Reading Tree (OKA)
Project Data
2014 - 2023
Elementary School
Statistics show that reading habits in our country are not at a sufficient level. According to the Unesco report, the reading rate in Turkey is 0.01% compared to 21% in Europe; in other words, one in ten thousand. In order to find a solution to this problem and to foster the love and habit of reading at an early age, we produced the Reading Tree Series, consisting of 80 books at 12 different levels for primary school students. With the production and distribution of OKA, we aimed to achieve the following gains:
- Developing the desire, pleasure and habit of reading
- Developing the desire, habit and skill of writing
- Improving illustration and visual expression
- Addressing different levels in the same class
- Bringing solutions for unified classrooms
The most important difference of this series is that all the stories are centered around a family and the protagonists are elementary school-aged children. Other strengths are the depth of the series, the well-planned transitions between levels, the connections between the curriculum and real life, and the richness of vocabulary. The real-life scenarios in which students can easily relate the stories to their own lives, joys and dreams played a very important role in developing the love of reading and the desire to write.
OKA 2018-21
After completing the production of the series, we first aimed to create a platform for online use. While we were working on the infrastructure for the software of the platform, we encountered two different demands and needs. With the request of Muğla Directorate of National Education, on the one hand, the distribution of the books as printed sets came to the agenda, on the other hand, the need to produce learning materials for the online platform to be used in classrooms emerged. As Vakıf k12, we undertook these two projects after OKA`s production.
OKA Türkiye
Reading Tree is a project of Vakıf k12. In line with the founding purpose of Vakıf k12, we tried to bring the books of the Reading Tree series to students studying in the more disadvantaged regions of our country. Within the scope of the OKA Türkiye Project, we distributed 752,000 books to more than 142 thousand students in 6 provinces.
OKA Learning
The most powerful feature of Reading Tree as a series is the learning designs prepared for books and classes that are compatible with the curriculum of the Ministry of National Education. In addition to annual plans and unit matching, the learning designs include daily lesson plans, learning materials and assessment and evaluation activities. In addition, the writing program and materials are designed for each grade according to the text objectives of the Ministry of National Education curriculum.
OKA 2020-23
Reading Tree was originally planned as 12 levels and 80 books. We completed the writing and illustrating of Reading Tree Phase I between 2015-2018. As we shared the books and the series, we realized that we needed more books with different themes and topics. In addition, we observed that increasing the number of books was an important requirement, especially in the lower grades and levels. With these needs in mind, we planned the writing and illustrating of READ Phase II. In READ Phase II, we increased the number of books from 80 to 214, as well as adding an additional level to the existing one (level 3+). In our selection of topics and themes, we tried to explore the curriculum as well as daily life and prominent social issues at a level that the age group would understand. We added many stories on topics such as animal rights, environmental issues, science and technology, and social responsibility to the different levels of the series.
While conducting Phase II, which aims to increase the number of books in the series to 214, we also started the production of the Fables series to help students learn idioms and proverbs, develop different perspectives and improve their ability to analyze them. We completed the series of 104 fables books in total within the scope of OKA Phase II. With the learning activities and questions we added at the end of these books, we made these stories compatible with the curriculum.