Wednesday, October 7, 2020 — St. Georges Methodist School in Grenada was first introduced to the Early Learners Programme in January 2017 and has seen a marked improvement in their early grade students’ reading levels as a result. Despite trepidation to start, the Principal and teachers embraced the various ELP initiatives and incorporated those into classroom instruction over a three and a half year period. Teachers and parents noted significant improvement in the students’ interest and abilities in reading from Kindergarten to Grade 3.
“Generally, we have had a lot of struggles with reading in the past, and the ELP brought new enthusiasm and motivation to the teachers and the parents. Students are accepting more responsibility for their learning because they are always engaged. Their interest in books has grown with new materials provided by the ELP that are appropriate and relevant to their age level – which helps to sustain their attention. There is a new excitement around reading at our school and it is in large part, due to the many new reading instruction methods learned and implemented.”
With consistent support and coaching from the ELP Coordinators, teachers were able to implement specific initiatives that helped with their reading instruction. Differentiation was a major change in classrooms whereby teachers grouped students according to reading levels and were able to manage various groups at their respective reading levels simultaneously. Additionally, teachers were paying more attention to comprehension strategies and critical thinking within their reading lessons. The ELP Coordinators played a major role in guiding and mentoring the teachers with these new methods.
The OECS/USAID Early Learners Programme team is pleased to see the outcome of the implementation of the ELP in the St. Georges Methodist School. Similar feedback has been received from schools across the OECS which have implemented evidence-based early grade reading instruction and have seen the benefit in their students.