The Sara Books

I don’t think there is any simple solution to teaching, but there is one teaching aide that has been remarkable to my life skills classes – the Sara books.

In the second quarter of the school year, I focused on HIV and AIDS and after evaluating them, I was disappointed with how many students did not understand what we were doing for the entire quarter because of their level of English. A few of them not knowing how to construct sentences or write anything relating to HIV/AIDS. (And HIV/AIDS is a topic that is taught in science class in primary and secondary school levels so everything that I taught was just reviewing using activities.) So for my form A (the lowest) classes, I decided to change my life skills classes to more of an English practice class. I needed to think of different ideas, and that is when I found the Sara books, dusty, sitting in the back of a shelf in the staff room.

The Sara Books are a series of comic books that follow a girl named Sara through various adventures that teach about life skills. There is an entire set of materials written for African students that illustrate situations that are relatable to African students. This includes videos, books and comic books, but I have only used the comic books. They were written by a team of African writers, researchers and UNICEF personnel, and produced by the UNICEF-ESARO’s Communication for Behavior and Social Change Section. The books discuss HIV, teenage pregnancy, and peer pressure in a relevant way.

I began to give the students in my lowest classes the books to read during class. These books allow students on every level to be engaged and practice their English. I made them read out loud (in pairs) and I have heard even the quietest shyest students speaking English almost the entire 40-minute period. I started to bring the books in to the upper classes (per their requests!), which is nice because we can also have discussions. And it also is a great tool for bringing up sensitive topics. Most importantly, they LOVE to read!

When we have a reading day in class, the entire class stays (relatively) focused and busy. They ask me when they don’t understand words and sometimes they write them down and tell me that they are going to use those words for English class. They sing or hum when the voice bubbles have musical notes in them. They make funny voices for certain characters. They get wrapped up into the book and show instant reactions – gasping at something surprising, voicing their concern, and laughing out loud. Their reactions show just how important learning materials can be; their curiosity and excitement motivate me throughout the roughest days. Watching my students read has been an unexpected pleasure and the Sara books have not only been a huge hit with the students, but have brought a lot of joy and ease to me too.