My heart is still in Africa

As I was checking my blog roll this morning I noticed that the creator of the Global Read Aloud Project had posted a new blog post. As my colleagues know, I love to create connections for my students with other students around the world. So far they have been communicating with other second graders in a different state as well as in Brazil! Well, I am very excited for the Global Read Aloud Project for next year and using it as a means of opening my students' eyes to the world around them. Anyways, I digress. I saw this post on the Global Read Aloud Blog and was amazed at the powerful connections that are made through this project. Take a look here and if you have time, come back and let me know what you think :)

One Book...Endless Connections

Have you ever heard of the Global Read Aloud? I hadn't until my professor pointed me in the direction of the Global Read Aloud Blog and after exploring their blog I couldn't find a reason not to participate in this project. Reading aloud to my students is one of the best parts of my day and my students enjoy it just as much. I never really knew the power of read alouds until this past year. Midway through this school year, due to schedule changes I suddenly had an extra half-hour to read aloud to my students. When selecting a book I wanted to find one that the students would lose themselves in. I found just that! I read aloud The BFG by Roald Dahl and for two weeks my students were transported into Giant Country. Every day they would beg me to read just one more chapter and inevitable learned the value and purpose of a cliffhanger! Since this story, my students have been anxious to get their hands on any and every book by Roald Dahl. One student begged her mother to take her to Barnes and Noble for her birthday so that she could buy more books by her favorite author Roald Dahl! The power of read alouds has truly taken over my classroom.

As I explored the Global Read Aloud blog I was searching for a way that I could incorporate this into my classroom and I was nervous about the ease of implementing this project when our curriculum is so packed as it is. What I found is that this project is truly what you make of it. The purpose is to connect teachers and students using one book. However, it has expanded to include more than one book to meet the needs of teachers across the grade levels. The blog was easy to maneuver around and I was able to access the list of book choices for the 2014 Global Read Aloud. After looking at the reviews and age level recommendations for the book options I decided to select The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo as it is written by an author that we do an author study on. Now that I have signed up to participate in the 2014 Global Read Aloud I am anxious to find activities and ways to prompt my students to reflect on the book on their own blogs next year. I am looking forward to this journey and using this project as a platform to get my students blogging next year using Kidblog. Check back for updates of the 2014 Global Read Aloud next school year!