Friday, September 9, 2011

Celebrating International Literacy Day


      I celebrated International Literacy Day on Thursday, September 8, by reading to students at Chetwood Memorial Primary School.
 To each of 4 grade 1 classes, I read 'Beautiful Blackbird' by Ashley Bryan. This delightful story, with its rhythmic prose and adequate repetition, is adapted from a tale from 'The Ila-speaking peoples from Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia)' by Edwin Smith and Andrew Dale, (1920). The bold illustrations could be seen by the children at the back of the class. (Thanks to Pam Witte for sending me this book.) Several children asked me to read the story again, and I got a big hug from some of them as I was leaving.

       To a grade 5 and a grade 6 class (all boys!), I read excerpts from 'Delroy in the Marog Kingdom' preceded by my usual introduction with the frog and the pot. As usual, the students listened attentively.
      
Chetwood Memorial Primary School, Montego Bay, Jamaica

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