Students Taking Action Reading Solo / Élèves Prennent Action en Lecteur Autonome (STARS / EPALA) is a recreational reading program run by Terry James Resource Centre. The program encourages elementary students to explore accessible content formats and fulfill K-8 Literacy, ESL, and FSL curriculum expectations - all while reading for pleasure.
Students track the minutes they spend reading Sora eBooks and audiobooks and/or Scholastic French digital magazines. At the end of the program, students in a class add up and submit their combined reading times to win prizes for their class, Learning Commons, or school - the more minutes spent reading, the more chances classes have to win! Students can track reading in any format, language, and/or reading level. Students cannot track reading for class, including novel studies, homework, etc.
This year, 31 classes across 19 schools were registered for the program with grades K through 8 represented. The 681 students read a combined total of 54,591 minutes - equivalent to 910 hours, or 38 days!
Sixteen weekly prizes were awarded based on completion of mystery challenges. Classes received bean bag chairs, LEGO sets, and new books, and grand prizes consisting of iPads and a 3D printer.
Grand Prize winning classes:
3D printer (awarded to the school whose participating classes read the most combined):
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Spencer Avenue PS
Classroom iPads:
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Grade 2 @ Westminster Woods PS
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Grade 2/3 @ Rickson Ridge PS
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Grade 5/6 @ Waverley Drive PS
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Grade 5 @ Island Lake PS
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Grade 7/8 @ Westwood PS
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Grade 6/7 @ John Black PS
New book bundles:
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Grade 3 @ Princess Elizabeth PS
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Grade 4/5 @ Ross R MacKay PS
Each teacher received a STARS / EPALA 2025 Educator's Handbook with program guidelines, tips for troubleshooting technical issues, and recommendations around supporting students to read for pleasure, as well as extension activities like colouring pages and a reading bingo sheet.
Teachers received a weekly email from TJRC with a "tip of the week" and a "mystery challenge". The tip of the week was for teachers, and covered topics like helping students find a good "book fit", utilizing Sora's accessibility features, engaging parents and caregivers in the program, and modeling positive habits and attitudes associated with recreational reading to demonstrate the value to students.
The mystery challenge provided additional opportunities for classes to win prizes by submitting student work based on a variety of prompts.
Examples of mystery challenge student work.
"It's always exciting for me as a teacher when my students buy into something like this as it can be a real game changer," one teacher surveyed said. "My reluctant readers became much more likely to try an e-book or audiobook on Sora after participating in STARS. Several students have asked if Sora is available all year - this has really helped to make sure every student knows how to access this resource, including at home," another teacher said.
Congratulations to everyone who participated in this year's STARS/EPALA program!
