Students at Range Lake North School in Yellowknife will soon have access to hundreds of new books after the school received a $30,000 grant through Indigo’s Love of Reading Foundation.
The school was selected from thousands of applicants across Canada. The funding will be used to replace and expand a library collection that school staff say is about 25 years old on average.
Teacher Andree Amirault, who led the grant application, said students played a key role in identifying the types of books they would like to see added to the library.
“They’ve actually decided what kind of books they’d like to see which is amazing because we want to foster a love of reading.”
Amirault said conversations with students showed a strong interest in historical fiction, non-fiction and updated learning resources. The grant will also allow teachers to expand classroom libraries over the next three years through Indigo.
School librarian Kim McKnight said many of the library’s books and materials are outdated and heavily used. She said the new funding will help create a collection that better reflects current curriculum and the diverse interests and experiences of students.
Students say they are excited about the opportunity to explore new genres and subjects.
Miller is looking forward to engaging with more historical books, especially about World War 1 and World War 2.
“I like learning with books. It’s very fun,” Miller said.
Gracelynn prefers novels with longer, more detailed storylines and likes the anticipation of adventure stories. Gracelynn said exposure to storytelling in novels activates imagination and a visual picture of the story.
“I like to picture what’s happening in the book.”
Eva also likes longer novels.“There’s always something unexpected. It’s like a mystery most of the time,” said Eva.
Rayyan is interested in craft books and learning how to make things like mini planes and boats.
Rayyan and Wyatt find books are a good way to relax while learning about topics they are interested in. Literature in different forms also makes room for inspiration and ways to understand different ideas and concepts, they pointed out.
Wyatt wants to engage with a mix of genres, from engineering to poetry books.
“Poetry paints a picture in my head, so I can imagine and engineering is really fun,” said Wyatt.
The love of reading grant will also help boost the resources the school was able to access through an Infuse grant which the teachers and librarian used to create an audio library collection.
“We put in a listening library and also to update student interest we have hundreds of titles students are able to access,” said Amirault.
The students took part in creating the library, using their voices to amplify storytelling and the world of books.
“We can record students, telling stories so they can listen to them,” explained Amirault.
“it’s been amazing and with some of this funding, we could update this collection from Indigo, and it would be great, but it’s been going really well,” said Amirault.
Amirault emphasized that the big picture is about getting students interested in literacy.
“We want our students to be interested in literacy in all forms and to just be excited about reading and learning, so it’s been great.
School vice-principal Neil Penney said the grant will give students access to books they are excited to read and is an important investment in literacy.
The funding is part of Indigo’s Love of Reading Foundation, which said more than $1.8 million is being distributed to 50 schools across Canada this year.
