One of my favorite events every year is LitWorld's World Read Aloud Day. This year we are celebrating on February 1st, 2018.
Over the last eight years, I have read, celebrated, learned, connected and created with others around the world in honor of World Read Aloud Day and literacy.
One of the best parts of World Read Aloud Day for me are the connections that libraries and school communities make with other children, teachers, librarians, authors, illustrators, and friends from around the world. Whether it is listening to them read, reading a book together, or singing along to the words, the celebration of reading aloud is what we lift up on this day.
When I was in the Van Meter Library, we connected with several of our favorite authors over the years, including Seymour Simon, Tom Angelberger, Cece Bell, Erica Perl, Donna Gephart, Laurel Synder, Jesse Klausmeier, and many others.
We Skyped with our friends in Iowa, Georgia, Chicago, Florida, Philadelphia, New York, Texas, Connecticut, Australia, China, Oman and others around the world.
During one of our visits to a school in Florida this year, we will be having a little "Pig Party," including farm themed books and eBooks—and a visit with a special Iowa friend named Bacon, a pot-bellied pig.
The Collaborative Google Doc
As you and your school community plan World Read Aloud Day, Andy Plemmons, Matthew Winner and myself have created a Google Document for all of us to start making plans with others around the world. This year we have done something that will be super helpful to all of you: there is now a Table of Contents for Time Zones, which will help when connecting and planning. Teachers and WRAD participants can click on the time zone that they want and the page will jump forward to the proper place in the Google Doc. Underneath a particular time zone, there is an area for users to add their information.
The World Read Aloud Day 2018 Google Doc can be found here.
Skype in the Classroom + Buncee
I also have a very special new project to share with you, from two of my favorite educational resources to use as a teacher and librarian, Buncee and Skype in the Classroom.
This year, Skype in the Classroom and Buncee are joining forces to celebrate World Read Aloud Day with a global literacy peace project for your library, classroom, and community.
As Buncee's Teacher Librarian Advocate and a Skype Master Teacher, I couldn't be more excited to share this news and to tell you how you and your students can be part of this project too.
It is called the Skype + Buncee Literacy Project! It is our brand new Buncee Buddies project to kick off 2018. Students will be collaborating, creating and sharing poems with an answer to the question, How Do I Model Peace In My Community?
As shared on the project page on the Skype in the Classroom site:
Words have the power to change our world. Reading & writing have the power to build bridges, foster understanding, and spark ideas. For World Read Aloud Day 2018, Skype in the Classroom and Buncee are asking you to join classrooms from all around to celebrate literacy by coming together to read, write, and spread peace.
Go to the Skype + Buncee Literacy Project page to read all of the details and register to join.
We are already sharing on the #skypebunceebuddies hashtag on social media, and don't forget to use the official hashtag, #WorldReadAloudDay, in your posts too.
Students' poems will be added to the Skype + Buncee Literacy Project Buncee Board, and I can't wait to read and share them too. You will find our Buncee Board here.
Remember, be creative and have fun with this project.
LitWorld would love for us to connect with authors through Skype in the Classroom for World Read Aloud Day, and this project is now part of the wonderful ways we can connect using Skype.
The sky is the limit and the possibilities to connect are endless. We will celebrate literacy while connecting and creating for World Read Aloud Day globally throughout the year with Buncee and Skype in the Classroom.
Empower your students to share peace in the community and throughout the world in 2018 by being part of our project too!
Have a wonderful time planning World Read Aloud Day, friends. I hope we get to connect too.
Shannon McClintock Miller is a teacher-librarian who serves as the Future Ready Librarians and Project Connect Spokesperson working with librarians, educators and students around the country, in person and online every day. She is Buncee's Teacher Librarian Advisor and Cantata Learning's Teacher Librarian Advocate. Shannon is the author of the award-winning The Library Voice blog and recently published her first four children’s books about library skills with Cantata Learning. And her most favorite thing: she is blessed mom and wife.