On September 8th, 2021, the UAB School of Education, Glen Iris Elementary School, The Maryann Manning Family Literacy Center (MMFLC), and the IMPACT-PD grant team, funded by the USDE's Office of English Language Acquisition, came together to celebrate International Literacy Day (ILD).

ILD is celebrated every year on September 8th to remind everyone how vital literacy is as a fundamental human right and shed light on literary disparities worldwide.

To celebrate ILD, SOE professional teacher education candidates and faculty read books to 20 pre-k through second-grade classes. They sought to instill a love for reading and reminded children that every day is a literacy day. Each class was gifted a book to add to the classroom library. 

"The best way for children to become readers is for them to have access to books they want to read and time to read them every day," said Dr. Kelly Hill, Director of the MMFLC and the IMPACT-PD grant's principal investigator.  

In addition to reading to the children, The MMFLC and the IMPACT-PD grant donated 479 books to Glen Iris Elementary School students in Birmingham, Alabama. The donation allowed every child to self-select a book to take home to read with their families and add to, or start, their home library. 

Additionally, UAB provided families with additional resources to support and promote reading at home. 

"The MMFLC and the IMPACT-PD grant have a shared goal of supporting family literacy, so International Literacy Day was a perfect opportunity to collaborate and promote reading at home," said Dr. Kelly Hill. "Through thoughtful planning, we were able to collaborate with several community stakeholders by providing books and resources for families to continue and enhance what they are already doing to support their children as readers." 

Below are links to free literacy links to explore with your readers: