Teachers' Literature Festival Karachi
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Teachers’ Literature Festival Karachi The 11th Children's Literature Festival was held at the Arts Council of Karachi Pakistan on the 21st and 22nd of February 2014. Under the aegis of the Children’s Literature Festival (CLF) the Teachers’ Literature Festival (TLF) was held in Karachi on the 20th of February. With an aim to unlock the power of reading, the festival remained packed with round 2000 teachers from both private and government sector schools. Teachers’ Literature Festival works under 5 main strands which are: 1. Workshops on Creative Writing 2. Workshops on Creative Expression 3. Use of new media in the classrooms 4. Book launches 5. Teachers’ Voices Shaded in various themes of classical and popular literature, various sections of Arts Council Karachi were named like Daastaan Sraa'aay, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Kitab Ghar, Talism-e- Hoshruba, Tot Batot, , Autaaq, Tota Khanani, Shahi-Guzar Gah and CLF Dhaba. Art of Reading with Expression Empowering teachers is not only extremely important but also necessary if we want to raise a generation of ‘Change Agents’. Keeping in mind the psyche of teachers, their aspirations, demands, challenges in teaching and several other aspects, the first ever Teacher’s Literature Festival was a collection of multi-dimensional activities. As the slogan of CLF is ‘Unlocking the Power of Reading’, special attention was given to ‘Art of Reading with Expression’ in which prominent people were invited to not only read poetry with expression to the teachers but also explain the meaning of the poetry, stories to the teachers so that they can further explain it to their students. Art of Reading with Expression sessions were conducted by Imrana Maqsood, Seeemi Zaidi, Zambeel Dramatic Readings, Syed Nusrat Ali, Farheen Zehra and Adnan Jaffar & Fawad Khan. Creative Writing Workshops One of the main aim of Children’s Literature Festival is to promote reading in such a way so that children who are interested to write feel that they have a platform where they can contribute their writings and stories. Keeping this aim in mind, various interactive creative writing sessions were also conducted by prominent teachers and authors. Resource persons tried to cover various aspects of creative writing by having interactive sessions with the teachers. Founder and Director of the Rato-Bangla School, Shanta Dixit also participated in Teachers’ Literature Festival from Nepal and conducted an interactive creative writing session where she divided the teachers into groups, asked them to write a short story and then the groups of teachers were asked to do a small skit based on their stories. Use of New Media in the classrooms An important feature of the Teachers’ Literature Festival Karachi was the focus on new media and how new media can be used in the classrooms. Interactive sessions on the Use of New Media in Classrooms with teachers were conducted by Bolo Bhi, Asma Sikander, Azra Naseem, Sabeen Mahamud, Toffee TV and Tentative Collective. The sessions highlighted various tools of new media which could be used effectively for teaching children in order to motivate them more and make learning fun. Book Launches Book Launches are one of the most popular segment of every Children’s Literature Festival and now Teachers’ Literature Festival. The first book by CLF Publications “Layla aur Munni Gudia” created by Rumana Husain was launched at the Teachers’ Literature Festival by famous dramatist and playwright of Pakistan, Haseena Moin. The fourth edition of CLF magazine, Uran Tashtaree was also launched at the Teachers’ Literature Festival where the editor of Uran Tashtaree, Amra Alam read extracts from the magazine and taught the teachers how they can use the magazine in their schools and classrooms. Other books that were launched at the TLF Karachi were Laddu Paida Hua, Rana Liaqat Ali Khan Tasweeri Kahani Silsala and Something Black & White written by Rumana Hussain, Suraj the Tiger Cub by Farida Mirza, Magical Tale about Pakistan by Asma Sikander, Dotty the Unique Zebra by Batul Tunio, The Book of Little Stories and Big Dreams & Peace by Basarat Kazim, Sehat ki Kahani by Amra Alam. Teachers’ Voices: What promotes or inhibits reading and creativity in classrooms Teachers Voices is a key session of the Teachers Literature Festival designed to elicit teachers responses to the key question of what enables or discourages creativity in the classrooms and schools in their experiences .T hey were encouraged to talk about the issues that they face in the classrooms as teachers. This session was conducted by Ameena Saiyid, Mosharraf Zaidi, Aziz Kabani, Farida Zuberi, Sadiqa Salahuddin, Zubeida Mustafa, Swaleha Alam Shahzada. The panelists tried to stress on the importance of culturing a positive environment in classrooms which would ultimately result in fostering creativity and reading in students. Teachers’ and Literature The best part of the TLF was its variety in sessions which tried to address the various dimensions of a professional life of a teacher. A well