Through Words Alive’s response to COVID-19, “Books Connect Us,” we are sharing best practices from our 20+ year history to help children, teens, and families use the love of reading to navigate this turbulent time. Here are a few highlights from the past few days.
Novel Ideas!
For the past few months, you’ve been following the journey of Words Alive’s adaptations to support youth and families through social distancing. Today we are proud to showcase some of the extraordinary work that has come from this turbulent time.
Novel Ideas is an interactive online gallery of student voices powered by their connection to words, reading, writing, and art. Novel Ideas showcases work from more than 400 students exploring themes of student activism, social distancing, and a love of reading.
We invite you to a docent-led ‘tour’ (via Zoom) of the exhibit to hear stories of these incredible students at such a remarkable time. Sign up for a tour here.
Words Alive + University of California San Diego!
Virtual and remote volunteers are stepping up to support Words Alive in amazing ways during social distancing.
We recently partnered with the Center for Student Involvement at the University of California San Diego to host a two-week long volunteer-a-thon. Students participated in service projects enhancing our curriculum, translating materials to reach more communities, and outreach to help connect with more teachers and families. We want to extend a special thank you to the Words Alive volunteers who also facilitated each project!
If your company or group are looking for virtual service opportunities, please contact Robyn.
New Curriculum Books!
Words Alive launched the Page Turners program last fall so volunteers could help review and identify which books we should read with our students. We are excited to announce the first books to be moved from our Page Turners reading list into our process to develop curriculum so the books can be used in our programs: Islandborn by Junot Díaz, Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You by Sonia Sotomayor, Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring by Angela Cervantes, and Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles. Thank you to all of the Page Turners who read and reviewed these titles!
Over 100 Page Turners are helping us decide which books should be taught in our classroom programming! Interested in joining? Click here.
Upcoming (Virtual) Events
Join us for these stories on Story Station every weekday afternoon (2 pm PT on Facebook Live):
6/22: Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin
6/23: Pass It On! by Marilyn Sadler
6/24: The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems
6/25: I'm Not a Chair! by Ross Burach
6/27: Special Friday surprise!
(Recordings are available on our Facebook page after the reading.)
Trending on #QuaranTEENS
Top stories and activities trending this week on #QuaranTEENS: