Prince Edward Island schools met and surpassed their goals for this year’s Million Minute Challenge by proving that Island students can read for at least one million minutes in a day.
“The 2008 Million Minute Challenge has been a great success,” says Michelle Dodds, vice president of the PEI Teacher-Librarians Association. “Island students and teachers have once again demonstrated their commitment to literacy by reading a total of 1,389,794 minutes in one day, which is 55,000 more minutes than they read last year.”
As co-sponsors, the PEI Teacher-Librarians Association, the PEI Literacy Alliance, and UPEI Faculty of Education acknowledge the efforts of students, teachers, and guest readers for their enthusiastic participation in this important literacy event. Many activities were organized for the challenge which was held on October 27, National School Library Day.
Schools brought celebrity readers such as Premier Robert Ghiz and Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Gerard Greenan into the schools to read. Other schools “dropped everything” to read. Montague Intermediate School had a super-sized silent reading period. Sherwood Elementary School staff challenged students to tally more minutes than last year in order to have the teacher-librarian read from the roof of the school.
St Teresa's Consolidated School won the reading challenge by reading more minutes per student than any other school. St Teresa's students devoted almost the entire day to reading. They had a silent reading period, literacy activities throughout the day, teachers reading aloud to students during lunch, and reading during recess.