World Read Aloud Day is three weeks away:

Write about the event on your Facebook, Twitter, or Blog, and change your social media avatars to the WRAD Badge to rally your friends and colleagues to act for Global Literacy! Send our WRAD 2012 Kit to interested friends, family, and colleagues.

Check out the full schedule for our signature New York City WRAD event at Books of Wonder, which will feature read-aloud sessions by special guest authors (Walter Dean Myers, Katherine Paterson, and Peter Lerangis, to name a few!) and include exciting workshops on pop-up book making, spoken word poetry, creative writing, and more. Each child will receive one free ticket to win an awesome prize from our ongoing WRAffle, and Clifford the Big Red Dog will be present. So should you! Those who cannot make the event will be able to watch the day's events streamed live online!

Thursday, May 10, 2012 ~ 6:30-9pm
The Metropolitan Pavilion
Metropolitan Suite, 2nd Floor
123 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
Cocktails, Hors D'oeuvres, Live Music, Paddle Raiser & Silent Auction

RSVP early on our LitWorld Gala 2012 page.

“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.”

- By Kofi Annan (Ghanaian diplomat, secenth secretary-genearl of the United Nations, 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.)

Pam will be examining Common Core State Standards as a lever and a tool for transforming classroom life as states transition to fewer, higher standards to ensure that students are college- and career-ready.

The conference also includes case study and best practices in school improvement seminars presented by current educators, sessions on implementing the Common Core effectively, as well as large session conversations and presentations focused on educator effectiveness, continuous improvement, and increasing teacher engagement.

This World Read Aloud Day, we invite our Global Community to ponder on the question, "What Would the World be Like if Everyone Could Read?" Above, view some responses from adults to children alike, and hear their perspectives on how reading could transform the world for the better. Then, it's YOUR turn! Share your written responses and video links with LitWorld on Facebook (facebook.com/litworld) and Twitter (twitter.com/litworldsays)! We'd love to share on our website! We look forward to hearing what you have to say!

In the wake of yesterday's incredible "Internet Blackout" over the disturbing SOPA and PIPA bills, we are left thinking deeply about censorship. Recently, Tucson banned a set of books that represent the diverse community that makes up this country. We at LitWorld are outraged by the actions being taken in Tucson. These books share important lessons, theories, and ideologies, and banning them in school is an injustice to our students. We embrace the diversity of our country, and we believe that all stories have the right to be heard. Our students deserve an education that allows for the representation of a diverse cultural history that reflects the beauty of our multi-ethnic society.

As we officially take a stand against the Tucson book banning, we encourage you, our community, to go out and support the 7 books that are being banned:

Critical Race Theory, by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic
500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, edited by Elizabeth Martinez
Message to Aztlán, by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales
Chicano! The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement, by F Arturo Rosales
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, by Rodolfo Acuña
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire
Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, by Bill Bigelow

Please buy copies of these books today, encourage your friends to do the same, and spread the message that book banning is no way to teach our children.

We hope you will stand with us in protecting our students' rights to access these important, groundreaking books that will fuel their education.

Read more here.

A special thanks to the team at Customized Stickers for reaching out to us and contributing to the LitWorld story...

793 million adults worldwide lack basic reading and writing skills. This World Read Aloud Day, the globe will connect like never before. Let us together read and share to advocate for the power of words and stories.

The World Read Aloud Day countdown starts now!
 

Be sure to Register and check out our Activities and Recommendations where you can download our WRAD badge, flyers, worksheets, recommendations, certificates, and more to help spark your World Read Aloud Day preparations and celebrations!

Be sure to check out all the World Read Aloud Day links on the right-hand side, learn about our Signature Event at Books of Wonder in New York City, where there will be exciting workshops and special guest authors all day long on March 7. Read about our WRADvocate Ambassadors who will spearhead WRAD efforts in their communities and act as liaisons to local citizens, and visit our WRAD Blog for detailed profiles on our WRADvocates and for tips on how to spread the word about the big day. Sign up for a LitWorld Video Chat if you represent a group of students who would like to connect with a special guest reader, or if you are an author, blogger, poet, or other community leader who would like to read to a classroom, and check out our Live Orange Broadcast Series Event and our World Read Aloud Day Event on Facebook.

Our Live Orange Broadcast Series is back to start 2012 off on a powerful note! On January 17th, 2012 at 7PM, we are airing our first Live Orange Broadcast of the year with an episode entitled "The Raw Power of Words: The Art of Spoken Word in the Classroom". To RSVP, and to find more details, please visit the RSVP page here.

In this spoken word edition of the Live Broadcast, we will be interviewing New York City's Youth Poet Laureate of 2012, Ishmael Islam, who will be joined by internationally renowned spoken word performance artist and HBO Def Poetry Jam Veteran Kelly Tsai. Both artists are highly involved with Urban Word NYC, an organization dedicated to elevating youth literacy and voice through the poetry and hip-hop movement. In this broadcast, our guest poets will share their perspectives on their literary art form, how they use it to engage their audiences and students in the classroom, and how spoken word gives one the ability to connect with words in ways other mediums can't.

Hosted by Literacy Expert and LitWorld Executive Director Pam Allyn, this episode will give insight in how spoken word poetry can be used as a teaching tool to empower students.

Things to describe Ishmael 'Ish' Islam: Poet, MC, filmmaker, graphic artist, the coolest nerd, and Brooklyn bred. The nineteen year old multimedia artist is currently in his third year of college, and already has taken an array of steps to become a profound artist of his generation. He's one of the 2010 Brave New Voices slam champions (as seen on HBO) through the Urban Word NYC youth poetry movement. He's a 2011 Knicks Poetry Slam Third Place winner, produced an award winning short film Departure from a Love in 2009, and has a one man show entitled The Self Spell. Ish is also one half of Brooklyn hip-hop duo HumUni (hyoom-yoo-ni). Most recently, he has become the 2012 Youth Poet Laureate of New York City. However, Ish feels all the accolades won’t be as fulfilling as his ultimate goal. With creativity, humility, and a good heart, to contribute to the progression of social consciousness and culture not only for his native Brooklyn, but one day the world at large.

About Kelly Tsai: Spoken word artist Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai has been featured in over 450 performances worldwide at venues including the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the House of Blues, the Apollo Theater, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and three seasons of the award-winning “Russell Simmons Presents HBO Def Poetry.” The author of Inside Outside Outside Inside (2004), Thought Crimes (2005), No Sugar Please (2008), and the CD’s Infinity Breaks (2007) and Further She Wrote (2010), Tsai has shared stages with Mos Def, KRS-One, Sonia Sanchez, Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, Amiri Baraka, Harry Belafonte, and many more.  (www.yellowgurl.com)

RSVP NOW: Click here to access the RSVP page

The Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly agreed to designate October 11 as the International Day of the Girl to be observed every year beginning in 2012! In a resolution presented by Canda, the General Assembly invites Member States, the UN system, other international organizations and civil society to observe the International Day of the Girl and to raise awareness of the situation of girls around the world. Click here to read more at Xperedon Charity News.

LitWorld celebrated International Day of the Girl this past September 22 by having everyone Stand Up for Girls at noon. We're thrilled to see this day get officially ordained on the calendar for years to come!