Bringing Literacy Learning to Life
This past Monday, Lower School students got to meet author Ada Ari during a special visit. Through the stories that Ari read–such as her adaptation of the Anansi the Spider African folk tale, The Spider’s Thin Legs–and the hands-on activities she led with the students, Live Oak learners deepened their diverse cultural awareness. Ari connected the messages, references, and imagery of her books to the students by having them play traditional African instruments, try on traditional clothing, and use traditional tribal tools, giving students the opportunity to not just hear about different cultures, but to experience them in some way. This taste of culture brings these concepts to life for our students.
When students dive into a book in their homeroom classes, they learn lasting literacy skills like reading fluency, comprehension, making predictions and inferences, and so much more. This opens space for them to construct deeper layers of knowledge and curiosity by relating these stories to their lives and experiences. Extending beyond words on a page, Live Oak students get to experience literacy in engaging and memorable ways. Building off of Live Oak’s broader experiential learning approach, librarians Brittany and Layla actively seek out real-world opportunities such as this for storytelling to leave a lasting impact on our students. Looking ahead, Book Fest in December will bring more opportunities for our students to learn from and engage with a diverse selection of authors. If interested, Live Oak families can order any of Ada’s books using this order form and read more about Ada and her work on her website.
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Live Oak School welcomes and admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, citizenship status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and faith to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities of Live Oak School. Live Oak School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, citizenship status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and faith in administration of its educational policies and programs, admissions policies, Adjusted Tuition program, and athletic and other school-administered programs.