Think about this Stories play an important part in the process of children
learning to read and develop literacy skills. This process
requires plenty of stories, rich stories at different levels, and
texts of different genres – poetry, information texts – as well
as stories in a language with which children are familiar.

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And most of all, children need a supportive adult who can help them to be
active in the complex process of literacy development. This happens by
children having:
 the knowledge that they can read and make meaning,
 the opportunity to engage deeply and successfully with text, and
 the desire and willingness to do more and more of it on their own
because they want to.

We will remember all the things that children need when they are learning
to read. These will guide us to create, choose and use stories that meet
children’s needs, and promote the development of their literacy and a love
of reading.

3. Creating your own stories

There are many ways of creating stories. Below we share with you some of
the ways in which we have created stories. There may be other ways that
you have used. We would love you to share them with us in the blogspace
on www.africanstorybook.org.

Remember to create the story in the language with which you are most
familiar, the language in which you think and feel! You can translate it later
if you want to.

Exercises for creating stories

Drama and roleplay

Activity 3.1: Creating a new story - the two-person play

1. With a partner choose two imaginary characters (e.g. the granny

and the sad child or the farmer and the bird). Decide on a problem
the characters have (e.gg the child is afraid of an older child in the
village or the farmer catches the crow eating his maize).
2. Have a conversation with your partner about the characters and
their problem, write it down, and soon you will have a full blown
story.

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Using pictures to get ideas for a story

Activity 3.2: Creating stories from pictures

1. For this activity you can use your own pictures, or you can use the
examples of pictures in the Resource Pack. You can also use your
own pictures. The pictures do not need to be used in any particular
order.
2. Write one word/one sentence related to each of the pictures, to
make up a story.

The power of the unplanned connection

Activity 3.3: Connected and unconnected words

The list in this activity is just an example. You can use a list of any words
that you choose, in any language that you choose. There don’t have to be
five words.

1. Look at this list of five words:

elephant (tlou; indlovu; ndovu; enjofu)
river (motswedi; imfula; mto; olwabi)
pot (pitsa; ibiza; chungu; esongo)
vegetables (dienywa; imifino; mboga; elyani)
stone (letlapa; itshe; jiwe; ebaale)

2. Next to each word write one or two completely unconnected words.

For example, for elephant you may not have lion, but you can have
ice cream, or cup, or candle.
3. Develop a story idea from one set of unconnected words in the list.
Remember what children need when they are learning to read and
what they can learn from a good story.

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Creating group stories

Activity 3.4: Creating a book plan

1. Create your own book plan by folding an A4 sheet of paper into 6

parts. You can use the lines in the Folded Storyboard template in
the Resource Pack to guide your folding. The first block in the book
plan is the front cover. The last block in the book plan is the back
cover. The pages in between are numbered 1-10. This will give you
10 pages of story and a front and back cover
2. Alone, or with a partner, start in the second square to write the text
and your ideas for drawings. Turn the paper over and continue to
‘page’ 10.

From oral stories to written ones / Community-led story development

If we want to get authentic stories in African contexts, often we need to
look to the oral tradition – stories that are told, not written down. We
explored a process for converting an oral story into a book that children can
read on their own. First, an adult tells the story in the local language, and
summarises it in English. Both versions are voice recorded, including a
song if there is one. A story development group prepares a storyboard,
with notes (descriptions) for illustrations. A local language version and an
English version is prepared in the African Storybook template, and each
page is illustrated.

A community story development group

created a story in this way at the Munanga
Primary School in Kakamega, Kenya. The
SMC chairperson (man on the right in the
picture) told the story of Namukhaywa in
Oluwanga (the local Luhyia dialect in
Kakamega), and then summarised the story
in English. Both versions were recorded,
including the singing of the song. An English
version and an Oluwanga version were
prepared in the ASb template and each page
was illustrated. Click here to read that story,
or find the story at
http://www.africanstorybook.org/asp/book/r
ead/6430 when you have a chance to go to the website.

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Reflecting on the stories we make
We should not expect that our story is perfect after the first draft. It is good
practice, every time we create a story, to reflect on the story and decide in
which ways it is helping children to learn to read and to learn a love of
reading, and think of ways in which it can be improved. The following
activity is one way of reflecting on your story and finding ways of making
sure it meets the needs of children learning to read.

Activity 3.5: Feedback and reflection on story creation

1. Read your story aloud to someone and ask them for feedback.
2. Think about:
a. How does this story help children with learning to read
(‘Children learning to read’)?
b. What is the essence of the story? In other words, what is the
seed, or kernel, that makes the story unique, that gives the
story its relevance and its power? What can you do to bring
this out more strongly?
c. Is there any part of the story that is unnecessary?
d. What would you change, and how?

Think about thisThis is your opportunity to make sure that your story meets
the needs of what children need when they are learning to
read – interesting characters, adding in suspense, or creating
repetition and rhythm. Remind yourself again of what children need when
they are learning to read (pages 6 & 7 above).

Now you have some ideas about how to create stories. Try different ways
and see which you feel most comfortable with. You might find that you
produce very different stories using different methods.

4. Let’s make books

Now you have created a story you can begin to think about putting it into a
book format so that you can upload and publish it on the African
Storybook website. Go and have a look at the Story Development Cycle in
the Resource Pack to see what the steps are for getting your story
published.

There is an ASb template that you can put your story into. This template
will help you to think about how to divide your story into the pages of the

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template, and how to illustrate it. You will do this offline, so that you can
spend time thinking carefully. Then when you are ready to upload the
story onto the website it will be quick and easy.

There are three important things you need to think about to put your story
into a book format. These are:
 title
 pages and levels
 illustrations

You also have to think about who you are writing your story for. In the
African Storybook Project we want to think about stories that adults or
siblings read to young children, and stories that children read for
themselves.

Stories that adults or siblings read to young children we call read aloud
stories. Stories that children read themselves we call read alone stories.
Read aloud stories have rich vocabulary and more detail in the story, are
longer, and have fewer pictures.

