Literacy Now

When children believe their ideas matter and their voices are heard, they experience belonging. Nurturing belonging in mathematics means valuing children's ideas, and simple routines—like inviting students to share their thinking, comparing multiple strategies, and listening before correcting—can strengthen mathematical belonging. As children explain how they solved a problem and hear others’ approaches, mathematics becomes a shared human endeavor.

Belonging in mathematics often begins with stories. Whether in the home, community or school, or on laps, couches, or library carpets, educators can make mathematics a place of belonging through picture books. Let’s make belonging count using these five stories.

A cookie, a loop, and a prediction

Consider the enduring favorite If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff. Its charm lies in its circular structure: If you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll ask for milk. Milk leads to a straw. A straw leads to a mirror. Each event leads logically and sometimes hilariously to the next, until the narrative loops back to the cookie.

This playful chain of cause and effect is also mathematical. Children can notice:

• Sequence and order
• Predictable patterns
• If-then reasoning
• Cycles and loops

Pause during reading and ask:

• What do you notice about what keeps happening?
• What do you think will happen next?
• How do you know?

These questions invite children into patterning and logical reasoning. They position children as thinkers. Belonging begins with welcomed ideas. After reading, invite children to map the circular story, count the steps in the loop, or invent a new chain (“If you give a cat a cupcake…”). If children count differently, resist asking, “Who's right?” Instead ask, “How did you count?” The shift from correctness to curiosity builds confidence and community.

Counting together

Belonging grows when children share in mathematics. In Imagine Counting All the Stars by Raewyn Caisley, Maddie delights in seeing mathematics everywhere, from shells on the shore to stars in the sky. Yet she longs for someone to share that joy. When she finally finds a friend who shares her curiosity, counting becomes connection.

This story opens mathematical conversations:

• If we wanted to count all the stars, how might we organize them?
• Is there more than one way to count something very large?
• Where do you see math in your own world?

Children might suggest grouping by tens, making arrays, or estimating. When adults respond with “Show me your thinking,” rather than offering a faster method, they affirm that multiple strategies belong.

The story's deeper message echoes the mathematics: Counting is more joyful when done together. Mathematical belonging is relational.

Growing confidence

Belonging means being seen and affirmed. In Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love, Julián revels in imagination and joins a vibrant parade celebrating self-expression. This visually rich story invites mathematical noticing:

• How many costumes or mermaid tails can you count?
• What shapes do you see in the parade?
• How does the size of the crowd change from beginning to end?
• What changes over time in Julián’s confidence?

Children might compare colors, count parade participants, or notice repeating patterns in costumes. Adults can highlight that noticing differences and similarities helps us appreciate others. Value children's ideas with prompts:

• Show me how you counted.
• Where did you start?
• Could we try another way together?

Mistakes are part of learning and thinking evolves through dialogue. Children who feel safe to revise their ideas are more willing to take risks. Belonging is not about being right the first time. It is about valuing the process.

Building community

In Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev, a pet club excludes a child and his elephant. Rather than retreat, they create a new club where all beings belong. Read this story mathematically by asking:

• How many different pets are included in the new club?
• How does the size of the club change?
• What comparisons can we make between the first club and the new one?
• How many friends are needed to begin something new?

Children may count animals, compare group sizes, or track growth over time. The mathematics supports a clear message: Inclusion changes the numbers and the feeling of a group.

Protecting connections

Belonging extends beyond human communities to the natural world. In We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, a community unites to protect water as a shared resource. This lyrical text invites mathematical exploration:

• How many people gather to protect the water?
• What patterns do you see in the waves?
• How far might water travel?
• How does the size of the group compare at the beginning and the end?

Children might notice repetition in illustrations, estimate distances, or compare scenes across time. Mathematics becomes a lens for understanding growth, scale, and collective action. Belonging is local and expansive.

Making it count: Five ways to foster belonging

Prompt with curiosity and care by having the following conversations with children:

• Ask open questions. Replace “What’s the answer?” with “What do you notice?”
• Celebrate multiple strategies. Explore different ways of counting.
• Normalize revision. Frame mistakes as opportunities.
• Connect to daily life. Bake, measure, compare, and estimate together.
• Reflect. Ask, “What math did we discover in this story?”

Weaving mathematics through shared reading is social and cultural. Children can see mathematics in cookies and constellations, in parades and pet clubs, in waves and water. When reading with children, whether it's about a mouse, the stars, a parade, or a debate about equality, pause. Ask what comes next. Count together. Listen closely to children’s reasoning.

These moments strengthen numeracy by saying: Your thinking matters. You belong. That is what truly makes it count.

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Imagine a preschool-aged child listening closely during a read-aloud of The Bad Seed by Jory John, living vicariously through the choices of the characters. When the story ends, the authentic conversation begins: Was the seed really bad? Can people change? In that exchange, literacy is not about recalling details; rather, it is about constructing meaning to use language to explore ideas and begin to understand the world.

Now imagine an adult sitting at a café table, laptop open, scrolling through a news article. Eyebrows raise as they pause to check a source. Fingers hover over the keyboard while they mentally weigh the author's intent. They highlight a paragraph, reread a sentence, and ask themselves: Is this reliable? What does this really mean? How should I respond? This work is remarkably similar to the preschooler since both are constructing meaning, questioning, and making decisions.

Between these two moments lies the full arc of literacy development. A beginning reader learns that words form messages. An adolescent navigating digital and AI generated texts learns that messages are influenced by perspective and author's purpose. Across every stage, reading is not merely skill acquisition, but rather reading is meaning-making, communication, and decision-making. In a world where artificial intelligence can generate text instantly, engaging with readers matters more than ever. 

Why meaning matters more than ever

In a world where AI can generate endless text at the click of a button, the real danger isn't that students will use it. The danger is that they might stop thinking about what they read. Traditional assessment often fails to capture what truly matters in reading: Thinking critically with the text.

AI can generate language, but it cannot determine relevance, truth, or ethical use. Those responsibilities remain with the reader. This is why literacy instruction must prioritize reading messages rather than simply reading all the words, a position by Nell Duke's work on purposeful, authentic reading. Empowering students to read with intention and critically engaging with concepts is essential.

Conversations as the fuel to comprehension

Meaning-making is fueled by conversations where teachers ask students before, during, and after reading questions to articulate what a text is saying and why it matters. Here, reading is an act of thinking rather than completing a task. 

The language teachers use shapes how students see themselves as readers. When classrooms consistently invite interpretation, reflection, and discussion, students develop agency and voice. These discussion-rich practices also prepare students for ethical AI use. Students who regularly justify interpretations and question texts are better equipped to evaluate AI generated content thoughtfully.

Critical thinking is a literacy skill

Media literacy and AI literacy are not separate from reading comprehension; rather, they are extensions of it. Evaluating bias, intent, and credibility requires readers to actively monitor understanding and revise interpretations. 

Kelly B. Cartwright's research highlights that skilled reading depends on coordinating multiple cognitive processes, including attention and self-monitoring. As digital and AI generated texts grow and become more widespread, the stakes for literacy instruction rise; and therefore, students must engage in authentic reading, rich discussion, and intentional response rather than merely practicing skills stripped of meaningful context.

Starting early has lasting impact

This work does not begin in upper elementary, middle, and high school. In the preschool classroom, we can see teachers facilitating discussions on character choices and lessons learned. Here they are engaging in early ethical reasoning while also developing rich oral language and expressive vocabulary. Research shows that preschool oral language skills, including vocabulary and grammar, strongly predict later reading comprehension. Preschoolers finding and sharing messages in a text fosters critical thinking and opens a world of possibilities.
 
As beginning readers explain what a text is mostly about, they strengthen comprehension and oral language simultaneously. These early experiences accumulate. By the time students encounter AI tools, they bring years of practice in listening, interpreting, questioning, and communicating. Without the foundation, AI becomes a shortcut. With it, AI becomes a tool that is used thoughtfully and critically to live responsibly in society.

