World Read Aloud Day...no, World Read Aloud WEEK!

My 5th grade students and I had a phenomenal World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) last year. Many staff came in to read books to us, we Skyped with a few classes to read to each other, and Erik Palmer Skyped in to read aloud from The Princess Bride. (He was incredible, and it was unfortunate that he was unavailable this year due to his spreading PVLEGS love to teachers in Saudi Arabia.)

Of course I wanted to celebrate WRAD again this year...with my 6th graders...in middle school...with five different classes. 

Planning started early.

I knew I wanted to keep the class read aloud portion, so I connected with many of my teacher friends from other states, setting up our read alouds for the day before WRAD (on February 23). I'm thankful to Scott Akerson, Angela Rutschke, Paul Solarz, Heidi Jones, Laura Wagenman, Cara Cahill, Jess Lifshitz, and new friend Laura Frank. My students loved reading to their students, and loved being read to by them. 

I also wanted to reach out to more authors. Since I loved her books and hoped she would Skype with my class, I reached out to author Gae Polisner. Not only did she volunteer to read aloud to two of my classes, but she connected me with her author friends Amy Fellner Dominey, Carole Estby Dagg and Phil Bildner. All three were on board right away. 

Then, I took a day to contact many of the authors on Kate Messner's webpage. I hoped that a few could Skype with us, and was overwhelmed when all of them said yes! 

Well now I had a different "problem." I didn't have enough spots on February 24th. So...like any creative thinker, I added another day. Now, I had a packed schedule of read alouds for February 23-25. 

That wasn't all...one of the authors with an upcoming new release (Sticks & Stones, out on July 19) is local and lives in St. Paul, MN. Abby Cooper offered to visit and read aloud in person...to TWO of my classes. I was over the moon. It would be one of her first school visits, and our first author visit. It was meant to be.

Here was our schedule for those three days.

Day	Time	Author name	Book titles
Feb 24	9:50-10:10	Scott Akerson (MO)	Read to each class
Feb 24	10:15-10:35	Gae Polisner	Summer of Letting Go, The Pull of Gravity, Memory of Things (ARC)
Feb 24	10:45-11:15	Lee Gjertsen Malone	The Last Boy at St. Edith's (new)
Feb 24	11:30-11:50	Phil Bildner	A Whole New Ballgame, Rookie of the Year, Marvelous Cornelius
Feb 24	11:55-12:15	Tamara Ellis Smith	Another Kind of Hurricane (July, 2015)
Feb 24	1:00-1:20	Amy Fellner Dominy	A Matter of Heart, Audition & Subtraction, OyMG
Feb 24	1:25-1:45	Joanne Levy (Toronto)	Small Medium at Large (new book out this December)
Feb 24	1:55-2:15	Carole Estby Dagg	The Year We Were Famous, Sweet Home Alaska (Feb 2, 2016)
Feb 24	2:20-2:40	Gae Polisner	Summer of Letting Go, The Pull of Gravity, Memory of Things (ARC)
Feb 25	9:45-10:30	Sarah Darer Littman	Backlash, Life After, Purge, Want to go Private?, Confessions of a Closet Catholic
Feb 25	10:45-11:15	Gretchen Kelley (Abu Dhabi)	Superheroes Don't Eat Veggies (new)
Feb 25	11:30-11:50	Melanie Conklin	Counting Thyme (April 12, 2016)
Feb 25	11:55-12:15	Greg Armamentos	Dash
Feb 25	12:55-1:15	Sarah Jamila Stevenson	The Latte Rebellion, Underneath, The a Truth Against the World
Feb 25	1:20-2:20	Abby Cooper visit	Sticks and Stones (July 19, 2016)

Well, if you're wondering how WRAD ended up extending over five days, listen to this. Author Gretchen Kelley lives in Abu Dhabi, and had to reschedule her read aloud Skype for Feb 23rd. Then, Mr. Akerson's school had a snow day and rescheduled for February 26th, and Mrs. Rutschke needed to reschedule for Feb 26 due to a class ski trip.

So, yes...that's how this pirate teacher created a World Read Aloud EXPERIENCE for her students.

I can't wait to do it all again next year...