A read aloud story is not just a ‘big book’ version of the read alone story.
The purpose of a read aloud version is to expose the children to rich, more
complex language from which they can learn a wider vocabulary and a
love of reading. Although it may be used as a ‘big book’, either in printed
form or projected onto a wall using a data projector, it may not necessarily
be used in the ways that big books have come to be used in our classrooms.
A read alone version could be projected as a big book for that purpose.

For read alone stories we are not producing graded readers. We do think,
however, that different children will read at different levels. We have
identified four levels, as follows:
Level 1 – first words and phrases
Level 2 – first sentences
Level 3 – first paragraphs
Level 4 – longer paragraphs

We don’t want to fix these levels to ages or grades. This is because we

understand that even a 12-year-old child may be a beginning reader. So you
also need to decide what level you want to publish your story at. You will
need to think about pages and the level of your read alone story at the same
time.

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The following activity will help you to think about your title, your pages
and your level. You will also begin to think about your illustrations.

Activity 4.1: Turning your story into a book

1. Read your story aloud, and notice any changes that you want to
make.
2. Decide on a title for your story.
3. Decide what level you want your read alone story to be.
4. Divide your story into pages and edit it down to the appropriate
level, and write it or type it into the ASb template. It will save time
when you are uploading your story onto the website if you do this
digitally.
5. While you are doing the tasks above you will be thinking about the
illustrations that will go on each page. Even if you created your
stories using pictures, as you develop the story you might feel you
want to change the pictures to suit the story better. You might want
to take notes about what you want your illustrations to look like.
You will use these notes in the next activity.

Think about this There are many things to think about when you turn a story
that you have written into a book format.

You can use the ASb template to ‘chunk’ your story into
pages. In some cases that chunking process could result in a read aloud
version, as in the case of ‘Tree that saved the village of Ombalantu’. You
can find this story at http://www.africanstorybook.org/asp/book/read/2716.

In the example of the ‘Tree that saved the village of Ombalantu’, we got
permission from the authors of Drum to use the story and to adapt the
pictures. This meant that we were able to simply ‘chunk’ it without editing
it, and add our own illustrations.

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Making decisions about chunking and editing is informed by our first main
assumption, that story is important for children. We tried to make sure that
the decisions that we took about including authentic characters, with
exciting things happening, with rhyme, rhythm and repetition, would not
be lost when we ‘chunked’ the story.

For a child to read alone, the book needs to be at a level of reading

appropriate for the child. To create a read alone version, after ‘chunking’
you will edit each story to the level you have chosen for children.
Remember that in the online story template the font will automatically
change when you choose different levels. This will determine how many
words will fit onto a page.

Our second main assumption is that children need the support of the visual
to help them interpret the words and the story. When you edit down a page
that you have chunked you cannot do it without thinking about the
illustrations. For example, a story that a child will read alone will need
more pictures than a read aloud version.

Also, the illustrations must have a direct relationship with the text. The
picture may even contain parts of the story that are not written down.

Look at the following example of ‘Nozibele and the Three Hairs’ and you
will see:
 how we edited the text and left some out, to make it a Level 2 (or 3);
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 how the text relates to the illustrations

Nozibele and the Three Hairs

Text in italics and in brackets is what will be left out – the illustrations will
‘describe’ it instead.

Page 1
A long, time ago three girls went out to collect wood. [When they had
collected enough wood, they tied it into bundles and put it on their
heads.]

Page 2
It was a hot day so they went down to the river to swim. [At the river
they put down the wood, took off their little skirts and jumped into the
water to swim.]
[One of the girls called Nozibele had a beautiful bead necklace
around her neck. It was a necklace that her grandmother had made
for her. Nozibele took off the beautiful bead necklace and put it
carefully on a rock near the bundles of wood. Then she jumped into
the water, too.]

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Two pages later … the story of the necklace on the rock is told …

Page 4

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 Page 5

Describing your illustrations

You can see from the example above that the illustrations are very
important in telling the story. The necklace on the rock on page 2 helps the
story to flow and helps with the drama of the story. When you describe the
illustrations that you want someone to draw for your story, you have to
describe every small detail very carefully. Look at this example of
illustration notes for the illustration on page 2 of Nozibele. While you are
reading, notice how much detail there is.

Illustration notes for Nozibele and the Three Hairs, page 2:

Picture of three girls, Nozibele and her two friends, in the river, with water
up to their necks. On the bank their clothes are lying on the grass and on
the rocks. The bundles of wood are also on the grass. Behind the bundles of
wood there is another rock. On this rock is Nozibele’s necklace. This is the
same necklace she is wearing on page 1.

If you need someone to illustrate your story for you, they will need to get
very careful illustration notes from you, like this. In the next activity you
will have a chance to practice writing illustration notes for your story.

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 Activity 4.2: Illustrating your story

Work with the story/ies you have just titled, paginated (divided into pages)
and levelled, in the template.
1. If you used pictures to create your story, decide if the pictures are
still appropriate. Maybe you can change them or improve them in
some way. Or maybe you want to find or create your own new
illustrations.
2. If you don’t have any illustrations yet, see if you can find
illustrations for your story on the ASb website, in the illustration
bank; or
3. For each page do your own illustration, or take a photograph, or let
the children draw a picture, or
4. Write careful illustration notes for each page. Give the illustration
notes to an artist, or send it to the ASb team and ask if they can
commission an artist.

Think about this You can see from this work that you can use illustrations in
two important ways:

a. To support and tell the story that the text is telling. This might
give children clues about the meaning of words, and also help
children to read the story.
b. To let the illustration say more than the text is saying, as in
the example of ‘Nozibele and the Three Hairs’ above. This is
helpful if you are writing for first sentences or first words
because you are limited in the number of words and
sentences the children can read.

Uploading and publishing your story

Now you have created, edited and illustrated your story. You have put it
into a template. This will help you to make sure that the pages and the
illustrations match up. Before you publish your story, make sure that any
illustrations that you want to upload yourself to use in your story are saved
digitally in a place that you can easily access when you need them. To
upload your own illustrations they must be in the following format:
 square, not smaller than 21cm by 21cm;
 saved as files with the extension .png. You cannot upload a picture as
a .pdf file.