attended session on Teacher’s Education and Literature was conducted by Shahid Siddiqui. Teachers participated very actively in this session by narrating examples of their own as well. Another similar enthusiastic session was by Shanta Dixit (Nepal) who enlightened the audience on comprehension through dramatics. The session addressed the importance of dramatics and that how doing comprehension via dramatics could yield good result. Heritage Heritage of any nation is a living narration of its customs and tradition. Owing to the same phenomenon, a literary session on Mobilizing Living Heritage from Our Literature was led by Zobaida Jalal, Attiya Dawood, Ayub Balouch. The session was moderated by CLF founder Baela Raza Jamil. Closing of Teachers’ Literature Festival Teachers’ Literature Festival ended with a session on making and rendition of the CLF taraana by Rakae Jamil. Rakae Jamil explained why he was motivated to compose the CLF Taraana. The session also included a short video of eminent poet, Zehra Nigah talking about her inspiration behind writing the CLF taraana. 1.01 Annex 10b: Detailed Report of Children’s Literature Festival Karachi Acknowledgments This report is compiled by the Children’s Literature Festival (CLF) team of Idara-e-Taleem-O-Aagahi (ITA) to share information regarding Children’s Literature Festival and Teachers’ Literature Festival Karachi 2014 with all its partners and friends. We are thankful to the entire team of Idara-e-Taleem-O-Aagahi (ITA), Oxford University Press (OUP) and Karachi Youth Initiative (KYI) for collaborating for the purpose of this unique social movement in order to promote a culture of reading, writing and critical thinking in each school of Pakistan. Together, the 3 organizations have organized a total of 10 CLFs together and the CLF Karachi was the 11th one and the first Teachers’ Literature Festival. We are profoundly thankful and grateful to our key sponsor Karachi Youth Initiative (KYI) for their generous support for the Children’s Literature Festival Karachi and Teachers’ Literature Festival Karachi. We hope that this partnership continues to grow and that CLF is held in every school in Karachi with the support of Karachi Youth Initiative. We are also extremely thankful to the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi and particularly the President of the Arts Council, Mr. Ahmed Shah for providing us the venue free of cost. The CLF Karachi would not have been such a huge success without the cooperation and support of the entire team of the Arts Council. We hope that the Arts Council becomes a permanent partner and venue for the CLF Karachi and we would wish for this association to continue for the common goal of promoting the love of reading among children and adults alike. This report discusses the highlights of the CLF and TLF Karachi in detail and serves to inform the reader about the overall event, acknowledge the people and organizations involved in making it a success and the challenges. Thank you! CLF Team 1. Introduction Idara-e-Taleem-O-Aagahi (ITA), Oxford University Press (OUP) in collaboration with Open Society Foundations (OSF), The Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi and the Karachi Youth Initiative (KYI) hosted the 11th Children’s Literature Festival and the 1st Teachers’ Literature Festival in Karachi in February 2014 at the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi. The Children’s Literature Festival is a social movement that seeks to promote reading, creativity and critical thinking among the youth of Pakistan. Children’s Literature Festival started as a response to the low level of learning as observed in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2008 -2012). Hence, the CLF seeks to inculcate the love of reading among the students through multi-sensory experiences. It is an equalizer; open to all students from all school systems. For the first time in Pakistan, Teachers’ Literature Festival was also held to embed skills of promoting reading in classrooms and school cultures. Teachers’ Literature Festival is workshop oriented and the main purpose of holding Teachers’ Literature Festival is to give workshops and trainings to teachers so that they implement the same in their respective schools. Idara-e-Taleem-O-Aagahi with Oxford University Press, Karachi Youth Initiative and the Arts Council of Pakistan want to extend their deepest gratitude to all the resource persons for their dedication and support in making Teacher’s Literature Festival and Children’s Literature Festival a huge success: Aafia Salam, Abdullah Aslam, Adal Soomro, Adeel Hashmi, Adnan Abbasi, Adnan Jaffar, Adnan Mubeen, Afrah Qureshi, Aftab Ahmed, Aisha Omer, Akber Zia,Ali Nasir Afridi, Alif Ailaan, Ameena Saiyid, Amra Alam, Anjaleen Agrawalla, Anjum Paul, Anusha Riaz, Asad Mian, Asad Mughni, Asif Farrukhi, Asif Sinan, Asif Sultan, Asma Mundrawala, Asma Sikander, Atif Badar, Attiya Dawood,Attiya Hussain, Ayesha Tariq, Ayub Baloch, Aziz Kabani, Azra Naseem, Baela Raza Jamil, Bareerah Hoorani Basarat Kazim, Batol Tunio, Batool Nasir, Beaconhouse School System, Bernadette Dean, Danish Faruqi, Dr.