Classroom practices that support meaning and language

Early Childhood	Upper Elementary and Middle School
Invite children to listen for a message during read-alouds.	Engage students in discussions that require justification and multiple perspectives.
Use open-ended questions to promote talk and vocabulary growth.	Connect texts to real-world decisions.
Primary Grades	High School and Post-High School
Ask what a text is mostly about—not just what happened.	Treat AI-generated text as material for analysis, not answers.
Provide sentence frames to support oral explanations.	Emphasize discussion and reflection as evidence of thinking.

Across grades, these practices reinforce a shared message: Reading is an active, communicative act of meaning-making.

Fueling critical thinking in an AI world

Avoiding technology won’t save literacy. True preparation comes from helping students make meaning, express ideas, and think critically. These skills travel across every text and every tool—including AI. Teachers are preparing students to navigate the world thoughtfully and with responsibility in preschool. This happens when teachers facilitate learning for students to read for messages, communicate ideas, and apply understanding.

In The Bad Seed, children are invited to wrestle with a powerful idea: People are not defined solely by past behavior, and choices matter. That early conversations mirror the work readers must do throughout their lives. Whether encountering a picture book, a news article, or an AI generated text, readers must ask: What is this saying? Why does it matter? And what will I do with this message? 

In a world where text can be produced instantly, the most important literacy outcome remains unchanged. What matters most is how deeply readers make meaning, and how wisely they choose to act on it. 

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Summer library activities help you prevent learning loss while encouraging children and families to maintain strong reading habits during school breaks. Your library can be an accessible community learning hub where readers explore books and collaborative experiences that keep literacy engagement active throughout the summer months.

Creating interactive seasonal programs strengthens reading confidence and encourages lifelong reading behaviors across different age groups. Summer literacy programs also provide your community with consistent opportunities to build social connections through shared literacy experiences. The most effective ones encourage active participation while making reading feel collaborative and accessible. These activities combine education, social interaction, and hands-on learning experiences that keep readers connected throughout the break.

1. Intergenerational book clubs and oral storytelling events

Intergenerational book clubs and storytelling events can be among the most meaningful summer library activities for strengthening community literary engagement. Your library can create book clubs that pair children, teens, parents, and older adults. You can host storytelling nights where residents share cultural stories and community experiences.

Learning from lived experience while hearing ideas and solutions from young people can also become a collaborative process for addressing broader social and community challenges. Oral storytelling further supports listening comprehension and encourages stronger emotional connections through shared narratives and discussions.

2. Community reading challenge with incentives

One of the most effective summer library activities involves organizing age-based or family-based reading challenges with weekly milestones that keep participants engaged throughout the season. Your library can increase excitement by offering badges or certificates that reward consistent participation and reading progress. 

Children who participate in summer library reading programs often surpass their peers in reading proficiency because regular reading strengthens comprehension and academic retention. You can implement structured reading routines to reinforce reading stamina while helping participants build long-term literacy habits. Shared goals and group participation further increase motivation by creating a stronger sense of community involvement.

3. Outdoor story walks and park reading trails

Your library can create outdoor story walks by placing laminated book pages or QR-linked story stations throughout parks or community walking paths to encourage interactive reading experiences outside traditional spaces. You can add discussion prompts and literacy games along the route to keep participants engaged and turn reading into a more social, hands-on activity.

Movement-based literacy programs can improve participation among reluctant readers and younger children. Active experiences feel less intimidating and more enjoyable than seated instruction alone. When you combine physical activity with reading, participants form stronger memory associations, making the learning experience more immersive and memorable.

4. Creative writing and zine-making workshops

Your library can host creative workshops focused on poetry, comics, or self-published zines to make literacy feel more personal and interactive during the summer. You can invite local authors, educators, or community artists to lead sessions and give participants direct exposure to different forms of storytelling and creative expression.

These workshops help increase confidence because participants actively create and share their own ideas rather than only consuming written content. Hands-on writing activities can also encourage reluctant readers to engage with language differently by connecting literacy with art, personal reflection, and collaborative creativity.

5. Literacy-based STEM and research activities

You can create cross-disciplinary summer library activities that combine books with science- or history-themed projects, encouraging participants to explore literacy across multiple subject areas. Your library might organize mystery-solving scavenger hunts, coding challenges, or research mini-projects that make reading feel more interactive and relevant to real-world learning.