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5. Using stories with children
We have seen the importance of phonemic awareness and phonics when
children are learning to read. We also know that understanding the
meaning of words, thinking about the story and asking questions, and
simply enjoying the story are important. It is also important for children to
have access to stories in their own and familiar languages.

So there will be many ways we can use stories with children. When we
find, translate or adapt stories we always have these questions in the back
of our minds:
1. Which children will use this story?
2. How will they use it?
3. Do I need to translate it for the children?
4. How do I need to change it to suit my children?

Of course it is important that children are allowed to use the stories in ways
that they choose, on their own and with their friends, in addition to reading
with teachers. That sense of independence with a storybook is just as
important as having the book in their hands.

We can read the story to the children, but it is as important that children
have an opportunity to read to each other, and to read alone. Even if they
are only reading the pictures, or talking about what they read, or reading
nonsense, they need to have an experience of the book and enjoy what they
are doing.

Let’s turn our attention now to how we can use stories with young
children, once we have them.

As with any good teaching, our starting point is the children – what
children are interested in, what children love doing, what their potential is.

5.1. Choosing stories for children

Choosing appropriate stories for children is an important part of helping
children to learn to read.

If we know what children are interested in, what they already know about
using books, what they like doing with the books, if a child is outspoken or
quiet, what other things children can do like drawing or dramatizing, then
we will have a good idea of what kinds of stories to choose so that the
children are motivated and inspired to read.

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 Activity 5.1.1: Observing children reading

1. What can we learn from observing children using books?

2. Observe some children choosing, telling, reading, discussing
books/stories.
3. What did you notice?
4. How will that help you to use books and stories with the children?

Think about this If we understand our children, we will be able to find and
provide stories that they are interested in, and which will
hook them into telling and reading stories. It will also help
us to know how to change stories to make them more suitable. For
example, maybe you noticed there is a child who always chooses English
books. Why does she choose English books? Can she read the English? Is
the English at the appropriate level for her? Do you want to encourage her
to read books in her local language too? Would bilingual books be good for
her to read? Can you find stories on the African Storybook website that are
suitable for this child? Are there stories that you can translate or adapt so
that they are suitable for this child?

Maybe you noticed a child who never chooses her own books, but she likes
to sit with another child and listen to stories? How can you encourage her
to choose her own books? Is she struggling to read? What level can she read
at? Are there enough books at the appropriate level for her? When you
think you have an answer to these questions about the child you will be
able to make a good choice or help the child to make a good choice for
herself. Can you find stories on the African Storybook website that are
suitable for this child? Are there stories that you can translate or adapt so
that they are suitable for this child?

Can you find stories on the African Storybook website that are suitable for
all your children? Not all children are the same. When you use stories with
children you will sometimes use them with all the children, sometimes with
a small group of children, and sometimes with individual children. One
example of how this can be done is offered by READ, through their
methodology of Reading aloud, Shared, Group and Guided reading. Read
more here http://readingmatters.co.za/methodology/.

Children will also use stories on their own or with each other. They do not
always need an adult to read for them. Even the children who are not good
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at reading need to have time without an adult, using a book in their own
way. It doesn’t have to always be the correct way. Children learn from their
mistakes too. Children also learn a lot from each other. We can spend time
observing the children telling and using stories so that we can learn more
about how to support our children with reading.

5.2. Preparing to use stories with children

You can share stories from the website in many different ways. It is always
best to download a story that you want to share. That way you won’t be
using data while you are reading with the children. You can store all your
stories in one place so that you can access them easily when you need to.

Once you have downloaded them, you can share them digitally directly on
a laptop or tablet, or project them onto a wall so that more children can see
the story, like a big book. You can print the downloaded stories and let the
children borrow them and take them home, or read them together or alone.
You can also let the children follow in their own printed copies while you
read from the big book.

An important part of preparing to use stories is having a plan. A plan will

help you to think about what you want the children to learn from reading
the stories. It will help you to think about how you will use the story and
what activities the children can do to make the experience more meaningful
and fun for them. Once you have a plan you will know what to prepare for
the children, such as paper, crayons, cards, and so on.

There are many ways to plan how you will use stories with children. One
easy way is to think about what activities children can do to help them to:
1. practice reading the words and the pictures on their own
2. talk about their feelings and experiences about what they are reading
3. think about what they are reading
4. write about what they read and to read what they write
5. learn language from what they read

Activity 5.2.1 Preparing to use stories

1. Choose a story that you think the children will enjoy.

a. What questions might the children ask about the story?
b. What do you think the children will like about this story?
c. Can the children read this story alone?
d. Can the children read the language of this story?
21
 2. What can the children learn from this story?
3. What activities can you plan that will help them to enjoy and learn
from the story?
4. What changes do you need to make to this story?

Before you share a story with children you should read it

Think about this
yourself. While you are reading you can ask yourself all
these questions. This will help you to be sure that you have
chosen a suitable book, but it will also help you to think
about what you need to do before you share the story. Write down the
questions you think children will ask, and decide how you are going to
answer their questions. This can help you to prepare for a discussion that
you have after reading the story. See Section 5.6: Asking questions.

Think about some of these ideas to help you to plan activities:

1. practice reading the words and the pictures on their own
a. read alone quietly or while they are listening to the story
b. read to each other aloud
c. take books home to read
d. talk about books (words and pictures) with each other
e. group reading
f. don’t just repeat words, actually see and read the words,
for example using word cards, pointing to words, etc.
2. talk about their feelings and experiences about what they are
reading
a. choose feelings books
b. ask feelings questions
c. answer questions about their feelings
3. think about what they are reading
a. ask questions
b. answer questions
4. write about what they read and to read what they write
a. adults write down what children say about stories and
pictures
b. children write what they think and say about stories and
pictures
c. read what others have written about stories
5. learn language from what they read
a. new words, words that mean the same, words in other
languages
b. pronunciation
c. other symbols, e.g. punctuation

22
A really important part of all our work with children is to watch and listen
to children reading, so that we can respond well to what they need.

