News release

Successful Reading Program Expands into Grade 8

Education (July 1999 - March 2013)

Students across Nova Scotia are getting 97,000 new books this month as Active Readers expands into Grade 8 classrooms. It's part of the Learning for Life plan to help students develop strong reading and writing skills.

"Our school-wide focus on literacy is the backbone of our Learning for Life plan," said Premier John Hamm. "Bringing these books to Grade 8 students is another step in our multi-year plan to strengthen our students' literacy skills so they succeed in school and in life."

A group of Grade 8 students read hundreds of books to help the Department of Education select 133 titles. The books range from fiction set in Atlantic Canada to non-fiction topics such as geography, the human body and the science of light and colour.

Teachers of language arts and other subjects are also receiving support to encourage a whole-school focus on reading.

Gerarda Golding is a Grade 8 language arts teacher at Bedford Junior High School. Mr. Hamm delivered a set of 242 books to her classroom today, Nov. 27.

"Getting these books is really exciting and motivating for both students and teachers because there's such a wide variety for all readers, including many books that are good resources for the content areas of science and social studies," she said. "It's also been very positive to bring teachers together to talk about literacy and the strategies students need to become stronger readers."

Each Grade 8 English language arts teacher is getting three professional resources to help students take full advantage of the new books. Grade 8 math, science, social studies and personal development and relationships teachers are receiving another resource on teaching reading through their subjects.

In addition to the resource materials, all Grade 8 teachers are spending two professional development days on how to teach students strategies for improving their reading. For example, if a struggling reader encounters a word he doesn't understand, he may stop reading rather than using strategies such as re-reading the passage or making a guess based on the context.

Active Readers began in Grade 7 last year and will expand to Grade 9 next year. It's a key part of the support that will be provided to struggling students identified through the elementary literacy assessment.

Active Readers builds on the success of Active Young Readers which began in elementary schools in 2000. Since then, more than $8 million has been invested in professional development and about 998,000 books and teacher resources.