BNCC - Critical racial literacy it’s a law and why it’s important

 

Augusto Neves, 2024

   There are loads of types of discrimination and prejudices. Everything that it’s related to black

people tends to be seen as something negative and this must be changed in our anti-racist daily

practice as Educators.

The trend world it’s just a social construction and shouldn’t be seen as a model that everyone

should follow. In a nutshell, the world it’s too diverse and even the labels of  race, gender and

sexuality aren’t enough to define our individuality. 

   It was very common to hear during the Art classes something like: “Pink, the colour of skin.” or

“Skin colour Pink”.

 As if there was only one right colour for the skin, the Pink one. Besides my experiences, it’s not

only the colour of the skin that can cause racism, but, the hair type that includes the curly and

Afro hair and the Afro-Brazilian religions as well.

 In other words, it seems that not being white it’s wrong. Then, when I was a teenager, I let my

hair grow out, curls came out and as a result I used to believe that something was wrong with

my hair because it’s not straight and greasy, but curly and dry. I always loved my curly hair and

it’s very common to hear people saying things indirectly such as: “poor people’s hair” or

“bad hair”. Statements like that create an environment where those who it’s not white and

especially black can’t be rich, can’t be doctors, can’t stay outside of favelas, etc.

I mean, seriously: What the heck?

 

THE BNNC Law mandates teaching of Afro history and culture - MEC

  There is a law provided in the BNCC document that obligates schools to study Afro-Brazilian

and African culture, which for me it’s a good start since the black people’s voice has been

silenced, erased and even worse the presence of someone black seems to bother. The law itself

it’s a good start engine, but it doesn’t mean that the car will start, in other words, it’s necessary

materials to work with and as Ferreira (2019) mentioned, the English textbooks in Brazil only

portray the negative side of Africa and black people.

 It's a constant  fight for the educators to work for an anti racist education, it’s not easy and

it isn’t something that can be performed only in 45 minutes. For me, racism exists because we

only reproduce  without realising that we are referring to people and not objects, this lack of

consciousness reproduces the violence and exclusion against people of colour and specially

black people.

 THE PRACTISE:

  This is not a blog’s recipe, but I believe that our praxis can start when we look at the students

and we ask them: who are they? How do they label and consider themselves?

 In a class where the majority are white and privileged, it can be even hard. I see that it will

depend on us to be literate in this topic, and in an English class to teach about how we use

language to exclude and to express discrimination and even invite the students to research

about the black heroes, what racism is and why it’s a resistance. Then, it will be a theme to be

discussed in the classroom. It's also important to use videos and the voices of black people.

 I presume that it must be a task to be performed within 6 months at minimum and unfortunately it won’t be enough. Overall, I think English as an additional language class tends to be harder

because of the fact that students need to learn English and the vocabulary. So, I can see that

double work is necessary as a non-stop fighting. 

  After all, during a conversation with other teachers in a event that I attended related to the

BNCC and the ethnic racial education ( Racismo Linguístico e Ensino de Línguas: Debates,

perspectivas e possibilidades metodológicas by Santos. The teachers of the basic education

related that when the subject it’s about Afro-Brazilian religion, there is always a guardian or

parents that will complain out loud claiming that the teacher it’s indoctrinating them. It was also

shared that there isn't a law to protect us, the educators and in most cases we are now seen as

villains as a misunderstanding of those who want to protect the old fashion values that were

good for themselves but assuming that it was also good to everybody. So, there is a conservative

tendency or a wave that seems to be growing slowly and silently. 

• Note: the comic strip bellow it’s only to promote a provocative reflection:

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT  IT?

HAVE YOU GOT EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH ANTI RACIST PRACTISE?

HAVE YOU GOT ANYTHING ELSE TO COMPLETE OUR DISCUSSION?

HOW DO YOU ACT IN A SITUATION OF RACISM IN THE CLASSROOM?

PLEASE, FEEL FREE AND SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE COMMENTS BELOW:

Stay safe, be anti-racist

Ta, xx

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REFERENCES:

FERREIRA, Aparecida De Jesus. Social Identities of Black Females in English Language Textbooks

used in Brazil and Cameroon: intersectionalities of race, gender, social class and critical racial literacy.

