WRAD13

Part of our celebration of WRAD13 was having fun making our own “Harlem Shake” videos–but with an emphasis on reading. Here they are! (I called it the “NYC SHIMMY” so all the distasteful videos wouldn’t pop up along with it on YouTube.)

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{My words on this site are in green. All others are borrowed from the LitWorld site.}

I’m psyched to be involved in World Read Aloud Day this year. Here is a small collection of  videos and information to prepare us for the day. Most of this information is found on the LitWorld site. Please have a look.

The following statistics come from  http://www.uis.unesco.org/Literacy/Pages/default.aspx.  

{Go all the way to the bottom of this page for more interesting statistical graphics.}

Worldwide at least 793 million people remain illiterate. Two-thirds of them are women. All over the world, children are hungry for learning and for the power it brings. Research shows that children learn to read and write best by writing and telling the stories of their own experiences. Yet it is rare to find safe spaces where children feel fully comfortable to do so.

LitWorld is changing that.

Read It Forward on World Read Aloud Day
Celebrate by reading aloud, giving away a book, or taking action in any way you can to Read It Forward on behalf of the 793 million people who cannot read.

Imagine a world where everyone can read…

World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people.

By raising our voices together on this day we show the world’s children that we support their future: that they have the right to read, to write, and to share their words to change the world.

It’s time to join the Global Literacy Movement.

Just in case you think this is just a girl thang—and really, would something be wrong with that?—LitWorld has LitClubs for boys as well.

Pam Allyn, founder and executive director of LitWorld wrote a beautiful article in Huffington Post. Her last paragraph was my favorite:

When you participate in World Read Aloud Day on March 6, you will be reading alongside your global brothers and sisters in New York City, Port-au-Prince, Nairobi, Manila, Huanchaco, Pristina, Kumasi and many more cities — celebrating the power of shared words, and the human right of literacy that belongs to all people.

It’s not so much that Skyping with an author or reading aloud together on Wednesday will make a huge difference in our lives. But reading aloud and sharing words on this day is about standing together in solidarity with people around the world who are working to make their lives better through literacy and education. They are our global brothers and sisters.

Speaking of global brothers and sisters, here is a very cool site that shows classrooms from around the world. Amazing. Here is one picture from the site:

 Joining my classes for WRAD13 will be:

 Joanne Levy, author of:

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Matthew Cody, author of:

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Tanya Lee Stone, author of:

And many more…

<div class=’visually_embed’ data-category=’Education’ rel=’interactive’>
<img class=’visually_embed_infographic’ src=’http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/literacy-rates-around-the-world_502919a6216e3_w587.jpg&#8217; rel=’http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/literacy-rates-around-the-world_502919a6216e3.jpg&#8217; alt=’Literacy rates around the world’ />
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<span class=’visually_embed_cycle’><a href=”http://visual.ly/literacy-rates-around-world/?utm_source=visually_embed”>Literacy rates around the world infographic</a> <span>by </span> <a target=’_blank’ href=’http://www.unesco.org?utm_source=visually_embed’>unesco</a&gt;.</span>
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