Temple Gives Literacy Workshop in D.R.
24 March 2004 Temple Gives Literacy Workshop in D.R.
A workshop titled La Lecto-Escritura Emergente (Helping Literacy Emerge) was delivered in Santiago, Dominican Republic, by Charles Temple, professor of education, and Alan Crawford, professor emeritus of California State University in Los Angeles. The workshop was conducted in Spanish, and drew 30 teacher trainers from around the Dominican Republic who are concerned about improving the teaching of reading in primary schools (first grade students in Central American schools have a 50 percent pass rate). These trainers were being prepared to share their knowledge with educators in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, and were given the first of six training manuals written by Temple and Crawford to assist in that effort. USAID supported the workshop, through an initiative called Centers of Excellence in Teacher Training (CETT). In the Dominican Republic, the CETT team is based in the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestrawhich also hosts the HWS term abroad. The workshop received a very high evaluation, although the participants noted that Temple's Spanish was a little rough at times (He had to apologize for occasionally saying Da, da instead of Si, sia slip of the tongue related to confusions with Romanian).