Millions of girls worldwide are facing educational barriers. Up against obstacles such as limited resources, poverty, and gender discrimination, these girls are deprived of better, safer, healthier lives. That can change. Our next #ILAchat, which will take place at 8:00 p.m. ET on March 14, will be a continuing discussion on the importance of education for girls and how to overcome a lack of resources, a topic of high importance per the recent What’s Hot in Literacy Report.
Award-winning author Tanya Lee Stone will be one of our guest experts for this Women’s History Month #ILAchat: Empowering Girls Through Education. Her newest book, a companion to the 2013 documentary of the same name, Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time, follows the lives of girls living in the developing world. “A moving account of hardships and triumphs that is bound to inspire future activists,” writes Kirkus Reviews. Stone is best known for telling little-known or unknown true stories about people who have been underrepresented throughout history. She attended Oberlin College and is currently teaching writing at Champlain College. You can find her online at tanyastone.com, on facebook.com/tanyastone, and on Twitter at @TanyaLeeStone.
You can also meet Tanya Lee Stone at the ILA 2017 Conference & Exhibits in Orlando, FL, where she’ll be taking part in the Young Adult Author Meetup on Saturday, July 15.
Kellyn Sirach, a teacher at a rural Illinois school and one of ILA’s 2016 30 Under 30 honorees, is no stranger to working with students in resource-limited settings. Her community had no public library and only a tiny school library, and middle school students were already reading far below their grade level. As a response, she formed a sixth- through eighth-grade book club called The Booth Bookies, established a student newspaper dedicated to promoting literacy awareness throughout the community, and created the Million Word Club competition to see which grade could read 1 million words first.
Join us Tuesday, March 14, at 8:00 p.m. ET for our next #ILAchat, as we discuss how to better serve girls around the world.
Clare Maloney is an intern at the International Literacy Association. She is currently seeking a BA in English from the University of Delaware.