Diverse Learners, Diverse Texts

ABSTRACT: This article reports from a yearlong ethnography that examined two urban 10th-grade English classes of ethnically diverse students in which the teachers diversified literature selections for newly designed ethnic literature curricula. The study reports texts students found most memorable and meaningful and analyzes the values students found in their encounters with these literary works. When students identified with characters and texts, they reflected on personal concerns, including family nostalgia and loss; adolescent challenges; and culture, gender, and sexualidentity formation. Literary encounters also fostered discoveries about diverse groups (identified by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and sexual orientation) that helped students move past stereotyped notions of others. Choices of meaningful works were often tied integrally to ways in which the texts were treated during class time - particularly to activities involving the social processes of constructing meaning, exploring interpretation, and openly discussing issues of culture and identity. The results remind researchers of the need to include in curricular theorizing the importance of instruction that fosters students' thinking about literature, identity, and diversity.

Adapted from: ATHANASES, S. Z. Diverse Learners, Diverse

Texts: Exploring Identity and Difference through Literary Encounters. Journal of Literacy Research 1998 30: 273.

Diverse Learners, Diverse Texts

ABSTRACT: This article reports from a yearlong ethnography that examined two urban 10th-grade English classes of ethnically diverse students in which the teachers diversified literature selections for newly designed ethnic literature curricula. The study reports texts students found most memorable and meaningful and analyzes the values students found in their encounters with these literary works. When students identified with characters and texts, they reflected on personal concerns, including family nostalgia and loss; adolescent challenges; and culture, gender, and sexualidentity formation. Literary encounters also fostered discoveries about diverse groups (identified by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and sexual orientation) that helped students move past stereotyped notions of others. Choices of meaningful works were often tied integrally to ways in which the texts were treated during class time - particularly to activities involving the social processes of constructing meaning, exploring interpretation, and openly discussing issues of culture and identity. The results remind researchers of the need to include in curricular theorizing the importance of instruction that fosters students' thinking about literature, identity, and diversity.

Adapted from: ATHANASES, S. Z. Diverse Learners, Diverse

Texts: Exploring Identity and Difference through Literary Encounters. Journal of Literacy Research 1998 30: 273.

Despite common belief that Brazil is a monolingual country, it is in fact a multilingual country with dozens of immigrant and indigenous languages spread in many communities where Portuguese is not the mother tongue. As pointed out by Leffa (2013), Brazilians must recognize and preserve this multilingualism fighting against the omission and discrimination towards linguistic minorities through the reflection on and elaboration of language policies that promote understanding and tolerance among cultures, languages and identities. Leffa (2013) also alerts to the danger of linguistic isolation in Brazil, the only country in Latin America whose national language is Portuguese and where Brazilians face many challenges to learn foreign languages, be them the language of their parents (heritage languages) of their neighbors (Spanish) or the international language (English). In a country with over 200 million people, this represents a huge challenge for language policies and education in Brazil.

Lagares (2013, p. 185) claims that the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil was sometimes treated as an extracurricular component being delegated to outsourced private language institutes that reinforced the belief foreign languages cannot be learned fluently in schools (p. 186). This belief is supported by authors (for example Tilio, 2014) who suggest that just as the public school does not form mathematicians or historians (to give but two examples), it does not have the responsibility to form fluent speakers of foreign languages either. Finardi, Prebianca and Momm (2013) and Finardi (2014) disagree with this view of the responsibility of Brazilian public schools based on the assumption that some knowledge of English is necessary to build a global citizenship and public education must guarantee the teaching of English with quality. Gimenez (2013) and Finardi (2014) go a step forward to suggest that the lack of responsibility of public schools to form fluent speakers of English increases the social gap of those who can afford to study English as a foreign language in private institutes and those who cannot.

Adapted from: FINARDI, K.; LEÃO, R.; PINHEIRO, L.

English in Brazil: insights from the analysis of language policies, internationalization programs and CLIL approach. Education and linguistics research. Vol. 2, nº. 1, 2016, p. 54-68.

