Our Work

Our educators are selected among former participants and are trained to organize weekly meetings with small groups (10-15) of students to read aloud and discuss in-depth literary classics such as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Homer's The Odyssey and Plato's Symposium. Before introducing these classics we work with selected short stories by authors such as Josi Saramago, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Machado de Assis. Students learn to associate and develop ideas collectively, reflecting on themes such as love, identity, violence, family conflict, ethics,leadership, friendship, and dreams.

We have developed a multidisciplinary staff with local expertise to reach public schools and youth in peripheral communities, and are prepared to carefully expand the program to meet regional needs. In 2005 we reached 1400 students at 21 public schools, which are interested in strengthening their participation in the next three years.

Main activities:

1. Conduct two-hour weekly after-school sessions of Reading Circles for students at participating schools, reading and discussing literary texts in small groups (8-15 students).

2. Conduct in-school sessions of Reading Circles for students at participating schools, in partnership with Portuguese teachers.

3. Conduct regional meetings of Reading Circles for outstanding participants from different schools and communities, in order to develop a network of peer leaders and mentors.

4. Organize cultural field trips to Reading Circle participants to expand their knowledge of cultural and educational resources outside their neighborhood.

5. Train and mentor peer leaders from all participating schools, to help program staff in conducting reading circles, organizing and running school libraries and working with parents and school staff to improve school environment.

Strategies

• As our program expands, we continue to set high expectations for students in a supportive learning environment. This is often the first opportunity that they have to engage in shared-inquiry, intellectually and emotionally engaging discussions. Our experience shows that even in the poorest and most troubled public schools, youth can meet this challenge.

• We initiate students in literature that engages them intellectually and emotionally, stories that can enrich their lives and make them think. We also read aloud poems: no matter how poor their reading skills are, youth feel captivated and want to memorize them. Memorizing helps them build better reading skills. Poetry and the literary classics are our greatest allies because they embody universal themes that speak to all youth, no matter what their backgrounds are.

• Before we use a book in our school-based reading circles, we must test them in a series of pilot groups with educators and peer leaders. We select emotionally engaging stories that help youth deal with life's challenges and opportunities, such as Homer's Odyssey, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Richard Bach's Jonathan Seagull,and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.These books, filled with life lessons, cover a wide range of human experience.

• Our peer leaders play a very important role of helping other students overcome their initial embarrassment and general mistrust of adults. In our Reading Circles, they help our educators present a story, ask questions to the group and share their own point of view.

• Our regional Reading Circles bring together students from different schools who are reading or have read the same book. The practice of rereading and retelling these stories provides valuable opportunities for reinforcing learning. These meetings also help us challenge students' social isolation, by expanding their social network. As they meet youth from neighborhoods other than their own, they find interests in common. This greater sense of belonging increases students' participation in the program.

• We organized a letter exchange system, in which program staff writes letters to Reading Circle groups, bringing up key questions related to what they are reading. This has helped to stimulate students' reading and writing.

• To get the results we want, we must begin with a caring group of educators who know how to apply our method. Our Reading Circle educators have a profound knowledge of the classics, and be skilled on conducting stimulating discussions about them with small groups of teenagers. They develop mentoring relationships with participants, and are truly open to learn with them.

• We have developed an effective method of teaching reading to students who lack interest and perform poorly in regular or remedial Portuguese classes. We choose books of great beauty that speak to students and raise their interest in understanding and absorbing their language. By reading aloud and discussing the text in small groups, students develop their listening and oral skills. In small groups, Reading Circle participants can search together for answers to fundamental questions raised by the text. We take what the author has given us and try to grasp its full meaning, to interpret or reach an understanding of the text in light of our different experiences, feelings and perspectives. Participants engage in shared- inquiry, small group activities that require them to take an active role in their learning process.