November News for You: Super Dreams for Super Readers

Dream Big With Us

Every child deserves the magic of story, and the opportunity for literacy to change her life. Giving season has arrived, and our goal is to raise $500,000 by December 31st so that we can extend the life-saving impact of our LitClub and LitCamp programs to more children around the world. LitWorld helps every child become a super reader. An idea-generating writer. A world-changing storyteller. Let's act now to create a world that shines with children’s stories and the promise of their own hopeful futures. We are deeply grateful for your gift. 

Putting HerStory on Record

While working in Nepal recently, our Visual Storytelling Ambassador Monet heard LitClub member Rojina say: "People without reading are like fishes without water." It is vital to put the experiences and stories of women and girls like Rojina on record. Through the LitWorld and Global G.L.O.W. HerStory Initiative, we are exploring more ways to document girls' stories and to share them across our global LitWorld community. In Nepal, girls are interviewing each other using Google tablets, and around the world their fellow LitClub girls will also engage in creative storytelling activities. Across countries and continents, girls will share words to inspire, comfort, motivate and uplift one another.

Maximizing the Mighty Read Aloud

Reading aloud every day to a child has a huge impact on their future academic and social success. Now, research affirms that the LitWorld way of integrating open-ended questions into the read aloud experience provides even more benefits to a child's intellectual growth. In light of these new findings, Yahoo! Parenting asked LitWorld Founder and literacy expert Pam Allyn to explain the connection between open-ended questions, critical thinking and creativity, and how to easily incorporate this into home and school reading routines. Read Pam's insight and tips here and get excited for our global World Read Aloud Day celebration on February 24th!

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Change-the-World Readers

LitWorld Founder Pam Allyn and LitWorld Board Member Dr. Ernest Morrell have joined forces to co-author an innovative call to action for parents and educators. Using the LitWorld 7 Strengths, Every Child a Super Reader explores what it takes to inspire and empower every child through reading and literacy. Pam and Ernest will debut the book at the NCTE national conference this month, and it will be available from Scholastic in December.

October News for You: Join the #HerStory Movement

Stand Up for Girls

This Sunday is the Day of the Girl. LitWorld, Global G.L.O.W. and our community-based partners in over 20 countries are holding Story Summits to bring girls and mentors together to tell their stories, explore their strengths, and support one another in making big dreams for the future come true. Celebrations kicked off on Wednesday here in New York. Girls from across the city, including some of our long-time LitClub members, came together in community with women from the television and publishing industries. Thanks to our generous sponsors Table Of Contents, Spring Studios and Google News Lab for supporting our radiant event! Follow LitWorld on Facebook and Instagram for photo highlights from NYC and international celebrations.

Tell Us #HerStory

To spread the Stand Up for Girls movement around the world, we have created a virtual Story Summit on social media. Join in by posting about a woman or girl whose strength inspires you. Share this important person in your life by adding her name to the end of our prompt "I am strong like..." and use the tags #HerStory and #standup4girls. Our LitWorld Teen Advocate Cailey shared on Instagram that she is strong like one of her role models, Gabby Giffords, and invited her friends and followers to share their own stories of strength. Stand with Cailey and our LitWorld and Global G.L.O.W. community. Your voice has the power to change the world. 

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The Power of a Girl's Story

LitWorld Founder Pam Allyn wrote a moving article for ET Magazine to explain why a girl's own stories are the most powerful force for social change. "The ability to read stories, write stories and share stories makes us powerful in the world. With literacy, we have a voice, a community and an all-access pass to the world, our stories as a permanent record, and other people’s stories for us, to inspire, change and make us grow." Read the full piece.

Tipping Points: An Evening of Short Plays Benefiting LitWorld

Sweet Chaos, a theater project co-founded by our Advisory Council member Rebecca Bellingham and Katharine Powell Roman, invites you to the world premiere of "Tipping Points" on September 28th at 7pm. The show explores the complexity and humor of family life in a series of short plays written by award-winning playwrights. Sweet Chaos is generously donating proceeds from ticket sales to fund home libraries for the families LitWorld serves in Harlem. Reserve your tickets today.  

LitWorld Joining Global Collaboration Day - Thursday, September 17th

On Thursday September 17th, LitWorld’s International Program Director, Ana Stern and Program and Communications Coordinator, Diandra Malahoo will be speaking in the 24 hour, online event, Global Collaboration Day! This event brings together educators, teachers, organization and literacy enthusiast to a virtual experience of connecting, learning and exchanging ideas. We are so excited to be able to share a read aloud and core activity with such a large community across the globe! 

As a part of Global Collaboration Day, LitWorld will be hosting a google hangout at 12:00 pm EST with a read aloud and 4 Square memory activity. We will also talk about our core values, best practices and share stories from our partners around the world. We are looking forward to hearing the experiences of other teachers, students, mentors, and educators as well. 

