I heard of the Global Read Aloud a few years ago and thought that would be a great way to connect my class with others around the world. The idea was simple, choose one of the books to read aloud to your class, and connect with others around the world, who chose to read the same book. Pernille Ripp the creator of the Global Read Aloud picks new books each year.  She sets a start date and schedule of readings to keep everyone together but if you fall behind that’s ok too.

Since I have been out of the classroom the last few years, I have not have the opportunity to do the Global Read Aloud with a class of my own. This year, I sent out some information on the project to see if anyone was interested.  Noreen Holt at RF Staples responded and shortly after she reached out to Mary Kaliel at Pembina North Community School and she joined in as well. Noreen decided to jump in and participate with her grade 8 and 9 classes, 3 classes in total. Mary decided to join in with her one grade 8 class.  The grade 8’s read Fish by L.S. Matthews, and the grade 9’s read Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick your Ass by Meg Medina. It was a huge learning curve for both teachers as not only was the Global Read Aloud new to them, there were several technology tools they decided to use that were new to them too. They used Edublogs, Twitter and Skype to connect with each other, as well as other classes, teachers, students and even the authors.

Noreen used Edmodo and email to find some international connections for her class but in the end her best connection was the one she made with Mary’s grade 8 class. As an icebreaker activity, we used Skype to do Mystery Skypes between classes. Mystery Skype is a game of strategic questioning to figure out where the other class is located.

Twitter was used to follow the slow chat happening each week. The slowchat was where a question or two per week were posted by a class that signed up to moderate that week’s chat. Our students followed the hashtags for the week and then tweeted out answers to the questions that were posted.

Edublogs was a perfect place for students to respond more deeply to the weeks readings. There they were able the read each other’s responses and leave each other questions or feedback about their post. Noreen and Mary added links to each other’s class blogs so the students could read posts from both classes.

You can see their blogs here:
Mrs. Kaliel’s Grade 8 blogs
Mrs. Holt’s Grade 8 blogs
Mrs. Holt’s Grade 9 blogs

​One of the highlights of the Global Read Aloud was when the authors Meg Medina and Laura Dron read and commented on the students blogs. I tweeted both authors links to the student blogs and they responded. Noreen said the students were so excited when it happened. It made them realize people were reading their blogs. They had an authentic audience! ​

Through the project students learned:
-reading comprehension strategies and writing skills
-to give positive feedback that moves the conversation forward
-digital citizenship skills (citing images sources, creating a positive digital footprint, etc.)
-the value of making connections with classes outside of their own schools
-strategic questioning
-mapping/geography

In the end, I think Noreen, Mary and their students learned a lot through this experience but just to make sure I asked these teachers to respond to a few questions for me. Here are their responses:

What were the benefits of participating in the Global Read Aloud for you and your students?
The students were forced to think “outside their box” when they read comments and blogs from other schools.  They also were very aware of their audience and always made sure that their writing said what they had intended. ~Mary

The biggest benefit was the larger audience for their thinking.  In all of my classes, the author of the book visited their blogs, read a few, and commented.  Additionally, they had partner classes in the United States, and the grade eights also partnered with the grade eights in Pembina North.  They Skyped with their partner classes and also read their blog posts and responded.  I think the authentic audience was one of the reasons my students were so engaged.

The books are about issues relevant to the students right now.  It was easy to connect to both books.

For me the biggest benefit was my learning.  Blogging will be a part of my class forevermore.  I enjoyed learning how to Skype class to class, and I will definitely do that again as well. ~Noreen

Were there any drawbacks to participating in the Global Read Aloud?
It wasn’t always easy to stick to the schedule.  We had to be very aware of the schedule and had to fit the reading in when we had many other things happening. Your time is not your own.  You don’t want to read too far ahead, but you also don’t want your kids to read any spoilers in the other blogs.  ~Mary

The only drawback for me was the timing.  Because I hadn’t known about the GRA in September, I had started class novels already.  It was tough to keep to the GRA schedule while finishing the class novels. ~Noreen

Any advice for those thinking about participating in the Global Read Aloud next year?
Next year, I would have the books read much further in advance.  I would definitely  do this again.  ~Mary

Do it!  I learned so much about Skyping and blogging. ~Noreen