These programs help improve critical thinking and information-evaluation skills by encouraging participants to analyze sources and apply their knowledge in creative ways. Integrating literacy across disciplines also creates a much richer learning experience as students use literacy for different purposes in various subject areas.

The importance of summer literacy engagement

Consistent reading routines help strengthen vocabulary growth and support long-term academic retention during summer breaks. Since the journey to skilled reading typically spans around 10 years, students benefit from high-quality classroom instruction and sustained independent reading practice that reinforces literacy development over time.

Organizing community-centered literacy activities through your libraries makes books and educational support more accessible to families from different backgrounds. These shared reading experiences also encourage social-emotional development and help participants feel a stronger sense of belonging to the community.

Making the library a summer learning hub

Summer library activities help you support academic growth while strengthening community connection through shared learning experiences and consistent literacy engagement outside the school year. Your library can help sustain reading habits beyond traditional classrooms, which makes it important for you to design interactive programs that keep reading social and accessible throughout the entire year.

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When Saundra (pseudonym) invited me into her literacy classroom to work together, she expressed her desire to prioritize student voice and incorporate their stories into her literacy instruction. Saundra and I discussed a small-scale project, as part of a large ongoing research project, in which I would visit her and spend a week in her classroom, examining how her students told stories. Before this project, I had known Saundra for many years and we were reconnected through a professional development experience.  

For this project, I drew upon a series of interviews with Saundra and a week of observation in Saundra’s classroom. As the week went on, Saundra and I realized there was a disconnect between how deeply she wanted to encourage her students to tell their stories and use their voices. Therefore, the research project shifted into discussing possibilities for empowering more student voice in such a restrictive environment.

Saundra teaches first grade in an urban public school district. Neoliberal, capitalistic, and individualistic pressures often lead schools like Saundra’s to prioritize state standards, high-stakes testing, and restrictive curricula, limiting teacher and student agency. These pressures and their implicit emphasis on power and control within the education system are communicated to teachers and contradict the value of listening to children's voices and students’ stories. Saundra’s experience reflects the realities that many teachers across the United States face when it comes to the delicate balance between the pressures of what they feel they must do and what they know is best practice for their students.

In Saundra’s classroom—similar to many public schools around the U.S.—there are many structures teachers have to consider in their pedagogical decisions. For Saundra, the structure and systems of schooling created hurdles along the path to the expansive, student-centered ways in which Saundra desired to teach literacy. In what follows, I present five hurdles Saundra encountered:

1. The Classroom

In Saundra’s classroom, educational posters covering all four walls emphasized the importance of literacy as specific skills to be taught and measured in systematic ways, focusing on discrete phonemic and phonological awareness as well as district-required data displays for a standardized Readiness Evaluation. The displays visually reinforced the importance of measurable skills in literacy education.

2. Time Constraints

Saundra’s day was neatly organized, but left her little time to infuse the topics or activities that she was passionate about into her instruction. Saundra felt forced to “cram it all in” when she was teaching rather than giving students the time to explore (despite her desire to make the time). Saundra had to balance the knowledge that students could learn literacy skills in multiple ways with the real pressures of time.

3. Curricular Structures

The curriculum for literacy at Gold Elementary (pseudonym) focused heavily on phonological and morphological skill development for students and left no room for creative expression or exploration in non-scripted, non-standardized ways. Due to the tightly bound and mandated literacy curriculum, Saundra was limited from spending curricular time and space on including students’ voices and experiences into classroom literacy practices. 

4. Testing Pressures

Despite her desire to foster expansive, student-centered literacy, Saundra found herself constrained by the requirements of preparing her students for benchmark evaluations. The pressure of having students perform well on the Readiness Evaluation (pseudonym) is openly communicated to teachers, including Saundra, from the school administration. Saundra described how “everything that I do, I try to use as a resource that is going to help my students do better on their diagnostic.” Saundra experienced tension between teaching the memorization of skills for the test or teaching literacy in ways that created space for her students’ voices.

