>> From the Government of Ontario
News Release
July 19, 2017
New Investment Aims to Enrich Children’s Learning Experience
Ontario is bringing more Canadian literature — such as fiction, plays and poetry — 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 today to announce the new Canadian Books in Ontario Schools Fund.
The fund is a three-year 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.
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.
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.
QUICK FACTS
- The Canadian Books in Ontario Schools Fund is a key commitment in Ontario’s Culture Strategy, launched in July 2016.
- The fund is a three-year, $250,000 per year pilot project.
- The supplementary resources developed from the first round of grants will be available for the 2018 school year.
- In Ontario classrooms teachers use two categories of learning resources to support their instructional practice: textbooks and supplementary resources.
Teachers, school librarians and school boards decide what supplementary resources are used in the classroom.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Learn more about the Canadian Books in Ontario Schools Fund
QUOTES
“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.”
— Eleanor McMahon, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport
“We are confident that the new Canadian Books in Ontario Schools initiative will help to get important Canadian books and relevant literature into Ontario’s classrooms.”
— Mark Sakamoto, Chair, Ontario Media Development Corporation
“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.”
— Evan Munday, author of the Silver Birch-nominated series The Dead Kid Detective Agency
“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.”
— David Caron, ECW Press Co-publisher
CONTACTS
Denelle Balfour
Communications Branch
(416) 326-1724
Denelle.Balfour@ontario.ca
Jeff Costen
Minister’s Office
(416) 314-4266
Jeff.Costen@ontario.ca
Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport
http://www.ontario.ca/mtcs