Classroom Resources

These visual, step-by-step parent sheets enable caregivers to support early literacy at home without requiring prior teaching experience or extensive literacy skills themselves. Designed for students struggling with alphabet recognition, the resources use sequential illustrations that model the learning interaction, showing exactly how to guide a child through letter formation and recognition activities. 

When COVID-19 forced school closures in Haiti, existing distance learning solutions excluded the 60% of households without reliable electricity or internet access. This suite of four radio programs (literacy instruction, supplemental reading hour, pre-K social-emotional learning with parent engagement, and early childhood development curriculum) leveraged radio as the most accessible technology to reach learners across socioeconomic contexts. The multi-program approach addressed different developmental needs and family structures, recognizing that effective distance learning in low-resource settings requires content differentiation, not just a single broadcast solution.

The Ana ak Tiga series includes seven leveled readers that translate a Haiti-specific SEL framework into age-appropriate narratives for young learners. Each book extends beyond storytelling by embedding comprehension questions, reader's theater scripts, and concrete coping strategies students can apply to real situations. This multi-layered design allows teachers to use a single resource for multiple purposes, such as independent reading, guided instruction, performance-based learning, and skill practice, making SEL instruction more sustainable in resource-limited classrooms.

These dual-language vocabulary cards address the critical shortage of bilingual instructional materials in Senegalese primary schools, where students often begin formal education in French despite speaking Wolof at home. Designed for flexible use by teachers during instruction, students during independent practice, and parents supporting home learning, the cards bridge the gap between students' home language and the language of academic instruction. Each card pairs visual representations with vocabulary in both French and Wolof, supporting early literacy development while validating students' linguistic identity. This multi-user design recognizes that effective bilingual education requires resources that move fluidly between classroom and home, enabling continuity of learning across the language environments children navigate daily.

The ALiK assessment measures early literacy development across five critical components (vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension, phonemic awareness, word recognition, and reading fluency) using grade-differentiated versions for 1st through 3rd grade. Designed for three-point administration (beginning, middle, and end of year), this formative tool enables teachers to track student progress and adjust instruction accordingly. The assessment uses progressively complex text passages with embedded comprehension questions, providing actionable data in contexts where standardized Haitian Creole literacy measures are rare or nonexistent.

Sèk Matine ("Morning Meeting") addresses the lack of social-emotional learning resources available in Haitian Creole, the language students actually speak in their classrooms. This 36-week curriculum provides 1st and 2nd grade teachers with scripted, 15-20 minute sessions featuring culturally relevant activities like call-and-response, traditional songs, and movement. The scripted format supports teachers with limited SEL training while adaptation notes allow flexibility, making social-emotional learning accessible in a context where it had previously been an imported concept rather than an integrated practice.