Tag: Global Read Aloud

Global Read Aloud Resources

~ Jarrett Lerner ~ 1 Comment

Next week marks the start of this year’s Global Read Aloud, of which my illustrated novel in verse, A Work in Progress, is a part. (To learn more about this year’s Global Read Aloud and/or the project in general, you can click HERE and HERE.)

Before things get underway, I wanted to make sure to once more share about some of the resources available to those reading and discussing the book (either now, for the GRA, or whenever in the future). Specifically, if you head over to the A WORK IN PROGRESS page of this website, you’ll find two very handy things: first, the incredible Educator’s Guide (created by media specialist extraordinaire Carrie Friday), and second, the series of “behind the scenes” videos I put together about the book. There are six of these videos in all, each one covering one of the GRA’s six weeks of scheduled readings. You can watch these videos directly on my website or over on my YouTube channel (where you’ll find a bunch more cool stuff).

To everyone participating in this year’s Global Read Aloud, I look forward to connecting with you! And I hope the resources I (and Carrie!) have prepared prove useful in your exploration of A Work in Progress.

~ Jarrett

A WORK IN PROGRESS Selected for the 2023 Global Read Aloud!

~ Jarrett Lerner ~ 8 Comments

Did you hear the news?

A Work in Progress was named the middle school selection for this year’s Global Read Aloud!

To be honest, I’m still finding a bit hard to believe it’s true.

If you know anything about the Global Read Aloud, you can probably understand why that is. If you don’t know anything about the Global Read aloud, you’re probably hoping for an explanation. Well, here you go . . .

The Global Read Aloud was created back in 2010 by the remarkable Pernille Ripp. Every year, she picks a handful of books — each for a different age group. Then, over the course of six weeks in the fall, educators all over the world read that book with their students, all while simultaneously making as many global connections as possible. There are robust, highly active online communities (on a variety of social media platforms) where educators discuss ideas and share student work and — perhaps most amazingly and importantly — make plans to connect. Far-flung classrooms communicate with one another via Zoom, Skype, Twitter, Padlet, Flipgrid, or good old-fashioned letter writing, forging incredibly productive connections, all based around the shared reading and exploration of a single book. In the thirteen years since it’s been around, the Global Read Aloud has reached millions — you read that right: multiple millions — of kids.

I mean, how cool is all of that?!

The creators of the books also often get involved — and I’m already brainstorming ways I can do so — but I feel like that’s just a bonus. The heart of this project, the beautiful, wonderful, profound result, is the global community that is created. The relationships that are formed among educators who would otherwise never meet. The connections that are made among kids, and the ways in which their voices are celebrated and their perspectives are expanded.

To learn more about the Global Read Aloud — especially if you are an educator who wants to get involved! — click HERE.

Thank you (again and again) to Pernille Ripp for selecting this deeply personal, very special book of mine for inclusion in the Global Read Aloud. And to the thousands of teachers and tens of thousands of kids who will be reading my book as part of the project this fall, thank YOU. I’m eager to see what you make of and do with my book, and hope to connect with as many of you as possible.

~ Jarrett

ENGINERDS is a 2018 Global Read Aloud Finalist!

~ Jarrett Lerner ~ Leave a comment

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Inspired by a story she heard on NPR, educator/author Pernille Ripp began the Global Read Aloud in 2010. Her idea was simple, but bold and beautiful: to get as many kids, in as many classrooms, to read the same book, and then connect with one another in order to share their thoughts and discuss.

The GRA began small — but quickly became enormous. Check out these participant numbers:

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Last year, in 2017, it’s estimated that more than FOUR MILLION kids participated. The connections made — between kids and kids, between teachers and teachers, between human beings and BOOKS — are priceless, and are doing an enormous amount to help make the world a better, brighter, more hopeful place.

It is a tremendous honor to simply have my book nominated for such an awesome project — and the honor is all the greater considering the five other nominees are from some of my all-time favorite creators. If you haven’t read books by the other authors, I encourage you to do so. Like, today. Like put them on hold at your library RIGHT NOW or go out and buy them (or, in the case of THE UNICORN RESCUE SOCIETY, preorder it — that one pubs April 10th).

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If you want to vote, you have until March 20th, and can do so here. And once again: a big, giant, enormous THANK YOU to Pernille Ripp for everything she does to help turn kids into lifelong book-lovers and readers, including creating and growing the Global Read Aloud.