Committee: 

Mal Keenan, Chair
Jean Bowman
Lynette Fennel
Kimberly Lancaster
Peg Slowinski
Frances Steward
Laura Strebler
Ann Yanchura

Purpose:

To help promote international literacy development, and provide professional development opportunities related to the improvement of reading and writing instruction in the area of international literacy. 

Grants:

The International Committee of the Illinois Reading Council has created a grant to promote literacy projects internationally. Studies indicate that poverty levels and literacy rates are inversely proportional. By supporting our international community in the areas of literacy, it in turn improves our universal society. The IRC wants to support these efforts. The International Grant Application and Deadlines are available online. The maximum amount per grant is $1,000. The application deadline is May 1, 2011. Grants will be awarded for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012. Awards will be announced by July 1, 2011.

Projects:

• A to Z Literacy Movement aims to improve the lives of Zambia's impoverished children through literacy development by providing schools and communities with quality books that inspire children to read.  In 2010, A to Z Literacy hopes to provide a full shipping container of books to the orphans of My Fathers House and the children at Shine Reading Academy and Calvary Baptist School in Zambia. A full shipping container holds nearly 22,000 books and it costs nearly $1.00 per book to ship.  For more information about the A to Z Literacy Movement, please contact Mal Keenan.

• Bhutan Family Literacy Puppet Project was awarded the 2010 International Literacy Grant.  The goal of the project is to increase children’s motivation for learning and oral language development by giving preschoolers the chance to listen to quality children’s literature, create puppets to pair with the stories they hear, and perform the stories in a tabletop theatre in front of peers and parents.  The Family Literacy Puppet Project will take place at a Montessori School in Bhutan, located in the eastern Himalayas.  As a country, Bhutan has experienced countless changes over the past few years.  With a new king, democracy, and constitutional monarchy, education has become one of the ten ministries that make up the new Bhutanese government.  Public education system is a fairly new concept in Bhutan.  Likewise novel in Bhutan is the early childhood model, which is imperative in the development of the country’s educational plan.  The International Projects Committee feels that the work to be accomplished by the Family Literacy Puppet Project in Bhutan will be a positive step toward that country’s educational mission.  With funds provided by this grant, teachers will work with at-risk families.  These families lack English proficiency skills and/or secondary education.  Chosen families will complete activities together in a literacy-based educational environment to earn books for their personal libraries that will continue strengthening at-home literacy exposure.  By utilizing the Internet and Flip Camcorders, video greetings will easily be sent between the Bhutanese Montessori students and cooperating Illinois public school students, thus mutually facilitating exposure to different cultures, languages, and customs.  These Bhutanese and American children will benefit from puppet performances recorded during class time with their respective teachers and parents.  It is hoped that Bhutanese children, using puppets and children’s literature as part of their curriculum, will increase their oral language development and motivation for learning.  For more information about the Guatemalan Schools Project, please contact Carla Raynor.

• Guatemalan Schools benefit from handicraft sales at annual IRC Conference.  One of IRC's International Projects is to provide as many books to the classrooms in Guatemala.  In February, a team of IRA members travel to Guatemala to work in their elementary schools and in their "Normales" (teacher training schools) for one week.  While in Antigua, Guatemala, several Reading Councils in the U.S. purchase handicrafts from small shops and vendors to sell at various meetings and conferences.  The profits from these sales will be used to purchase books for Guatemalan classrooms, teachers, and students.  Look for the Guatemalan Handicraft Booth at the annual IRC Conference.  For more information about the Guatemalan Schools Project, please contact Carol Owles.
  

• Literacy Bread Basket Project was awarded the 2009 IRC International Grant. Upon launch of the project, Jamaican classrooms will be partnered with classrooms in Illinois that have an interest in cross cultural exchanges.  The project will provide Jamaican classrooms opportunities to promote literacy strategies with good quality literature for children, help develop a professional resource library, to demonstrate several ways to conduct workshops for parents, to increase the use of technology for literacy activities, and to provide a Family Reading Festival. The overall goal is to improve the children's reading and writing performance.  For more information about the Literacy Bread Basket Project, please contact Jo Ann Karr.