World Read Aloud Day 2011!

Today is World Read Aloud Day!  I celebrated today by reading aloud to my students at school and then with my kiddos at home.  We read We Are in a Book! from the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems.
We also talked about the question of the year for World Reading Day:

What would you miss most 

if you could not read or write?

I'm excited to talk to my students about what they would miss most about not being able to read or write.  I love the idea of thinking about how thankful we should be that we have the ability to read and write.  I believe in helping students be able to see things from a different perspective.  Sometimes it's important to be aware of the things we have because we live in the United States.  And while it's easy to be thankful for material things we have like books and toys and video games sometimes it's not as easy to be thankful for abstract things that we can't see or touch - like the ability to read and write.  

I know exactly what I would miss most if I couldn't read or write.  I would definitely miss the stories I get to experience - the characters, the real and fantastic places, and the problems I experience vicariously through those characters.  But what I would miss the most would be being able to talk about the stories and share those stories with others.  If I couldn't snuggle up next to Peanut and Little Bird and share a book that would make me so sad.  If I couldn't tell someone about a great book I think they should read or run to, text, or tweet a friend who I know read the same book I have just read, I would definitely miss it.  It's a testament to the assertion that reading is a social activity.  It truly is for me and I do think that's part of why I love it so much.  It's so much fun to connect with people because of books.