Adapting stories
If you think the children will enjoy a story that you find, but it is too
difficult for them to read alone, you might want to simplify the story, and
let them read the simplified version alone or with each other. You might
also find a good story that you would like to extend into a read aloud
version that you can read to the children.

You can adapt a story on the website by choosing the ‘adapt’ option for a
story that you like.

Activity 5.2.2: Adapting a story

1. Find a story on ASb that you think is good, and that is either a read
aloud story or a level 4, in your own language or the language of the
children you work with.
2. Adapt that story into a level 1, 2 or 3.
3. While you are adapting, write down some of the challenges that you
experience in the adaptation process.
a. What happened to the language when you adapted to a lower
level?
b. Do you think it would be easier to adapt a story from level 1 to
level 4? Why?
c. What do you think was lost in the adaptation?
d. What do you think you gained from doing an adaptation?

Think about this However you choose to adapt a story keep in mind what
children need when they are learning to read, as we have
discussed before.

We need to give children enough stories to read, at the appropriate level. So

it is important to make sure that you have stories at all the different levels
to suit all the children you are working with. In this way children will be
able to read alone, or with each other.

It is also important for children to hear adults reading. So make sure you
have a longer version of as many stories as possible for reading aloud with
children. A read aloud version is not just a big book version of the read

23
alone story. If you want a big book version of a read alone story you can
simply project it onto a wall.

However, the purpose of a read aloud version is to expose the children to

rich, more complex language from which they can learn a wider vocabulary
and a love of reading. A read aloud version of a story can be used in many
different ways. Of course, it can be used as a big book, either in printed
form or projected onto a wall using a data projector for the children to
follow while you read aloud. You can also read a read aloud version to
children while they follow from a version at a different level, using the
pictures to help them to know when to turn the pages, recognising words
that they can read themselves and so on.

Translating stories
Perhaps there are some children who will not understand or be able to read
the language of the story that you have chosen. You can find other
translations of that story on the website, or translate the story into a new
language, and let children read the same story in different languages. In
this way you can accommodate many different languages while you are
reading stories.

One of the most important lessons we have learned from our experience in
ASb is that direct, literal translations cannot work. So during the translation
process we have to have in mind the kind of stories we are creating, the
level we are translating for, the illustrations, what children need when they
are learning to read, and of course the context. This will help us to know
how to ‘re-tell’ the story in another language.

Activity 5.2.3: Translating a story

1. Find a story on the ASb website that you think will be appropriate
for a child or children you work with, in a language not your own.
2. Translate that story into a language of your choice.
3. While you are translating, write down some of the challenges that
you experience in the translation process.
e. What do you think was lost in the translation?
f. What do you think you gained from doing a translation?
g. Did the level of the story change when you did the translation? If
so, why do you think that happened?

24
Think about thisTranslation can mean telling the stories that were originally
written in a different language in a way that another
community can identify with and use it with their children
(i.e. versioning, rather than merely translating. Versioning can involve
changing names, places, characters, activities in the original story to suit
another context, therefore coming up with a story that keeps the plot.

Of course, translation is needed both from local language stories into

English (to make these stories accessible to people who do not understand
the local language), and from English into local languages. The translation
into English has often proved to be the most challenging.

Some people hold the view that in the production of stories for early
reading, translation doesn’t really work: you have to start and end with the
language you are aiming to teach children to read. The majority of readers
in African languages are direct translations of English books. The effect of
this is difficult phonics, long words, lengthy sentences and paragraphs for
sentences which in English are simple and appropriate.

In translation there may be words we leave out, and words we add in, and
rhythms that change. African languages are unique in that they use a lot of
idioms and proverbs to express words and feelings. So when an attempt is
made to translate from African languages into English, often idioms and
proverbs are not translatable.

We have to have in mind what the pictures will look like. We might use the
original pictures, but the pictures may also change because of the changes
in the language. We also know that as you translate, the level of the story
usually changes. What is a level 1 story in one language becomes a level 2
or 3 in another. This might also force you to revise the illustrations.

Where there are standard orthographies used in schools, our translators are
guided by these, so that school-going children reading both curriculum-
linked material and our stories will not be confused. However, in some
countries there are many languages that do not have recognised
orthographies, and there may even be competing orthographies. Where no
orthography exists, it means getting speakers of that language to do the
translation during which they agree on what words, dialects and
expressions they would like to use in the translations.

In cases of disagreement or competing orthographies, translation into a

local language is based on the spoken language that the speakers are
25
familiar with, rather than what might be in the official orthography. We
often get people to work together on translation, working in pairs and
reading translations to each other in order for them to agree on the form as
well as the accuracy. This also applies to translating into dialects of
languages. The people who have engaged in this process so far have found
it interesting but time consuming.

However, an advantage of the fact that ASb stories will be digital is that
users of our website will be able to change words, and adjust the
orthography if they regard it as unacceptable. In this way we hope that
good stories will not be rejected simply because there is a disagreement on
a word or the spelling of a word. Users will easily be able to insert their
preferred words or spellings.

5.3. Preparing the children for stories

Activity 5.3.1: Preparing for stories

1. From your teacher training, or experience with working with

children, how can we prepare children before we read them a story
from a book?

Think about this Whether you use a digital or a printed copy of a storybook,
the best place to start is by showing the children the picture
on the cover. You can read the title, and talk about what the
title tells us about the story. Show the children the picture on the cover, and
ask them predictive questions, such as ‘What do you think the story is
about?’, or ‘Who do you think is the main character of the story?’

There may be words that are new to the children, either on the cover or in
the story itself. You can introduce those new words before you read, so that
the children will understand them when they appear in the story. Ask
children to volunteer the meaning of new words, so that they can learn
from each other too.

Ask the children what questions they have about the story before you
begin. If children can write they can write down their questions. Otherwise
you can write down the questions and use them later (See Activity 5.6.1
Asking questions).

