Pocomoke Middle School students, from left, Brianna Donaway, De’Ziyah Scarborough, Kayla Enriquez-Castillo, Persia Moore and Peyton Barnette participate in World Read Aloud Day, last Thursday.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Feb. 8, 2018) Pocomoke Middle School students participating in World Read Aloud Day last Thursday reached thousands of students in 20 U.S. states and nine different countries, from Maine to Michigan and Connecticut to California, to Bangladesh, Denmark, India and Kazakhstan.

World Read Aloud Day, created by global literacy nonprofit LitWorld in partnership with title sponsor Scholastic, is an advocacy day calling attention to “the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories.”

Pocomoke students last week posted a video online, pledging to read excerpts from their favorites stories and their own original compositions, while receiving pledges from students throughout the United States and worldwide to do the same.

Pocomoke Middle School Principal Matthew Record said the original video led to 545 additional recordings by students throughout the world.

The original video post, as of Monday, was viewed 7,983 times.

“World Read Aloud Day at Pocomoke Middle School gave our students world-class opportunities from a global perspective, teaching them about connectivity and the importance of literacy,” Record said.

Dr. Brian Cook, a sixth-grade teacher at Pocomoke Middle, spearheaded the effort and encouraged his students to participate.

“WRD was a chance to model the power of social media for our students in a positive manner. Students were intrigued how Twitter, Facebook and Instagram connected people all over the world for one common cause – to support reading,” he said. “It was a great teaching moment for digital citizenship, but an even more powerful moment to show how important reading is to people all over the globe.”

To view the video, visit tinyurl.com/wrad2018.