Similar data was gathered at the end of the project through teachers’ written and recorded verbal comments, a survey of children from various age groups about their interest in the program, and the video- and photographic evidence of children’s engagement through the interventions to help determine to what extent the stated aims and objectives of the pilot program were achieved.
4. About Storykit Program
Storykit Program is an ABL program developed by KITAB that uses interactive storytelling to help children strengthen their comprehension, and acquire language and communication skills by becoming able communicators. With a focus on making children active readers, it was designed to replace the traditional teaching methodology for Urdu instruction.
The Storykit Program employs the Memorize, Connect, Improvise (MCI) method of Interactive Storytelling developed by KITAB founder and CEO Musharraf Ali Farooqi as an interface to build engagement with books. The Storykit box, containing a picture storybook, board-game based on the story, and an easily accessible online audio narration link for the story, creates a deeper and critical understanding of the content. In the process they learn elements of storytelling to develop their communication and interpersonal skills, as well as interact with the educational tools at a more intimate level.
The interactive storytelling method and the Storykit box are designed to promote reading habits among the primary school age children. It has been established that presenting information in story form improves reader comprehension, particularly for poor readers; children’s knowledge of the structure of stories is critical to comprehension; when presented in the form of a story, readers and listeners easily comprehend and retain key information and concepts; learning story structures improves comprehension of both narrative and expository texts; reading stories develops the skills that improve comprehension of any written material; stories put seemingly disconnected information into context and logical sequence to create meaning, and understanding this is fundamental to logical and critical thinking development; exposure to stories and early reading has been proven to develop language skills, making children both better communicators and writers; reading stories is linked to children’s literacy development. [Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story by Kendall Haven, (CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2007)]
STORYKIT is particularly suited for learning environments where Multi-Grade Teaching is practiced because stories appeal to children in a wide range of age groups and comprehension level as children are able to engage with them at their own level.
KITAB has employed the MCI method of interactive storytelling and the storykits with great success in increasing the love of books in primary school children in schools in Lahore and Karachi.
5. Storykit Program Content
The Storykit box containing ABL material developed by KITAB contains the illustrated text of a story or poem, a game that reinforces the plot or character(s) of the story, and a link to its easily accessible audio narration that helps children learn the correct pronunciation of words. Our program has been tested for primary schools in Pakistan and its middle school and secondary school components are under development. More advanced pedagogical components of the program for Grades 1 to 5 are available for both offline and online implementation.
The storytelling training component of the Storykit Program is delivered through training in the Memorise, Connect, Improvise (MCI) method of interactive storytelling, designed by Musharraf Ali Farooqi with which he has successfully trained Pakistan parliamentarians for the DAI/HTSPE funded project for the education advocacy campaign Alif Ailaan, school teachers, and NGOs.
The pilot project will focus on demonstrating the strength of the storytelling model and content in helping the public schools to retain students, increase enrollment of out of schools children through incentivized participation in the Storykit Program, and involve the communities in which the schools operate.
During the course of the pilot the students will receive a new Storykit box for use in the Storykit Program each time they have completed the activities assigned to that story. They will own the storykit and will be able to use it to engage with each other as well as with other children in the community who are not in the school. It is important for the success of the program for each child to own a storykit, use it at home, and anticipate the arrival of a new storykit the following month. Students will receive STORYKITS 1-4 during the pilot project.
a. Approach and Methodology
The Storykit Program pilot seeks to introduce stories and interactive storytelling as a fun and enjoyable experience for both children and adults in the school and the community. By employing the Storykit box it aims to build a community around stories and storytelling, and provide a new skill set to both teachers and children that helps improve their critical faculties and communication skills, as well as generate income possibilities for them in the future as storytellers in their communities.
