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HomeNewsMore Canadian content coming to local schools

More Canadian content coming to local schools

School libraries across the Province, including the Kawartha Lakes will soon be carrying more Canadian literature.

The Province announced today, books such as fiction, plays and poetry will be coming into schools across Ontario, to enrich the learning experience of students in the classroom.

Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister Eleanor McMahon was at Cherokee Public School in Toronto to launch the new initiative as part of the  Canadian Books in Ontario Schools Fund.

“In this milestone year marking Ontario’s 150th anniversary, we are introducing a new way to support the study of more Canadian content in our schools. Our government is a proud supporter of this country’s authors and recognizes their contribution to our society. The fund will bring more Canadian content into our schools and help to enrich the classroom learning experience — and that is a benefit to us all.” explained Eleanor McMahon, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

It’s a three-year, $250,000 pilot project that will support publishers to create supplementary resources, including curriculum-linked lesson plans, activities and discussion guides, to complement acclaimed works of Canadian literature. These new resources will support learning and teaching through the curriculum for kids from kindergarten to grade 12. The supplementary resources developed from the first round of grants will be available for the 2018 school year.

Developed through consultations with education professionals, teachers and Ontario-based publishers, the fund will be administered by the Ontario Media Development Corporation. Resources may also be considered for online distribution through TVO’s TeachOntario.

David Caron, ECW Press Co-publisher says “As an Ontario publisher and President of the Ontario Book Publishers Organization, I welcome this support from the Ontario Government in keeping with the Culture Strategy to help bring more Canadian books into classrooms. This funding will enable us to develop more learning resources highlighting to Ontario teachers how excellent Canadian literature can develop better learning outcomes for students.”

Canadian authors are excited about the project. “In addition to how important it is for students in Ontario to see their geography, vocabulary, idiom and context in the books they read, it’s also critical for kids to see that authors aren’t just from London or L.A. – they are from Sudbury, from Curve Lake First Nations, from Mississauga. As a Canadian author, I’m glad that this new fund will give teachers more tools to bring local stories into their classrooms.” says Evan Munday, author of the Silver Birch-nominated series The Dead Kid Detective Agency

Bringing more Canadian books into the classroom is an important way to expose children to Canada’s best authors and stories, and will help introduce these works to a whole new generation according to officials.

photo credit: suzyhazelwood DSC00759-02 via photopin (license)

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Pamela Vanmeer
Pamela Vanmeerhttps://www.kawartha411.ca/
Pamela VanMeer is a two time winner of the prestigious Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Award. Her investigative reports on abuse in Long Term Care Homes garnered international attention for the issue and won the Ron Laidlaw Award. She is a former reporter and anchor at CHEX News, now Global Peterborough and helped launch the New CHEX Daily, a daily half hour talk show. While at CHCH News in Hamilton she covered some of the biggest news stories of the day.

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