#NZreadaloud is a ‘connected literacy’ initiative that began in 2015.

The original goal was simple… ‘one book to connect Kiwi kids across Aotearoa.’ The initiative sees teachers across the country reading the same book to their students during the same term. The focus is on books by New Zealand authors, with local settings.

Kerri Thompson established #NZreadaloud to test a theory: would reading stories with Kiwi characters and familiar settings improve engagement in reading and result in better comprehension?

She believes the answer is yes.

#NZreadaloud happens in the first three terms of the school year, leaving term 4 for teachers to participate in The Global Read Aloud. Teachers can choose to participate in all three terms or take part in the term that suits their schedule.

The #NZreadaloud team’s mission for 2019? To share #NZreadaloud to more teachers and schools.

“We will continue to share through passionate teachers who choose to attend #educamps and teachers who share at Teacher Only Days or staff meetings or through their own CoL groups,” she says.

The Book Council sees this project as a good fit with our goal to support more New Zealanders to read more as well as with our #readNZ campaign, and this year we are supporting #NZreadaloud by providing book tokens for the team selecting the books.

This term the #NZreadaloud year 1-2 picture book will be The Bomb by Sacha Cotter.
The year 3-4 book will be Whetu Toa and the Magician by Steph Matuku, and the year 7-8 book choice is An Unexpected Hero by L.P Hansen. The book for year 5-6 students has not yet been selected.

Source: NZ Book Council website