Despite common belief that Brazil is a monolingual country, it is in fact a multilingual country with dozens of immigrant and indigenous languages spread in many communities where Portuguese is not the mother tongue. As pointed out by Leffa (2013), Brazilians must recognize and preserve this multilingualism fighting against the omission and discrimination towards linguistic minorities through the reflection on and elaboration of language policies that promote understanding and tolerance among cultures, languages and identities. Leffa (2013) also alerts to the danger of linguistic isolation in Brazil, the only country in Latin America whose national language is Portuguese and where Brazilians face many challenges to learn foreign languages, be them the language of their parents (heritage languages) of their neighbors (Spanish) or the international language (English). In a country with over 200 million people, this represents a huge challenge for language policies and education in Brazil.

Lagares (2013, p. 185) claims that the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil was sometimes treated as an extracurricular component being delegated to outsourced private language institutes that reinforced the belief foreign languages cannot be learned fluently in schools (p. 186). This belief is supported by authors (for example Tilio, 2014) who suggest that just as the public school does not form mathematicians or historians (to give but two examples), it does not have the responsibility to form fluent speakers of foreign languages either. Finardi, Prebianca and Momm (2013) and Finardi (2014) disagree with this view of the responsibility of Brazilian public schools based on the assumption that some knowledge of English is necessary to build a global citizenship and public education must guarantee the teaching of English with quality. Gimenez (2013) and Finardi (2014) go a step forward to suggest that the lack of responsibility of public schools to form fluent speakers of English increases the social gap of those who can afford to study English as a foreign language in private institutes and those who cannot.

Adapted from: FINARDI, K.; LEÃO, R.; PINHEIRO, L.

English in Brazil: insights from the analysis of language policies, internationalization programs and CLIL approach. Education and linguistics research. Vol. 2, nº. 1, 2016, p. 54-68.

Despite common belief that Brazil is a monolingual country, it is in fact a multilingual country with dozens of immigrant and indigenous languages spread in many communities where Portuguese is not the mother tongue. As pointed out by Leffa (2013), Brazilians must recognize and preserve this multilingualism fighting against the omission and discrimination towards linguistic minorities through the reflection on and elaboration of language policies that promote understanding and tolerance among cultures, languages and identities. Leffa (2013) also alerts to the danger of linguistic isolation in Brazil, the only country in Latin America whose national language is Portuguese and where Brazilians face many challenges to learn foreign languages, be them the language of their parents (heritage languages) of their neighbors (Spanish) or the international language (English). In a country with over 200 million people, this represents a huge challenge for language policies and education in Brazil.

Lagares (2013, p. 185) claims that the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil was sometimes treated as an extracurricular component being delegated to outsourced private language institutes that reinforced the belief foreign languages cannot be learned fluently in schools (p. 186). This belief is supported by authors (for example Tilio, 2014) who suggest that just as the public school does not form mathematicians or historians (to give but two examples), it does not have the responsibility to form fluent speakers of foreign languages either. Finardi, Prebianca and Momm (2013) and Finardi (2014) disagree with this view of the responsibility of Brazilian public schools based on the assumption that some knowledge of English is necessary to build a global citizenship and public education must guarantee the teaching of English with quality. Gimenez (2013) and Finardi (2014) go a step forward to suggest that the lack of responsibility of public schools to form fluent speakers of English increases the social gap of those who can afford to study English as a foreign language in private institutes and those who cannot.

Adapted from: FINARDI, K.; LEÃO, R.; PINHEIRO, L.

English in Brazil: insights from the analysis of language policies, internationalization programs and CLIL approach. Education and linguistics research. Vol. 2, nº. 1, 2016, p. 54-68.

Despite common belief that Brazil is a monolingual country, it is in fact a multilingual country with dozens of immigrant and indigenous languages spread in many communities where Portuguese is not the mother tongue. As pointed out by Leffa (2013), Brazilians must recognize and preserve this multilingualism fighting against the omission and discrimination towards linguistic minorities through the reflection on and elaboration of language policies that promote understanding and tolerance among cultures, languages and identities. Leffa (2013) also alerts to the danger of linguistic isolation in Brazil, the only country in Latin America whose national language is Portuguese and where Brazilians face many challenges to learn foreign languages, be them the language of their parents (heritage languages) of their neighbors (Spanish) or the international language (English). In a country with over 200 million people, this represents a huge challenge for language policies and education in Brazil.

