Masaya ang Maging Manunulat!

Read Aloud ni Teacher Loraine 

Isa akong masayang manunulat kapag may mga nare-recieve akong balita na babasahin at gagamitin ang aking aklat sa pagkukuwento sa mga bata. Noong unang lingo ng Mayo, binalita ni Ms. Loraine Bautista, 2nd year college student ng Miriam College, taking up a bachelor's degree in Childhood Education, na gagamitin niya ang aklat naming Masaya Ang Maging Ako (Gagatiga at Bauza, Lampara 2020) sa pagsasalaysay. Bahagi ito ng kanilang group project na makapagturo ng literacy skills sa mga batang nasa day care.

Pero, may malaki silang problema. Wala daw silang makuhang kopya! Kaya nagpadala ako ng kopya ng aklat at nag-transfer si Loraine ng bayad. Isa pa ito sa aking ikinatuwa. May respeto sila sa aking sining at sa buhay manunulat.

Lingo ng Mother's Day noong i-send ko via Lalamove ang aklat. Nagdaan ang ilang mga araw, nakakuha na ako ng feedback. Hiningi ko ang pahintulot niya na i-blog ito kaya, ibinabahagi ko ngayon ang kagalakang ito.

Good morning, Ms. Zarah! Thank you so much for your book! I was able to use it yesterday during our teaching implementation with the day care learners. They were very engaged and had so much fun with the story, especially because it sparked their imagination! We also received great feedback from our professors, who said the book is very nice and perfect for kids We truly enjoyed reading it, and we loved the illustrations too! Salamat po, and God bless you!

Aaminin ko na naghahangad akong magka-award muli. Malaking trabaho at bibilang talaga ng panahon ang ganitong pangarap. Subalit, ramdam na ramdam ko ang pagkatotoo ni Loraine. Pinili niya ang aming aklat para ibahagi sa mga batang paslit. Para na din akong nakapanlo ng award.

Maraming, maraming salamat!

World Read ALoud Day 2023

 Today is World Read Aloud Day!

Let the telling and the reading of stories from books and oral traditions begin! #WRAD #WRAD2023

For starter, check on the WRAD Activity Packet. WRAD begins on the 1st Wednesday of February, but it doesn't mean you cannot celebrate it the entire month or year. 

Head on to LitWorld for a wealth of resources, activities and soupy ideas to celebrate books, reading aloud and storytelling. There are Live Events you and your community can take part in; a virtual bookshelf of stories for the young and the young at heart; and the Build A Story Challenge where you can share your stories of life experiences in big and small ways!

Read Aloud Wednesday @Keys International School

 Around the last week of March, I was invited to read aloud for a small group of students at Keys International School. Their Teacher Librarians, teachers Al and Van, have been to Beacon Academy for a visit and professional collaboration previous to the pandemic. Over the course of the lockdown, we would get in touch on Messenger to chat and consult each other on our best practices during online distance learning. Needless to say, we have lent professional support to each other for the past two years.

When Teacher Al invited me to conduct a short read aloud session for his primary grades students, I said yes, of course. This is a regular online activity they have for their students as a break from serious and tedious routine of online learning. Of course, we learn from anything we do be it deliberate of by leisure.

So, I prepared a read aloud using Daniel Kirk's The Library Mouse.  It is my staple read aloud activity to chidlren to introduce them to books, reading, authorship and the library. Below is my slide presentation. I used the e-book copy in my Kindle for the read aloud. It was fun!

Sneak Peek: Module Writing Project for Flexible Learning

Good friends from the College of Education in UP Diliman sent me an invitation to be a part of a module writing project under a government office. This is one project I could not say no to. Para ito sa kabataan. Para ito sa bayan. 

Here is a sneak peak of the content I contributed to the project. We hope to roll this out in time for the opening of the academic year in the new normal.

