This year in Park West School Division, a number of classes participated in the Global Read Aloud and made connections in various ways. Our students have sent postcards digitally or on paper, made Padlet posts online to discuss the book, participated in video discussion on Flip and met online via video conferencing to talk about the books and learn about each other.
One class got to experience an extra-special connection this week!
Ms. Courchene’s Grade 5 class had the incredible opportunity connect with their Global Read Aloud partner classes in New York to meet author Jarrett Lerner online for a Q&A session!
The students in both locations read A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner and connected online via Padlet throughout the 6 weeks of the Global Read Aloud to discuss the book. We were so excited when our partners in New York asked if we'd like to join their video call with the author!
The Grade 5s in each location created some great questions to find out more about the author and the process of creating the book. We had watched some of Jarrett Lerner's Behind the Scenes videos about the book and used that information to revise and improve our questions. We wanted to ask questions that he hadn't already answered in his videos or on his blog.
I am super proud of the thoughtful questions that the Grade 5s created! Students were brave about speaking up to ask the questions they'd planned and it was very interesting for all of us to hear Jarrett's answers.
To put in perspective what a unique opportunity this is: I’ve been participating in Global Read Aloud since 2014 (with my own class and then with other classes as a tech coach) and this is the first time I’ve ever had the chance to meet a GRA author! What a special experience!