Lagares (2013, p. 185) claims that the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil was sometimes treated as an extracurricular component being delegated to outsourced private language institutes that reinforced the belief foreign languages cannot be learned fluently in schools (p. 186). This belief is supported by authors (for example Tilio, 2014) who suggest that just as the public school does not form mathematicians or historians (to give but two examples), it does not have the responsibility to form fluent speakers of foreign languages either. Finardi, Prebianca and Momm (2013) and Finardi (2014) disagree with this view of the responsibility of Brazilian public schools based on the assumption that some knowledge of English is necessary to build a global citizenship and public education must guarantee the teaching of English with quality. Gimenez (2013) and Finardi (2014) go a step forward to suggest that the lack of responsibility of public schools to form fluent speakers of English increases the social gap of those who can afford to study English as a foreign language in private institutes and those who cannot.

Adapted from: FINARDI, K.; LEÃO, R.; PINHEIRO, L.

English in Brazil: insights from the analysis of language policies, internationalization programs and CLIL approach. Education and linguistics research. Vol. 2, nº. 1, 2016, p. 54-68.

Despite common belief that Brazil is a monolingual country, it is in fact a multilingual country with dozens of immigrant and indigenous languages spread in many communities where Portuguese is not the mother tongue. As pointed out by Leffa (2013), Brazilians must recognize and preserve this multilingualism fighting against the omission and discrimination towards linguistic minorities through the reflection on and elaboration of language policies that promote understanding and tolerance among cultures, languages and identities. Leffa (2013) also alerts to the danger of linguistic isolation in Brazil, the only country in Latin America whose national language is Portuguese and where Brazilians face many challenges to learn foreign languages, be them the language of their parents (heritage languages) of their neighbors (Spanish) or the international language (English). In a country with over 200 million people, this represents a huge challenge for language policies and education in Brazil.

Lagares (2013, p. 185) claims that the teaching of foreign languages in Brazil was sometimes treated as an extracurricular component being delegated to outsourced private language institutes that reinforced the belief foreign languages cannot be learned fluently in schools (p. 186). This belief is supported by authors (for example Tilio, 2014) who suggest that just as the public school does not form mathematicians or historians (to give but two examples), it does not have the responsibility to form fluent speakers of foreign languages either. Finardi, Prebianca and Momm (2013) and Finardi (2014) disagree with this view of the responsibility of Brazilian public schools based on the assumption that some knowledge of English is necessary to build a global citizenship and public education must guarantee the teaching of English with quality. Gimenez (2013) and Finardi (2014) go a step forward to suggest that the lack of responsibility of public schools to form fluent speakers of English increases the social gap of those who can afford to study English as a foreign language in private institutes and those who cannot.

Adapted from: FINARDI, K.; LEÃO, R.; PINHEIRO, L.

English in Brazil: insights from the analysis of language policies, internationalization programs and CLIL approach. Education and linguistics research. Vol. 2, nº. 1, 2016, p. 54-68.

“Se, por um lado, a produção e o comércio coloniais interessavam à metrópole portuguesa, no sentido que viabilizavam o povoamento e o desenvolvimento da colônia, por outro lado, à medida que esta se interiorizava, enriquecia um segmento da sociedade que criava seus próprios elos e hierarquias, conflitando com o poder metropolitano. Esse segmento era representado, em sua grande maioria, por cristãos novos, o que permitiu a metrópole apelar para a Inquisição.”

https://www.facebook.com/riobonito.antigo/posts/944667262221512/

Fazenda Colubandê e Capela de San'Ana. (https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazenda_Coluband%C3%AA)

O município de São Gonçalo foi um reduto de cristãos novos nos séculos XVII e XVIII. De suas presenças, resta hoje, por exemplo, a capela da fazenda Colubandê, declarada patrimônio histórico local desde 1940.