The Storykit Program activities are geared towards complimenting following three objectives of the UNESCO Program:
i. Build the capacity of teachers in integrating heritage into teaching and learning through folktales and classical narratives.
ii. Increase girls’ enrolment in the primary schools in marginalized communities through involvement of local communities in inclusive educational activities such as storytelling.
iii. Improve retention and quality of girls’ primary education in the marginalized communities through improvement in school learning environment and making them engaging.
iv. Improve teachers’ ability to communicate better with the students, helping develop a stronger bond between students and teachers, and creating a sense of community between them.
v. By opening the portals of the schools to any child from outside the school who wishes to listen to the story narration or participate in storytelling herself/himself the Storykit Program intervention makes it attractive and incentivized to begin visiting the school on a regular basis which will hopefully lead her/him to becoming enrolled.
i. Teachers will be able to engage children better in the classroom through the Activity-Based Learning Storykit Program.
ii. Children will find learning through listening to stories and playing story-based games enjoyable. It will encourage them to attend the school more readily and participate more actively.
iii. Out of school children will begin to see school life as an engaging, attractive experience.
i. Training workshops for teachers based on the MCI method
ii. Storytelling sessions for children followed by games that are essential for the development of social, emotional, language, and cognitive skills.
iii. Assessment methodology and Monitoring and Evaluation sheets for teachers.
iv. No-tech, low-cost ABL material in the form of Storykit box containing picture book, game and easily accessible audio narration.
d. Teacher Training Content
KITAB conducts storytelling workshop in Muzaffargarh with the Memorise, Connect, Improvise (MCI) method of interactive storytelling to train selected teachers from government primary schools, the Non-Formal Basic Education Schools, team from the implementation partners, and interested community members in interactive storytelling. The maximum number of participants in any one workshop is 30. This includes teachers from 20 schools, and ten other participants including teachers from the NFBE centres, the monitoring and evaluation staff of the implementation partners, and local community members.
i. STORYKITS 1-2
ii. A booklet and QR-code linked online audio and USB of the MCI Method of Interactive Storytelling provided to the participants in Urdu language.
iii. Storytelling tutorial for STORYKITS 1-2 published online for teachers
iv. Evaluation Sheets for the MCI Interactive Storytelling Program.
f. MCI Interactive Storytelling Workshop Content
First Segment: MEMORISE
i. Maintaining control over the narration;
ii. Making the storytelling experience more interactive;
iii. Better connectivity with audience;
iv. Contracting and expanding text.
Second Segment: CONNECT
i. Seating level, class formation, and movement in storytelling;
ii. Incorporating student responses;
iii. Dialogue between storyteller and audience;
iv. How to overcome disturbances in classroom without stopping storytelling;
v. Fear of losing control and how to overcome it.
Third Segment: IMPROVISE
i. Evaluating and changing messages in a story without changing words;
ii. Incorporating drama during storytelling;
iii. Selecting scenes for adding descriptions ;
iv. Incorporating narration in poems and converting them into stories.
Fourth Segment: EVALUATE
i. Training in using evaluation sheets to assess interactive storytelling sessions at schools;
ii. Judging the storyteller’s ability to involve the students in the storytelling process;
iii. Judging the storyteller’s ability to incorporate student comments and questions;
Judging the storyteller’s ability to improvise on the text of the story during storytelling.
6. Program Implementation
The Storykit Program was rolled out in the following six stages:
A two day workshop on the Memorise, Connect, Improvise (MCI) method of interactive storytelling was conducted from 5-6 April 2019 at the Shehr Sultan field office of Unesco Pakistan IP SYCOP to train thirty people which included teachers from 20 schools, and ten other participants including teachers from the NFBE centres, the monitoring and evaluation staff of the implementation partners, and local community members.
A storyteller’s handbook on the MCI method of interactive storytelling in both Urdu and English was given out with a USB containing the audio narration of the Urdu version of the handbook. Two storykit titles to be used for the storytelling and facilitation visits were also handed out to the workshop attendants. The successful completion of the workshop set the ground for the launch of the program.
The storytelling and facilitation visits to the pilot schools were done on the following dates:
Storytelling Sessions: 12-13 April 2019
First Facilitation Visit: 17-18 April 2019
Second Facilitation Visit: 23-24 April 2019
On 12-13 April 2019 five storytellers from KITAB visited the 20 pilot schools and conducted storytelling for students with Storykit 1, with the teacher participating in a supportive role. Te storytellers explained the board-game and rules and how the audio could be accessed. Both students and teachers were encouraged to narrate small parts of the story afterwards. The teachers were encouraged to evaluate themselves on their storytelling skills while the KITAB storyteller marked students on their storytelling skills. The teachers were advised to distribute Storykit 1 to the students.
