Can a Scottish novel about a magical boy help children learn English? Can stories transform learning?
It was these questions that led Samridhi Nair, Circle Entrepreneur-in-Residence from the Cohort of 2023 to dream of building an after-school program called Step2Words in Pune.
In Chandigarh, Samridhi was at the brink of pursuing an academic career in Physics. It was the Teach for India fellowship that pushed her to move to the city of Pune and it was here that classrooms began to tug at her heart to take up teaching as her full-time occupation. During her fellowship in the classrooms of Pune, she had noticed that several students of hers were unable to read or string together a few words in English. These students were behind their peers by several learning levels and it became evident to Samridhi that the current medium of delivering English was not serving these students holistically. Samridhi recounted her days as a student as she shared, “If I go back to my school days, I recall learning the best through storytelling and I was sure I could share that with my students.” This nudged her to helm “Project Peter Pan” where she introduced Peter Pan as a novel to her students and began to put together a theater showcase with her students. In a class with merely 7% mastery over reading and comprehension, Samridhi had taken up an audacious challenge that was to sow the seeds of her future organization. In Project Peter Pan, Samridhi’s students immersed themselves into each part of the theater showcase right from understanding the characters, learning how to emote at the right time and in the right tone to crafting the costumes and the set design with old question papers and rice batter.
After Project Peter Pan’s showcase, these students were assessed for their reading and comprehension levels and these students displayed an incredible 73% mastery over English, strengthening Samridhi’s belief that theater could have a transformational impact on students and their command over English. Samridhi shares “We did not prepare for the assessment. We didn't prepare for their passages or their story. We did Peter Pan, a fictional novel set in a completely different world which has nothing to do with the curriculum. These results had completely taken us aback.”
Immersing themselves in the process of understanding the characters and delivering long dialogues in English had allowed the class to internalize English as a method of expression. Samridhi recalls Vaibhav, one such student who played a role in Project Peter Pan. She vividly remembers that Vaibhav was a student who was supposed to be promoted from 7th Grade to 8th Grade but he was struggling to read, write, or speak English, scoring much lower than his peers. In Project: Peter Pan, Vaibhav was given the role of the antagonist who had the longest dialogues in the play. Samridhi tells me that he was able to recall every dialogue in English and had shown remarkable progress throughout the rehearsal of the play. Samridhi is still in touch with Vaibhav and she says that today, Vaibhav has passed his 10th Grade with 83% and he dreams of being a theater artist. Samridhi tells me with a sense of pride and joy, “Vaibhav is out there and he didn’t drop out of the system.”
It is this sentence that truly captures the transformational impact of Project Peter Pan on her students. While the numbers showed an incredible leap from 7% to 73% mastery over reading and comprehension, what it really said was that if students were given the reins to curate their own stories, it would allow them to develop a deeper relationship with English as a language.
Samridhi’s students in Project Peter Pan that was staged on 25 April, 2022
It was Project Peter Pan that crystallized the idea that English didn’t have to be restricted to pages of a notebook. English could go beyond the curriculum and become something that children would be able to immerse themselves in. For Samridhi, this is where Step2Words was born. Samridhi applied to The Circle’s Incubation and was able to bring this idea to life in Pune.
Samridhi and her students during her Teach for India Fellowship in Pune.
At Step2Words, Samridhi wants children to be able to access English through performing and contemporary arts. Through an arts-based literacy program, Step2Words primarily works with students who are three-four years behind their peers in terms of learning. At Step2Words, their goal is to make sure these students don’t leave the educational system because of their learning gaps, but are able to develop a strong command over English, allowing them to become confident and creative learners.
Samridhi is certain that English is not a subject but a skill. A skill that children from underserved communities are unable to display proficiency in because 4 out of 6 subjects are taught entirely in English. If a child can’t read and decode the English alphabets in front of them, how would that same child solve a Math problem or understand a Physics numerical that was written entirely in English? Samridhi tells me that because these students were unable to perform well on their tests, it was forcing their schools to fail them after 8th Grade, essentially pushing them out of the educational system.
Opening Circle at Step2Words where children describe how they are feeling
It is these students that Samridhi works with at Step2Words. She believes that changing how English is taught in India is essential to bridging literacy gaps for students who are dropping out of school. At the moment, Step2Words is focusing on theater and visual arts as the experiential medium that brings English to life.
“Theater and visual arts enable a safe space for a child. It allows the child to express more creatively and uniquely. And stage performances are incredibly useful in instilling confidence in children. At Step2Words, we believe that learning English should be an experience and not a course that they're doing. So, theater and visual arts enable that experience where they can collaborate with their peers, engage in meaningful discussions and create something of their own.”
Samridhi says that the real challenge is to ensure that students are not intimidated by English. Due to the nature of the communities they come from, students often view English as something that is elusive and beyond their capabilities to master. It is this that Samridhi wants to change. She believes that theater will help them curate an experience of the English language that is more personalized and enriching. Samridhi quips “It’s not just about making them literate. It is about developing an inherent zeal for learning in them. We want these students to stay in the system, pursue higher education and create a life for themselves that nobody in their communities had access to.”
Smiling Students at Step2Words
Reflecting on her experience as a Circle Entrepreneur in her journey of building Step2Words, Samridhi describes her experience as one that “exceeded her expectations.” Samridhi believes that her journey as entrepreneur in The Circle’s Incubation has allowed her to curate a holistic curriculum with intentionality that allows her to fuel Step2Words today. Through the Step2Words curriculum, Samridhi wants her students to feel like they have autonomy to create. As students write and enact diverse characters, Samridhi finds that it allows her students to access lives that are completely different from theirs. This, in turn, instills empathy in them and encourages them to see the merit in fostering harmony in their own communities.
Samridhi Nair, Circle’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Cohort 2023
Through Step2Words, Samridhi wants her students to be catalysts for change in their communities and be inclusive, thoughtful and tolerant leaders of tomorrow. Her dream for India through Step2Words doesn’t exist in a silo. She is certain that collaboration with other nonprofits, organizations and governments will create an ecosystem where each organization leverages off each other to work towards the larger goal of eradicating illiteracy in India. Samridhi explains that they are working to slowly build an ecosystem like this through the Step2Words Educator Lab, where they curate workshops and invite guests who shed light on how the arts can allow students to have an enriching learning experience of the English Language. English is today, a tool for upward mobility. For students from underserved communities, English is the stepping stone to access better lives. In a world that is more competitive than ever, Samridhi is certain that no student deserves to be left behind.
When I asked her what the India of her dreams looked like, Samridhi replied with a sparkle in her eyes, “I imagine an India where there is no literacy gap. I imagine an India where a child doesn’t have to drop out of school because they are not literate.”
Samridhi’s dream shouldn't be highlighted as an audacious one, it is one that can come true if all of us actively commit to it.
Way to go, Samridhi. Step2Words is making a telling impact in the lives of children who struggle with language. What a beautiful way to enable them to learn, build confidence and gain fluency and mastery.
Brilliant and very inclusive initiative . Many Congratulations on that to Samridhi and team . Excellent article , inked the journey and achievements so well . Very well done .