Teacher selected to accompany the African Storybook Project team to Nairobi!

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Submitted by Fiona Beal<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are very pleased to announce that a teacher has been selected to accompany the African Storybook project team to an African Storybook project workshop as well as a Reading Conference in Nairobi in August.  The teacher is Yolandi Ferreira, the English teacher,  from Laerskiool Helderkruin in Johannesburg. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXly5EP8-z7FL9-hCqMUq6_qUDsOetW8MEXaPQwlnYZzits9lJ9RvEzFIUKEhPIZczEbdAp6Mctd-GoH4iTDNRCAjXQ5DdteLoHA63rTyC1POSwSwLeYvSTTaf_18XUm3Ue7jsr-YSUTU/s1600-h/DSCF5610%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="DSCF5610" border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDgARLk1UzXtdpixoJFlXcfKOsWFYX88HrgKRsOPogD2cui6YSS4hEqsFXGgWOc6Ydi_NIc9cHXaGqN6cz_Gi4KrttfUuL-D2tDLwCT5r1lqaBqmBhEO2pOIZDE2oPS7QmbvY81KPzc2Y/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="DSCF5610" width="184" /></span></a><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yolandi was competently aided by the computer teacher, Noeline van Wyk, and they sent in 63 very good stories written by different grades in their school.  They asked every child from Grade 3 - Grade 7 to develop a story using PowerPoint and a drawing application on the computer to write and illustrate their stories. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width: 400px;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimYMvtbV1R8_aVSJMX4AZo4Jnz7TIeGnwfaRqW_qRla2LQyHbqOdjZkPaZ8isniKf1ZkTejadR0bg46_gyQlu1Bbs39so7z8y1EBOvZkUvTcBNaoPrfxJCUs8yNGdEWIcEzas56mutfWM/s1600-h/DSCF5604%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="DSCF5604" border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqSPxUsdwesZM9cMFiUu4BpHN0s7WUIDKd926oGPiInuS2Nc7rqOOjYjqo-g-GSmISkv7v9cG1gTBTZFss_PHv6-p_5wjs7QNq50DJ4VcjFmPGX7L6d1eI5BRrvt9qYNjkx0w06IB8Fy0/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="DSCF5604" width="244" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht2kOEE2QPWH_FSKjlLPaUPMZZ63qa3ZUcIzHxt5cr3c9TveLWin28GDMsQKeJHKuYUtZkWuMKzvxUsnPmkxoveG8PpE8oM1d7_w4YAAceKSszMuoU36dPB0tv_digLh94c7bdgLo1wkQ/s1600-h/DSCF5614%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="DSCF5614" border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVbY-omPNuMFjiuicq9ZUjRPJ4ligzEQJdB3CGWXcLlAKdMDTGFVWIX_6KbQxdkwh8dVp3QPyglOnKdZPSzmYFhKcV3iAqSPgAg_7Gkkc2CITcSqos1A-4HAKYqWF8PiGH2B5V449f-iQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="DSCF5614" width="244" /></span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Megan Rademeyer from SchoolNet was invited to attend one of their lessons and she writes ‘They did a session launching the project in the hall using two of the videos from the course videos and said how useful the webinars have been. Yolandi showed a PowerPoint while I was there using some course examples that seemed to get the class excited for the task. As a class they also used the Smartboard to collectively brainstorm one example story so they could get used to the terminology like "theme", "character", "plot" etc. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The kids are very excited about writing a story for a genuine audience and purpose.  They have been told that only the best ones will make it to the website - so they are really keen to make sure that their stories are good.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />This is a really exciting project. The portal of stories will be great - but<br />the African Storybook Project is also doing worthwhile work in terms of encouraging good writing.” </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUFKP3IV_RbHx7tO7AiBeC57-6Z-KrGSE-RFXF1Uxdp-vBqsfdnQWUMX1kVGMr-I09mPIPeD5WNEQKuoCAdIbv3sM52iOIyY4TjpMlgENg9Sq7v6NDxI1G1gI-UXD436nY9uutRWAmxvc/s1600-h/DSCF5609%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img alt="DSCF5609" border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiWYvkH0PWU1oHNHPuQJ-uIlFuGLITtasg6LDtLboEg9QyYmoelN5fhnKtSJVeyWJKo0jyeK8J6Qq0_NQzSq5zc_gJc6BXTnxEkTC-ApYlD7b2xUtcgQe1_8IZ-oBEezCJ1c3SqGFRJs8/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="DSCF5609" width="244" /></a> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We say well done to Yolandi. At the pre Conference African Storybook project in Nairobi Yolandi will be sharing what she did with the African Storybook team from the four pilot countires in Africa. After that she will attend the Pan African Reading Conference in Nairobi. Again we say well done Yolandi and Noeline and congratulations to all your students! </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Schoolnet and the African Storybook project</span></strong>It has been a great privilege for SchoolNet to be involved in this wonderful project by creating and running a four week free online course for interested teachers in South Africa in digital storytelling from 15th April to 15th May. There were several teachers who, like Yolandi, did a sterling job in coming up with a wonderful selection of stories from themselves and their classes. I am sure the African Storybook team had a difficult time selecting who would be the winner of their incentive prize. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ways of illustrating stories</span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had a number of really excellent stories from teachers who discovered their writing gift within them. Something that fascinated me during this course was the ingenious ways that teachers used to illustrate their stories. Take a look! </span><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="319"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgikeNYlEaZvwkut3EuTOUOmDk_3TiKrfcJbzmg1-R0_-cgSz6ELz5_1cm_81Zhk_5qV3YxPZh2o4zxx9x5WqmMn00ZTVe8ClVeEc7lEmXHff4GL9DYr_z7KfS2QDwYSgulmYHu2LkZ6Qk/s1600-h/clip_image002%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image002" border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixXGC1jiu9WOUHhCtyex9yT1iVvhszmzpZawWXbRCEyck3R1MWxlQ_9KDVJiTlbzkxt6bNIPcOu3QZCi3qg5hfN-ltBavqfsAHILjQ3ijuLdliFbRpuAfw2wXq31X1RFIe0t1Q8ZkyPLY/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image002" width="244" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="297"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuPhXnQVbz3oMfnQs6lxsJzjesS4K1ZZxoyvMPgcHdp1hB1P_Qbl0Vi7PKS2ePuSlwiY-rgylmTngqInPTyb_Q4Xgw7BqQlzefrEdyQXXXISQf14rqlOfkc0qY_rQp6WPUBGkLeJ0Dp6Q/s1600-h/clip_image004%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image004" border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNKibtGLjrr4tKpJ34nZrcyMnIQry-nK0LRmXR7Ov2-NBKHAqr0FERQTXH-s25aJ2VHN5e-zK7tFSyPsnyfb8mT0uKkdlzAs_pk83NeZd-ibwHeYICTgesujtbY7ay-TtcbaLOL0FRMeo/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image004" width="244" /></span></a></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Fabric with felt cut outs which were then captured with a camera as shown in </i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>‘Emily and the Seagull’. </i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></td> <td valign="top" width="297"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Own photos with words at the side and a colourful background as shown in ‘There’s a zoo in my school’. </i></span></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="319"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE0Prryfs2fHt5gBjtYEpenhWexkZGp30ND4SfbXEi2oZ8l7K4aJ45aahygq_2cdeJR7epPZDRUK57uuGG6p7xNbn45gkFapgCcXk9C0DWto8_3rhM1t9W-uuJkGjcUeRPihQcF8RN_B8/s1600-h/clip_image006%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image006" border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ56qup-FNtYMPK2iGR36T9F-yXRJU6g_MekiJFgMvk5emU8FSZQilnv3LJXy-FL2YYwhaJxLaaR5xRkU0RIj8w0T_60Uvg-wygjfjCyIR6o55ZmXWhlicbLMhM-QGKzLjJLqDAoMWezM/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image006" width="244" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="297"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhusVFWRux60q2WeCqGyWgWCbhD7iSyG6w8czJR4Hj-q_DMPhT2yv2ECZ6tQosg4fKO3AOjUf8OA6AKDdtvF8WbRzDf91k8s1jvS5S_Vz5CQlCbafXGsAmAbhLf2K-0j-IB08S6oHO01J0/s1600-h/clip_image008%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image008" border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjidfGY_45oieexEuSd8zjrxcduiG6_UK2o6tSuswo_mz8rYp_x67UzNvYTym33O-M6BT6IvSnZPMMTts0tGK7gFE6JwTCdTti9ApeOp9Pj70-cpxjULJ1uDozYpXcj_laIOzzxmGY3nrI/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image008" width="242" /></span></a></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Some used royalty-free images from </i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>the Internet such as in ‘The sheep who wanted to knit’. </i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></td> <td valign="top" width="297"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Some asked different learners in their class to illustrate each page as shown in ‘Sisipho signs away’.