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Fifth grade teacher Jodi Sorrells took a literal approach to Reading Across America with her students this year. With the help of her colleagues at Kennedy Elementary School in Barrow County, Georgia, Ms. Sorrells collected videos of people around the United States reading books to share with the students at her school.
March 2 is the official National Education Association “Read Across America” day and March is National Reading Month, which Kennedy Elementary proudly will be celebrating all month long. With their project, 15 books from 13 states have been read and shared with students so far. Ms. Sorrells’ goal is to have someone from each state read a story so the Kennedy students can hear a new story (or two!) every day in March.
As you can see in the map above, stars represent the states included in the project to date. Here are a few examples of the guest storytellers:
Mrs. Thomas from upstate New York read the book “Forest Green” while standing on frozen Lake George at the foothills of the Adirondacks.
From Indiana, Rod Robachaud brought “Snow Dance” by Leslie Evans to life with his animated and enthusiastic performance.
It was 6 degrees in Spokane, Washington when Ms. Laura read her book “Mr. Bear Squash-You-All-Flat”.
Sam and Eric read the book “Goodnight Lab” - an appropriate selection since they both work at SpaceX in Los Angeles, California.
The project started as a way to celebrate Read Across America with all students, both digital and in-person. Ms. Sorrells is currently teaching digital 5th-grade learners, so she wanted a way to share this time with them as well as KES in-person students. "I love sharing my favorite authors with my students as well as books that teach them about history and important events," she said. " I am incredibly grateful to the KES faculty and staff for contacting friends and family members to read."
Videos are still being submitted, but KES hasn’t read their goal yet. Join us in making reading fun for every reader. You can email us a story video at communication@barrow.k12.ga.us.
(Please note that videos of our guests reading the entire book are not available to the public to avoid copyright infringement.)
The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing more than 3 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, students preparing to become teachers, healthcare workers, and public employees. Learn more at www.nea.org.