Inuglak School in Whale Cove, Nunavut, is offering plane tickets as a reward for challenged readers who turn into avid readers.

It's a simple method that teachers used when the school's now-principal Claude Pike was a child, decades ago.

He couldn't read until he was in Grade 4, but that turned around when his teachers consistently had him practise reading to them on a daily basis.

Inuglak School, with its 157 students, is following the same steps, getting students to spend 20 minutes a day with a teacher working on their reading skills.

"It's deliberate work, and it's diligent work. But it yields really good results. And for me personally I would not be here had a teacher or group of teachers not paused to make this happen. So we're doing the same for the kids," Pike said.

The children have been split into small groups of two to four for the reading times. (Submitted by Nunavut Department of Education)

How it works

Students were split into small groups based on their reading level, and paired with a teacher for 20 minutes a day for reading. They made huge strides boosting those levels over the course of three months, according to assessments done by learning coaches and student support teachers.

With this "intensive approach," they began reading more independently, and bridged the gap in reading levels that the school was seeing, said a media release from Nunavut's education department.

"When you open a child's eyes to reading and they are able to do this on their own, the sense of pride, the sense of accomplishment that comes in that moment is incomparable," Pike said.

In addition to teachers and coaches, community members are getting involved. RCMP officers have come as guests for the 20-minute reading program.

At Inuglak School, kindergarten to Grade 4 is taught in Inuktitut and in English for grades 5 through 12. The school is now working on a similar 20-minute reading program with the Inuktitut language teachers.

In addition to teachers and coaches, RCMP officers have come as guests for the 20-minute reading program. Pictured, RCMP Const. David Fairfax and Ashley Teenar read together. (Submitted by Nunavut Department of Education)

Getting parents involved

The end goal is to get all students in the school up to a Grade 9 reading level. To move things closer to that goal, Inuglak School wants parents and guardians to read with their child for a further 20 minutes every day.

"We now need more time and we need to make this more sustainable. And that can only take place with parental involvement," Pike said.

The school is offering mini lessons to show parents how to model the reading stations the students are used to at school.

Parents attended an assembly to promote literacy at home. (Submitted by Nunavut Education Department)

To incentivize that, Calm Air has donated four plane tickets that will be awarded to two families who sign up for the 20-minute read-at-home challenge and show the most improvement on the final benchmark test at the end of the school year.

"People see it as a competition but I think that after we realize how many students are being helped and how the achievements will increase, that this will take on a life of its own," Pike said.

"We won't need to be doing a competition for this to happen. You know, that's our hope and that's our dream."