</i></span></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="319"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG6fRQbyj8LxTZc8xD8v8lDZcr3JTborrFef72Rb280Z6n8_HqAtejiM4HzoI80LWuGcOVfTB4t-XC7BhdBD4v9Rhik-n06plgWzhyphenhyphensritn15iANfsIwujYPZqOX32ZfcfPu3T3thty88/s1600-h/clip_image010%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image010" border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy-g-_Gf6o3T99fVDZRnqzqMCvp8RS7l02XxALmZFYeR6GEjL-kNS2SpMZW6lRW7vwxCgrddaoTUWW2jRzuLiydGtDvwP65Av4GHU33RjhMs-uECdkoVHMZ2ax7SWVWnWcd96m-0XvKmk/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image010" width="242" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="297"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx1rgluf-OQ-EiWy50PmZnWgWC_ig46-zG4yEHnMVffp5k7KsS9p7VwBJ0bUNVE6Dpfg4-TcmhnEsvBoXWQcmweOaMA0eBQVvlNIqspJVoZN-4rPX4AN0nzWVIZo-E8Ua8QrwTVrZrIiM/s1600-h/clip_image012%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image012" border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdoMh3EU8vsxo-D2mNyigEGS3ZdldpQ2bxS-lQnNS6QLXq1AqftxcaUANK39ABCUasC2vQTtcYxhOJORyqBmjYg_gebFgwQhQPJouU7AljLe2VR5v941jSwx3yJyellEJhagbVLAs5Cro/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image012" width="242" /></span></a></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="319"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Some teachers asked their students </i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>to create their own illustrations using Microsoft Paint such as in ‘Bunny </i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>tells the children’.</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></td> <td valign="top" width="297"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Some asked their own family to do their illustrations</i></span></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="315"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9O9fWqipXRWCRlenhuA8a59vlJkjg0T0U9J3RvVHqzY4jpL3XmD3x0Mg4lfHLpbjCIVwLhRUbjbc3FmvADlebpykI_vOJ63pGNsurOA83WYYOuJYdlUaIy9r3YEUEhBHTCgouz8AUEbU/s1600-h/clip_image014%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image014" border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1rNN2WY23eyk6bOZhM8n26VgProuANydHdQwXeebUdSroF_IoPqGCJl-pz0p02D91XpCH5PfwBXrSgXPZfYWsdakw9Qt-7hxyyC23tFcT96X2_XaMgTaugFMyiLDyCvH-Cv7ow_AKS0/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image014" width="242" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="301"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl6d18fqQ6jrxS1ETpOTSGgfDmAA2V4dbv0ahUauGMi5aPn5tFV7uIze9KLE-NG-jLLUAZfgLsRDj7vONhoI-AFBjGSWZmWuoA-SWWv1QqLTGLAR1VUmdHdDaD1_PWE_XyzlUefKiuTyY/s1600-h/clip_image016%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image016" border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKs55JzybKE8jmnSrj6_i69W0aJS4rlKr4wfbQzkm4jWsCej_JTxb2FVWJ6Zw5DUNbzdfyvUd93Z2fSZtnjiCcAkcBsA88rd2d0QQ7NdGg66_R-8SbSJn3cND2W9oOse8sW1z965jJa8o/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image016" width="242" /></span></a></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="315"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Some created templates and coloured </i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>them in such as in ‘Khotso goes to the </i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>zoo’. </i></span></td> <td valign="top" width="301"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Some asked a talented friend to do their illustrations for them such as in ‘The noise in the night’.</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="315"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtf2aXMvq5WtnwfUFhBKUMtk7GBHuyArIaAdF-u0SaQGEHvXHjlKMqeDfBSnh1WmLcEgawRPBcc1h6V7qKhKPCB9Idwu80aExqX51ZtkO1M-oxzF_R7YT12juokr_ZISb9sgsc4ZpuqXM/s1600-h/clip_image018%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image018" border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6FcuGPiPpeM3IxHcrCEJ8znahxaSJ3MyibnSMX-E4Zrvfk3xZ16ss4wpXnPADnl8tORj14FzpwtHZSVofFwpcT-B5Wd5ppKPSWOeRQ1ca3_0lajz2vWC4hi65reRBf0UwaCcG97MUKik/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image018" width="242" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="301"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtoLKm3LzWvpgKp02zVAqNcGckpHPjGT4gTReor5AZfdVlKjUfxZZJiscqbs_gky0GVUDt5a8O05favSfeOzUvr6tezAv9CidpfDWqZXaudBIhUN-Jj4MHhxhzt0CSlD3SRAtz962xHhA/s1600-h/clip_image020%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image020" border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8i7vSz8LLvGjbdRrL0D8Ej9IDp07Q7ebp_7NK1cjN9fcUVp6QfM1oFGdg-YKrq_iUDvUXw8qUA5iD_mB1rda7SZ59A0y37SG4FiKxu-iu5xYG6c1iAfh5WVeQYMt_9B4dMwuaZUxXkoo/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image020" width="242" /></span></a></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="315"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Some used royalty free pictures from </i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pixabay such as ‘Angus the Dinosaur’.</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></td> <td valign="top" width="301"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Some created tasteful collages made from different materials such as in ‘Nonyane’.</i></span></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="315"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSh1KkFtnZwqpcLY8vvXA7GU6Phtd4rCPlMNmEzAt-7vWVGy-kIi98sBi6_mQYYlI98YtkAO8-b68uWrRUH8TOe0dYl12XM8Ow_UMCCDEIzuh3_giI2kVEZHYbe1nkhyinDtwCwlkfQSo/s1600-h/clip_image022%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image022" border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIVyu7MTw24u68FNQoTRLI5XXlYHGCY6Veds_vA01mqIoMY19y-iYSgKwlSlMzEsuRli6ZgIsvdVPhxNnhDiZzeyH0UAnvCKl8oNZbICkNGOXFjVyby6o9y2R8_x8yT0lOghtMv3XblQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image022" width="244" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="301"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOXDNUsC5G_SyUeznEnDO17QNk5LQZMHd5DFqtfDb95hSnVIurpLwcMgwsVl0cDvQhZg2kDekaoXsFBPKhehsXDcdTtV1Qqv7R9Z-cQGMpy0p4m8kj021pdP1kmffE4nOD3-Tqsj7tzZk/s1600-h/clip_image024%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="clip_image024" border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7oLQbPgUURSpYaX4e2kc58Gsx6YXzEYzaK2HNQQTpKraW-zJIs93Tvbfj71DggwNcdI_wZFUFRn6f8p_ONzMsQI2ofL-0e3GK6Dm8rtVTjCu5OjrIJvlInzbXEtfqbhNIoHaMXenAaXM/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image024" width="242" /></span></a></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="315"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Some used whole, original photos and pasted the words in a convenient spot </i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>as in ‘On Safari’. </i></span></td> <td valign="top" width="301"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Some used commercially obtained illustration programmes owned by their schools such as in ‘Monsters under my bed’.</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are looking forward to the launch of the African Storybook Project website later this year.</span></div>

African Storybook Project Teacher selected to accompany the African Storybook Project team to Nairobi!