26
5.4. Reading stories

Activity 5.4.1: Reading from printed books

In this video clip Reading from Printed Books (01:00 to 07:10

minutes), Emily Mbhele reads to the children from a printed
book. You can also find the clip at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wUlqfQnGOE. If you have a hard
copy of the Guide for Making and Using Stories, then you probably have a
flash drive too. These videos are all on the flash drive.

1. Think about the way in which you read books with young children.
2. Watch the clip. Does Emily read stories differently to how you read
to children?
3. Watch the video clip again. Draw a circle around the things in the
list below that you can see Emily doing in the video clip.
a. Eye contact with each child and making sure children are
also looking back at the teacher.
b. Making sure the children hear all the words clearly and
understand them. This means going slowly, observing their
faces, asking questions if there is any doubt that they
understood.
c. Linking the oral word to the written word, over and over.
d. Facing the book toward all the children, instead of the book
facing the teacher and this being a story TELLING exercise.
e. Asking predictive questions: ‘What do you think will happen
next?’
f. Not picking the child whose hand goes up first: waiting so
that as many children as possible can think about their
answer.
g. Giving children time to find the words, and think without the
other children interrupting.
h. Allowing the children to make mistakes without feeling bad.
i. Getting children to read INDIVIDUALLY, not only as a
group.
j. Going back into the story to make sure words or content are
not missed (there is no steady linear reading because one also
wants to break the habit of going ahead even when you don’t
understand).
k. Reading and writing are done in the same lesson.
4. Talk with other participants, teachers, librarians or parents about
what you see.
5. What other interesting things in the video clip did you notice?
27
 Activity 5.4.2: Reading from projected books

In this video clip Projecting (01:00 to 07:20 minutes), a teacher and a small
group of children read a story that is projected onto the wall from a laptop.
You can also find the clip at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DTq0CJ56sQ. If you have a hard copy
of the Guide for Making and Using Stories, then you probably have a flash
drive too. These videos are all on the flash drive.

1. Watch the video clip. While you are watching take note of the
different ways that Emily supports children to read aloud.
2. Watch the clip again. Identify the times when Emily does one or
more of the following things. Make a tally mark (short line) next to
the action each time you see it:
a. Emily makes eye contact with children.
b. Emily makes sure the children hear all the words clearly and
understand them.
c. Emily helps children to link the oral word to the written
word.
d. The children can see the book clearly while Emily is reading.
e. Emily asks predictive questions, such as ‘What do you think
will happen next?’
f. Emily gives the children time to think before she chooses a
child to answer.
g. Children read individually, aloud.
h. Children read as a group.
i. Children learn new words, and read them.
j. Children help each other.
k. Reading the whole story through.
l. Emily goes back into the story to make sure words and
content are not missed.
3. Talk about reading from a printed book and reading from a
projected book.
a. What is the same and what is different?
b. What is an advantage of a projected book?

Emily supports the children and pays attention to many

Think about this
things while she is reading to and with her young children
to try and make sure that they are engaged all the time. You
can see that she is careful to try and connect with every child in the group.
She doesn’t just ask the first child who puts their hand up. She gives all the
28
children time to think before anyone gives an answer to her questions. She
makes links between the words that she and the children use and what is
written in the story.

Activity 5.4.3: Linking Reading and Writing

Watch the video clip Projecting [Clip 2 – 07:20 – 10:38]. This is a

video of Emily and some high school students helping young children to
link reading and writing together. You can also find the video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DTq0CJ56sQ. If you have a hard copy
of the Guide for Making and Using Stories, then you probably have a flash
drive too. These videos are all on the flash drive.

1. What does Emily ask the children to do? How does this help them to
make a link between reading and writing?
2. Why is it important for children to link reading and writing together?
3. What other ideas do you have for helping children to link reading and
writing together?
4. Do you think that the activities in clip 1 and clip 2 can be done in the
same lesson?
5. What are the advantages of doing reading and writing separately?
6. What are the advantages of children reading and writing in the same
lesson?

Emily pays attention to many things while she is reading,

Think about this
including encouraging the children to write words that they
found in the story. They enjoy doing that, even if someone
has to help them to write their favourite word.

We could even extend this. We can ask the children questions to encourage
them to think about what they have written. These could be questions such
as:
1. Now that you have written your favourite word, find it in the story.
2. Does it look the same?
3. Did you make a mistake?
4. Can you correct your mistake?

Can you think of other ways of helping the children to think about their
writing in relation to the story they have read?

29
 Activity 5.4.4: Reading on computers

The video clip Reading Using Computers [Clip 3 – 01:00 to

04:50] shows young children reading from computers in
different ways. You can also find the clip at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONxCx9XH_98. If you have a hard
copy of the Guide for Making and Using Stories, then you probably have a
flash drive too. These videos are all on the flash drive.

1. Watch the video clip and make a note of all the different ways that
children read.
2. What do the children learn from these different ways of reading?
3. What other skills do you think children learn from reading from the
computers?
4. How can Emily and the high school students support the children to
make the link between writing and reading from computers?

Think about this In the video clip you can see children reading from the
computer by themselves, in pairs and in a bigger group. The
other children can listen and follow on their own computers.
If there are not enough computers, the other children can listen and read
from the same computer, as long as they can all see the screen.

Children can be involved in helping to show the story on the computer.

5.5. Language in stories

Activity 5.5.1: Vocabulary

1. Find a story on the website that you think the children will enjoy
reading; OR
2. Look carefully at page 10 of Chicken and Millipede (Winny Asara,
2014) on the next page.

30
 3. What words on this page are new for the children you work with?
4. Can you identify the rhythm in the words on this page?
5. What patterns of language are repeated on this page?
6. Are there any words that rhyme on this page?
7. What language patterns can you find in stories in your own
languages?

