I created this innovation because my students (in the last year of high school) didn't know how to write a composition. When the evaluation results came to my school, they were terrible. I got extremely upset with them.
So, I said to my principal: "I don't know what will happen next year (2004), but I will completely change my Portuguese classes!" And that's what I did.
The first step of the project: to produce topics for the text. I ask the class to form groups and then instruct the teams to suggest topics that meet the interests and expectations of the class.
Once this has been done, I ask the groups what their proposals were and write each one on the blackboard. Once the suggestions are known, I start voting for the most relevant subject.
At the end of the selection, I identify the top vote-getters. The next step in the project is to hand out the sheet with the thematic proposals to the students. This sheet clearly states: the most voted topics, the dates for submitting the text, various guidelines for writing the texts, and the date of the final assessment — the rewrite.
The third fundamental step of the project: reading the text in front of the class. The inspiration to invite the students to read their work in front of the group was essential to captivate and sensitize the class to the importance of exposing what they had thought.
1) Launch of the book: "O Desafio do Projeto Penso, Logo Escrevo" on 29 November 2014, the preface of which was written by Prof. Dr. Boudewijn A.M. van Velzen (an international specialist in educational change);
2) Knowing that my book was the subject of the "Planning and Assessment" course at the Faculty of Letters of the Federal University of Campina Grande in Paraíba (more than 2000 km from São Paulo) and that it contributed to the training of future Portuguese teachers gives it a special flavour, as the initiative was studied at the university;
3) In October 2019, I travelled to the city of Grão Mogol in the state of Minas Gerais to see the work carried out by teacher Geane Kênia, who is still applying the project's methodology in 2025. I was amazed to see how she organised and dedicated herself to it.
You should wish for a different kind of work that is being created through the interaction between teacher and students. The curriculum is not something closed in its own proposal; it is being created and developed through the actions of its members. The participation of all makes a difference in this process. We can create something new with the participation of all members (pupils and teacher) — this is so exciting!
.JPG)
