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I use a version of this slideshow every year to introduce my students to the key things to remember when reading a book out loud. Barack Obama's spirited reading of "Where the Wild Things Are" is a great model for students to emulate before they practice in partnerships, and I usually model for them too and give volunteers an opportunity to read to the class and get praise and constructive feedback.
Since 2010, when I was still in college, I have been volunteering with LitWorld, a nonprofit organization that promotes self empowerment and community advancement through the power of literacy. I was formerly a co-chair of the LitWorld Young Professionals Network, and have since become a member of LitWorld's Advisory Council.
For the last seven years, I've celebrated World Read Aloud Day in my classroom. Sometimes that has taken the form of bringing my middle and high school students to elementary schools to read aloud to younger students; in pandemic years, I've worked with my school librarian to bring authors into our classrooms for virtual read alouds and discussions about the writing and publishing process.
I hope this page will give you inspiration and resources to host your own World Read Aloud Day celebration in February of 2023!
To add to the festive spirit, students can make "reading crowns" and either wear them themselves or give them as gifts to younger students. I have students decorate them with the names of favorite books or drawings of favorite characters.
Clockwise from top left, Tina Mowrey, a children's book author and fellow teacher at Canyon Vista Middle School, shares her most recently published book, "My Family Tree Has Roots". Above, excerpts from Tina's writer's notebook, where she talked to us about the importance of a messy first draft followed by many iterations of revisions. In the picture at the bottom left, Keely Hutton shares her plot diagramming method to map different character perspectives in her book, "Secret Soldiers", set in the trenches of World War I.
In 2019, students at Lab Middle School for Collaborative Studies in New York walked uptown to read to younger students at P.S. 33 Chelsea Prep in Manhattan.
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