On October 11th Stand Up for Every Girl

October 11th is the International Day of the Girl. Worldwide, communities are ready to stand up for the 66 million girls who are out of school.

Here are your top 3 actions to Stand Up for Girls:

1. Grow the movement in your community. Share the stories of the women who have impacted your life on social media. Let these stories inspire you to take action for every girl's right to tell her stories. Here are some sample posts:

I will #standup4girls with LitWorld on 10.11.13 the #dayofthegirl

Every girl has the right to tell her story. I will #standup4girls on the #dayofthegirl

2. Add your voice to our Thunderclap. Sign up and the Thunderclap website will post the #standup4girls message automatically on October 11th at noon in unison with our supporters around the world. Click here to learn more.

3. Donate to LitWorld and give more girls the opportunity to join a LitClub and belong to a safe community of stories.

Pam Allyn Receives 2013 Scholastic Literacy Champion Award

We are proud to announce that LitWorld's Executive Director, Pam Allyn, received the 2013 Literacy Champion Award from Scholastic. This honor was presented to Pam at the Scholastic Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Symposium. Earlier in the day, Pam delivered a keynote speech to an audience of educators. Her presentation was a powerful statement of specific strategies for connecting with families and caregivers while reaffirming the wonderful essence of children and who they are and why we do what we do around literacy. The audience was moved at the simple reminder of how the deep, true love they feel for their own children is the same love felt by all parents toward their children, no matter the challenges faced or the harshness of their environment.

Also honored as a Literacy Champion was Dr. Karen Mapp, a senior lecturer at Harvard and the author and coauthor of several articles and books about the role of families and community members in the work of student achievement and school improvement.

Stand Up for Girls: Pam Allyn's Latest Blog for the Huffington Post

In her latest blog for the Huffington Post, LitWorld Founder and Executive Director, Pam Allyn, explains why personal narrative is the key ingredient for building literacy skills and the most compelling tool that we can use to effect social change. 

"There is a photo I carry with me everywhere I go.

It is a photo of a little girl. She is nine years old. She is wearing a post-it on her lapel, held in place with a pen. While I was conducting a teacher training in her school in Liberia, she was carefully watching everything I did. When I came outside, I realized she was teaching her entire school of 400 children how to do all the things I was just teaching her teachers. I thought: "She is going to make a difference. She will be a great and wonderful teacher someday."

When I returned months later, she was gone. At that young age, she disappeared from school, staying home to help her mother with the housework, home to take her place with her many sisters who had not finished school. I tried to find her again, but never could. I wonder: what would she have written on her post-it? What are the stories she would have told? This work I do is a tribute to her. I cannot find her (although I always look) but I do my work in her honor and in her spirit. There are too, too many lost girls."

Click here to read the full piece on the Huffington Post.

Stand Up for Girls: Take Action With LitWorld on 10.11.13

Going back to school is a sacred right that belongs to every child. Help spread the Stand Up for Girls movement as we gear up for the October 11th Day of the Girl. Make a donation to LitWorld to create meaningful learning opportunities for girls around the world. Rally your community with an event and motivate your friends and followers online to #standup4girls alongside you. Watch and share the Stand Up for Girls campaign video and click here for more ideas on how to share the campaign on social media.

Back-to-School Tips From LitWorld's Executive Director Pam Allyn

LitWorld's Executive Director and Chief Storyteller, Pam Allyn, had an exciting week sharing reading and writing tips for back-to-school success. As the Global Ambassador for Scholastic's Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life. campaign, Pam hosted a Facebook chat to share her expert advice with an amazing community of engaged parents, teachers and caregivers. Click here to see a beautiful collection of quotes from this night on the Scholastic Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life. Pinterest board. 

On the heels of this wonderful event, Pam and her fellow literacy and Common Core expert, Debbie Lera, delivered a free Pearson webinar on Core Ready writing strategies. If you missed this inspiring talk, Pam and Debbie summarized their insights on the Pearson blog. Click here to read "Teaching Core Ready Writers: Top Ten Tips for Teaching Students to Write Well."

Back to School Means Back to LitClubs WorldWide

The fall season marks the beginning of a new round of LitClub programming. From Kenya to the Philippines to New York to Detroit, children come together once again to sing, to share, to learn, and to grow. Each year we are able to welcome new communities to the LitClub network as well, and this year is no different. As we warmly welcome our returning LitClub members, we are excited to announce a new LitClub in Pakistan, four new LitClubs in Brooklyn, and two new LitClubs in Nepal! We couldn't be more thrilled by the growth of our work, and expansion to more of the communities that need LitClubs the most, with partners who are committed to the dignity of each child.

Our Innovation Hub in Kibera, Kenya run in partnership with the Children of Kibera Foundation, invites schools from the community to spend time after school time reading, writing, creating and exploring the library. The students of the Golden Hearts School read aloud The Magic Book by K.T. Hao and made their own Ellie the Elephant creations!

A Back to School Call to Action: Let's Have Malala Day Every Day

In July 12th, our LitWorld interns had the honor of attending Malala Day at the United Nations to hear Malala Yousafzai address the world for the first time since her attack in October 2012. Pam Allyn and our wonderful intern, Sophie Mortner, have written a call to action using Malala's messages from this day to inspire us all to advocate for the human right of education every day.

"This summer, we hosted a team of interns at the LitWorld headquarters in New York City. They come from colleges and universities around the country, and they spend the summer doing grassroots education rights work on the ground while at the same time connecting with our hubs for innovation around the world.

Sophie Mortner, one of our interns, had the opportunity to attend Malala Day at the United Nations, an experience that impacted her greatly. I share her thoughts here and then five messages from us together on the power of Malala's words to inspire and motivate us all on these, the first days of back-to-school. Yet around the world, at least 61 million children are out of school, and right here in the U.S. many of our poorest children do not have equitable access to a quality education or the resources that would help them create the dreams they really want. Today, let's act on the messages Malala has sent us."

Click here to read the full piece.