Are teachers in Latin America and the Caribbean given a method to teach to read? Do all kids in the region are capable of reading and understanding what they read by third-grade? How does the lack of reading competences by 3rd grade impact students in the upcoming school years? The answers to these questions, lead the IDB Education Division to design a “Aprendamos Todos a Leer” (Let’s all learn to read): a program for teachers and their young students, that aims for every child in LAC to be taught with a given method and therefore achieve reading and understanding by third-grade. Learn more about the program and its implementation here.

Did you know that in Latin America and the Caribbean 40% of third-grade and 51.6% of 15-year-old students do not reach minimum reading levels? “Aprendamos Todos a Leer” focuses on teaching reading and writing in the early grades.

Results in standardized tests somehow reflect LACs efforts to increase access to education and improve its quality. Despite this, the region still faces great challenges, since half of teenagers do not understand what they read. Generally, this is an issue that originates in first or second grade, which is when students should learn to read; and affects them throughout their academic life, since afterwards they need to read to be able to learn.

“Aprendamos Todos a Leer” is the response of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to provide teachers with tools that focus efforts on teaching literacy in the early grades. The program program teaches teachers how to teach reading, as a means to ensure that all children learn to read. Its design was based on the mixture of: analysis of recent studies and research, that broaden understanding of the way in which the brain works when kids are learning to read; and the use of teaching strategies to motivate and enhance kids reading abilities. Writing is a consequence of reading, and therefore the program persuits teaching of reading and writing during the first school grades.

The basis of “Aprendamos Todos a Leer” is training and giving continuous support to teachers, so that they learn to use all the materials given by the program. Here you can have access to the materials that have been used in Colombia for transición (the last grade of preschool) and first grade. Each set of materials contains: teachers’ guide, students workbooks, reading books. In addition, the first grade material includes a big-story book used to reading out loud during class with the students and word builders (componedor de palabras). Soon the program will start implementation in other speaking countries in the region, and more information will be available on this website.

Preeschool Materials

1st grade - Materials