On 17-18 April 2019 five storytellers from KITAB visited the 20 pilot schools on the first facilitation visit and reviewed the progress made by the students and teachers in narrating the story from Storykit 1. The KITAB storyteller marked students on their storytelling skills. The teachers were advised to distribute Storykit 2 to the students.
On 23-24 April 2019 five storytellers from KITAB visited the 20 pilot schools on the second facilitation visit and reviewed the progress made by the students and teachers in narrating the story from Storykit 1 and STorykit 2. The KITAB storyteller marked students on their storytelling skills.
e. Post Project Assessment of Storykit Program with Teachers
On 24 April 2019 the post-project assessment of the Storykit Program was conducted with teachers. Fifteen schools sent teachers to give their assessment. Written replies were given by the teachers to the assessment questions. A discussion about the project followed and the verbal comments made by the teachers during the discussion were recorded and transcribed from the videos as supplementary replies in the assessment (See Annexure 1 for details).
f. Post Project Assessment of Storykit Program with Students
On 29 April 2019 the post-project assessment of the Storykit Program was conducted with grades 3, 4 and 5 students from the Muslim Chhajra school. The children’s feedback questions and their replies are recorded (See Annexure 2). The assessment was conducted in the presence of the Unesco Pakistan Education Officer Sameer Luqman.
7. Monitoring and Evaluation Process and Tools
The monitoring and evaluation of the program was done by the storytellers during and after every school visit.
Each storyteller visited two schools on a day for storytelling. After the storytelling the children were encouraged to step out and narrate the story in their own words. They were evaluated by the storyteller with the Storyteller Scorecard. The teachers were asked to evaluate themselves on the same form separately so that they could review and revisit the principles of interactive storytelling in the process.
b. Storyteller Visit Report Form
At the end of the storytelling session the storyteller filled out a Storyteller Visit Report documenting any positive developments or issues, and on subsequent visit(s) any changes in the earlier experience(s).
Two members of the staff of Unesco Pakistan’s Implementation Partner, SYCOP, were given technical training in monitoring the Storykit Program’s progress using the Storyteller Scorecard and the Storyteller Visit Report.
8. Impact of Storykit Program on Learning
According to the Teacher’s Post Project Assessment (See Annexure 1) the Storykit Program directly helped and facilitated learning in a number of areas of learning. The following data has been synthesized from teacher’s replies to assessment questions 3, 8, 9, 12, and 16 to show the improvement witnessed and documented by the teachers. The questions are also listed below to show the queries that obtained the following data:
Q 3: What were the three (3) major improvements you saw in the children as a result of the Storykit Program?
Q 8: Did you observe any change in the pupils after the Storykit Program? If YES, what was that change?
Q 9: Did you notice any change in your relationship with the children on account of the Storykit Program?
Q 12: Do you think the children became more interested in learning because of the Storykit Program?
Q 16: What in your opinion was the single most important benefit of the Storykit Program?
Areas where improvement was documented
a. Reading Skills and Vocabulary
i. Children’s reading skills improved as a result of listening to stories
ii. Children’s spelling improved
iii. Children developed the habit of reading books
iv. Children asked teachers the meanings of difficult words
v. Children showed interest in listening to and reading more stories
vi. A teacher noted that when she gives children a lesson to study they make a face at the prospect of studying it. But they immediately took to the storybooks and began reading them. And it increased their interest in reading
b. Comprehension
i. Children showed interest in listening and understanding
ii. Children got a chance to think about and understand things
c. Memory Retention
i. Children memorised the story rather than learning it by rote
ii. Even a child thought to be the laziest narrated the entire story
iii. Children have started memorizing their lesson
d. Cognitive Ability
i. Children’s cognitive abilities improved
ii. Learning activities have increased beyond all expectations
iii. Children started showing interest in their studies because of the program
e. Creativity
i. Children’s creativity developed
f. Communication and Expressiveness
i. Children developed self-confidence through narrating stories
ii. Children became competitive
iii. Children’s communication skills improved a lot and they learned how to express their thoughts
iv. Children narrated the stories with expressions
v. Children developed the courage to speak before others
vi. A teacher noted that the most important element is to get children to perform before others. A pupil has to bridge a huge divide over a long period of time before he becomes a performer, which was accomplished in the Storykit Program with children telling stories. With this small activity the children covered this huge distance
g. Attention Span and Group Learning
i. The children became more active
ii. Children bonded better with each other because of the program
iii. Children narrated the story to each other and if someone made a mistake they corrected each other which facilitated learning.