Revista X, v. 14, n. 4, p. 20, 2019.

MACHADO, Maria Clara. Lei obriga ensino de história e cultura afro. PORTAL MEC. 2007. Avalaible at

<http://portal.mec.gov.br/ultimas-noticias/202-264937351/9403-sp-

482745990#:~:text=A%20Lei%20n%C2%BA%2010.639%2F2003%20acrescentou%20%C3%A0%20L

ei%20de,e%20o%20negro%20na%20forma%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20da%20sociedade%20nacional.>

Accessed on 25/03/2024

SANTOS, Nicolas de Oliveira. Racismo Linguístico e Ensino de Línguas: Debates, perspectivas e possibilidades metodológicas. In: Conectando processos formativos antirracistas entre a universidade e a educação básica. UEL, Londrina, 2024.

THE EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT

THE EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT

Augusto Neves, 2024

  In my experience as a student, the tests were always like a ghastly experience, leading the whole class anxious before, during and sometimes after the exam, even though I always had good grades. But then, I got enrolled in a

Performing Arts degree for one year before changing to English Language Arts. I will never forget that a Professor at the academia asked the students to self-evaluate their process. It was a very kind attitude and in a score from 0 to 100, no one gave a 100. However, the criteria of evaluation was very personal, giving us an opportunity for self-confidence. Of course, she created a safe environment, it was the subject of corporal expression, so we worked with body, movement and dance. Just imagine how liberating it was to be seen as a human being at the college in a pos-pandemic and I.A moment.

 

To make the long story short, when this Professor trusted us to self-evaluate, it was like respecting our differences and allowing us to self-reflect and because of this experience that I decided to become a teacher. It was a shame that I had to go to the university or especially through arts that I was invited to think outside of the box. Because, during my experiences as a student at basic education, I feel that the school splitted  us up with grades and student’s behaviour. And yet, in my opinion, I’m afraid to say that it didn’t change, it’s in our (teachers) hands to change this scenery of banking education.

THE EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT ACCORDING TO BNCC

The evaluation it’s not only related to the grade of the students, but as a way to collect the data that

indicates the level of the knowledge of the students.  The role of evaluation shouldn't be only related to

numbers but rather how can teachers help students to understand the subjects and reflect the process

of acquiring knowledge and if the teacher follows.

To sum up what the BNCC says, it includes the pedagogical process of assessment in three steps. The

diagnostic assessment, to assess the students at the beginning of the year to analyse the student’s

knowledge, as a background knowledge or an English test level as a bottom line, meanwhile the

formative assessment it’s related during the lesson as a way to follow the process of learning.Then,

the summative in which I can better translate to evaluation, it shows the result of the entire process of

learning and it’s considered to be done at the end of a period.

The formative instruments to evaluate the students will depend on the teacher's style. It can include

projects, a short film, theatre, poem, short stories and research such as  task based learning, project

based learning and project based learning. So the teacher can decide if it will be a formative

assessment during the process or if you will only evaluate the final process as a summative

assessment. The test doesn’t need to focus only on the grammar, BNCC describes the English

Language as a Lingua Franca and it has a vision of language as a social practice.

 TECHNOLOGIES

 Beyond the digital textbooks available on TIME TO SHARE - Saraiva site, we can find there examples

of evaluations, media and a monthly plan to work with the students. It looks complete, but in my point

of view their evaluation examples are rather complex but it can save you time if you don't have time to

prepare an evaluation.

 Personally, if you have time to elaborate an evaluation I think google forms can be an excellent tool,

even though it can be easy for them to cheat during the test, it can save your time by even correcting

the test. Of course, it’s a useful suggestion of summative assessment.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE GOOGLE FORMS?

WHAT’S YOUR ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION'S STYLE?

