According to founding organization LitWorld, over the last 10 years, World Read Aloud Day has evolved into a global movement of millions of readers, writers, and listeners from communities all across the world coming together to honor the joy and power of reading and sharing stories, and continue expanding the definition and scope of global literacy.
Learn how Clarke classrooms celebrated reading aloud:
Clarke Boston
Anne Woodman, a children’s librarian from the Canton Public Library, visited students at Clarke Boston. Anne organizes a local community storytime and share a few books with Clarke students. Young readers also heard from a student’s grandmother and students’ older siblings who embraced the opportunity to read aloud during the school day! View photos from the visit.
Clarke Jacksonville
Read aloud moments took place throughout the day at Clarke Jacksonville to recognize World Read Aloud Day and the importance of early literacy. The awareness day was celebrated with guest readers including Cindy Stover, North Florida Market President of TD Bank; Mark Newman, Clarke Jacksonville leadership council member and alumni dad; and Colleen Hoffman, author and former Clarke Jacksonville speech-language pathologist.
Students thoroughly enjoyed Hoffman’s book “The Loppy Adventures of Boogernose Joe.” The premise of the children’s book is to teach children how to navigate and understand figurative language through the adventures of best friends — who often take things a little too seriously. View photos from the visit.
Clarke Northampton
Eric Bennett read to 16 K-8 students this morning, from his Noodles & Albie series, focused on friendship and adventure with a penguin and a fish. The students were very attentive, asked great questions (“do penguins have teeth?”), showed Eric some other penguin-themed stories they enjoy reading at school and were very entertained by his descriptions of how penguins live, swim and eat in Antarctica. View photos from the visit.
Preschool students heard from Northampton-based author and illustrator Anna Alter. She read two of her books, “The Three Little Kittens” and “A Photo for Greta.” She talked to the preschoolers about what it means to be an author and an illustrator, and led the students through an interactive activity where they worked together to develop their own unique character. She prompted ideas from the students and added processors and a Baha, modeled after the children’s technology, which they proudly showed her so she could draw them. The children then presented Anna with a bouquet of flowers. They posed together next to their original “mermaid cat princess” illustration, autographed by the artist. Anna has taught art and book making to audiences of all ages: she has been a preschool teacher, held art classes for grade schoolers, and taught a course on children’s book illustration at the Montserrat College of Art. View photos from the visit.
Clarke Philadelphia
The Philadelphia team celebrated the second anniversary of their lending library on World Read Aloud Day. Students chose a book to take home and together read “What Would Danny Do,” an interactive book that empowers children to make good choices.
