Convent of the Sacred Heart’s Lower and Middle Schools participated in World Read Aloud Wednesday, March 4 in the Middle School Core Center to celebrate literacy and the benefits of reading aloud. Kindergarten students read their favorite books to fifth grade students during the hour-long event.
According to litworld.org, reading aloud to children every day places them a school year ahead of children who are unable to receive daily readings, regardless of parental income, education standard or cultural background.
Executive Director of LitWorld, Mrs. Pam Allyn, founded the nonprofit in 2007 after visiting poverty stricken Nairobi, Kenya. While there she observed the urgent desire children had to read, write and share their stories. They could not fulfill these hopes, however, because they were faced with the barrier of economic adversity. She then developed World Read Aloud Day and LitClubs, two of LitWorld’s core programs, in 2010.
World Read Aloud Day calls a global attention to the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories. More than one million people in 80 countries celebrate the event, which also reaches over 31 million people online each year, according to litworld.org.
In addition to celebrating storytelling, the day also highlights the need for libraries and community centers as crucial spaces to foster literacy.
Sacred Heart has celebrated World Read Aloud Day since LitWorld founded the event in 2010.
Katie Nail ’16
“It is a day to celebrate our freedom to read and to acknowledge that literacy is a basic human right,” Head Librarian and Director of the Media Center Ms. Elizabeth Fernandez said. “Celebrating World Read Aloud Day is a chance to participate in the global literacy movement, and at the same time, enjoy the simple pleasure of sharing stories aloud.”
In past years, the Sacred Heart Upper School celebrated World Read Aloud Day by distributing fortune cookies with a “read aloud” fortune inside and foreign language classes had poetry readings to promote the day.
This year, kindergarten students from two different classes filed into the Middle School Core Center with their favorite stories in hand. They proceeded to pick a fifth grade reading buddy to share their story with.
“I can’t think of a better demonstration of the sisterhood across divisions at Sacred Heart,” Head of Lower School Mrs. Christine D’Alessandro said. “If it is through literacy that girls can be empowered then it really captures what we’re about at Sacred Heart.”
– Katie Nail, News Editor
Sacred Heart celebrates World Read Aloud Day
A Kindergarten student readers a story to a fifth grader in celebration of World Read Aloud Day.
Katie Nail ’16