Click here to visit Global Collaboration Day’s site and sign up to participate!

During our hangout, participants will be sharing their work on a collaborative website, so that we can engage in conversations around all of our stories. We invite you to join the google hangout for our session and our collaborative padlet page where everyone joining can post comments and share their work!

Stories Make Us Strong

We are excited to announce a new partnership and blog series with our friends at Story Share! We first met Story Share through our Story21 family LitClub program. We loved that they shared our focus on the joy and hope that spreads through literacy. Story Share inspires reading practice and improves literacy skills through a collaborative digital literacy hub that brings together writers, readers, and educators. The Story Share platform provides relevant and readable stories to inspire a love of reading in students who struggle. Literacy is about so much more than words on a page. It is a lifelong tool that you can use any way you want: to learn about things, to find your way, to find yourself, to change the world. 

We are so excited to team up with together for a 7 Strengths blog series that is all about using the power of stories to become resilient and ready to use your own story to dream big and find new ways to connect with your community, and the world. The LitWorld 7 Strengths - Belonging, Curiosity, Friendship, Kindness, Confidence, Courage, and Hope - come from the LitClub curriculum that we use with children and families to celebrate and amplify the inner strength they already have. These core ideas are essential for feeling fully ready for success in school, for healthy friendships and for facing all of the challenges, bumps and blips that come our way as we go through life. 

Here are the 7 Strengths in all of their glory:

Belonging: Identifying as a needed, loved, and respected member of one’s family, community, and world as a whole

Curiosity: Fostering a willingness to explore new territory and test new theories

Friendship: Having close, trusting relationships with others

Kindness: Being tender towards others in the world who are in need, both near and far

Confidence: Thinking independently and expressing ideas with assurance

Courage: The strength to do something that you know is right, even though it may be difficult

Hope: Thinking optimistically and believing that today’s efforts will produce good things in the future for yourself and for the world

In the coming weeks, we will dig into the awesome Story Share library for recommended reading that will explore each of the 7 Strengths. Whether you’re heading back to school and need a confidence boost and the comfort of knowing that feeling nervous is normal, or are interested in the power of curiosity, and how approaching life with wonder could lead to exciting opportunities, we’ve got you covered.

Join LitWorld's Virtual Stand Up for Girls Story Summit

October 11th is our signature Stand Up for Girls day of action in honor of the International Day of the Girl. We mobilize to remind the world that the stories of women and girls are a force for positive change in our world. Our network of LitWorld and Global G.L.O.W. girls and mentors will hold community Story Summits, bringing together girls from the community to share stories of strength from their own lives.

LitWorld is rallying all of our supporters (that means you!) to come together in a virtual Story Summit leading up to October 11th. Here's how you can participate:

Take a minute to think about all of your strengths (you have many). Now, thinking about your strengths, reflect on the women and girls in your lives who have inspired, nurtured and supported your strengths. Was it your mother? A cousin? A mentor? Or was it someone you have never met but who has provided encouragement simply by living out her story?

Now share the source of your strength on social media, so that others may be moved and changed by her story too. Add her name to the end of our prompt "I am strong like..." with the tags #HerStory and #DayoftheGirl and a photo if you'd like. Together we will create a worldwide celebration of strong women leading up to the Day of the Girl.

Sample Posts

Twitter

I am strong like my mother. #HerStory inspires me every day. Stand Up for Girls with @litworldsays on the #DayoftheGirl

Facebook

I am strong like Maya Angelou. Her poetry is a constant source of courage, motivation and comfort. I will Stand Up for Girls with @LitWorld on October 11th because the stories of girls will change our world.

Instagram

I am strong like Malala. She reminds me that the most powerful tool I could ever own is my own voice. "One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world." Stand Up for Girls with @LitWorld on October 11th. #DayoftheGirl #HerStory #standup4girls 

Director of the LitWorld & Global G.L.O.W. HerStory Initiative Named to ILA's 30 Under 30 List

Today the International Literacy Association debuted the first ever 30 Under 30 list to celebrate a new generation of young professionals innovating new connect communities around the world with the power of literacy. 

We are thrilled to share that Jennifer Estrada, Director of the LitWorld and Global G.L.O.W. HerStory Initiative is a member of this inaugural group. The 30 Under 30 featured story in Literacy Today magazine shares how the HerStory Initiative is connecting over 5,000 girls in 19 countries with literacy programs centered on storytelling, creative expression and powerful mentor relationships under Jennifer's leadership. Read the full story and be inspired and filled with hope for a future where every person, everywhere has the chance to tell her story.

"The moments when our global community faces its greatest challenges are the moments when we can most benefit from the power of young people's stories. By hearing these stories, by valuing them, we recognize the importance of girls' lives and they become a force for change in the world." -- Jennifer Estrada