Submitted by Fiona Beal We are very pleased to announce that a teacher has been selected to accompany the African Storybook project team to ...

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Creative Writing #13: An African Storybook Project Report back from Stirling Primary in East London

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is another class hard at work creating stories for the African Storybook Project.  I have written about the African Storybook Project in a number of posts. The website is hopefully going live in July with stories written by South Africa teachers. If you would like your class to write stories suitable for Grade 3 students across Africa to read, please submit them by 21 June and use the guidelines found in this post. <a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/05/theres-still-time-to-submit-story.html">There’s still time to submit a story suitable for a Grade 3 reader for the African Storybook project. Join us!</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a picture of Liesel Kruger from Stirling Primary School in East London. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOb8laQlH29Rf9rNDq114TeN-SDgNrtpcMN5-hCPKtmb6mtU5zHgSANtT5bNj5B4pa9qlfEBrjEJweq5i93xX4xA7-1EVm4gSo8aAKKjsy2UPbweyH36r6JeChiYiHQBN4EIEEaXsR5qe/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Liesel Kruger from East London</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZVLhAfur3wLIMFJ8vvBENnHABegoUKgIy9-iV9cSwiSZSirY2W4Qz5s-R8Ea1xKm7JRwRIFGuQfBjboqafQkrxAdVzIQgPXcsvbtYz5n_fmtWJIjblOCLMqycX5-FKD2EU_STvPKzn4lN/s1600-h/image%25255B20%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We are finally finished writing all the stories and I am nearing the end of</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the editing.  We will be using Story Jumper to illustrate our stories and<br />then we will snip the pictures to use them in our PowerPoint shows.  My children<br />are so  enjoying Story Jumper.  In fact, my class today asked if they could<br />stay in at break and carry on! That says it all don't you think?  Still<br />quite a way to go, but so far so good... Thank you."</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are photos of the Grade 3s at work with their stories. </span><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width: 400px;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Jcweoq03-tzlyZk6_lcV_J7Aa6AP4qvV1Si4WzFg-HS1lFG3nNWdbRu6vAS_4eiEAHYxd4GGDRI7cmAMrzdyrMl6Tmf8cmiU3POC-xKd61D_DeTii88Sl9c1cB9w5LkVSwYvmtdes8l7/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdYBVfgLVhSCqJpGXt32gerkNnkWdSwwS0kS-2jLJfBFHMDWCinLO069P9UU4x-dGLnG4vGTpaooAowtkuniLorrESQp1J-1Tc3niDGNiSzg0BRaBsN82c1RbqtiaO9YN3InrgCMR9BXjv/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXE0gkVNQzrI4qprB84RQ82NcFUhFFkgZZTx5-StUQzdrf9Lax3Y3t8QQK_1sDa1B0aE89zdwQfFm6oLTi5nwt58l370C3YihJy_pnsxM3yFijfp-S2xrdi2Mnk4U2PJgdYvkJ3dtucrwG/s1600-h/image%25255B5%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53tbfSCCUYb_mwCZesXTL93WPRhJ15ipmidvO-qE5NIyrd46MJs3XQCTFkckVPKWLJUypPrLUfEwPEtmym94ZLnBKFDVHwDW5mFHARJuMrKsot0H8_P7dxRzkKbI2xzkU5AEVAdVHqGvq/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></span></a></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"></td> <td valign="top" width="200"></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpr-KjvaDF-tum00hifNZZZuHXuTG0YrfNXIj0kFKM6fThy72Y4pidxlTbevHMAapN9yq8Yn47y0oL-GsxD1-evNvgIfMYDAErEwoKSJepNlRfsWXR4O7Wtwn72q4ScfYh7hb0m3eLLTnz/s1600-h/image%25255B8%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU-tXDJ4FQfM0F9v8CeKPColVv6aZD_CVGiFdoraKGynh6xFf30mPlSP1RtsLC09pl13pZdU1CnFyjd8emXn15kZo4MTzoKjQQq1uyv7Aw1D0tfSq2GO1VdI_zHsyDjpm88rHghiB212Jb/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRN63fcNUEalk9-fB-B7CMqyl_8e04YWPCY8wtdabpf8tFL4xgxNRvDkWPbMGp97cABu-OnCSlcJBDShPqhpeBYGnCEGwbZX6Z9HVZ7bMZUugeZsBo1jKKjE6djezqcZ_PVWMmRDxqn42A/s1600-h/image%25255B11%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzZAoVmRW636PEUCPSQgs2IgC23yOgP2IdnHCn8ds2KOdJbF8B_VZYwdQoTvf4wlGHos6n9FE4GMOHRv-IcBzK3tNF9IW95rLAuwD9EdsPughzY6vSmcvyT7aqju-zzt4oSQ0O_TCwujLz/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></span></a></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"></td> <td valign="top" width="200"></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoAX1fOSK6WO38H6Ol7oXx5P8QQuS_fw-4pzSxf3BUx0kntqkgmkqvL3k3wPC8RPgP0R7td1NXbmDbR0MBeUW6FuM2aRDkUcdMfFs1PzbaHR7wb5m7zQh7rx48SlpUoAKPRzMGTgzzUKWo/s1600-h/image%25255B14%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijjuVJxZByJd-l48jkfrDh51UxZ30mkIS1cBMswXi-jUT0xPXC3CXbSODQmawD7Cj565SLL1AIERsv3fLx_tjQizWuODqkTEIrsHy9DQ_fvCtQ6IMWDtWgR0TI3ghs6hwUvRTZjNYC_wKP/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5KRJuiyJbhjfPqh628UsLU219UUntFt97IiZ7esbN7V0BrqTiOh7DISrkXaod1eDjQO9X5_xxPtlUoourj5GDp0iEEFO9yoes5zUHdjarFxSzwYd3z13zI-8UkcUNfpSaKvIBa8S9QR1i/s1600-h/image%25255B17%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpB5OQdNkAc0r3TkQ1xFcdeI0E5Wt22NlKzaXXWtAGoeEk0SHO_AbHwt9DL18T11Kc3YYuid1XcBK-3qfucgKTxdzLHIYjn-XPJe3-fmV6tDJfaumuXqZwXvyWvJBJTWOjX2UQlPOoIru-/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></span></a></td></tr><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"></td> <td valign="top" width="200"></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you so much Liesel for sending this lovely report back. </span><br /><br /></div>

African Storybook Project Creative writing Writing Creative Writing #13: An African Storybook Project Report back from Stirling Primary in East London

Here is another class hard at work creating stories for the African Storybook Project.  I have written about the African Storybook Project i...

