Case Studies

Name of the teacher

Filomena Pedroso; José Carlos Alves

Email:

[email protected] ; [email protected]

Country:

Portugal

Subject taught:

Portuguese

Years of experience:

25;32

Name of the School:

Escola Secundária José Falcão

School Typology:

Upper Secondary School

Country:

Portugal

City:

Coimbra

Web site:

Background and Context:

Escola Secundária José Falcão is located in a central area of our town, Coimbra, and it has a long history. We were the first high school in Coimbra and one of the first in the country. Geographically, Coimbra is located in the center of Portugal and it has long traditions in the learning field: Coimbra’s University, with over 800 years, is one of the oldest of Europe. Culturally the region is very rich in ancient traditions that persist till today.
Actually, we celebrate the 185th year of existence .With a total of about nine hundred students, eighteen foreigners from several countries of Europe Africa and America. Our school is mostly directed to those who wish to follow higher education, most of them are science students. However, it also hosts one professional course. The school has a Students’ Association which is very dynamic and concerned with everyone’s success, Always supporting, and being part of the activities proposed by teachers

Factual Description:

As part of the celebration of International Human Rights Day - 10 December, for about a month, a team of teachers of Geography, History and Portuguese with the students of the Lower Secondary (about 180 Portuguese students and 8 foreign students) read and interpreted the book "O caderno do Avô Henrich, "Literary Prize Maria Rosa Colaço / Youth literature 2012, which culminated in the meeting with the writer Conceição Dinis Tomé who presented her work to the students on December 15.
Everyone offered their point of view, teachers from different backgrounds and students from different social and cultural experiences.

Activities carried out:

The reading and discussion of this work on the Holocaust, during the lessons through the historical, geographic and social meaning, and also during the moments of encounter with the writer, enabled the students to realize that the human capacity to create and appreciate beauty is important to promote peace among peoples.

Assessment and lesson learnt:

The understanding of problems already experienced allowed young people to extrapolate experiences to current situations, allowing them to widen their capacities for mutual aid and solidarity. For teachers and students was important to develop the idea that remember the past can prevent the future.
Considering that hhis activity had results, because there was an exchange of views and experiences, we intend to replicate the model with another literary work.