Reading skills improve significantly in public elementary schools

_{Photo: From left: Dr. Lynne Paradis, International Director of the Belize Reading Intervention Program, and Saride Ahmad, President of the Rotary Club of San Ignacio}

Written by Orlando Pulido

Santa Elena, Cayo District, Saturday, June 8, 2024

The first year of a mandatory reading intervention program in all Belize public elementary schools for grades 2 and 3 has concluded. The Rotary International program, implemented by the Rotary Clubs of San Ignacio and Red Deer, Alberta, in partnership with the Belize Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology (MoECST), will continue next year due to positive results.

Dr. Lynne Paradis, International Director of the Belize Reading Intervention Program, tells us that the program is designed to help primary school teachers improve reading instruction based on current scientific research on reading. This reading approach is specifically designed to help students who have fallen behind due to school closures during the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic.

Data received last month showed significant improvements in reading decoding skills among students in grades 2 and 3. The Belize and Canadian teams analyzed thousands of data points from pre- and post-curriculum tests in 58 public schools.

According to Paradis, the program is designed to give students basic skills in word decoding, which are helpful for reading. Evidence shows that when teachers read for half an hour every day over five months using this very specific reading method, children’s ability to read sight words and decode words improves significantly, which are foundational skills essential for developing reading ability. Developed and published internationally in 2020, the program is based on current reading research; it has been used very effectively in many Canadian schools and teacher training colleges.

“When children are born, their brains are wired to learn two or more languages ​​simultaneously. This is evident in Belize, where most children learn Creole, Spanish, and English from their family and community settings. Schools do not need to provide any specific instruction. They learn the words and are able to distinguish which words go with which language. Learning to read is similar. If you expose children to effective early reading strategies, they will acquire these skills relatively quickly. The younger children are (ideally between 4 and 9 years old) when they learn the basic foundational skills for reading, the faster they will learn to read,” says Lynee Paradis, Ph.D.

“So we want to take advantage of children’s young and growing brains and give them the reading strategies they need,” Paradis continued. “As children get older, learning to read, a complex activity, becomes increasingly difficult. Adults can learn to read, too, but it’s usually more difficult and therefore takes longer.”

All branch and community libraries have embraced the program and use it for reading support activities for children and adults. All librarians have been trained to administer the program and are eager to support any community member who visits their local library.

Ms. Erica Lumsden, a library assistant at Santa Elena Library, took the reading intervention training and uses it with students who come to the library after school. She has seen improvements and noted that this is a program that can be used at home as well. “It also helps Spanish-speaking parents learn English,” Erica said.

Ms. Miriam Garcia, a librarian at Bunker Library, also attended the training (as well as the literacy workshops) and is happy to support students who are struggling with reading. Miriam said, “I now know how to help students when they come.”

In a recent meeting led by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology (MoECST), all parties agreed to support the implementation of a reading intervention program in Belizean schools in the next school year. The goal is to improve reading proficiency and build teachers’ skills in effective reading intervention strategies that can be used to teach all subjects.

Across all districts in Belize, there has been a significant increase in the number of teachers and administrators using science-based reading intervention approaches. Increased confidence in teaching a variety of reading strategies has had a positive impact on student reading success. However, there is still room for growth and improvement.

Faride Ahmad, president of the Rotary Club of San Ignacio, praised the collaboration between Rotarians from Belize and Canada. “For teachers who have and use the program, you can see evidence of growth in the statistics. The improvement is tremendous. When teachers see improvement, they become believers and are more motivated to improve their teaching practices with new methods,” said Ahmad.

Faride Ahmad also detailed other work done by the Rotary Club of San Ignacio: “[Our]signature project is scholarships, so we give scholarships to high school students. We also give scholarships to higher education students, and right now we are giving a scholarship to a student at Galen University… We also have our own park, which is the Rotary Park, in Santa Elena. We also build toilets—we go to schools that have very bad facilities and fix toilets for the kids; it’s a big thing.”

Dr. Lynne Paradis would like to thank Dr. George Georgio, developer of the reading program, and his research team from the University of Alberta, Canada, for their support, advice, and extensive data analysis.

The vision of the project is that eventually all teachers and teachers-in-service training will be able to assess students’ reading levels proficiently and then provide effective reading support to students based on the assessment results. Currently, there is a large group of educators in Belize who are aware of and encouraged by the program. These emerging Belizean reading leaders will serve as the primary facilitators for the reading professional development training in August 2024. As the capacity of reading instructional leaders in Belizean schools continues to grow, the Canadian consultant team will realize their vision of improving reading levels in Belize.

This year, Dr. Lynne Paradis will return with the Canadian team to work with the expanded group of Reading Leaders in Belize from July 28 to August 10. The group will continue to provide training to educators and librarians throughout Belize.