E102 - Meredith Tutching - Forest of Reading - Canada's Largest Recreational Reading Program - Inspiring Students to Find Joy in Reading

EPISODE 102 -  In this episode of Living The Next Chapter, I have a conversation with about The Forest of Reading - an initiative to put the joy back into reading for Ontario Students and beyond!The Forest of Reading is Canada’s largest recreational reading program! This initiative offers ten reading programs to encourage a love of reading in people of all ages. The Forest helps celebrate Canadian books, publishers, authors and illustrators. More than 270,000 readers participate annually from their school and/or public library. All Canadians are invited to participate via their local public library, school library, or individually.The Forest of Reading Award Programs are where children and young adults pick the winner! Readers choose a program that they would like to be a part of, usually based on their age or grade, and simply begin reading! They can read all ten of the titles, or pick and choose to read only the ones they are interested in. Participants are encouraged to read at least five of the ten titles to be eligible to vote in April. This program aims to encourage a genuine and life-long love of reading among readers of all ages.Goals of the Forest of ReadingLove of reading: Create a meaningful experience for your readers and give exciting opportunities for reluctant readers to become lifelong readers.A proven head start: The results are in! Children who read for fun have higher literacy scores, have more success in science and math, and are more socially and civically engaged (Reading for Joy, P4E, 2011).Libraries at centre stage: With fun activities, prizes and more, the Forest of Reading puts libraries at the heart of the action!Reading Canadian: Help support and celebrate Canadian books, publishers, authors and illustrators by taking advantage of the Forest’s curated, all-Canadian reading lists for all ages and levels.What is the Forest of Reading?The Forest of Reading® is Canada’s largest recreational reading program! This initiative of the Ontario Library Association (OLA) offers eight reading programs to encourage a love of reading in people of all ages. The Forest helps celebrate Canadian books, publishers, authors and illustrators. More than 250,000 readers participate annually from their School and/or Public Library. All Canadians are invited to participate via their local public library, school library, or individually.When did the Forest of Reading begin?The program began with the Silver Birch® award in 1993 (Grades 4 – 6) and over the next decade programs were continually added as they attracted the attention of principals, school boards and public libraries across Ontario.For authors/illustrators and publishers, the exposure to their books is immense. In the 1990s the individual tree programs had their own small ceremonies with hundreds of kids in Toronto. In 2007, OLA teamed up with the International Festival of Authors to create the Festival of Trees and present all awards in one location. This is now the largest children’s literary event in Canada. In 2015, the Toronto Festival and satellite Forest events were attended by 20,000 young readers. Check out more here:https://forestofreading.com/And this great article:https://www.calla.com/wordpress/meet-the-professional-meredith-tutching-director-of-the-forest-of-reading-2/___https://livingthenextchapter.com/podcast produced by: https://truemediasolutions.ca/Have a podcast and need a great website? Try Podpage!Support the show___https://livingthenextchapter.com/podcast produced by: https://truemediasolutions.ca/Coffee Refills are always appreciated, refill Dave's cup here, and thanks!https://buymeacoffee.com/truemediaca