The Learning to Study Texts – AET project inaugurates its 2022 activities by inviting teachers from the municipality of Várzea Paulista, in São Paulo, to incorporate an intentional focus on language as a tool for teaching and learning. One of the objectives is to enrich the reading practices of 4th grade elementary school teachers, observing and exploring with students the complexity of the language that composes History texts.
This year, the AET project design includes a quasi-experimental evaluation of the impact of the training process, which articulates a set of strategies, tools, and materials developed over the past five years by the Education Laboratory. To this end, data was collected in two municipalities in Greater São Paulo with similar characteristics, which will be replicated again at the end of the school year. While Várzea Paulista will host the AET training in 2022, the municipality of Francisco Morato will participate as a control group and will receive the material for use in its network only in 2023. The intention is to verify to what extent the work that Labedu does around academic language contributes not only to expanding children’s linguistic repertoire, but also whether it can – or cannot – contribute to other knowledge and skills related to reading comprehension.
In the municipal network of Várzea Paulista, all 4th grade teachers and students are being supported by the Education Laboratory team. Furthermore, for the first time in the project’s trajectory, pedagogical coordinators (PCs) are intentionally included in the process. The objective is to understand how these professionals can assist teachers in implementing the methodology, through strategies such as observing classroom practice and preparing records. This inclusion will foster reflections on the continuing education culture that exists in the municipal network, as well as on the organization of time for professionals in the education chain. In this sense, the aim is to strengthen the role that the PC occupies and may come to occupy as a teacher trainer within the system.
Meetings between teams began on April 20 and will extend until December 7, 2022, with biweekly meetings. In 2022, AET is being funded by the Tinker Foundation and the research is being carried out in partnership with the Laboratory for Studies and Research in Social Economics (LEPES-USP).
Beatriz Cardoso, President of Labedu, presented the premises and strategies of the AET project at a ProLeer meeting on May 13. In dialogue with Paola Uccelli, professor at Harvard University, and Alejandra Meneses, professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Beatriz discussed the need for projects like AET to contemplate in their design not only the knowledge and strategies to incorporate this focus on language as a learning tool for children, but also to consider the teachers’ appropriation process, precisely so that they have the necessary tools to act with intentionality and autonomy in the classroom. Planning and implementing activities that contribute to unveiling the various layers of texts, seeking to understand not only “what they say” but also “how they say it,” provides a new field of experience where the teacher can perceive their students thinking, speaking, and better apprehending what they read.
To watch the recording of the event, simply click on this link.
To learn more:
* Learning to Study Texts is a methodology developed by the Education Laboratory that offers 4th and 5th grade elementary school teachers guidance for analyzing the structure and informational content of school texts. This material aims to make “visible” the language of didactic texts that circulate in classrooms, suggesting and exemplifying reading, study, and textual production activities to simultaneously promote the development of literacy and disciplinary skills and knowledge.
* ProLeer (Professional Learning Network to Advance Early Education Reform) is an international network of researchers, academics, managers, and program implementers committed to improving educational practice and policy, with the objective of ensuring more and better learning for Latin American children. Founded in 2009 by master’s and doctoral students at Harvard University, it maintains close collaboration with Professor Catherine Snow of Harvard Graduate School of Education.
* The Laboratory for Studies and Research in Social Economics (LEPES) was founded in 2011, based at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Ribeirão Preto. It develops research and conducts impact evaluations of social policies and specific programs in the areas of child development, socioemotional development, school management, and violence and crime.