Learning how to Read the World: adaptation of Paulo Freire 's method in alphabetizing children

Abstract

Visiting schools as pedagogic supervisor, the researcher noticed the recovery classes on literacy were just a continuity of the regular classes and, in an attempt to look for solutions to alphabetize the illiterate children, she planed a research-action based in Freire's critical pedagogy led by her as a teacher. In a school of 218 pupils, the researcher chose 14, officially situated in advanced forms but, in fact, illiterate, and invited them to a special class, where, for 48 hours and twice a week, four hours each time, she tried to teach them how to read and write. The activities were preceded by intense dialogue between students and the researcher-teacher, recognizing the fundamental importance of the orality in the practice of the literacy. But, that oral participation allowed to know the themes of the actual life of the learners and the corresponding "generative words" in order to enhance their critical consciousness, as Freire proposes.