Kung gagamit ng aklat pambata sa Read Aloud

Kailangan na ang napiling aklat ay naaayon sa mga katangian at pangangailangan ng batang makikinig. Gamitin ang kaalaman tungkol sa developmental stages ng isang bata. Maaring kumonsulta sa isang co-teacher, guidance counselor o developmental pediatrician para dito. May mga nasusulat din na impormasyon tungkol sa mga bata at sa kanilang pangangailangan sa mga websites. Ang mga lokal na tagalimbag ng aklat pambata ay mayroon ding mga katalog ng mga aklat na nararapat sa mga bata at mag-aaral. Kung makakakuha ng kopya, maaring basahin muna ito. Kung may librarian at library na mapupuntahan o mapagtatanungan, makakatulong din sila sa pagpili ng mga aklat pambata na angkop sa pagkukuwento at pagbabasa.

Mga dapat tandaan sa bahaging ito ng pagkukuwento

1. Basahin ng maayos ang teksto. Huwag magimbento basta-basta o magsingit ng adlib. 
2. Maaring gumamit ng isang awit o chanting ng mga salita na paulit-ulit na lumalabas sa kuwento. Kailangan lang ay nasa tamang tiyempo at pangyayari sa kuwento ang paggamit ng awit o chant. Gumamit ng awit na nasa public domain tulad ng mga folk songs na pambata.
3. Maari ding gamitin ang call and resposne technique kung saan, magtatanong ang tagabasa o kuwentista at sasagot naman ang batang nakikinig. 
4. Puwede ring i-model ang pagtatanong tungkol sa sinabi ng isang tauhan, sa pangyayari na kagulat-gulat, nakakalungkot at nakakatawa. Sa ganitong paraan, kasama ang batang nakiknig ng kuwentista o tagabasa sa karanasan ng pagsasalaysay at daloy ng kuwento.
5. Mag-predict ng maaring mangyari sa mga tauhan at humingi ng panukala, suhestiyon o pakiramdam ng batang nakikinig.Natututo ang bata na mag-isip ng mga possibleng solusyon sa problema ng mga mga tauhan sa kuwento.

PPT: Reading Aloud Workshop

Author Visit at Gan Etz Ha Haim

Who would have thought that there is a synagogue in the busy, commercial community of Makati? Well, there really is and it is maintained and managed by the Jewish Association of the Philippines (JAP).  Nestled in the Salcedo enclave, the JAP complex houses a social hall and a preschool, the Gan Etz Ha Haim preschool. 

I paid them visit yesterday where I talked about my writing life and read aloud stories. The kids particularly loved My Daddy, My One and Only and the The Day Max Flew Away. There I met Teacher Daryl and Teacher

Paz, and their small community of preschool staff. After my talk and read aloud sessions, I had book signing with the kids, chatted with the Jewsish staff and some parents.

Before I left, Teacher Daryl and Teacher Paz gave me a tour of Bachrach Hall, the library and the synagogue. It was my first time to enter a synagogue. It was my first time too to see books read and used for worship by the Jewish people. Nothing but respect to the Jewish community as they have a language, culture and faith as old as time itself. As in every visit and every talk I do, I was the one who learned so much from my host. I left the JAP complex informed and appreciative of the Jewish people in our midst.

When Reading is an Act of Love

When Carla Pacis invited me to do a workshop on literacy development, the importance of reading and storytelling to parents of St. John La Salle Preschool, I immediately said yes -- without second thoughts. The home is a child's first school and the parents are his/her first teachers. And boy, every school MUST collaborate with parents and every parent NEED allies to raise a child. As the old saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child.

So Carla and I met with Chichi Ferrer, cooridinator of the De La Salle Univeristy-Taft run St. John La Salle Preschool. If you put three women whose common advocacy is literacy development, there must be good coffee. Plans were laid out and it wheeled along smoothly on the day of the workshop. There were, more or less, thirty parents (five daddies were present) who attended. They were ready and eager to participate.

I brought my storytelling stuff, of course, and donated story books to the school so Chichi and her teachers can start a lending library.

At the workshop, parents read stories, told stories and WROTE some too!

They also discussed their views on reading, books and learning in general. I had to emphasize how reading and literacy is a RIGHT that must be claimed and that no child should be deprived of this.

It is always a joy to see grown-ups engrossed in books! I used mostly local books published by Adarna House, Lampara, LG & M and Hiyas. The parents were very attentive and analytical. Some gave comments, good and otherwise on the books they read. We closed the workshop with group presentations on their selected books for read aloud and storytelling.

Picture! Picture!