Batey Libertad Learning Center
Learning Center : Literacy-focused Tutoring Classes
Yspaniola provides classes in Spanish language literacy to students ages 4 to 15 in Batey Libertad. Our Learning Center serves more than 150 students from the community, and our curriculum helps students in the Batey develop literacy skills not acquired in public school—like phonics and reading strategies—where the quality of instruction is poor and students often complete primary school unable to read at a basic level. Although our primary focus is on Spanish language instruction, Yspaniola also strives to create a healthy environment for child development by fostering skills related to reading comprehension, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and problem solving. Yspaniola places special emphasis on individualized attention, and we regularly assess the abilities and progress of each of our students. We employ a variety of testing methods to gauge learning outcomes, including:
- Customized and comprehensive preschool evaluations
- Customized phonics evaluations
- The Reading A to Z System, which enables us to track student reading growth over time
Preschool Center: a comprehensive ECCE pedagogy
Each morning, Yspaniola provides classes for our Kindergarten group of 4-year-olds. In the Dominican Republic, the public school system starts at 5 year-olds, with Pre-Primario. However, early childhood development studies have found that the critical stage of human development is much before, and the earlier we start building skills in children, the stronger these skills will grow in time. Therefore, we have created this Kinder class as a way of familiarizing our youngest learners with solid academic foundations:
- Early cognitive skills
- Fine motor skills
- Vocabulary learning activities
- Early literacy skills
- Logical thinking and Mathematical Foundational skills
- Socio-emotional Foundational skills
Learning Center Library
Over the years, and thanks to your generous donations we have been able to build a growing selection of books (we would always like more). We want to make that selection available to our students and the youth of Batey Libertad to build a culture of reading. Indeed, one of the primar factors of iliteracy is the lack of access to books and magazines for children to read. We incorporate this selection of books in our curriculum and daily lesson plans with our students as early as 4-year-old. We strongly believe in the power of story-telling and reading !
Each week, Yspaniola also hosts open reading hours in the Learning Center library. Students are able to choose their readings from our large selection of books, organized by reading level, following the Reading A to Z System.