Think about this You will see that there are a number of opportunities to
engage the children in learning from this story. For
example:
 Developing vocabulary - Identify the possible new words before you
read the story. Make word cards. Ask the children which words they
know/don’t know. Make new cards, in more than one language if
necessary. You or the children can write those words on cards and
make a word wall. This can be a multilingual word wall.
 Rhyme, rhythm and repetition - Ask the children to clap or stamp
their feet to the rhythm of “Then she swallowed and spat. Then she
sneezed and coughed. And coughed.” Let children tell/read the
repeated parts of the story. Even if they do this from memory they
can still follow the words and ‘read’ them.
 There are a number of language patterns on this page alone. For
example, you can ask the children to find all the words that end with
‘ed’ and ask them “What does that mean?”

31
5.6. Asking questions

Activity 5.6.1: Adults asking questions

1. Look at the story you chose for Activity 5.5.1, OR page 10 of Chicken
and Millipede, again.
2. What questions could you ask children to think about?

There are many questions that you can ask the children
Think about this
from a single page, and even more from a whole story. That
is why it is important for you to think about those questions
before you begin.

For example, you could ask “Why did the chicken burp?”, “Is it rude to
burp?” or “Why was the millipede disgusting?” We are sure that the
children will love to have a conversation about these questions. Some
children may be able to write their questions down on cards so they don’t
forget them.

You can also ask the children what they think happened before this picture,
and “What do you think will happen next?”

Activity 5.6.2: Children asking questions

1. From your experience when do young children begin to ask

questions?
2. Why do you think young children ask questions?
3. Write down some of the questions that you have heard young
children asking.

From our experience we know that young children begin to

Think about this
ask questions from as young as two years old. Like all of
us, they appear to ask questions in order to understand the
world around them. We have heard children asking questions like:
“What is that?”
“Why did the person do that?”
“How can the chicken lay eggs?”

They often respond to statements that people around them make, or things
that they observe in their environment, by asking questions.
32
We believe that we can encourage children to find out more about the
world around them by using stories to raise questions and explore possible
answers. In other words, we can use stories for enquiry.

Enquiry can follow a simple process of:

 Asking a question about an idea or concept, for example ‘What is
love?’
 Defining that idea or concept: ‘Love is a good feeling we have about
someone else …’
 Thinking about more questions that we explore in conversation with
other people, such as ‘Can I be angry with someone I love?’

Often these ideas and concepts are about things that are important and
interesting to all human beings, things that we don’t always have an
answer to, or that are mysterious to us, and unknown. We could call them
philosophical ideas. Philosophy is not only for academics and highly
educated people. Most of us philosophise about our lives every day.
Children too! Are some of these philosophical ideas familiar to you?
 Love / hate
 Greed / selflessness
 Responsibilities / rights
 Kindness / cruelty
 Rich / poor
 Famine / plenty
 True / false
 Good / bad
 Beauty / ugliness
 Power / impotence
 Imaginary / real
 Wisdom / ignorance
 Bravery / cowardice

We are interested in exploring how stories can encourage children to

discuss these issues and learn important skills of asking questions, thinking
critically, listening to others’ opinions, agreeing and disagreeing, sharing
their own opinions and reading to find out more!

When we think about how stories can encourage critical questioning and
conversations amongst children, we have to think about the role of the
teacher in using those stories.

33
 Activity 5.6.3: Talking about stories with children

1. Choose a book from the ASb website that you think will generate a
good number of the philosophical issues we raised above.
2. Read the story to children. Ask the children to listen carefully and
think about an idea that is in the story.
3. Write each idea, or issue, or concept on a separate card as the
children suggest them. You might need to give an example to help
the children.
4. For each issue write a question on the back of the card, for example
“What is jealousy?”. Let the children help you to think of the
questions. Maybe some of the children are even able to write the
questions themselves. This is valuable learning in itself.
5. From the cards choose one for discussion, or let the children choose
one.
6. The children can have an open and guided discussion about the
issues.

Think about this With young children we might need to explain some of the
concepts overtly as we introduce them through the concept
cards. For example, if the concept of jealousy is new to the
children we might say something like “I feel jealous when I want
something that someone else has, but I can’t have it.” By talking openly
about these concepts the children will learn new vocabulary, and can begin
to understand what it means to have their own opinion about something,
and share it with someone else. These are important life skills that children
can learn from talking about stories.
You know your children best, and you will respond to their questions and
discussions appropriately. Remember that you want the children to explore
the ideas, so don't be too quick to come in with your own ideas. Rather help
to keep the conversation going between the children, and help to make sure
that all the children who want to share their ideas have a turn. They don’t
have to always agree with each other.

You can keep the cards and questions up on the wall, and add to them
when you talk about new stories.

34
5.7. Children making stories

Activity 5.7.1: Children making their own stories

1. Find a set of pictures of your own, or from the image bank on the
website.
2. Children can work alone, in pairs or in threes. Children talk about
their pictures, and put them in the sequence of a story that they want
to tell.
3. Each child writes one or two sentences to match each picture.
4. They can tell or read the story, or act it out when they have finished
creating it.

This will help the children to think about their own stories,
Think about this
and begin to understand that they can write down what
they are thinking and turn it into a story. As they get more
practice they will be able to write more and more sentences.

Activity 5.7.2: Story bag or Story box

[Adapted from: [PDF]Oral Language Activities to Facilitate Narrative
Writing tesltoronto.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Speak-it-Write-it.pdf]

1. Put some interesting objects into a bag or a box. Choose objects

which the children will find interesting and unusual, such as a
coloured stone, a feather, a mirror, a candle, a small doll, a coin or
even a puppet if you have one.
2. Ask individual children to choose one or two objects. You can make
it more interesting by asking to choose with their eyes closed!
3. Then alone, or in small groups, the children can make up stories
about their objects.

Try not to worry if the children make a good story or not.

Think about this

They are learning so much just from talking about their

objects. You can encourage them to think about:
 who the characters are
 how the objects they have chosen fit into the story
 where the story happens
 what the problem or challenge is for the characters in the story
 why they have a problem
 how they solve their problem
 how the story ends

35
If the children can’t write their own story down, another child or an adult
can write it for them.

Activity 5.7.3: Children illustrating their own and other

stories

1. Read the following ways in which a children’s library supported

children to illustrate stories.

