March 14th and 15th - Alphabet

Today I restarted teaching the 1st and 2nd grades groups. I had only one class with them, more than a month ago, so I had already forgotten everybody's names and basically almost repeated the same class I had taught. I guided in a way that students had to repeat their names many times, so I could have time to memorize them, like:

1. I asked "What is your name?" and student answered;

2. I said to the others: "Let's everybody say 'Good afternoon' to ____";

3. Everybody: "Good afternoon, ____".

As they are still being alphabetized, I showed them the alphabet on the wall and said someone's name, asking "What is the first letter of the name Sara?". They answered and I added: "Let's do letter S with our hands" and showed them the sign for S in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). The purpose was not make them to communicate in Libras, also because there are no deaf students in the school a work, but I just wanted them to know other ways of communicating and, maybe next time they see an interpreter on television, they feel more familiar with sign language. 

I totally disagree with teaching the alphabet in English to kids that are still being alphabetized in Portuguese, as most of the letters sound totally different in both languages. Their minds become total mess during English class, I feel. Even when I am teaching older kids, like the ones on 3rd or 4th grades I have the feeling that some of them are a little lost with the pronunciation of the vowels A, E and I, for example. So, this class about the alphabet was not focused on accuracy of pronunciation of the letters nor the accuracy while signalizing letters with the hands. 

I felt surprised on how interested all of them were while learning Libras alphabet. Maybe I should think about another activity that mixes Libras and English.

For the 3rd and 4th grades I did a little different: I did not include Libras, but everybody had to spell their first names. When half of the class had already done that, I noticed that kids were distracted and had lost the focus on what we were doing, but decided to continue that task, no I did not exclude anybody. Also, by that I could have an idea about the ones who could write/read. I was expecting that the 4th grades group would perform better on that, and actually one of the groups did; but two of them were like in the same level of the two 3rd grade groups. I will think about something to include Libras with those groups too. 

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