Teacher Training Curriculum

Child Aid’s teacher training curriculum and training process is based on best practices in literacy instruction. 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 classrooms, and it is designed to integrate with and support Guatemala’s National Curriculum (CNB).

Each enrolled year in our Reading for Life literacy program has a specific content focus. Our group workshops expose teachers to new content, and educators get a chance to practice implementing the workshop content in three, one-on-one coaching sessions after each workshop. Throughout the year, 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.

Curriculum

Child Aid developed our four-year Reading for Life teacher training curriculum through years of experience working with primary school teachers. We combine best teaching practices with our knowledge of Guatemala to create a tool for teachers that integrates with the national Curriculum of Guatemala (CNB). Reading for Life offers teachers practical solutions for complex educational challenges.

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English Version

Spanish Version

Facilitator’s Guide

In order to become effective coaches, Child Aid staff receive significant training before they begin to work with teachers and ongoing professional development. The Facilitator’s Guide is a tool for Child Aid staff that helps ensure all workshops and coaching sessions during the Reading for Life program maintain a consistent standard of quality.

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Spanish Version

Year One

Building Critical Readers

We introduce our teachers to our overall objective: to provide them with literacy tools that facilitate the creation of a new educational paradigm characterized by three tenets: active participation, critical thinking, and integrated literacy.

Specifically, year one focuses on developing critical readers through engaging read-alouds and reading strategies applied to fictional texts. In the first training, teachers learn how to craft questions that reinforce both basic comprehension and critical thinking skills. Teachers then work together to plan and practice their first read-aloud lesson for their students, incorporating these questions. The second workshop focuses on how to teach students effective reading strategies. Teachers leave equipped with engaging activities, such as graphic organizers and games, that they can use to reinforce these reading strategies.

Year Two

Reading Nonfiction

Teachers build on their knowledge of effective reading strategies from year one, and apply them to nonfiction texts in all subject areas. In the third workshop, teachers focus on the importance of nonfiction for their students, and practice differentiating the characteristics of fiction and nonfiction. Additionally, they learn specific strategies and techniques that help students navigate nonfiction. In the fourth training, teachers focus on integrating read-alouds and reading strategies into other content areas, such as math, science, and social studies, to reinforce literacy throughout the school day.

Year Three

The Writing Process

Child Aid staff help teachers and their students make the connection between reading and writing. Teachers learn how to use a six-step writing process, which includes: pre-writing, planning, writing, revising, editing, and publishing. Teachers use this process to help their students write with the purpose of either entertaining or informing the reader. In each of the six phases of the writing process, teachers are exposed to different techniques for facilitating their students’ writing.

Year Four

Facilitating Learning

During year four, teachers focus on personalized learning for their students. In the seventh training, teachers learn how to use formative evaluations to group their students according to need. Next, educators plan “focus lessons” for a group of students while other students reinforce their skills in independent work time. Finally, in the last workshop, Child Aid helps teachers put all the lessons together and each educator to ask big questions about their teaching practices. The final Child Aid lesson encourages an introspective approach, challenging teachers to strategize how they can continue to use the strategies and tools acquired over the course of the four years to prepare their students to become readers for life.