iv. Teamwork developed among children
v. The program provided fun and learning together
vi. A friendly environment was created in the school because of the program
vii. Children from our school motivated the children from other schools to come for the storytelling
viii. The children were very bored and during storytelling they became happy and relaxed and found pleasure in the activity
h. Student Teacher Bond and Interaction
i. The interaction between teacher and students has increased
ii. Children’s bond with the teacher has strengthened
iii. The children are now very attentive when listening and their bond with the teacher has strengthened
i. Self-Learning
i. The story from Storykit 2 was not narrated in the class but the children read it themselves and also learned how to play the game from the accompanying instructions
ii. The children have become driven to read books. They also looked into other books to search for stories in them
9. Impact of Storykit Program on Student Retention and Enrollment
According to the Teacher’s Post Project Assessment (See Annexure 1) the Storykit Program directly helped and facilitated enrollment and retention. The following data has been synthesized from teacher’s replies to assessment questions 8, 10, 11, 12, and 16 to show the improvement witnessed and documented by the teachers. The questions are also listed below to show the queries that obtained the following data:
Q 8: Did you observe any change in the pupils after the Storykit Program? If YES, what was that change?
Q 10: Did any new children enroll in the program or begin attending the school regularly after the Storykit Program?
Q 11: Did you notice the people in your community show any interest in stories and storytelling after the Storykit Program? If YES what kind of interest did they show?
Q 12: Do you think the children became more interested in learning because of the Storykit Program?
Q 16: What in your opinion was the single most important benefit of the Storykit Program?
b. Improvement in Student Retention
i. A greater number of students started attending the school
ii. The children who were not attending school also became regulars
iii. The community has shown interest as their children now come to the school happily
iv. Some parents promised that their children will come to the school regularly if we let them have the storykits
v. The children narrated the stories to their parents and told them about the storytelling event. Thus the parents of children who had not been attending the school demanded storykits for them
vi. Because of this program, community members have started sending their children to school with more diligence
vii. The attendance has increased. Children have realized that the storytelling session could happen at any time and they don’t want to miss it
viii. This program is why they come to the school on a regular basis
c. Increase in Enrollment
i. When the children went home and narrated the story to their friends and cousins, this enticed them and they took admission in the school
ii. The enrollment campaign was on but in instances where we would usually have two children taking admission, we have seen three children enrolling, and where three would take admission, four have been enrolled
iii. Since the day the children have learned that there will be storytelling at the school they have started bringing along their siblings
iv. When the children returned home with the storykits and narrated the story to other children, they too came to the school because of their interest in the story. They liked the school’s friendly environment and asked for admission
v. The children from one school motivated other children to enroll by telling them that a storytelling event is organized at their school
vi. Girls’ mothers came specially to ask for additional storykits of teachers
vii. Girls from grades 9 and 10 also asked the primary teacher for storykits
viii. Other children also come to school so that they can get the storykits when the teacher distributes them. The teacher gives the storykits to those who enroll and also those who bring their siblings
ix. Some parents asked for a storykit for their child, who they said was not interested in studying, and they said that if I gave him one, he’d come to school
x. The community has shown interest in their children studying
xi. The people in the community have developed consciousness that they should send their children to school
xii. Children have become confident in narration and when they narrate the stories to children outside the school they too become interested
a. ABL Content and Delivery Issues Resolved by Storykit Validation in the Pilot
During the Baseline Assessment for the Storykit Program Pilot, a number of major issues were identified with the content and delivery of past ABL programs by the teachers. They were listed in order of priority.
The proposed intervention provided by the Storykit Program was tested for both content and delivery satisfaction in the pilot. It was highly successful on all counts. The intervention validation was obtained from the teacher’s documented accounts, the evidence recorded in students’ high level of engagement, and their remarkable enthusiasm for the program, as listed in Table 3 below.
