Materials Update #7 Flashcards & Picture Cards

It's official, we have given a CD of with 72 flashcards and 288 picture cards to the resource team for printing. Now we are waiting for quotes from printers. We will print 500 sets. With the flashcards and picture cards in hand we can actually start the program. The other materials are somewhat supplemental, although completely necessary from our perspective. At least with the flashcards and picture cards the teachers will have most of the raw material with which they can teach and run activities. This has been a VERY long process. Much much longer than we originally anticipated. From coming up with creative ideas for each of the cards, deciding on a list of sounds, blends, alternative spellings and common combinations, contracting out original illustrations for each of the 360 cards, designing the layout, and coming up with appropriate logos, etc. It has been an arduous although exciting process. I am hopeful that once all the materials are finished, this program will be a comprehensive and exciting tool kit for teachers and students. It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but each time we send off something for print, we get one step closer.

Materials Update #6: Flip and Blend Chart

Here are some pics of our materials that we've just gotten from the printers.

As students flip each page they can make new words by just changing 1-2 letters. Some of the words will be non-sensical, but the goal is to get them to start sounding out and reading words.


Sumangali is holding up a draft print out of two of our para cards. Parvathy is holding up the flip chart. The para card has a story about a cow on it, hence the reason why the flip chart says "moos".

Materials Update #5: Teacher Pic

Our revised and much improved 'teacher' picture.

Materials Update #4: Editing

With over 360 images, it has been a challenge to keep track of all our requests, the changes and the final images, although we have managed to keep it pretty well sorted. And our illustrators have been very patient with us and all our demands. Today I was going through the picture cards for a final edit to make sure there were no glaring errors--spelling, the wrong picture with the wrong word, etc. I thought we had finalized all the images, but for the word "teacher" this is what I found:



Eek! This is exactly the image of a 'teacher' we are trying to avoid. In our instructions to the illustrator we said that the teacher SHOULD NOT have a cane. But perhaps she misread it and thought it said 'should have a cane.' And for some reason this image didn't get sent to us in the initial preview, otherwise I'm sure we would have caught it. The last thing we want to do is promote the image of the teacher as having a cane and looking as if she is ready to beat a child. That may be a reality in many schools, but should not be reflecting in our materials. But it is comical that something like this almost got through. This just means we need to look at everything with a very fine tooth comb!

Materials Update #3: Printing

Good news! We have material. Our blending flip chart just arrived (pictures to be posted soon). The tool itself turned out pretty well. Several people in the office have already sat and started playing with it blending the different sounds together to make sensical and non-sensical words. However, the black ink quality isn't great and there are some smudges in places. We are going to complain to the printer, but now that we have already printed 500 there probably isn't much we can do.

Our sight word cards and sentences cards have also arrived. And while I haven't seen the final product, I'm told they look good.

Brief Hiatus--Back from the Himalayas

I've just returned from a 2 week hiatus in the mountains. The first week I was in Shimla saying good-bye to the 2008-2009 Clinton fellowship class. Soon I'll be welcoming the 2009-2010 class at orientation in September as I have extended my fellowship. The second week I was in Leh, Ladakh celebrating my transition from fellowship to fellowship thanks to the Wall Alumni Grant. It was a fabulous and much needed break from the office, the heat and the daily grind. Plus I got to wear socks and a hat while exploring the absolutely stunning mountain desert scenary. Although it was so dry up there that my skin was aching to get back to the humidity of Chennai. And my stomach was dying for some fresh curd after a possible bout with giardia. I'm back in the swing of things and our materials are starting to come back from the printers. FINALLY!