Early Grade teachers in OECS producing culturally relevant books to teach reading!

(Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Press Room) The USAID/OECS Early Learners Programme (ELP) has facilitated the training of primary school teachers in Bloom Software to enable the creation of customized content for their classrooms.

One of the challenges in the OECS is a lack of culturally relevant books for students and the Bloom software makes it easy to create simple relatable books. The software is so user-friendly that primary school students are also being encouraged to create their own books to engender more reading throughout the OECS.

Thus far a total of approximately 130 teachers have been trained across the OECS, with training still ongoing in Saint Lucia. These learning sessions are enabling teachers to create books with content that would facilitate learning in a more culturally relevant way. Teachers know their students and curriculum, and therefore have the opportunity to create tailor-made books that can address specific topics and meet the needs of their students. Teachers with basic computer skills who participated in the sessions felt well equipped and confident to go back to the schools and teach the students how to create and publish their own books.

Read more at: Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Press Room

Source: CARICOM TODAY