International Literacy Day

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International Literacy Day

September 8
(IN 1911 - this will be a Thursday in the 4th week of the new school year)

"International Literacy Day is sponsored annually by the International Reading Association and is designed to focus attention on literacy issues. The day is marked by many events throughout the world, including the presentation of a U.S. $20,000 UNESCO International Reading Association Literacy Prize. The International Reading Association estimates that 780 million adults, nearly two-thirds of whom are women, do not know how to read and write. They also estimate that 94-115 million children worldwide do not have access to education. International Literacy Day is just one way the Association strives to increase literacy around the world."
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/celebrate-international-literacy-20584.html

  • International Literacy Day
    The International Reading Association provides background information, fact sheets, and media tips for the day, as well as information on the Association's global efforts to increase literacy.
  • UNESCO Institute for Statistics: Literacy
    Explore detailed statistics about literacy around the world with this collection of data, which features information separated into age groupings and gender

What GIFTS can do

Transfer the concert to this day

See what ideas below might work?

Other Ideas - International Reading Association's Ideas for ILD

For clubs:

  • Stage a Fun Run for Literacy and provide donated books to participants.
  • Invite students, parents, or guests who have lived in other parts of the world to read a story or to talk about classrooms in other countries.
  • Hold a cultural fair with information displays about children’s native or ancestral countries. Read stories, share songs, and have people dress in ethnic costumes.
  • Create an event with a reading theme, such as Read Across Asia or Reading Takes Me Places. Be part of read-in chain that celebrates books written by authors of certain ethnic or cultural groups, like the Hispanic American Read-In Chain.
  • Celebrate with a book fair. Invite an author or illustrator.
  • Form links with a school or educational group in another country and have letter-writing campaigns, book collections, and other activities that generate media and public interest in your school or group and literacy issues in other parts of the world.
  • Have older students make books to share with younger students
  • Hold a press conference to publicize literacy issues in your community.

For teachers

  • Use newspapers to go global — conduct a scavenger hunt for country names or compare how stories are covered by newspapers from different parts of the world.
  • Match different alphabets (Chinese, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hindi, etc.) to countries.
  • Read and compare folk tales from different countries.
  • Have students select countries, research essays on similarities/differences of literacy issues internationally.
  • Ask a local bookstore to donate books to disadvantaged children or for reading contest prizes.
  • Initiate an annual contest or award. Hold a writing contest for students or senior citizens, or a film contest for the best home video about reading.