MY FELLOWS PROJECT – MY
FELLOW BRAZILIANS
The pilot trial undertook with the My
Fellows Project – My Fellows Brazilians took place at Kidlink –
PUC/RJ.
The objective was to experience the project
in order to provide a pattern for teachers and mainly to show an example
of the Project at the site.
The group selected to the trial consisted
of seven students with ages ranging from 8 to 12 years . All students were
close friends living in the same condominium but with no previous experience
of being put together in a class work.
All students speak two languages ( Portuguese
and English ) since they study in international schools located in the Rio
de Janeiro City which adopt English as the second language.
Although there were available two CDRom
encyclopedias as well as the Internet resources for consulting, we decided
together with the students to work with the knowledge already acquired by
them.
The students actively participated in
the process and were pleased with the results attained. They proposed to
translate the text to the English language which was accepted by us.
Below, please find an extract of the process
developed with the group:
We noted that the fundamental characteristic
of the group was the ability of negotiation and to reach a consensus. The
text was constructed within a collective approach where everyone complemented
the idea of his mate.
It is important to note the group autonomy
to make decisions; they did not ask at any time for the teachers’ opinion
to reach their conclusions.
Seven students of bilingual and multicultural
schools participated at the trial My Fellow Brazilians in 07/13/98
Lead by teachers:
Marisa Lucena, Neide Santos, Vera
Salvador
Phases:
-
Neide introduced Internet Kidlink and
My Fellows Project for the group
-
The students replied to the Kidlink question:
How do I want the world to be better when I grow up?
-
The group replied to the question: Which
individuals in my country have contributed to the world for it to be a better
place?
-
From this question came out the following
individuals: D. Pedro I, Pedro Alvares Cabral, Ayrton Senna, Leandro, Garrincha,
Tom Jobim, Dinho, Dener, Mussum, Tiradentes.
-
The group decided to vote in order to
choose what individuals would be included in the trial.
-
The group decided to work with the three
most voted individuals: D. Pedro I, Garrincha and Ayrton Senna.
-
The group made the decision that everyone
would make pictures on each of the three individuals and later they would
write a text about each individual with the participation of all
students.
-
The pictures were made by each student
although opinions and ideas were constantly exchanged among them; this was
well accepted by the students.
-
The pictures were then scanned by Neide
observed by the group with attention and care.
-
The group asked Vera " to put their ideas
in the paper "; they presented their ideas with much concentration, clearness
and interest ( and a continuous conference about what was reported because
"nothing could be forgotten" ).
-
As soon as the text in portuguese was
finished, the group suggested, with a great excitement, that they should
do by themselves the text translation to english " so that other children
in the world that cannot speak portuguese were able to know My Fellow Brazilians
". This task was scheduled for another day.
-
After the work was concluded, Marisa delivered
to every participant a collaboration certificate of My Fellows Project which
was a reason for pride for the group.
-
All students reported their excitement
with the work done and that they are waiting to see the text in the Internet.
The group was quite productive, showed
much motivation, built up a collective work, understood the cultural meaning
of the project, was pleased with the results obtained and over all was happy
with the experience.
Afterwards, according to their suggestion,
they proceeded with the English translation of the text by those who were
available at the time scheduled.
Several students participated in the
translation work. They did the translation by themselves without the
teachers’ participation and with excitement, concentration and
autonomy.
At the time we finished the pilot trial
with My Fellow Brazilians the following evidences came out:
-
The Project adequately fitted to children
at the initial age range of Kidlink;
-
The participants were quite interested
about the Project and understood its multicultural and interdisciplinar
dimension;
-
The students demonstrated autonomy, took
initiatives, negotiated, looked for consensus, and collaborated among them
as well as with the teachers;
-
The students understood that the project
is a collective and cooperative work.
We noted the necessity of reinforce some
parameters foreseen in the Project as well as to set up new limits:
-
the option to select dead individuals
was adequate;
-
the definition of the text size of every
group ( about five lines ) was functional;
-
it is necessary to define the number of
pictures per group; in our trial, the students decided to include all pictures
in the site – however, we concluded that the number of pictures per
group must be limited to two ones so that a more effective performance can
be achieved.
Rio de Janeiro, 07/16/98
Neide Santos
Vera Salvador
Marisa Lucena
Return to
My Fellows