Our Story
Our education program is comprehensive, adaptable, and geared toward long-term impact.
Child Aid’s teacher training curriculum and training process is based on best practices in literacy instruction.
This is because how kids are taught to read makes a big difference if kids actually learn to read. And when they don’t they struggle in all areas. Contrary to popular belief, reading isn’t a skill that kids just naturally pick up – they need to be taught the mechanics of reading – sounding out syllables and matching them to written letters. Our curriculum teaches the mechanics of reading (how to read), as well as reading comprehension (the ability to understand what is being read).
Mechanics vs. Linguistics
The mechanics of reading is the boring, but essential part. It is matching sounds to letters. It is practice and repetition. This is what builds reading fluency. The more students read and practice sounding out words, the more fluent they become.
Mastery of the mechanics is not enough, once they have the basics down, then it is all about comprehension. Can kids understand what they are reading? Are they able to use context clues and critical thinking to engage with what they are reading. This is the linguistics of reading.
Another way to think about this is building a program that facilitates students learning to read and reading to learn.
Our Curriculum
Over the years, our curriculum has been continually modified and adapted to meet the unique needs of Guatemalan teachers based on experiences of our staff and teachers in the classroom, and it is designed to integrate with and support Guatemala’s National Curriculum (CNB).
The teacher training component is a three-year program, withe each year having a specific content focus. Trainings are led as group workshops which expose teachers to new content, and give educators a chance to practice implementing the content in three, one-on-one coaching sessions after each workshop.
Throughout each year of the program, our staff uses formative evaluations with our teachers and their students to make sure all learning objectives are met. We update our curriculum every two years based on student, teacher and staff feedback.
At a Glance
Below is an overview of our training topics by year
Year 1: Reading with Comprehension
- Reading Aloud: Learning how students learn to read and the foundations of strong readers. Together trainers and teachers will learn about teaching “thinking skills” and exploring strategies for reading aloud to students.
- Levels of Learning: Understanding the importance of reading fluency levels. Exploring topics around reading comprehension and ways to conduct diagnostic assessments to group student by they reading level. Then, how do you tailor lessons to meet your students needs.
Year 2: Reading Critically
- Reading Strategies: Identifying reading strategies for critical learning, understanding the importance of thinking critically and how to infer meaning from text. Explore role playing classroom scenarios for each strategy to coach teachers through how to apply them.
- Reading Nonfiction: Learning techniques for analyzing and understanding nonfiction books, including understanding the characteristics of nonfiction writing, strategies for student comprehension and best practices for implementing the strategies for other areas of education.
Year 3: The Writing Process
- Writing to Entertain: Identifying three purposes of writing, and breaking down the six steps in the writing process in order to teach their importance. How to guide students to write their own fiction stories.
- Writing to Inform and Persuade: Exploring the purpose of informative writing, and the power of persuasion. Using the writing process to create texts in a variety of styles and covering different subject areas.
Why literacy?
Education is key to transforming the lives of children living in poverty.
Throughout Guatemala, the educational system is broken. Rural regions have some of the highest illiteracy rates in the world, simply put, children are going to school, but not learning. The problem centers around a lack of teacher training and skill building. Teachers lack the tools they need to succeed.
To address this, Child Aid developed a three-year, immersive teacher training program designed to ensure children get the well-trained teachers, quality spanish-language books and innovative programming they need to succeed.
