Mahadevi Birla World Academy arranges literary fest to encourage students to read
Telegraph | 3 February 2025
To encourage children to read at a time when schools are struggling to cultivate their interest in reading, a Calcutta school hosted a literary festival where the first step was to read a book, followed by activities centred around it.
From decrypting cryptograms, and making a three-level game to solving riddles and hunting for a treasure, the activities were based on the book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery that they had to read to be able to participate in the festival organised by Mahadevi Birla World Academy on its premises.
Students from Classes III to V from 11 schools participated in the one-day festival on January 31.
“We felt that we had to make them interested in it rather than only making it an isolated reading activity. When they read a book and gamified it, that would immediately attract their attention. They have to read the book, understand the plot, the characters and how they would use those in life,” said Nupur Ghosh, vice principal, Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
The Class V students took an hour to design a five-minute game with two or three levels.
A team from The BSS School created a game where the prince had to walk through a maze to reach his rose. “You also have three lives,” said Labanya Mallik, when a teacher hit a wall while trying to navigate through the maze using the arrow keys.
The team from Birla High School, Mukundapur, designed a game where the fox had to be saved.
“It took us about an hour to design this game. We chose to make a game where the player will have to save the fox,” said Shourya Jana.
In another activity, the children had to design their planet. “They had to pick up elements from the book. They would not be able to finish an activity if they haven’t read the book,” said Ghosh.
The idea was to help them learn without making it a textbook activity, said Sarbani Sarkar, junior school coordinator.
“If they had to answer questions or summarise the book after reading it they would not be so interested in it. We wanted them to learn but in a fun way where that is happening organically instead of the children thinking that they are learning,” she said
When designing their planet as part of the activity, they had to give the total of the vertices of the shapes that they were making.
It was a way to link STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), with their everyday work and at their level, said Ghosh.
In the book, the little prince also sets out on a tour to different asteroids in space and encounters several characters through which he explores the various aspects of human nature, a teacher said.
For most activities, the students were divided into teams and each member was from a different school. “They had to collaborate,” said Elizabeth P. Sarkar, primary school coordinator.