Watching TV in a new way

Teacher: Leoni Luzia da Silva
School: Escola Municipal de Ensino Fundamental Dr. Osvaldo Aranha
City: São Leopoldo - RS
Country: Brasil
Project: Living and Learning with Television

Television is a powerful communication vehicle that influences people’s lives no matter what their age or where they are from. It dictates fashion, customs and behaviors. It is important to keep up with what’s being broadcast on TV, because children are so strongly impacted by it.

Leoni Luiza, a teacher from São Leopoldo in Rio Grande do Sul came up with an interesting approach to this subject. She created a project at the Dr. Osvaldo Aranha Municipal School with her 3rd grade students to show that what kids are watching on television can be a useful educational tool.

She divided the class into groups and they researched the history of television by interviewing family members, school staff and consulting the Internet. With the collected data the students used the Kid Pix software to make a chart showing the television preferences of each family. And the Timeline software was used to show the evolution of TV.

The children asked their mothers about their opinions. The information was organized with the multimedia software Sem Segredos, generating a graph about the importance of TV in the home. They also created scripts encouraging students to come up with stories with the help of the Alphabet Learning Panel. Students and the teacher voted on the most creative script and then acted it out, filmed and edited it.

Students developed critical thinking skills through the journalism exercise by debating subjects related to their everyday lives. They also learned how to conduct interviews by producing reports with teachers and the school principal, Mara Santana.

Finally, a visit to the studios at the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos) brought students even closer to this unknown universe.

The most important result was the joy the students experienced as a whole new world opened up for them. According to Leoni, their projects were excellent. And it is wonderful to prepare students to be critical citizens, ready to see the world in a new way.