“We read the story ‘Lion’s Fire Sticks’ from the African Storybook website.
Then we wrote the title on a large, blank piece of paper, and asked the
children “Who was the story about?” The children did their own drawings.
There was not enough time for all the children to finish, so the following
week they remembered the story and completed their pictures.”

“We wrote up a story from the website on a flip chart or newsprint and
stuck it on the wall. We left pens and pencils on the floor and the children
drew pictures at the bottom and all around the words. The children are
most interested in reading this story. It is still up on the wall for children to
read.”

a. Discuss how you think these ideas are good for children
learning to read.
b. Discuss how you think you could try these methods in your
own work with children. How would you change or improve
the methods?
c. What resources will you need to help children to illustrate
stories?
d. Discuss other ways that children can make their own pictures
for stories.

Think about this Children can illustrate existing stories, using only the text.
Children can draw pictures from their own ideas, and then
turn those pictures into a story.

Drawing pictures is in itself an important part of developing literacy in

young children. Encourage them to draw on blank paper, without lines,
and to fill the whole page.

36
Try not to judge the drawings as good or bad. Encourage children to talk
about what they have drawn. As adults we may not see the meaning in the
pictures that the children intended.

You can write down what the children say about their pictures, and turn
that into a book. Some children will be able to write down what they say
about their own pictures.

Activity 5.7.4: Children making new endings

1. Choose a story that you think could get a new ending.

2. Call a small group of children together and read with them the story
that you have chosen.
3. Read the story again. Identify a place before the end to stop and ask
“How do you think this story will end?”
4. The children can think up and explain their own endings for the
story, and write them down on cards.

Think about this Children can make new endings, new beginnings and new
middles. Some children will be able to write down their
own endings. Those children who cannot yet write can ask
someone else to write for them while they tell their ending. You can also
read a story without telling the children the title, and at the end of the story
ask the children to give it a title. They can compare their titles with the real
title when they finished. They will be excited to see how similar or different
their titles are to the real one.

Activity 5.7.5: Children acting out stories

1. Choose a story that you think the children can act out and read it to
them.
2. Involve the children in a discussion about:
a. Who are the main characters?
b. What do they do?
c. Which words can you act out?

Think about this Look again at the example of ‘Chicken and Millipede’ that
you saw in Activity 5.4.1. If you just look at this page, you
can imagine that the children will love to ‘burp’, and
37
‘sneeze’, and ‘cough’. You can take it further and help the children to act
out the whole story. Let the children choose different characters to act out,
make labels for the characters to wear, and even hats or costumes for them
to use. The children can write out the words that they need to say. Don’t be
shy to add characters to the story if all the children want to participate.

5.8. Finding other ideas for story use and trying them out
This is a list of other sites where there are excellent approaches to story
creation and use:

1. You can also find other African Storybook videos at

https://www.youtube.com/user/africanstorybookorg. Go and have a
look.
2. Nal’ibali has activity guides that you can use too:
http://nalibali.org/resources/activity-guides/
3. Pratham Books also shares ideas for making stories:
http://blog.prathambooks.org/2015/01/6framestorychallenge-
illustrate.html - Word Wish List method; idea of 6 pages.
4. Reading Matters is a section 21 company not for gain. All profits are
utilized by READ Educational Trust for educational projects. You can
see their website here: http://readingmatters.co.za/methodology/
5. The READ Educational Trust website has resources that you can draw
on for creating and using stories. Find them at: http://www.read.org.za/
6. You can find stories that ask “What if …?” questions at:
http://africanstorybook.blogspot.com/2013/04/week-27-videos-from-
deb-avery-showing.html
7. Fiona Beal of Schoolnet shows us how she used the African Storybook
website with Grade 1, 2 and 3 children in her classroom:
i. http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.co.za/2014/06/the-african-
storybook-website-and-grade.html
ii. http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.co.za/2014/06/grade-2-students-
love-reading-stories.html
iii. http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.co.za/2014/06/introducing-grade-
1-students-to-african.html
8. There are also interesting books or articles to read about children’s
stories and learning to read:
a. Coulthard, Malcolm, On the importance of matching relations in the
analysis and translation of literary texts, University of Birmingham,
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 1992.
b. Bloch, C., Which Stories Should We Read and Retell to Our
Children?, posted By Lindsay On June 24, 2013 @ 3:43 pm on
Books LIVE - http://bookslive.co.za/blog.

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c. Nal’ibali, 67 ways to spark a love of reading and writing among
children
d. https://theconversation.com/bringing-maths-into-bedtime-
stories-can-help-children-learn-and-make-the-subject-less-scary-
for-parents-too-49495
e. University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education,
http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/Interactive_teaching_in_literacy_
and_language

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Resource Pack: Guide for Making and Using Stories

1. What is this Resource Pack?

Activity resources
This is a set of resources that is linked to the activities in the Guide for
Making and Using Stories. You will see links to different sections of the
Resource Pack throughout the Guide. There will also be links from this
Resource Pack back to the Guide for Making and Using Stories.

Story development workshops

If you want to run a story development workshop, you can read the
introduction to the African Storybook Initiative below, or click here to see a
presentation about it. You can also get some ideas for icebreakers to use if
you are running a workshop.

An Introduction: What is the African Storybook Project?

Over the last decade, African governments have made
Read
dramatic progress in pursuing the goal of Education for All.
this
However, the reading literacy levels of African children after
the first three years of schooling still do not show a basic ability to read.
Children also do not have sufficient literacy to proceed to the next level of
schooling.

There are many reasons for this. A key obstacle to learning to read is the
drastic shortage of appropriate stories for early reading in languages
familiar to the young African child. There are few or no picture books for
young children, and very little material of any kind in the ‘familiar’
languages of most African children.