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Creative Writing #12: An African Storybook Project report back from Princess Primary School in Roodepoort

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you so much to those who are sending in their stories about how their writing is going for the African Storybook Project. This is a fantastic project for Grades 1-3 children in Africa where the plan is to create an awesome website of stories that teachers and their classes around Africa can use. The blog post that gives more information about this project is: </span><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/05/theres-still-time-to-submit-story.html" style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">There’s still time to submit a story suitable for a Grade 3 reader for the African Storybook project. Join us!</span></a><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The story in this post comes from Princess Primary School in Roodepoort where Eden Daniels teachers Grade 7. Listen to what she has to say:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I am Eden Daniels,the Grade 7 English teacher at Princess Primary School in Roodepoort.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH7JNPzmiFqTgBoIVoUeOO3_oGyhEGhGCKv50vN_63V5r5h5memi_GbBtSdKgebnmUd0mp30saEEXq5LgeWlr9oc6MbhQJl2xoP96vtLNEWkwM9S_rg-ZMbpMiMAjl3f6X1Wp4i5oXBZ0j/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="291" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eden Daniels from Princess Primary School in Roodepoort</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I first read of this amazing project I thought of incorporating  it into my Creative Writing Assignment for Term 3.The learners first wrote their stories in their Classwork books then transferred it to the computers in the computer centre.I had never seen kids so excited about a project before.They actually begged to remain in the computer centre  during breaks and after school.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6T9I0LqMQe0JO8j2xJFhbT1sxYNAbaLs6Qae8Yya8Hwmgnz4iQNibAvGZG3IJXWMNpBMCXNK8BznoeWrFoft4BaSW9_Xx4ufB4z6D43935tUcmSsDo80ls6f8iqNXJCgv6Dm2QZKq589u/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We don't have an ICT  teacher at our school any more so I don't have help at school. The 4 week course really helped.The free image websites really assisted the kids. I downloaded many pictures according to the children's requests as most of them are underprivileged and do not have computers at home.These pictures were then copied onto the computers for them to pick and choose from.Some of them brought their own pictures and others submitted drawings.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1VwupU3PszJ1K_G8vBJZZfujwGcAuUPYBdfrk3En5dddJL8ra_Ui6GhVeBt2SiccMk59mn8qFk2xv6RFT324e3D7zEWvNpKvUddfhOvRmo70GFZ2-qNsPQIgw_DWvUinCGiCEBGj77E3b/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you so much for this wonderful report back Eden. I am thrilled to hear how the class enjoyed writing. </span></div>

African Storybook Project Creative Writing #12: An African Storybook Project report back from Princess Primary School in Roodepoort

Thank you so much to those who are sending in their stories about how their writing is going for the African Storybook Project. This is a fa...

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Creative Writing #11:An African Storybook project report back from Karin Horne

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am always so thrilled when teachers send in some information about their writing for the African Storybook Project. I would like to thank Karin Horne, the Deputy Principal from Crawford Preparatory in Pretoria for sending in this picture and information. Karin says, “</span><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a picture of me down loading photographs from my camera and phone, to use in my story</em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.”</span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6iv2lyP1uPNDNWAnXTlgGBpV_w62D9oL4YC9z2MRhXAk9G0vVpEuBxhY7bLSKC_bmgTfRuG9FXlk5y8oPJ5eobVVhxNhfaQH7oeYXYPJe2-u23b_hP_2UwU-1-6vKRu73kNMe_x-VfDpJ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="330" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Karin Horne from Crawford Preparatory School in Pretoria</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Karin has also sent in the delightful story she wrote called ‘<em>The sheep who wanted to knit</em>.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhto8P6fumb2dUF6tx7SB2JsPRCV8F4vTSCu0sZpT1KRna877q8F2sC_0ScACe2S-Gu3sl79jDKAR1MZlC8wxLESz4K2Xq7O4y2LhynWJbd3dNAn5kvRS5alNHsTsviDqWnwmlsZEwZuiRy/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="339" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you so much for sending in all of this to us, Karin. Perhaps you'll write another lovely story as well?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>An opportunity for you the reader</b></span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are reading this and you feel you would like to write a story for the African Storybook Project yourself or with your class before the 21st June, Please could I invite you to do so. The following blogpost has the details...</span><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/05/theres-still-time-to-submit-story.html" style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There’s still time to submit a story suitable for a Grade 3 reader for the African Storybook project. Join us!</span></a></div></div></div>

African Storybook Project Creative Writing #11:An African Storybook project report back from Karin Horne

I am always so thrilled when teachers send in some information about their writing for the African Storybook Project. I would like to thank ...

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Creative Writing #10: An African Storybook Project report back from The Rock Academy…

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am SO thrilled when teachers send reports on how their Digital Storytelling writing is going for the African Storybook Project. This is an amazing project. The plan is to create a huge website of stories for the Grade 1-3 children of Africa where the stories can be read, translated and adapted for use by teachers and students across Africa. The website is due to be launched in July and the idea is to populate it at its launch with donated stories created by mainly South African teachers and students. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today’s report back comes from The Rock Academy in Fish Hoek where the Grade 6 teacher, Christine Venter, is working in conjunction with the ICT teacher, Lisa Gair, in engaging the Grade 6s in writing for the project. This is what they say:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Mrs Gair & Mrs Venter reporting…</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWtrfN0q7Bt4zSLLJ_hI25Bj3lb4eAT12__9zNLkaD-WPa0ARZ0mfliJE0JMS-LuRu0_lFpUrRewy1fKWSqqs56YSDVQI4qRQxSTMZkyNa8L_ADCpKEXTqVy6cOJ6oNOqcFMaGslK36g/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lisa Gair (left - ICT teacher) and Christine Venter (right - Grade 6 teacher) </td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Grade 6 Rock Academy kids have loved taking on this writing adventure. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They started off with a bang, ideas were pouring out, and constant chit chat was happening while comparing their ideas. They knuckled down quickly to get their thoughts on paper and developed their story line.  Some were so eager they took their writing home to complete in one afternoon (even though they had 2 weeks to get it done).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiANvOD1Ds7mOeAOvleicgmb-rzvpGjqfxf0qhqVCO8JlsMJ4u_yf8o900f8ka2Cykv7LjnPntreso7HU8749bXOElgDbBGUuhj9ApvIR-ihTclyHCUPdSXBtdHBoxSVpie1GXGhcoXbK8/s1600-h/image%25255B14%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPfdbatspCXN7rSgWnqo4L37Vfjrr0JySUDzzJJ7AMT4xmc6iwoMzG5ilfOXUNqq6FVau07kMve0YPGnRznkmVnZXC1Kq9jdOLD2uM1DQY_Ig8V9slFVNu-YcvkUPbLBGnypsivBp4lMw/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u></u><u></u> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now we're on our animation stage and they are also loving this too. It has been a growing, and fun experience for each child individually and as a class. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2sEgyEtKk8Um5N2RtwnF1HCWi3WKs3q0wcLfoa5iU39nlvltTdfDfV-wWzaWRWgXOX2h6qnbXE1xTTj2j9XfEEDZpRtOH5fwvVNHZxBXCUjq1CtbjTE7RudbRedaaevvNC6iYwUyz_TM/s1600-h/image%25255B18%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtYkoykLchtnzdbgOFYGLd7fQ4bwGZJ0Wag1sUDv-xhmA6Ujg1am491AfKy3QYTrCexmjFQjpUQ4uyCDgauXpwyC_SESBv5kUZbbXz8dbBVuX3y2Vi7BGWWN64GrUt_t98WebR9Oo8Gt0/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6jWRyulG4j3ZGLqqyRxgModT55n0rEK3VhU7nShhyphenhyphen_ZDuGbge1NkcqDqY2X5eGOWfsxsr5gdGK8RuyrQPFt7ZTjnanInjrkCmCXyIDZFw_A0Y8Dutqk_x3WAuORsywxxx129S2fY-f4Q/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="267" /></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They have moved to the ICT Centre and are busy typing up their stories in PowerPoint and doing their illustrations in Paint. We are learning lots of new skills in both programs and are looking forward to reading their final products!”</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihvDZrE2kqxt5ic5pwmRFF6oEFHOIm9WZrPhjHdbIZvXHnfiTZJ1G5dAbFe_yhGwYuvnzNBgq7HeS8yo5KBeQNlrgVbqiwxNtZrqQ2F1CnnwcPEjIrGdRKOPYl6Zgld1DT4rrA3L_iz2w/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mrs Christine Venter with her Grade 6 writing their stories</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you SO much for participating in the project and for this wonderful report back Mrs Venter and Mrs Gair – we can’t wait to read your stories!</span></div>

