PROJECT SALTIMBANCOS

Rescuing popular culture through school and community integration.

Financing

APROESP (Association of Teachers and Public Workers of São Paulo State), a non-profit organization declared of public utilit through City Law 3.342/88, has financed the project in 1996 and 1997.

Awards

Project Saltimbancos received the Itaú/UNICEF/Educação e Participação Award in 1997.

Introduction

Project Saltimbancos gives value to legends, proverbs, children’s stories and popular beliefs in a work pointed towards rescuing popular culture, thus approaching public schools and community.

As a strategy, it capacitates foremostly teachers from the 1st to the 4th grades, accentuating the taste for reading and questioning the world they are part of through the means of children’s literature.

The shifting from teacher to competent reader reflects itself in their work with students, who also gain an appreciation for reading, develop written and spoken language skills, are awakened in their beliefs and moral values and organize their thoughts by discussion and renewing their concepts.

Afterwards, the community is invited by teachers to become partners in the project when parents are given the opportunity to contribute by telling stories, legends and popular tales.

Justification

Considering that reading is very important for the children’s development, the School must have an insight about this practic and  in it introduce the partnership between parents, teachers and community. It becomes essential an action that stimulates everyone to take part of it, thus being necessary a continous work that initially prepares all teachers to this end. It is know, through studies, that a teacher can only form competent readers only if himself is one. The student will only be a good reader if he views reading as fun thing. This way, reading becomes a healthy habit, capable of forming conscious, competent, sensible and creative citizens.

With this conception in mind, this educational project was made, contributing in the continuing formation of teachers, introducing the reflection over children’s literature as an efficient educational tool.

General Objective

Spread among public schools the technique of working with children’s stories and, through them, make reading a deeper experience in every way. The project targets using literature as a starting point for children to understand the world they live in.

Specific Objectives

• Work in the continuing process of forming teachers, educational coordinators and educational guides so that through children’s stories they can contribute to the organization of a child’s thoughts; awaken their perception of symbology; make them realise the mentality behind certain periods of time; awaken their taste for reading; create concepts; show the prejudice involved in children’s stories; rescue spoken tradition; contributes to both spoken and written language; develop creativity; show cultural values; strengthen the bonds between children and their school; develop interdisciplinarity.
• Promote the using of the school’s library.

• Help in the creation of reading groups in school.

• Stimulate the ludic in every teacher’s daily life.

• Create areas for discussion and reflection about reality.

• Create, together with teachers, educational coordinators and educational guides, reading areas in their school, where important topics can be discussed in an organized manner based on literature.

Goals

The project aims to reach until the year 2000 all public schools in São José dos Campos. It also targets the forming of partnerships with Schooling Delegacies, schools and City Education Secretaries interested in the beginning of each year, reaching 15 schools with groups of 15 to 30 teachers and 525 to 1050 students each year.

Strategies

• Bring together parents and teachers for the project’s presentation.
• Bring together classes to tell stories and discuss proposed questions.
• Accomplish educational activities such as theatre, comics, story writing, games and paper working.
• Promote, with the community’s helping, an exhibit with the students’ works.

Targets

Teachers, educational coordinators and educational guides from the 1st to the 4th grade who enroll in the project.

Covering

Public schools of São José dos Campos, Taubaté and other Vale do Paraiba and Litoral Norte towns, counting on special partnerships to cover the costs of specialized personnel, food, transport and educational material.

Schedule

Since Project Saltimbancos is a complex process, a conclusion date cannot be properly pre-defined. Throughout the year, the following schedule applies:

January and February: establishment of partnerships with interested Schooling Delegacies and City Education Secretaries.
March: meetings with teachers from the 1st to the 4th grade for a proper demonstration of the project. Meetings with parents, reaching out for the community to be involved with the project. Monthly meetings with teachers participating in the project, a total of 8 each year. Monthly visits to involved schools.
December: work exhibit.

Methodology

The creators and coordinators of this project, with teaching experience recognized by the CENP, will work together with all teacher who enroll. These teachers will receive monthly training alongside with staff visits to their school to check out their progress.

The presentation of the project to schools, involving community members, will be made through workshops, where everyone will participate in group readings and discuss program objectives.

Teachers are trained to show in a ludic manner the proverbs, legends, popular beliefs and all other knowledge the community has that can be taught as a daily wisdom.

Teachers, educational coordinators and educational guides directly envolved will be responsible for the Saltimbancos Project in their schools, drawing limits, tracing objectives and goals and using an adequate methodology, always alongside project coordinators.
Avaliation    

The avaliational process is made collectively, with help from project coordinators and supervised by the professional designated to this end by the Schooling Delegacies or City Education Secretaries.

The accompaniment will be continuous, so necessary changes and reformulation can be made.

The confirmation of the project’s efficacy will be through students’ better learning in differents disciplines and through growing particiation of community members. Questionnaires will be elaborated and applied to verify the reading done througout the year.

Project Coordination

The team responsible for the creation, execution, accompaniment and avaliation of the project as a whole is comprised of involved schools, Teaching Directories and City Secretaries.

Project Creators and Coordinators:
Aucélia Barbosa Rosa
Dalva Braga Fernandes d’Ávila
Elias Rahal Neto

Teachers who are part of the Project:
Clelia Rosa Azevedo
Glaucia Riolfi

Monitor:
Marilene Ilário