Since young Africans have very little to

read in familiar languages, they do not not cost
effective few or no
learn to enjoy reading or to read well. to produce books
Therefore there is not a market for books
books. So, authors and publishers
cannot afford to produce many such
books. In the end young Africans have
very little to read and the cycle no
demand no reading
continues. for books
Our vision
Every African child should have enough engaging stories in a language
familiar to them not only to practice their reading skills, but also to learn to
love reading. We believe that literacy practices on the continent can be
transformed by providing sufficient readable and enjoyable stories in a
familiar language, and ensuring that children and their parents and
teachers get them to read.

Making enough stories

We cannot possibly create sufficient stories in the thousands of languages
spoken on the African continent unless we share the stories we have, and
enable users to translate/version stories in their own languages.
To do this, we need three things:
 A website – a place to share and create the stories
 Openly licensed stories – which allow free use, as well as adaptation
and translation
 Partners – people who contribute to and use the website and the
stories

Icebreaker activities
It is usually a good idea to begin a workshop with an activity that helps
people to settle down, and get to know everybody. Even if people know
each other, an icebreaker activity can set the mood and make sure that
people are thinking about the reason why they are here.

On the follow page are some icebreaker activities that you can use.

Choose one that you think will help people to get started and do it after
you have welcomed everybody. You can choose a different one for the
beginning of each day if you are running a long workshop. You can choose
different activities for different workshops. You can also do your own
icebreaker activities if you know of others that work well.

Some of the icebreaker activities can be used to introduce different aspects

of story development, such as translation, illustrations and so on.

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 Icebreaker Activity 1.1:
Facilitator:
 The focus of this activity is to facilitate introductions. The discussion
afterwards may raise some interesting points about translation that you
can record and refer back to when you discuss translation of stories in
Activity 6.3 and Activity 6.4.
Participants:
1. Share with someone that you don’t know:
a. Your name
b. Where you were born
c. Your favourite children’s story
2. Translate what they tell you into another language.
3. Introduce that person to the rest of the group in whatever language you
choose.

Icebreaker Activity 1.2:

Facilitator:
 Find some pictures that you think could be used to generate a story.
You can even use a picture from the ones for Activity 3.2.
 Copy the pictures onto separate pages and cut the pictures into smaller
‘puzzle’ pieces. Mix all the smaller pieces in a bowl or a packet.
 This activity can be used to help people get to know each other better.
After groups have told their stories the discussion could lead to some
interesting points about the role of illustrations in children’s stories and
the process of creating stories using pictures.
Participants:
1. Choose a puzzle piece from the pile.
2. Find all the people who have pieces of the same puzzle as you, and
make the puzzle together.
3. Make up a very short story about your picture and share the story with
the other groups.
4. Discuss what you found interesting about the exercise in relation to
creating children’s stories. These questions might help:
a. Was the whole story in the picture?
b. Did the picture limit your story?
c. What did you leave to the imagination of the reader/listener?
d. Did you have an ending to your story?

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The rest of the resources in this pack are linked to activities in the Guide.
You can click on the Activity to see what the activity is about.

2. The role of stories in learning to read

Activity 2.1: My favourite story

On the following pages is a copy of a book called ‘Kalabushe the

Talkative’, in English. You can ask participants to evaluate the story of
Kalabushe as part of this activity. If you are working with a small group of
people you can use this copy and do the evaluation as a group. If you are
working with many people you divide participants into smaller groups,
and make a copy of ‘Kalabushe the Talkative’ for each group to work with.

Maybe you are not working in English. You can find translations of
‘Kalabushe’ in many languages on the ASb website. You can download
them and print them, or you can evaluate them on your device.

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3. Creating your own stories

Activity 3.2: Creating stories from pictures

On the following pages are pictures from a story on the ASb

website called ‘The Honeyguide’s Revenge’. It is illustrated by Wiehan de
Jager.

Participants can use the pictures for creating a new story, either in groups
of on their own. You will need to make copies of the pictures for
participants to use. Make sure to copy them on only one side of the paper,
not double-sided. When you have copied them you can cut the pages so
there is only one picture per page.

Participants do not have to use all of the pictures and they do not have to
use them in any particular order.

You can also use these pictures to make puzzles for an icebreaker in
activity.

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 Activity 3.4: Creating a book plan

Use the lines on the following 2 pages to guide you for folding a
10-page book plan. The first block in the book plan is the front cover. The
last block in the book plan is the back cover. The pages in between are
numbered 1-10. This will give you 10 pages of story and a front and back
cover.
Front cover page 1 page 2

Page 3 page 4 page 5

page 6 page 7 page 8

Page 9 page 10 Back cover

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4. Let’s make books

There are a number of steps involved from the time you first think about
your story, to the time it is published. This diagram of the story
development cycle shows those steps:

Story Development
Cycle
1. Tell the story in a
language familiar to
7. Upload and you
publish!

2. Write down
the story
6. Create an English
version of the story

3. Divide the story into

pages according to the
main actions/pictures
5. Read each sentence
out loud and edit for
mistakes
4. Revise the language
/ length for the
reading level

Activity 4.1: Turning your story into a book

Remind participants about the Story Development Cycle, above.

Show them that they are at the third step of the cycle.

They can use the storybook template on the next 14 pages to help them to
think about how to divide their stories into pages and to think about the
illustrations.

Make copies for participants to use if necessary.

1

Information
on cover:

Story title

Author/s

Language
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Published by the African Storybook Initiative
www.africanstorybook.org

Open access to picture storybooks in the languages of Africa.

For children’s literacy, enjoyment and imagination.

The purpose of the African Storybook website is to provide open licence storybooks in
the languages of Africa for young children as they are learning to read. This website is
for parents and people working with children in African contexts (for example,
teachers, librarians, community workers). Anyone can use the website to find,
download, translate and adapt storybooks, or to create and publish their own
storybooks.

African Storybook is an initiative of Saide, www.saide.org.za

First published in this edition, 2015

© African Storybook Initiative
This work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. You are free
to copy, translate or adapt the stories in any way, as long as you attribute each story
using the information on the back cover of this book.

This Guide is also available online at www.africanstorybook.org

Writer: Sheila Drew

Cover design: Nomalizo Mguye
Editing: Megan Moll