African Storybook Project Creative Writing #10: An African Storybook Project report back from The Rock Academy…

I am SO thrilled when teachers send reports on how their Digital Storytelling writing is going for the African Storybook Project. This is an...

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Creative Writing #9: How are teachers going about writing stories with their classes for the African Storybook Project? Here is one example from Laerskool Heledekruin…

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have just completed our online course on Digital Storytelling and now we are waiting for stories suitable for Grade 3 readers around Africa to be submitted from teachers and schools in South Africa by June 21st. It is planned that these stories will be displayed on the African Storybook Project website when it is launched in July.  </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SchoolNet was thrilled when we were invited to view a lesson presented by one of the teachers who participated in the course and I thought I would write a blogpost about this exciting lesson. Megan Rademeyer from SchoolNet went to observe the lesson at the school and this is what Megan says: </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The school is Laerskool Heledekruin an Afrikaans School in Johannesburg where Yolandi (the English teacher) and Nolene (the computer teacher) are busy running with the African Storybook project. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGpVrGT2a7JJm2NzkJBGyOSYNhYBL_XmXIcxsvVLBnqaaQ240GyWA98-IlWeMfl87isq2dOQu8ntuK56szxYa3NZGVRR_zfxCJ1pEXclFTN2VQuROOc2n5AE04n1le-wksXe3xIXSMSnY/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="331" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Yolandi from <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Laerskool Heledekruin in Johannesburg</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are asking every child from Grade 4 - Grade 7 to develop a story and I saw the pictures and text that they had started on using PowerPoint. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjffsSMkLQeXIDL76fT_t0gwCYnOQpQm3sDHSHvL8cjxclSOBbDEDwwzXWbVyUU5I2vh3XhIBX302k6Tc55AOuEBFizdo7NOkjBlhx0taEtoxz7LjPBiJ1DVI3KfiFH9UjTjmKNu6C35E4/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They did a session launching the project in the hall using two of the videos from the course videos and said how useful the webinars have been. Yolandi showed a PowerPoint while I was there using some course examples that seemed to get the class excited for the task. As a class they also used the Smartboard to collectively brainstorm one example story so they could get used to the terminology like "theme", "character", "plot" etc.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJBlKyFPhhSlFY97bWZxCUHtnL0fBFZ8wypBf4v55y_T4fnyANPsRYPY_fZQpShkdjCoG-NObih24H5vbVvkXxUPyRHjOikISlNgh4fzi8yTVTWvq7rtVI8tAYsuA6isHb0suEJ3LFiS0/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The kids are very excited about writing a story for a genuine audience and purpose.  They have been told that only the best ones will make it to the website - so they are really keen to make sure that their stories are good.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />This is a really exciting project. The portal of stories will be great - but<br />the African Storybook Project is also doing worthwhile work in terms of encouraging good writing.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJeq_TWNaTQc81yeOWdxMmnt_5M8cEMwY_7Rcd8fwB8mgNir8mpO26zqrne6_MYvFzi1ZHo8cx5aykU2xoMbUvAhNhXcAgjrS0-KQwH7UIzH5oZBzfCoDbs3GRGngGTEitQNOUKnF1cyk/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Enter your story for the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert competition</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks to Yolandi and Nolene for running with this project at their school and presenting such a fantastic lesson. We would like them and anyone else who is writing with a class to consider entering their Learning Activity for the <em>Microsoft Innovative Educator: Expert Competition</em>. They way they present teaching about the story at their school will be unique and really worthy of using for the competition. See the blogpost <em><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/05/microsoft-innovative-educator-expert.html">Calling all innovative teachers! Apply to be a Microsoft Innovative Educator: Expert</a></em></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Write for the African Storybook Project before June 21st</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you would like to find out more about your </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">class writing a story for the African Storybook project and the incentive for the school that submits the most usable stories see the blogpost </span><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/05/theres-still-time-to-submit-story.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There’s still time to submit a story suitable for a Grade 3 reader for the African Storybook project. Join us!</a><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Send us your 'writing' story</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are writing for the competition please send us a short report and some photos to use as a blogpost. We’d LOVE that. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/images/cleardot.gif" /></span></div>

African Storybook Project Writing Creative Writing #9: How are teachers going about writing stories with their classes for the African Storybook Project? Here is one example from Laerskool Heledekruin…

We have just completed our online course on Digital Storytelling and now we are waiting for stories suitable for Grade 3 readers around Afri...

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There’s still time to submit a story suitable for a Grade 3 reader for the African Storybook project. Join us!

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTeh3Zy-kPK3F-wWNEbLiYvoOSQsAEtCMf6L2jZzgnjneNp_NsmymcoTItm_oCYUdbupQKh71uj86JDFP1maPrs_Vd26Ncp6id223UbM1vumE8A0X_Y4jJExH5IVS0XRDeXCn4SBYf4Ss/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="240" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have just completed our course on writing and now we are waiting for stories suitable for Grade 3 students around Africa to read to be submitted from teachers around the country who have completed the course. WE hope that many of them will get their classes to write as well all in time for the launch of the African Storybook Project website in July. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you would like to contribute a story, please consider it. Here are the details.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. The stories must be written in PowerPoint or similar and must contain a <i>Tilte page</i>, an <i>End page </i>and 6  -  16 'chunks' or paragraphs each with an illustration which could be on a separate slide. (If the stories are written in another language they need to have an English translation sent in on a separate Word document.) Here is a guide for writing:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GHJth8ZMV4GFcbWm-FY1lY6VQwrBisVonirKxGXg0o7gorVEdnEG2Z26jksboFTkeVPy8CW0iZXU0U6crDCASzLh99SRPYxX6JSmpyIc41B4uaSvTDrhtlcoByQ2IR346vLEwZnkvJI/s1600-h/requirements%25255B2%25255D.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="requirements" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0a_87J3Wog_paIXQ_3pKZwZZFooXtgzQriGfcG5rAUnRYpoJx5njmUqIqz9WEjFdYI9DBu3g6VZJNI-xg6-ACW44PaHput01uMdpf_a8x4-WV9Q-as-hGbU7vE3sb1dmyoq2eikB2KKA/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="requirements" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 21px;">This screenshot of the requirements can be downloaded as a PowerPoint  here for easier reading: </span><a href="https://www.box.com/s/vc4oep6cko76emvb5cj3" style="background-color: white; color: #7de700; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;">https://www.box.com/s/vc4oep6cko76emvb5cj3</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 21px;"> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. There should be a creative commons license copied and pasted under the author's name as shown below. You can download the PowerPoint with the six copy-and-paste licenses from from this link: <a href="https://www.box.com/s/ojw9pv80pu6m739vsnkl">https://www.box.com/s/ojw9pv80pu6m739vsnkl</a> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This means the story can be changed I(for translation into the vernacular of a country etc) but always attributed to you and you are the only person who could ever sell your story.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXWEuVL2aKAQ97mrLH1cqFLAlaeelQX2D0lefj5BesS9h9hH8lYTS2tXsqEi1HRN7U8lKxfribq_a6bJqd8xhleicmKMIJJipQSvyphpKLzWwwiBEK6nenRVfaq0IJFSewSbmlmzF8KCE/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="87" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjESfxCtp1EYkrc7P32tE4HZBJwfKm8lNhPq4J6IeuKcfjSKLwX_yKymR4-ZmSr-4Htq9jV7nIEN0XBM_zlItqI4-k4KfklMrbppwfiMYk6CeyWu_2zcUWwaURjsrI73qjThibNS-dLk7U/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />. <br />3. Stories must reach us by email 21 June 2013 or before to. fiona (at) schoolnet.org.za</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />4. The school which submits the most usable stories will qualify to have someone from the school sponsored to attend the Reading and Writing Conference in Kenya in August as a part of the African Storybook Team. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you so much for considering joining us on this great venture! </span></div>

