It is only one week until the l
aunch of The Global Read Aloud! We were so honored that during this busy time, Pernille Ripp, founder of The Global Read Aloud was able to join us for part of our discussion of The Global Read Aloud. If you missed the live session, please listen to the recording here.
Recording of TLP-C The Global Read Aloud using Blackboard Collaborate
or watch here for video only
[kaltura-widget uiconfid=”11958342″ entryid=”1_29gjsjrw” width=”400″ height=”333″ align=”center” /] We began the session by describing what TLP-C is and what our goals are. If you are already familiar with us, you might want to skip ahead to minute 9:49. If you’re reading this and wondering what The Global Read Aloud is, let us clear things up a bit. The Global Read Aloud is an opportunity to read a book at the same time as other classrooms around the world. As the classroom teacher, you decide how you want to connect with other classrooms. It is a great opportunity to give students a global perspective, let them write for authentic audiences and connect with a book in a powerful way.
It was wonderful to hear from Pernille directly about how she got the idea to create the Global Read Aloud. I think we got a real sense of her passion for reading and for turning students into readers; as well as a sense of how big this project has become. When talking about how the Global Read Aloud impacts students, Pernille said,
“It starts a revolution in their brain that all of a sudden leads to them identifying as readers and writers.”
Looking for advice about the Global Read Aloud? “Do it, ” says Pernille. Just get involved. Read the book and try one tool.
In addition to Pernille joining us, classroom teacher, Denise Radomski, also joined in for this information-packed session. Denise teaches sixth grade at George Washington Middle School and participated in The Global Read Aloud last year. Melissa King, Technology Integration Specialist, also shared her thoughts since some teachers she works with will be joining The Global Read Aloud this year.
We had fun sharing ideas about why it is valuable to participate in The Global Read Aloud. We also had loads of tips and tricks to share that will guide anyone who is new to the project. The best part of this program is that you can really pick your level of involvement. Maybe you’ll just read the book with your student and read what other classes are doing as part of their read aloud. Maybe you’ll find another class in another school that wants to share ideas about the book through Skype, Edublogs, Padlet, WriteAbout or some other virtual format.
Let us know if you join the project this year. We’d love to hear about your experiences, the excitement and the challenges.
I truly enjoyed this session. What a great idea to collaborate with other classrooms across the globe to read and write while sharing global perspectives. I think I could use the Global Read aloud in my classes and connect other students from around the world who are learning a new language to share experiences and understand cultural differences. Thank you.
Inspired by a conversation with my school’s TIS and this session, I had my class participate in the Global Read Aloud this year, and it ended up being an amazing way to start the year. My 5th grade TAG reading class used WriteAbout quite a bit throughout the process, and it was a valuable learning tool for them in more ways than I had expected. They expressed their ideas about the book, but more than that, they replied to the ideas of others. Some other students’ posts were inspiring to them, but actually, most of the posts they reacted to dealt with the gender of the main character in the book I read, Fish, which was never revealed. My students were shocked by the responses from some students from other countries, which my students considered to be sexist. This led to some valuable conversations about the cultural differences in ideas like that; and led my students to write culturally respectful responses that defended their own beliefs.
Also, during the Global Read Aloud, one of my students became personally connected with a motif that is prevalent in the book Fish – of the struggle of refugees – and he found himself researching more about what is currently going on with Syrian refugees and the struggles they are enduring. He ended up bringing in a few articles that led to more conversation among our class as well.
I also often posted my students’ written work on my Twitter account using the Global Read Aloud hashtag, as well as tagging the author of the book, and more than once the author “favorited” our posts. Overall, the Global Read Aloud was amazing because it not only exposed my class to some important themes that are relevant in our world, but it gave them a chance to learn and interact with the perspectives of students from all over the world on them – and moreover, they heard from the author herself that their thoughts about her book were important – and that inspired them to continue thinking more deeply about it. I can’t wait to participate again next year!
It was a great experience to connect with other classes for the Global Read Aloud. From this session I learned about Mystery Skype and how to use it in the classroom. My students had an awesome time going through and trying to figure out where our partner class was from. We also used Padlet for the first time to discuss parts of the book as well as some of the characters. Students enjoyed sharing their ideas as well as reading those posted by others. Students tended to have a high interest in reading Padlet posts from peers at other schools in other states. What a great experience! The Global Read Aloud is absolutely something I would like to try again with my class.