O letramento em cultura da informação como direito à formação cidadã

Abstract

This research has its beginning in my own perception as a teacher of Portuguese language in public elementary schools (Ensino Fundamental II in Brazil), for more than five years, in which students own a profile as individuals who carry a distant view of the happenings of the world today. In some cases, they are totally indifferent to the information that is given to them by the media, if the information content ever reaches them. After conducting a survey, I was able to confirm the need of searching ways and situations that contribute to the literacy in the information culture/news media of students, especially in this post-truth era. Thus, the research entitled Literacy in the Culture of Information as a Right to Citizenship Training was born. The main goal of this paper was to elaborate and apply a teaching project that allows students of the 8th year in elementary school to develop and to improve their reading and writing skills, considered essential to the discursive genre of the news story. With respect to the methodology section, this paper works as an intervention research, with qualitative characteristics, that developed and proposed activities and reflections that meet students' needs when reading and producing news. The students had the chance throughout several workshops, to read about and to reflect upon the role of news and its relation with circulation areas; Moreover, they were able to learn about the news production process, including a visit to a newsroom. They also analyzed the phenomenon of fake news as well as information checking strategies; Furthermore, they produced news based on school happenings. Theoretically, this research is supported by the contributions of several authors and researchers, such as: Amossy (2011a; 2011b); Bakhtin (2003; 2012; 2016); Charaudeau (2015; 2016); Ferrari (2012; 2018); Hernandes (2016); Maingueneau (2013); Soares (1998; 2016) and Traquina (1999; 2005a; 2005b). It was observed that this project contributed in a significant way to the development of important reading and writing skills of students, for the best exercise of citizenship as critical thinking individuals. In addition, this research aims to contribute to the improvement of Portuguese language teaching in Brazil, supporting other teachers to (re)think about their own practices.