African Storybook Project There’s still time to submit a story suitable for a Grade 3 reader for the African Storybook project. Join us!

We have just completed our course on writing and now we are waiting for stories suitable for Grade 3 students around Africa to read to be su...

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The African Storybook Project downloadable brochure

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAxFGCHACZiL0qhCZH_RSX0yKIIYPJuFqF6Zi65mIz4QYgEB1egQ_2m8R6bjLgTlmZponrIs4KBD8gS6Q-P_UvHLTSio0W7bvGyU_sdFXduxM6QV96YlMtLx6N8_db70yhz79j4PUPLzE/s1600/African+Storybook+Project+Logo+FINAL-3+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAxFGCHACZiL0qhCZH_RSX0yKIIYPJuFqF6Zi65mIz4QYgEB1egQ_2m8R6bjLgTlmZponrIs4KBD8gS6Q-P_UvHLTSio0W7bvGyU_sdFXduxM6QV96YlMtLx6N8_db70yhz79j4PUPLzE/s200/African+Storybook+Project+Logo+FINAL-3+copy.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Below is a brochure about the African Storybook project that has been put out by <i>Saide (South African Institute of Distance Education) </i>in Johannesburg<i> </i>. Saide is administering this great project which aims to facilitate availability, access to, and use of sufficient good stories for early reading practice for African children ages 2 to 9. It will do this by setting up an interactive website with stories for early reading and by encouraging educators and literacy development organisations working in early literacy of young children in African countries:</span><br /><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to access openly licensed digital reading resources of various levels and types on the site</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to translate and/or adapt the stories into a familiar language and context for the children they work with</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to create their own stories and upload them in the templates provided,</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to contribute already published stories and make them available under an open licence,  and</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to use them in a variety of ways for literacy development.</span></li></ul><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Free online short course 'Digital storytelling and the African Storybook Project'</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next week (15th April) we start with a free online four week course for interested teachers around the country entitled '<i>Digital storytelling and the African Storybook Project</i>'. If you would like to know more about the course and possibly sign up  please visit out SchoolNet blog on this URL: <a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/p/courses.html">http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/p/courses.html</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Downloadable brochure</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is the brochure put out by <i>Saide </i>on the project. This can be downloaded if desired. To download click on the image and when the e-book appears go to the bottom right and choose the icon which has an arrow pointing down. Follow the prompts. </span><br /><a href="http://www.youblisher.com/p/600590-The-African-Storybook-Project/" target="_blank"><img alt="The African Storybook Project" src="http://www.youblisher.com/files/publications/101/600590/200x300.jpg" style="display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></div>

African Storybook Project The African Storybook Project downloadable brochure

Below is a brochure about the African Storybook project that has been put out by Saide (South African Institute of Distance Education) in Jo...

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More about the African Storybook project and the free online course starting on 15th April. Please join us...

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The African Storybook Project is really something to get excited about. We have written a number of blogposts about this exciting venture on this blog:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />a)  </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2012/12/this-is-fiona-beal-from-schoolnet-on.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">Introducing The African Storybook Project</span><span style="color: black;">...</span></a><br />b)  <a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/03/30-days-of-writing-1-welcome-to-african.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">30 days of Writing #1: Welcome to the African Storybook project</span></a><br />c)  <span style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/03/an-exciting-free-digital-storytelling_25.html" style="text-decoration: none;">An exciting, free digital storytelling course and writing opportunity for South African</a> </span></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/03/an-exciting-free-digital-storytelling_25.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: blue;">educators. Please sign up</span></a></span><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/03/an-exciting-free-digital-storytelling_25.html" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">…</a><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The ‘Digital Storytelling and the African Storybook project’ short online course for teachers</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The African Storybook Team has asked SchoolNet to create and run a free short online digital storytelling course for teachers around the country starting on 15th April. This course is open to any educators who want to improve their own writing skills and perhaps discover the writer within them! It is hope that they will donate the story they write during the course to the website, and that they will encourage their learners to write a story suitable for a Grade 3 reader. This means the writers could be foundation phase, intermediate phase or high school students – even tertiary students who would like to help the children of Africa with reading material. There is a great prize for a teacher from the school that submits the most useable stories for the website. There is more about this course and the incentive on our Free online courses page on this blog - we invite you to sign up </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/p/courses.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>here</b></span></a>.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span> It starts on 15th April.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnQqcdNk_qMC_dNFwZX1iGOHKVbcRODOxn2QC2a6CNzwqJ3RPiKdSl4f8hJcPs4SyjkpghyphenhyphenDjpU4kNtPQrhz3Q0sKu_cTMJs3VeHHMJXi3Xi_sKxD7sxC_mq9-bPK7mJRMTzKUX18Fuds/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caption taken from <a href="http://digitalclassroom.co.za/digitalclassroom/index.php" target="_blank">Vodacom's Digital Classroom portal</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now to add some background to this project and also add the brochure about it as an e-book…</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What is the African Stoybook project again?</span></strong><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">The African Storybook Project (ASP) is a project that will create and encourage the use of a digital library of stories for the first few years of reading in digital formats, openly licensed, with a process and tools for translating and versioning stories for local African languages and contexts. These will be shared on a website which is in the process of being created.This will enable users to upload and share versions of the stories in their local languages, providing numbers of stories in a range of languages way beyond the scope of conventional publishing.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz-Hv3nYZzuesReZCZ6dghFIDV5gR649zVqBJJQd0ziDyQOjUdePc375UImdoEEqD-C0wy_qPgq7-UZYBGDpyCjjx9nkcbLCPJYFqsjareu_tNXsSlGxRyBc0rNFoTwlIxEGTQZukuY-c/s1600-h/image%25255B10%25255D.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBgD4_J91UElmLGeW7WD53JZ8vnpUwQXQIwu6nwvOahUQCNjTBIaKkwmj0j6BtL6QFZTFUs27x0jkMVCtd6RdNswXn9K2Am7RyX2M2mSX33Bw_0i7j8O7UY-1niQvRSkWfCOxBzfPLIE/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taken from the African Storybook Project brochure</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><h4><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">How will the African Storybook Project help to meet the literacy needs of children aged 2-9 years old in Africa?</span></h4><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The African Storybook Project will facilitate availability, access to, and use of sufficient good stories for early reading practice for African children ages 2 to 9. It will do this by setting up an interactive website with stories for early reading and by encouraging educators and literacy development organisations working in early literacy of young children in African countries: </span><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to access openly licensed digital reading resources of various levels and types on the site</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to translate and/or adapt the stories into a familiar language and context for the children they work with</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to create their own stories and upload them in the templates provided,</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to contribute already published stories and make them available under an open licence, and </span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to use them in a variety of ways for literacy development.</span></li></ul><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The project will initially operate mainly in the pilot countries (Kenya, Uganda and South Africa) in schools, community libraries/reading clubs, early childhood and family literacy settings. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The main advantage of openly licensed stories on a website will be that educators and parents who want stories in their own language or dialect can translate some or all of the text to suit their context, without having to ask permission or pay any fee. And the adapted version of the book will be available for reading and printing immediately. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What are ‘good stories’ in this context?</span></strong> <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL_lC6W-YohftxAwiLRL1lAZS_sqnVWw70VIfU3LjwNx1s3EqbgTvWTBHctXk3ZuqyQlOx-qrcNIiqH5JP2e44J2y4qFKayfaK-D0RsbUYDowHfmTJL-1BD8LHXnNiPQrAvrsf49LGF-I/s1600-h/image%25255B6%25255D.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigKTz4TTBCa8wJIRJZFREhYK6NV8Sy0BucqJ-9XTtuAjl0Tr8Vu11uMiEKIkxqTs4jWDkbUZIuRWuPl-qOcvFnqiN5beZUOOBphGwExz7v4icALhRunu6ZipS-WfYDfdhqvi0uARiePZY/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taken from the African Storybook Project brochure</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Good stories in this context: </span><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">speak to children’s reality and contexts;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">have rich visual images that make sense and can support the reading of the text; </span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">encourage interest in the sounds and shapes and meanings of words; </span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">have a story, a happening, an event or sequence of events, and characters with which children can identify;</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">can be scary: it’s OK to be frightened and take risks in a story. </span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But above all, they need to leave children ‘panting for more’!<br /> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>How will the African Storybook Project get their stories?</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We will draw on African oral literature and traditions of storytelling, songs, riddles, rhymes, on high quality published stories that the copyright holders are willing to donate, on openly licensed material already available on the Web, and on stories developed through workshops and competitions specifically for the project. But our main intent is to encourage creation and adaptation by users themselves in the ‘easy to use’ templates we provide on the website. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We will develop partnerships with literacy development organisations across the continent (but particularly in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa) to use the stories and the website in their project, contributing both lessons of experience to improve the website, and stories or versions of stories. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The brochure</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is the brochure for the African Storybook project presented as an e-book.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youblisher.com/p/600590-The-African-Storybook-Project/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="The African Storybook Project" height="400" src="http://www.youblisher.com/files/publications/101/600590/200x300.jpg" width="282" /></a></div></div>

