Changing the landscape of reading in Puerto Rico

Our goal has been to continue educating educators on the instruction of reading based on evidence. We aimed to reach the 7 educational regions of the Department of Education in Puerto Rico. The foundations and philanthropy in the island have supported such process. We have done 1 region, presently in 2 and 1 upcoming. In all this regions, teachers have expressed the appreciation, need, usefulness, and interest in this knowledge.  We would have 2 more to go and reaching to the DEPR for such support. We are hopeful that all educational regions can get the professional development. Continue to expand the reach, presentations have been given at the University of Puerto Rico, School of Education at the Bayamón Campus and at the Conference for the Private Schools Association. We are focus on changing the landscape of reading in Puerto Rico. Thanks you for your support in making it possible.  

Since 2013, Lectores para el Futuro has demonstrated a commitment to the advancement of education on the island. As we strive to meet the diverse learning challenges of all students regardless of their socio-economic status, we have expanded our reach to the public sector. Similarly, to offer teachers on the island cutting edge tools in literacy, we offer a variety of workshops and webinars with leading experts and have begun to offer the first Iberoamerican Symposium. Immersed in the present situation in Puerto Rico, facing numerous challenges that have lasted more than a decade, our belief in education is deeper and our commitment to the students and teachers we serve is stronger than ever.

We have started to do a cicle of 5 workshops to educators of the Department of Education. The 21 hours of workshops are geared towards the sequencial and explicit teaching or reading to all students. The workshops have been given in charter and public schools. Lectores para el futuro also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Department of Education to provide this series as well as 3 workshops based on knowledge about dislexia and learning difficulties.  

Continuing in the interest to build capacity on teaching reading in Spanish, we successfully coordinated the first Iberoamerican Symposium on Dislexia and Literacy: LEXIS. The event had speakers from Argentina, Spain and Puerto Rico. The 196 participants gave very positive evaluations of their learning experience. We look forward to Lexis 2023. 

After 10 years of teaching and serving the dyslexic community in Puerto Rico, we are excited to share with you that, as of March 2021, Multisensory Reading Centers is now Lectores para el futuro (Readers for the future).

This name change is part of a strategic evolution by our organization to reflect our focus. With our new name and branding come updated mission and vision statements that better reflect who we are and what we do. We aim to align the organization’s image with its pedagogical vision, highlighting the work we do with end goal of improving reading outcomes for all students, especially struggling students.

We are driven, enthusiastic, and re-energized to continue our mission over the course of the next decade. Our efforts are fully committed to creating a new generation in Puerto Rico of Lectores para el futuro.

Also, last May we celebrated our teacher training graduation and our 10th year anniversary! Looking back at our past years we are more than clear on our mission to provide the keys to success through reading.

Multisensory Reading Centers (MRC)  has working on its strategic plan and is happy to have concluded the process with initiatives to continue growing the organization.

Multisensory Reading Centers in the last trimester has been focusing on increasing awareness and knowledge especially in professional development for educators. Disseminating research base knowledge is what will help in continuing increasing capacity in the educators in Puerto Rico and for them to better identify and address the needs of struggling readers and students with dyslexia.

Orton-Gillingham Teacher Training: It has been joyful to see a new group of teachers embark on getting certified as OG Specialist Interventionists. The last year was intense and even so, these teachers took the challenge to engage in a full year of learning. They will certainly make an impact on the students they engage with. We have a combination of teachers from the public and private sectors which is very exciting. We also have a group getting certified as Instructor of Teachers. It is great to see the OG Specialist community broadening. We look forward to seeing them all graduate in May 2022.

Professional Development at Vimenti Bilingual Charter School: During the summer MRC started at Vimenti a series of professional development. In the month of June 3 intensive ones were provided on the science of reading, structured literacy, and how to teach reading for all students. During this semester, as follow up one workshop a month has been given on one topic to go more in-depth on vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and writing. It has been a great experience seeing the interest of the teachers in gaining knowledge to bring to their classrooms.

Dyslexia Awareness Week: The first week of October is Dyslexia Awareness Week. It was an exciting week packed with several events to bring information to a variety of groups; teachers, parents, psychologists, and the general public. Some of these were an interview at local news, a podcast dedicated to non-for-profit organizations, and several public service videos on the importance of reading and how the brain learns to read.

Webinar: As a closing to Dyslexia Awareness Week a webinar was given on Knowing and Comprehending Dyslexia. The webinar focused on not only the importance of knowing what is dyslexia and the biological factors but also on the need to understand and have empathy in the process of educating and engaging with the students. The seminar was provided by Gabriel Azcurra a pediatrician from Argentina that has a specialist in the dyslexic population.

Our goal is to continue providing more knowledge with the aim that this transforms into awareness and service to students.