African Storybook
African Storybook [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] (ASb) is an initiative of Saide, a South African NGO involved in open education projects across sub-Saharan Africa. The idea of ASb developed over a period of 15 years in Reading Associations across Africa. It grew out of discussions between Judith Baker (a literacy activist from Boston, USA) and Dorcas Wepukhulu (who was a Kenyan teacher in Turkana, at the time). Judith and Dorcas were driven by the observing, ‘How can you learn to read without books? It’s like trying to learn soccer without a ball.’
ASb addresses the shortage of reading material in African languages by enabling African educators and language communities to create and publish their own books through its website with free storybooks and book publishing tools.
The rest of this section will take you through visiting the ASb website and finding a storybook title. (You will also register on the site, so that you are ready for Sections 5 and 6 of this course. It is free to register, but you will need data and good high-speed connectivity to be able to visit the website.)
Activity 2.5: Becoming familiar with the ASb website
Activity 2.6: Finding stories for early reading development
If possible, this is a good activity to do with a partner. You may also want to look at the downloadable resources for using the website and translating stories.
Go to the ASb website and find three or more stories in your language, at least one at Level 1 and at least one at Level 2. Download them on to your own computer or write down the titles.
If you can’t find stories in your language, choose English ones and translate them into your language using the website.
If you found a story in your language but not at the right level, adapt the story using the website.
You will be using storybooks that you have found on the ASb website throughout the rest of the course. So before you begin Section 3, spend some time finding and downloading stories or writing down the titles that you can refer back to later.
Storybooks as resources