African Storybook Project More about the African Storybook project and the free online course starting on 15th April. Please join us...

The African Storybook Project is really something to get excited about. We have written a number of blogposts about this exciting venture on...

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An exciting, free digital storytelling course and writing opportunity for South African educators. Please sign up…

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you like, you can read about the exciting new African Storybook project before you sign up by clicking <a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/03/30-days-of-writing-1-welcome-to-african.html" target="_blank">here</a></span><br /><br /></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="500" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bn8rsmrEWimTykeLPNebaYe1qSKsjVGnpXM0b8MhsqA/viewform?embedded=true" width="500">Loading...</iframe></div></div>

African Storybook Project An exciting, free digital storytelling course and writing opportunity for South African educators. Please sign up…

If you like, you can read about the exciting new African Storybook project before you sign up by clicking here Loading...

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30 days of Writing #1: Welcome to the African Storybook project

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="color: magenta;"><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">__</i><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">__<b>_________________________________________</b></i></span><br /><span style="color: magenta; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><b>If you are a South African teacher reading this we would like to tell you about a writing opportunity and a free online writing course that is coming up with SchoolNetSA  as part of this amazing <a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/03/30-days-of-writing-1-welcome-to-african.html" target="_blank">African Storybook project</a> and website that is being developed for Africa. Our 30 days of writing posts will lead up to giving more information about this. WATCH THIS SPACE!</b></i></span><br /><span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>__________________________________________________________</b></span><br /><span style="color: magenta;"><br /></span><em><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></em><em><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Submitted by Fiona Beal. Portions of this post are adapted from the Saide December 2012 newsletter.</span></em><br /><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saide (South African Institute of Distance Education)<i> </i>has launched an exciting new project aimed at contributing to the improvement of reading and literacy for young African children. The project, known as the African Storybook Project,  is funded by Comic Relief in the United Kingdom. The exciting thing is that SchoolNet is participating in this project so you'll be hearing a lot more about it from us!  I have previously submitted a post on the initial workshop of the African Storybook Project in Johannesburg – <a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2012/12/this-is-fiona-beal-from-schoolnet-on.html">Introducing the African Storybook Project</a>.  Tessa Welch of Saide is the project leader in this exciting venture.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrtO3v-uRKwkYdl-8TLHbEignc4hwJ9xiMmSwyaUiPEi_t58dllaz_MTdRT9wJwobCex4CFxyBbey2KZwTNZxHAq8xKQSymCFB2fO7-5pS0rR_6w4568MXtXgVEPUIzLYMQhqQr0xeXBU/?imgmax=800" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrtO3v-uRKwkYdl-8TLHbEignc4hwJ9xiMmSwyaUiPEi_t58dllaz_MTdRT9wJwobCex4CFxyBbey2KZwTNZxHAq8xKQSymCFB2fO7-5pS0rR_6w4568MXtXgVEPUIzLYMQhqQr0xeXBU/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></div><span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What is the African Storybook Project?</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The African Storybook Project (ASP) is a project that will create and encourage the use of a digital library of stories for the first few years of reading in digital formats, openly<b> </b>licensed, with a process and tools for translating and versioning stories for local African languages and contexts. These will be shared on a website which is in the process of being created. This will enable users to upload and share versions of the stories in their local languages, providing numbers of stories in a range of languages way beyond the scope of conventional publishing.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this way we aim to provide African children with sufficient familiar language stories for enjoyable reading practice to create a firm basis for literacy development.  </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The initial pilot will take place in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The initial workshop </b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An initial workshop was held  on 10th November 2012 to explore the key issues before starting the project. The poject leaders thought it would be a good idea not only to discuss but also to experience different ways of creation, presentation and translation/versioning. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The presentation on the <b>Japanese art of Kamisihibai</b> by Jemma Kahn held us spellbound, and this was followed by a discussion  of how the techniques and rules of Kamishibai could work digitally for children’s stories.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi90SoDrDvaOKpFGNJTGgXPEFUpf5F0Cs9_o5FqjCBN4zcK77OXa-e66CsMVbffC5JqblUliVJUG4t056x-UbWJ5IJ7MHwJO6KwErZ7nu_-ABmjFmhtWrO-TWQQVcucGZn7DghH965LzR0/?imgmax=800" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi90SoDrDvaOKpFGNJTGgXPEFUpf5F0Cs9_o5FqjCBN4zcK77OXa-e66CsMVbffC5JqblUliVJUG4t056x-UbWJ5IJ7MHwJO6KwErZ7nu_-ABmjFmhtWrO-TWQQVcucGZn7DghH965LzR0/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jemma Kham illiutrating the japanese art of  Kamisihibai</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A session of <b>games, riddles, and tongue twisters</b> was led by Sheila Drew. One of the activities involved taking a portion of a cut up puzzle picture, finding the group members with the rest of the picture and creating a story together. One member of each group related the group's story to all the participants.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width: 400px;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkVHSZ2ppoqv2scV5XIGUsnXtTBiFL-sw9gc3Y8UHjjeP7T-R3QkgHUaHnv2EzdeoJXCipP3tEJ7Lr0AJJpMX1VCGvZibJ3a457Pikl5QfrIwGDgxYB27q-LMGk4gOi0aQzHOwGXQ66eM/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sheila Drew</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3fEKxZRweGClLhIRUVqYw_Ts2vacfWma-X7Y0FewrhG4bLEtqM1Om4e6FZZz8LXVU57i_BsXRkNSsOShm_JDTZExxdOEG4h5jwH8wVDxc0quijnPoWAj_lB_v9a7bAZ6afVKSRgVR9pI/s1600-h/image%25255B5%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="200"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMGoCRmDSS2W2_EnAOSs-Rd_gyzhZTBUgNV2GsLW_zBXSRl6-nknckNkx0EPtFnJPyDHrVey-CTvhcywTbzvQoHDbNpWCad7yH6Jx9k_d2BynPAlZeTCDePZYmEkx7-eQWxapbMGf6cY8/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The group creates a story</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYVm9gduioO_CV2IVuMoZZCoRklbMZAgwrv7_mH4hxLdbFFsPkWBoH1K5LWGkp8pCKmvRGNnfVwC_ArWYWQiFqgO1REkVAceKTilsYeCrkgltcpq1LfKEJ6SC6Vi-eWOEJwtNXSedWMOU/s1600-h/image%25255B8%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The presentation of child created/illustrated stories, with ideas for how this kind of project could described and replicated was given by Glynis Clacherty. Glynis elaborated on the process of story development she used with refugee children during a holiday programme in Johannesburg.