5. Professional Hierarchy

No matter how much Saundra desired to change aspects of literacy to include more of her students’ stories and less time on scripted-lessons, Saundra had to ensure that she was meeting the expectations of her supervisors, who held control over her employment contract and directed her in what must be done and should not be done in her classroom academic plans. Balancing the dynamic of respecting her supervisors and their directives for instruction was at tension with Saundra’s desire to push the boundaries of administrative directives towards more student voice.

Clearing the Hurdles

For educators who value students’ voices and stories in the classroom, small steps can become bigger movements in your school over time and lead to educators clearing these five hurdles in their path.

• Assess the daily schedule to find windows for students’ voices to be central. For example, teachers can assess their morning meeting and closing circle routines to incorporate more time for student sharing or ensure that their literacy block includes student sharing time at the end, before moving onto the next subject of the day.
• Consider when independent student assignments from a guided curriculum could be supplemented to include group or partner work for students.
• Dedicate a portion of reading instructional time for students to talk to their peers about books through sharing circles or book club groups.
• Ensure that writing instructional blocks include free writing time to encourage student voices in print.
• Engage in professional book studies with colleagues to collaboratively learn about expansive, student-centered approaches to literacy instruction.

Saundra’s experience provides insights into the relationship between the public schooling system, teacher pedagogical beliefs, and the negotiation of challenges that arise for educators like Saundra. When facing hurdles, teachers can make space for students’ voices in small ways and can collaborate with their colleagues to find ways to do so.

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World Read-Aloud Day brings classrooms, families, libraries, and communities together through the power of shared stories. A single voice and a meaningful book can shape students’ identities, nurture empathy, and ignite a passion for literacy that lasts a lifetime. Reading aloud does much more than build decoding, fluency, or oral language and listening skills—it creates a communal learning space where every reader belongs.

In addition, reading aloud can:

• Encourage a lifelong commitment to reading as a joyful habit
• Help shape positive reading attitudes, particularly for developing readers
• Expose students to a wide range of literature, genres, and perspectives
• Promote vocabulary and language development through authentic oral models
• Widen students’ views of themselves, others, and the broader community
• Foster communal experience—a sense of belonging around a story

How to get started

The right book can transform a read-aloud moment. During your search, consider the following:

• Use trusted sources such as The Reading Teacher, Language Arts, The Horn Book, and the School Library Journal.
• Check reliable websites and local bookstores for curated recommendations and thematic lists.
• Prioritize diverse book options from platforms like We Need Diverse Books and publishers such as Lee & Low Books, Kokila (Penguin Books), and Groundwood Books (House of Anansi Press).
• Preview the book at least once before reading it aloud, shelving it in your classroom library, or recommending it to colleagues. A pre-read helps you note discussion points, sensitive areas, pacing, and places to pause for questions or reactions.

Videos featuring read-alouds

Below are curated examples of videos that feature authors or organizations reading books aloud with permission or through official partnerships.

Author Read-Aloud Example: High-quality read-aloud videos with permission from the author (the author reads aloud their book).

WeAreTeachers Storytime Series: A storytime video series featuring children’s book authors.

Reading Is Fundamental Read-Aloud Collection: Features authors and professional readers sharing beloved titles.

Storyline Online: Features actors reading popular children's books. The app also provides another platform for digital read-alouds.

TeachingBooks Collection: Multimedia author interviews, readings, and book guides.

E Train Talks Books: A nonprofit created by a student, dedicated to celebrating stories and changing the world for the better one book at a time.

Authors Everywhere: Author-created videos for literacy learning.

Reading Rainbow: A space to discover digital read-alouds and related content.

Publisher Permissions: Many publishers provide read-aloud guidelines for educators and promote read alouds by their authors on YouTube and other digital platforms.

More read-aloud resources

World Read-Aloud Day invites every educator, caregiver, child, and community member to share the power of story. Whether you choose a classic, a contemporary release, or a beloved childhood favorite, the act of reading aloud strengthens literacy, deepens empathy, and unites us through shared experience.

All throughout February, ILA is sharing resources to support read-alouds in classrooms or shared with families to support read-aloud practices at home. Be sure to review the full list!