Literacy for Dominican-Haitian Youth in the Batey

The doors to the Learning Center will open to students on Monday, when the Spring Semester begins. For the first time, the Learning Centers’ teachers are preparing to hold classes five-days a week, which will add one day of instruction to the weekly schedule followed in previous semesters. All seven of the Learning Center’s classes will be taught Mondays through Thursdays, with guided Reading Hours and homework help available on Fridays. The Learning Center’s calendar has also been adjusted to accommodate more overall days of instruction, which brings it in-line with the Dominican Republic’s public school schedule. We hope this reinforces concepts that students learn in school, and, with more class time, students will have the opportunity to review material frequently and advance rapidly.

The Food Program, which began in September, will be extended to accommodate these changes, so that students will be provided with a nutritious snack, such as hard boiled eggs, sandwiches and bananas, before each class. We hope this gives students the energy they need to focus during the extra day of instruction. Many students in Batey Libertad do not have access to regular or healthy meal options, and the Food Program will continue to pursue its goal of ensuring that no student arrives to class on an empty stomach.

Before the winter recess, teachers evaluated students’ progress using the internationally recognized Reading A-Z and Early Grade Reading Assessment systems. Improvements were noted across-the-board, with all but two students scoring higher and demonstrating increased phonemic awareness when compared with testing done over the summer. By continuing to use an array of teaching tools, such as phonics games, dictations, guided reading, arts-and-crafts, and music-based lessons, we hope the Learning Center’s students will gain even more confidence and fluency in their reading and writing over the course of the upcoming semester.