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghheu6HH8InLBc5QFzMsIU9JfNwRIaZOwKgx3Vt4zZMHCRaoUCbqLJVDzTtObksstlAbuvA-3hp6XKJ5s6yHzeUnjKA8v8mFJ_75c1cSdgvf29vTJ1ZXZB-miQa9CcCax23kg-rrQPPhQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glynis Clacherty</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The translating and versioning of stories session was based on a humorous story called </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Refiloe and the washed chickens. </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It centred around performances of a section of the Refiloe and the washed chickens story in Setswana and isiZulu with a discussion of translation issues in treating comedy led by Nicholas Welch and Jeremiah Mntonga. We were exposed to improvisation techniques which encouraged all the workshop participants to contribute to the version.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOJEGD8pkHozf7EkpR9L5dQ_whMQ1PtEH1-pqQRiS_8nt7DMNzmqxY9X_DUa1DSiZlPhyphenhyphenebEuXzvwvhNL-k43JyTbthM1U7Ev0V5l7NYpEfZ2CFy0RRM2geqFpwXjCeF2nbjCxE4Rm2_Y/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nicholas Welch and Jeremiah Mntonga</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jefferson Shabalala led us in a humorous performance of the Xhosa weatherman.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDGcwdfV6BohgO_l7QoveouEXwM_ANnvTCHEtkexaoIgJiU1wHG-hXQr5c4seRvoqWIraM1a80SVNeehpdzrnBwcW4XRyQoVPA0ZDDMakx3Sbbg3aEORkw3JiLLK9ZCdYhPOJhkFU2DY/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jefferson Shabalala</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A project of partnerships</span></b><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The African Storybook Project will be a project of partnerships - we do not see ourselves in competition with other projects, but cooperating with and complementing existing initiatives in ways that are mutually beneficial. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Through the work of Judith Baker over a number of years, the project has a list of over 40 potential partners in the three pilot countries of Kenya, Uganda and South Africa, but also in Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone,South Sudan and Zambia. In addition, there are possible partnerships through organisations that work across Sub Saharan Africa such as the TESSA programme and the Canadian literacy organisation, CODE.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width: 400px;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVevuWCzMuK-jcxrr2lGCdZxedowV6KUE8njFOIV1VFuuwVBxGbos-tqMhoEIsK-6aQ_n1cahz9aA8I07lVvIWrMExcNlgBNkmfwQRsDEyMqV1DOt8iMRmzzg4bYXAUMWLx5NWZ0mUG-c/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Judith Baker</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyGPRF6jDzPCMucO2TD6SQUa5lTIC2lL0RRLIi6s8cQuMzC4V9-ypJbBfCQJrlx5TJwwF8LURoKU7Vae2djjBb6paDyuIHlnjeLi0zLn-sp7Ks_UBnMzeqoxHXNJko3mLM6zQpbsC3ZmA/s1600-h/image%25255B23%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="200"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvflIRysytzuQNfDWuLRScNKJ2Lw3_9iqxtJ5RGGKkPP5984T-ocbOrfE9kZM-UiDfTJL7Day4Vy6Z8tLtUZhlX98haLjMEjDgM9_vsaDpMs3B_2Zt17rIMA42i_xheKcPXcwzKJ4GJM4/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="267" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Judith Baker leading a discussion</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyjXYy4RWCgxclVZDxN-A6RFiYsGXeiWz7bbvXzUm89Fw5LsQc5-bexAz7l3OpjwlqWlsyzsHL5DjclTb9FoxptzMIFCJcPNdl5RmJYfE3DOYTmggvSm7QbLhyphenhyphen7fdbFeagBXRegMg_wQQ/s1600-h/image%25255B27%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Story Acquisition</span></b><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We need a critical mass of stories in a range of languages in order to be able to start work in the pilot countries in the middle of this year. We are aware that there is quite a lot of free material already on the website and we already have a process for exploring, assessing, downloading and categorising this material systematically.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are also inviting all interested parties to submit stories to us. If you are interested in helping us by donating a story, here are the guidelines: </span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our main interest is stories that children can read themselves when they're in the first stages of reading - a few words or a sentence a page, with an accompanying illustration - although there is place for more difficult read-aloud stories as well.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're looking for African stories in languages spoken in Africa that will appeal to African children up to the age of 9 or 10.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can send us typed up stories with or without illustrations, or scanned PDF stories with illustrations, or recordings of stories, songs and games.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you send us a story, please also send the information about the story as per the<a href="http://www.saide.org.za/resources/newsletters/Vol_18_no.6_2012/Content/Information%20to%20submit%20with%20story.docx"> attached form</a>.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Send the stories to: tessaw@saide.org.za and jennyl@saide.org.za.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If your stories are too large to email, let us know and we'll invite you to our Dropbox folder where you can upload large files free of charge.</span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are a teacher that would like to get your class writing stories for this project, please consider participating in our free online four week course Digital Writing for the African Storybook project which starts in mid-April. Please watch the SchoolNet blog's<a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/p/courses.html" target="_blank"> Free online courses page</a> to sign up and to see the requirements for the stories that are subitted. . A teacher from the school that submits the most useable stories will be invited to accompany the African Storybook project to an international reading and Writing conference in Niarobi in August 2013. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’ll be hearing a lot more about this exciting project in the months ahead.</span><br /><br /></div></div>

30 Days of Writing African Storybook Project 30 days of Writing #1: Welcome to the African Storybook project

__ __ _________________________________________ If you are a South African teacher reading this we would like to tell you about a writing op...

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