In this time of social isolation, we have been engaged in a number of long distance activities and discussions. Sharing some of these below.
About Stories
Like the fish that is not aware of the water, in our day to day work, we rarely pause to think about stories. The lockdown enabled us to offer an in-house workshop on the role of stories in our lives, the relationship with stories that affect our response to stories and the nature of stories. We read, discussed, reflected and kept Sujata busy with finding creative ways to get the entire team engaged in online mode.
Saturday Games
Every Saturday for the past month, we worked in small groups to participate in Games that involved Bookworm’s richest resource, the collection. Teams that had good readers did better than others but always there was the spirit of fun and camaraderie present. Games included scavenger hunts from books, cryptic clues for decoding a mystery message, crosswords and search and finds.
Stitching in Isolation
Stitching is an honoured act at Bookworm with that of reading. Every team member was requested to stitch with some constraints and some intimate representations emerged.
Book Talks
The act of sharing Book Talks is a very practiced skill at Bookworm. Accessing the internet to upload and share proved to be arduous for many of us. However, a nice archive of different kinds of BookTalks were shared and we know will be used for programs at Bookworm to teach and learn.
Book Reviews
Our super mentor Usha Mukunda guided us with a refreshing idea around Book Reviews. We worked on books that we did not particularly enjoy and used the act of writing to uncover surprises or reinforce ideas that were more instinctive initially. All of us who participated know that our writing, reading and thinking skills were enhanced by the close and loving attention of a super mentor.
Paired Discussions
The Bookworm team worked in pairs to select a text that was read by the larger team and analysed and discussed over online spaces. In the process many of us read and reflected on selections we never have engaged with. We also had opportunity for dialogue and reflection that have never presented themselves to us in this way in the past and the richness of learning from and with each other will sustain us.
Censorship Challenge
As an exercise in challenging our own personal biases and thoughts, in groups we discussed a set of picture books that have been challenged or banned for varied reasons. In the inter group sharing that followed, we discussed the different critical lenses through which a book could be looked at, and unearthed an awareness of our own personal reasons why we might be discomforted by a book.