Learning Goes Global In Westfield Public Schools

WESTFIELD, NJ - A fifth grade class at McKinley Elementary School shares questions, predictions and observations about a novel they are reading with another fifth grade class. Not an unusual exercise as part of the language arts curriculum in Westfield, which encourages this kind of student-driven exploration. What is unusual, however, is that the fifth graders in Westfield are discussing the novel Amal Unbound with fifth graders in Atlanta, Georgia.

It’s called the Global Read Aloud and it works like this. During a six-week period that runs from
October to mid-November, classes across the globe read the same book and connect with each
other via Google Hangout or another online communication platform to discuss plot, characters,
and other aspects of what they are reading.

“Each week, my class video chatted with a mystery class somewhere in the country or world to
interact and hold real-time planned discussions using themes from each section of the book,”
said McKinley 5th grade teacher Joseph Paradise who teamed up last year with Wilson School
4th grade teacher Mary Tarashuk to offer the Global Read Aloud to their students.

“The students are so vested in being part of a bigger world,” said Tarashuk.

According to the organization’s website the Global Read Aloud “was created in 2010 with a simple goal in mind: one book to connect the world.”

McKinley 5th grader Jenny Butler said she enjoys this approach because she gets to “meet
people from different places and hear different perspectives.”

Classmate Logan Welsh agreed.

“We get to interact with other students from around the world and share different opinions,” Welsh said.

Paradise said his students have connected via the Global Read Aloud with classrooms in
Canada, Minnesota, Georgia and elsewhere. He says his students also have “snail mail pen pal
partners” with students from at least 40 U.S. states and various countries around the world.
Both Paradise and Tarashuk have their students use the online classroom community to write about topics related to the novel they are reading.

"The Global Read Aloud is helping my students to celebrate cultural diversity while discovering
that our pen pals have more similarities than differences despite the geography that divides us,"
Paradise said. "As a teacher, my favorite part of this project was collaborating with the
hundreds of teachers involved in the Global Read Aloud, sharing resources through our social
media network to connect our students through literacy."

(Photo 1 Caption: McKinley 5th graders and their teacher Joseph Paradise share questions,
predictions and observations about a novel they are reading with a fifth grade class in Atlanta,
Georgia, part of the Global Read Aloud whose goal it is to connect the world through reading. Photo courtesy Westfield Public Schools.)

(Photo 2 Caption: McKinley School teacher Joseph Paradise guides his 5 th graders during an
online video chat with a class in Atlanta, Georgia, encouraging them to share predictions,
questions, and observations about the novel both classes are reading. Photo courtesy Westfield Public Schools.)

(Photo 3 Caption: McKinley 5 th graders in Joseph Paradise’s class use an online
communications platform to share real time, planned discussions with other classes in other
states and countries about a book they are reading. Photo courtesy Westfield Public Schools.)

(Photo 4 Caption: Fifth graders in Joseph Paradise’s class at McKinley School have “snail mail
pen pal partners” with students from at least 40 U.S. states and various countries around the
world as part of a global reading/writing community. Photo courtesy Westfield Public Schools.)

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