Canada - Brazil Project
July 2007 was an adventure loosely disguised as professional development. I joined three other Calgary teachers, led by a Brazilian teacher, to offer the Second Annual Canada - Brazil Project. It is a voluntary ESL Methodologies Course at UESPI University in Teresina, Piaui, Brazil. From Monday until Friday we each led 30 of our Brazilian peers through interactive English activities and discussed the methodologies. Here is a light overview of this wonderful adventure.
Monday, July 2nd was the Opening Ceremony. The team from Canada was dressed in the prerequisite black and white outfits in 35 degree temperatures. The plan to set up a booth filled with Canadian facts was postponed. That gave us an opportunity to look forward to the unknown ceremony in a theatre style auditorium with almost sufficient air-conditioning.
As the class lists had not yet been posted, there were many curious looks passing through the auditorium. A few of the courageous Brazilians asked us about the flight and made general small talk. This made the additional one hour wait for the distinguished guests not so painful. At 10, five University dignitaries expressed best wishes to the program using various Portuguese wordplays, then returned to their workload. Now we Canadian teachers had our chance to sit on stage to be watched like bugs. The pressure to appear friendly, professional, unconcerned by the stares and not completely confused by the unknown language made it a terribly long two hours.
On Tuesday, July 3rd, half an hour before class, the office we were working out of was not yet opened. Five lists of 30 participants and classrooms with code words like Setor 6 and Sala 7 were on the small door. I chose to try searching for the classroom instead of pacing by a locked door. It was surprisingly easy to find! I opened the door to a room cooled with a loud air conditioning unit located at the rear. There were 27 ancient, minia-ture, tablet arm desks almost completely filling the room. Luckily there was no desk for me or there would have been no room to stand. I foresaw interactive language activities to be a bit of a challenge. By the 8 am, start time, there were two participants in the cramped room. By 11 I had met most of the class. Unfortunately, there was a constant flow of entering and leaving participants, making it difficult to put faces to names. The actual class plan was similar to an ESL class in Calgary. However, after each activity we discussed what the objectives were, if they were met and how it might work in their classes. Needless to say, when the day ended all of us were exhausted.
Day 2 in the classroom started much the same with a similar plan. I found out the cause of the flow of participants was that many of my peers were still teaching. Some worked 7 am to 8 am and came as soon as they were finished. Others had to leave early as they worked later in the morning. Lucky were the ones with afternoon shifts as they could work all morning in their second language, then face 50 students. Still others had evening classes from 7 pm to 10 pm. Many were tutoring on top of this grueling schedule. They never complained. In fact, they would always sincerely thank me for the class and ask if I wanted to join them to see the city. One participant traveled home each weekend. He took two buses to get to a larger centre where he would take three more buses to get to Teresina.
My Brazilian peers inspired me. Over the course of July, many activities were tried and discussed. The challenge of space was overcome with participant engagement and a shared determination to utilize every activity to the fullest extent. Each of the four language skills had one day for it to be the focus. However, as in Calgary, it became clear that each lesson covered each skill area. The joy of reading was introduced through Literature Circles. With resources being very limited in the very poor North East state of Piaui, it is very challenging to make reading, especially reading in English, enjoyable. Since the Canadian team was limited to whatever we thought to bring in our suitcases, we were in a similar circumstance. We had about 20 pieces of literature. Of the many ideas discussed, we chose to introduce Literature Circles. We made a quick introduction of the roles of the four group members and the expectation of the presentation. Participants formed groups of four and chose a piece of literature. They read the piece. Then the group members discussed the main ideas. They each listened to the ideas of the other group members. They then wrote the main ideas on posters. Finally, everyone presented their piece of literature to the entire group. The presentations were amazing. In my class there was Reader’s Theatre, a comic strip recreation of the story, an amusing re-telling
of the story and a more traditional discussion of the piece. Each group had interactive vocabulary practice and comprehension questions. We introduced four different pieces of literature with just four books, four pieces of poster board, some pencil crayons and some very creative teachers.
The pleasure of writing was introduced with postcards. We offered the participants two free weeks with all responsibilities taken over and unlimited funds at their disposal. As these were adults who often worked 12 hour days, this was very challenging. First they talked about what to do with the windfall. After a slow start, they relaxed and just dreamed
for a minute. One class went to “Visit Canada”. They utilized a display filled with various pieces of information about Canada, otherwise known as the “Canada Booth”. Through small group discussion, ideas flowed. Then they were given postcards to write home from their dream location. Suddenly to write in English did not seem so complicated. They had friends to help them and just a small piece of writing to complete. Each participant received a postcard to read to the class. Such a simple activity sparked much conversation and excitement. Everyone could see how they could create small, engaging writing activities by utilizing the other three language skills.
classes of 30, 50 or even 80. After four weeks of sharing ideas and activities we were all ex-hausted The learning never stopped for anyone involved. For each activity introduced, someone would add another excellent idea. For each idea presented, there was another one waiting to be discussed. For each presentation delivered more interactive lesson ideas were born. The techniques we use in Canada for small classes of 20 were being altered to fityet inspired to do more, try more, be more.
July 27 was the Closing Ceremony. The only similarity to the Opening Ceremony would be the dress of us visitors. Instead of discomfort, there were sincere smiles, laughter and tears. Flashes continually blinded all in attendance. The University dignitaries returned however the speeches seemed shorter. The participants interrupted to give their own presentations. One class sang a Brazilian song about friendship and life. Another class wrote a story about a Hurricane dropping unsuspecting Canadian ESL teachers in Brazil. The Closing Ceremonies of the Project ended with the presentation of a generous donation of books from Mount Royal College.
The Canada - Brazil Project 2007 was the best professional development opportunity I have ever had. Not only did I meet inspiring colleagues, but I also picked up new tips and activities for my classes. For more information about the Project, visit the website at www.newclassroom.org or visit us at the Fall 2007 ATESL Conference.
ATESL Bursary