PLEASE, SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE COMMENTS BELOW:

Ta, xx

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REFERENCES:

LEMANN. Fundação.Avaliação diagnóstica, formativa e somativa alinhada à BNCC. Fundação Lemann. 2020. Available at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmUQpsWOjis> accessed on 13/03/2024 at 17:59

BRASIL. Ministry of Education. PNLD - SARAIVA. Available at<https://educacaobasica.editorasaraiva.com.br/pnld/edital/pnld-2020/obra/3751436/> accessed on 13/03/2024 at 01:00

Linguistic knowledge as an articulating axis and practices involving Educational Technologies and aspects for the review of the BNCC

 Linguistic knowledge as an articulating axis and practices involving Educational Technologies and aspects for the review of the BNCC.

Augusto Neves, 2024

 In my experience as a student at school the  foreign language was usually taught in a traditional way, with what it’s corrected or not, in a very formal way and the grammar always came first. After analysing some textbooks on the PNLD ( National Textbook Programm) have a strong tendency to focus much on the grammar, reading and interpretation which lead the activities such as oral discussion behind. It’s not that bad but it’s like incompleted, but it seems that there’s a tendency to change it.

Overall, the BNCC proposes a different point of view related to the grammar that goes beyond what it’s wrong and right, but the linguistic knowledge or the grammatical structure of English it’s to be analysed in a context  with the other axes including: reading, writing and speaking. In a nutshell, it’s as an inclusive analises of  the English language that includes the slangs, black English, dialects and in the case of non native speakers the common INTERFERENCES of their native language as a background. Furthermore, it highlights the relationship between the formal and informal English, if you work with language, you may know that the idea of a formal language it’s like following a dress code, it can in some case erase our background or diversity putting the speaker in a uniform and normative order by dictating how all of us should speak. But, communication it’s about being creative and understood, so grammar should only guide us to be understood with each other.

THE BNCC PROBLEMS:

As I pointed out so far, the BNCC sounds perfect. Doesn’t it?

But, the British Council recently did a research on the BNCC, they pointed the importance of the English to be a mandatory subject on the school’s curriculum in Brazil, and the polemic involves that if BNCC it’s a document base that describes the minimum of competency to work on, but the minimum sometimes can be too much competences to work on. So, the document sounds inflexible in a context of social problems, schools in the vulnerable neighbourhoods with a lack of accessibility and what about the indigenous communities?

Furthermore, if it’s mandatory to work with English as a social practice the document has a good general description, but, if you visit the BNCC website and browse through the grades, we can see that the overall of the competencies have a different view of the language. For example, the document doesn’t give much suggestion of how to work with grammar and social practise, but it says that it’s important how to apply it in an “intelligible” way. In a nutshell, it’s clear that the document needs to be revised making the competencies more adequate to the context of lingua franca and social practice, it’s a matter of how to use the words and to reorganise  and minimise the document.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES TO WORK WITH GRAMMAR: 

Besides the traditional ones that I like and always mention  such: BBC learning English and British Council. I found some alternative options like the Education.com and Test-english.com. I particularly like the Test-english.com, since it’s very simple and different from Education.com . You don’t need to create an account. So, we can choose the level of the English of our students as well which in case of beginners, if they make a mistake the site provides explanations, in my opinion it’s not that bad and it can be a good and practical alternative to those excellent BBC’s websites mentioned before.

WHAT ABOUT YOU:

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE TEST-ENGLISH SITE?

HAVE YOU GOT A BETTER ALTERNATIVE OPTION?

DO YOU LIKE WORKING WITH BRITISH COUNCIL AND BBC LEARNING ENGLISH?

PLEASE, SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.

Ta, xx

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REFERENCES:

BRASIL. Ministry of Education. Base Nacional Curricular Comum. MEC. Base nacional comum: Introdução. Available at <http://basenacionalcomum.mec.gov.br/abase/#introducao> accessed on 09/03/2024 at 2:25

BRITISH COUNCIL. Critical Reading. November 2017. Avalaible at <https://www.britishcouncil.org.br/atividades/ingles/bncc/leitura-critica> accessed on 09/03/2024 at 2:24

BRASIL. Ministry of Education. PNLD - Moderna. Available at <https://pnld.moderna.com.br/>

accessed on 13/03/2004 at 01:00