Category: World Read Aloud Day

World Read Aloud Day: Join the Fun!

11/22/2024

What is WRAD?
World Read Aloud Day will be celebrated on Feb. 5, 2025. The annual event was started in 2010 as a way to celebrate the joy of reading and to encourage the practice of reading aloud and sharing a good story together.

How do I get connected with an author?
Author Kate Messner organizes free, online author visits for World Read Aloud Day. Last year my school participated for the first time and it was a wonderful experience! I wanted to take time to explain how it all works and to share some tips on maximizing the event to get students excited about reading. To get connected with an author/illustrator offering a free Zoom visit, sign up for Kate Messner's newsletter. She announced (on the social network Blue Sky) that the list of participating authors/illustrators will be released next week and appointments are made on a first come/first served basis.

You can visit the World Read Aloud Day Activity Hub to find resources and activities.

How do I plan for a successful, impactful WRAD event?

Choose an author whose books you can purchase and have kids start reading before the event or who has books already in your collection.
Schedule 30-45 minutes with students for the event. (The actual time with the author is 15 minutes, but you can use the block of time to maximize the impact of the experience.)
Build excitement for the event. Tell kids you have an online author visit coming up. Create posters with the author’s name, photo, and book covers.

A week or a few days before:

Confirm with author. Create and share Zoom link.
Prepare a display of the author’s books along with read-alikes. Remind kids they can put a book on hold and try a read-alike.
Invite kids to write out questions for the author ahead of time. Choose 3-4 kids to ask their question.
Test tech ahead of time. If using Zoom, ask an off campus / out of district friend to try a Zoom meeting with you on the equipment you will use.

Day of:

Have kids come in early and get settled.
Tell a little about the author and their books. Explain how the visit will go. Our time is limited so we must be very quiet and good listeners during our Zoom. Explain the Q&A procedure.
Announce the students who will get to ask a question. Have them sit at the front of the room near the computer so the author can hear them. Let kids know who will ask the first question, who will ask the second, etc. Give them their question written out to read aloud. They may get nervous!

Enjoy your author session! Take photos or ask someone else to take photos.
Share more books this author has written. Ask: what is something surprising or interesting the author shared?
Share read-alikes. Point out display. Discuss how to place a hold.
I always like to end book promotion activities by saying to students: Turn to a neighbor and tell them a book you heard about today that you’d like to read.

Afterward:

Post photos on social media and tag the author, thanking them for their time. Share with others by writing an article for the newspaper, school newsletter, or school website.
Keep the display up for a couple of weeks or as long as interest stays high.
You could keep stats in circulation of books from display to show how WRAD impacted reading at your school.
Reflect on what worked, what could be improved, and make a note to do it again next year.

Last year's WRAD Zoom visit was with middle grade historical fiction author Marsha Skrypuch. I recommended historical fiction titles by Jennifer Nielsen and Alan Gratz as read-alikes. You can learn more about our amazing visit with the author here. You can view my slide presentation for last year's WRAD event here.

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World Read Aloud Day

2/10/2024

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Fifth- and sixth-grade students gathered in the Sterling Grade School Library on Feb. 7 to celebrate World Read Aloud Day with an online author visit from Marsha Skrypuch (pronounced skrip-ick). Skrypuch is a Ukrainian-Canadian writer of historical fiction novels such as Making Bombs for Hitler and Stolen GIrl.

She read aloud from her latest novel Winterkill, a story about the 1930s Russian invasion of Ukraine. Through questions asked by students, they learned that Skrypuch felt that the Ukrainians' story during World War II had not been told. Her mother-in-law, Lida, was living in Ukraine when Nazi soldiers took over her home to use as a headquarters. Lida was not allowed to leave the house and instead had to serve the soldiers. This family history inspired Skrypuch to write historical fiction for middle grade readers. She doesn't like overly simple stories and insteads writes books that respect the intelligence of young readers.

Students learned that Skrypuch conducts research through interviews and visiting libraries and archives where she can view historical documents. She is currently working on a new trilogy called Kidnapped from Ukraine, which "follows two sisters as they struggle to survive the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022" (description from Amazon.com). The first book will be published in Nov. 2024.

Through World Read Aloud Day activities, students learned more about Skrypuch's books as well as other popular historical fiction novels. By the end of the session, the room was buzzing with excitement and kids were discussing which books they wanted to read first.

"An author visit can really excite kids about reading," explained district librarian Amy Brownlee. "Getting to hear the inspiration behind the stories and learn about the research process creates a powerful motivation to read."

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World Read Aloud Day: Join the Fun!

World Read Aloud Day

Amy Brownlee

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