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Abstract |
This essay is the result of several years of frustrating work at plublic schools of the Rio de Janeiro state, trying to teach the English language to adolescents who could barely read productively in their mother-tongue, Portuguese; believing in reading as a mind-opening process, I deviated from my basic function to work as a school librarian, with is seen as a minor job inside Brazilian schools. Starting with high-school adolescents, I soon found out that acquiring positive reading habits might only be feasible at the basis of the schooling process. And it has proved to be true. Herein I try to describe, in general terms, reality inside public school libraries in Rio de Janeiro, the importance of reading, the role of communication in education and my personal experience as a teacher of dinamic reading at the school library. Important consequences have been perceived in cognitive, social and psychological aspects and research was done based on 210 questionnaires applied to 4th-grade stundents of four primary schools, as well as 40(forty) elementary-school teachers. Thus it is possible to compare personal facts and the development of social ideas plus reading habits divided into two categories: library-equipped schools and schools without libraries. This work tries to prove the students positive response to a dynamic program, with no relation to other teachers´influence. The final considerations apologize for the emotional tone given to narrative, recommend a few changes in the attidutes of those who might wish to pursue the experience, and emphasize the personal, democratic endeavour of the responsible teacher, who basic function is to hear all the pupils an to be ready to honestly exchange and perform actual dialogue. |
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