Literacy for Dominican-Haitian Youth in the Batey

Yspaniola kicked off its two-week summer camp this Monday, July 14^th. The summer camp caters to students aged seven to thirteen in Batey Libertad and features lessons and activities in science, art, health, and sports. This year, we have over eighty campers, thirty-two local volunteers, and eleven international volunteers! In addition to providing the campers with two weeks of fun, the camp also gives teens and young adults in the community the opportunity to develop leadership skills. Teens receive training to be activity teachers and camp counselors, and are integral to the entire planning process.

To register for camp, children in the community were required to take the Early Grade Reading Assessment, which our teachers completed with the help of staff, interns, and community assistants. These assessments are part of Yspaniola’s Learning Center’s monitoring and evaluation system, which includes in-house phonics and reading assessments, as well as the Reading A-Z system. Preliminary data indicates that students who reguarly attend the Center are advancing in their reading levels far faster than expected. Our most at-risk students, children in 5th or 6th grade reading at a Kindergarten level or below, have had almost one full year of reading growth during the last 6 months of classes. Along with tracking student advancements, this monitoring and evaluation system allows Center teachers to track individual students’ strengths and weaknesses, enabling staff to tailor lesson plans and curricula to individual needs.

In the years to come, we are looking forward to more summers of fun, learning, and assessments in Batey Libertad.