Personal trajectory Work at Corona Foundation Questions and challenges

2. Personal trajectory • Work at Corona Foundation • Questions and challenges

3. Overwhelming Needs in Colombia • 49,2% of Colombians living below poverty line • 3.5 million Colombians - 8% of total population- can not read or write. • Over 1 million Colombian children do not have access to education • Drop-out rates in Colombia have reached alarming levels, 32% complete 11th grade.

4. Overwhelming Needs in Colombia • In rural areas 50% of the students drop-out without completing elementary - 5th grade • Average years of schooling for population over 15 years old in rural areas is 5 years • 9% of Colombians have never attended school • 27% of the teachers in Colombia do not have a college degree • 13,6% of Colombian children suffer from chronic malnutrition; thus, causing severe learning difficulties

5. Corona Foundation Mission Statement Contribute to poverty reduction and the creation of social equity in Colombia

6. Intervention Strategies • Design and implementmodels for institutional development that can be applied to organizations (schools, hospitals, etc.) • Develop specialized sectorial knowledgeand promote debate to ensure improvements in the design and formulation of public policy. • Promote citizen participation in order to develop solutions to community problems, increase local accountability and bring citizens closer to government.

7. Work Criteria • Building of institutional support as an effective means to generate equality. • Generation of new knowledge able to promote social change. • Delegatedimplementation of projects • Always work throughout alliances (public – private) • Replication of models • Promote networks to guarantee sustainability. • Long term interventions to generate systematic and lasting impact. • Capacity building in local and national actors

8. Project Partners National International • Local, regional and national public sector • Municipalities • Regional authorities • National authorities • NGOs and other Foundations • Businesses Corporations • Research centers • Other relevant actors to help develop and sustain project's achievements Ford Foundation Inter American Foundation World Bank IDB - Fomin USAID Comunidad Valenciana PREAL

9. Areas of intervention Education Local and Community Development • Health Entrepreneurial Development

10. Education AreaMission Contribute to improve quality of early, basic and middle education to open new opportunities to disadvantaged children and youngsters in Colombia.

11. The words open you the world www.palabrario.com

12. Julián Esteban Taborda 8 years old – 2nd grade José Félix Restrepo School Sabaneta (Antioquia)

14. Prologue I feel very lucky because I am just 6 years old and already I have my first writings. Also because throughout them I have learned how to express what I feel and what I think. I want to thank Antioquia´s University and Corona Foundation for it. …as well as my teacher Marta for thinking on me, my parents and relatives for their support and motivation.

15. Reading and writing for life

16. Reading and writing for life

17. ¿Why reading and writing? • Reading and writing are essential skills in our society: • They allow children to build their own knowledge and be more competitive. • They facilitate a more clear and argumentative communication. • Boys and girls who read and write well: • Will have good results in other classes. • Will be conscious citizens of their rights and duties. • Will be good children and better parents. • Will have good sense of criticism and will be able to build new knowledge • Will be workers wishing to learn more and more every day. • All these are decisive for a good school performance • And on the way we can diminish repetition and drop-out rates

18. Drop-out and repetition rates Drop-out rates Repetition rates

19. Objetives MAIN OBJECTIVE To develop a model to improve reading and writing abilities of students and teachers from PK to 5th grade around Colombia. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE PK to 5th grade teachers and students improve their skills to: • Read and comprehend different types of texts • Increase their vocabulary • Discuss ideas and build their own criteria • Write coherent and rich texts throughout school’s curricula.

20. Expected Results • RESULT 1 Teachers qualify their reading and writing skills during 3 years. • RESULT 2 Teachers transform their pedagogy in the classroom. • RESULT 3 Students improve their performance levels as readers and writers • RESULT 4 Parents, principals, school and public librarians and local authorities get actively involved in supporting reading and writing in each community • RESULT 5 Every participant school is able to systemize and spread outproject’s results to assure its sustainability.

21. Palabrario’s process Initial training (20 hours) Classroom visits Students’ books exhibition March May August October Nov. Dec. Jan Activities with parents and public librarians Teachers and students’ evaluation Four workshops with teachers (every 2 months) Local follow up process and communication

22. Systemic and comprehensive model Action / reflection training process Active and collaborative learning process • Ongoing training for 3 years • Follow up mechanisms every 2 months • Classroom visits to every teacher • Exhibition of students’ portfolios • Classroom activities to enjoy reading and writing • Juan Palabras’s mail (letters exchange with kids from other municipalities) Follow up process and sustainability (School Project and Curricula) • Local committee to follow and support project • School evaluation and feedback • Teachers’ network Read and write for life and plenty of meaning • Web page www.palabrario.com • Palabrario’s brochure for parents

25. When I read I feel happy, because I know that I am inspired to read correctly and make not mistakes. I imagine what happens and what the book characters do. I feel happiness and confidence of that book that I read. When I write, I realize that I am inventing wonderful things, but I have some words in my handwriting and others that I have to think to spell them correctly. Although I recognize that I need to improve, my handwritings are wonderful. I love writing and thinking about things that I never imagine before, wonderful things that make a beautiful text. Raquel Lopera. 3rd Grade – Copacabana (Antioquia)

26. Evaluation 2008March / November – 2ndgraders Reading skills Comprehensionskills Argumentationskills Writtenproductionskills

27. Chart No. 1. Students that are reading syllabi by syllabi

28. Chart No. 2 Students that are reading sentence by sentence

29. Chart No. 5 Students don’t remember any of the ideas of the text -

30. Chart No. 6 Students that remember all the ideas of a text.

31. Chart No. 9 Students that present their own ideas with arguments

32. Chart No. 10 Students present their ideas in a logic and sequential order

33. Some lessons from Palabrario • Focus:0 / 10 • Initial education (0 – 5 years old) • Primary education (1st / 5th grade) 6 - 10 years old • Work hand by hand with teachers in their own classrooms and according to their own rhythm • Synergies with partners and school / local authorities Questions and challenges • How to guarantee model’s sustainability? • How to increase reading materials in schools? • Impact evaluation on teachers and students (2nd semester 2009) • Complimentary model: Numerario (math)

34. www.palabrario.comccasas@fcorona.org