In 2023, the Aprender a Estudar Textos (AET) project continued the training activities that began in 2022 in the public school system of the municipality of Várzea Paulista, located in the interior of the state of São Paulo. The partnership between Labedu and the Municipal Department of Education promoted 18 meetings that totaled more than 70 hours of training for teachers and school administrators based on the methodology developed to increase the ability to read and understand texts.

The training sessions involved all 5th grade elementary school teachers in the municipal school system, and most of them were participating in the program for the first time. However, the classes they teach were mostly made up of children who were impacted by the project in 2022, when it was implemented with 4th grade teachers. The main objective was to promote the use of innovative strategies in the classroom for working with texts that help students to appropriate language as a gateway to the world of knowledge.

Thus, the implementation generated significant impacts on the formation of students as avid and critical readers, who not only understand what they read in the different curricular areas, but also learn to think, reflect, form opinions, dialogue and establish relationships between the contents of these areas.

Furthermore, the project supports the implementation of the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC) in Portuguese Language and History, by articulating the development of the skills recommended in the document, such as in-depth reading and knowledge about peoples and cultures, with the activities planned for the training courses.

In practice

School teams received a set of model plans that ensure depth and shared experience among the teachers who carry out the training, who have the opportunity to return to the same planning structure repeatedly, gradually expanding their understanding of “what”, “how” and “why” to carry out the proposals in the classroom.

From this, the educators studied the characteristics of the language of the selected texts, experimenting with procedures similar to those implemented with the students. Throughout the training, they discovered that History texts require a different approach from the literary texts that their students are used to at this stage of their school life. To this end, they studied the characteristic language of the texts and drew the children's attention to words that play an important role in the organization of the content.

They were also able to delve deeper into the structure of the texts to help students understand how the information was organized. They were therefore able to engage in a range of different activities that gave them a new perspective on reading and studying History texts, and exchange ideas with the school team about classroom practices, in order to gradually improve the work they were doing.

Materials

In 2023, one of the project's main achievements was the delivery of structured notebooks containing materials for teachers and children. This initiative represented a significant evolution compared to 2022, when materials were provided on loose sheets. The change to organized notebooks brought numerous benefits, both for teachers and students, standing out for its practicality and efficiency.

The notebooks are composed of worked texts, activity planning, support materials and spaces for producing activities. This structure allowed for more effective organization and monitoring of content and learning, facilitating the planning and execution of activities throughout the year, so that all necessary information is always accessible to teachers and children.