Province Investing Millions In Literacy

An investment of more than $3 million this year will provide additional support for students and teachers in reading, writing and grammar. More books in classrooms, more professional development and expansion of successful reading and writing programs will be made possible through the province's continued commitment to literacy.

"Government made literacy a priority when we introduced Learning for Life in 2002," said Education Minister Jamie Muir. "Our commitment continues through some exciting initiatives, including more class time for reading and language arts, more professional development sessions for teachers, and we're working on putting a million more books into Nova Scotia's classrooms. This September marks year three of the Literacy Success Strategy."

One of the initiatives receiving attention this year is Active Readers. This reading program has already helped 100,000 students in grades Primary to 8 and is expanding to Grade 9 this year.

"One of the real strengths of Active Readers is its school-wide focus," said Mr. Muir. "Reading difficulties are a barrier to success in all subject areas so all teachers and support staff have a role to play in helping children develop solid reading skills. With the expansion of the program into Grade 9, language arts teachers, as well as teachers in other subject areas like math and science, will receive support and resources to help students take full advantage of the program."

Active Readers was recently endorsed by internationally renowned literacy leader Jeffrey Wilhelm.

"I think the Nova Scotia Department of Education is ahead of anybody in North America, certainly ahead of everybody in the States, in the way they're thinking about innovative instruction and how to provide assistance to kids of all levels of ability," said Mr. Wilhelm during a Halifax radio interview on Aug. 17.

Active Readers was first introduced to Grade 7 students in 2002- 03 and has expanded every year. The program will be the focus of a four-day workshop hosted by the department this week.

Other Primary to Grade 9 literacy initiatives in the Learning for Life plan that will be implemented this year include:

• Developing resources to help teachers in grades 7 to 9 better assess their students' reading;
• Continuing to provide language arts training and build leadership on school boards and in schools. To date, the department has trained 40 literacy mentors and more than 500 teacher leaders are supporting literacy initiatives;
• Investing more than $1 million in books to support Active Readers;
• Expanding Writers in Action, an initiative to help children learn grammar, spelling and punctuation, to Grade 6. Through this initiative, more than 30,000 students have their own handbooks and grades 4 to 6 classrooms have received 10,000 dictionaries, 10,000 thesauruses, and other resources to support the writing program.
• Providing $1 million to schools to support students who are struggling with reading and writing. The elementary literacy assessment conducted in the 2003-04 school year showed that most students are succeeding and those who aren't are getting support to catch up;
• Implementing minimum time requirement of 60 minutes for language arts in grades 7 and 8.

At the Grade 10, 11 and 12 levels, literacy initiatives that will be implemented this year include:

• Developing resources to provide increased support to grade 10 English teachers. This includes investing $164,000 in Writers in Action resources for English 10 classrooms;
• The department is piloting a 220-hour English Plus 10 course to provide additional time and support for Grade 10 students who are struggling with literacy (courses are usually 110 hours);
• Supporting boards to provide two days of professional development for teachers of English 10 and two days for French language arts high school teachers;
• Continuing to provide training and build leadership, on school boards and in schools, for language arts. This year, the department is forming leadership teams for English 10.

Through its Learning for Life plan, the province will continue to focus on helping students succeed in reading, writing and math.