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Bilingual School for Deaf Students - AVAS
Pilar Velazquez Educational Center

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1) Information about the Institution
2) Brief Summary of the History of the Institution
3) Presentation of the Project
4) Justification
5) General Objectives
6) Specific Objectives
7) Implementation
8) Schedule of Activities
9) Monthly Costs and Revenue of the Project
10) Development of the Pedagogical Project of the School
11) Parterns of the Project
12) Attached Documents

1) Information about the Institution

Name: Associação Velazquez de Assistência ao Surdo – AVAS (Velazquez Association for the Assistance of Deaf People)

Address: Benjamin Constant Street, 142. Glória.
Rio de Janeiro – RJ Brazil

Telephone: (55 21) 3852-1701

Name of the person responsible for the Institution: Antonio Alacete Velasques
Position: President Director
ID: 1.086.703

Date of Foundation: March 21st , 1994

Technical Responsible:
Lanucia da Silva Quintanilha
ID: 02308200-1
E-mail: lanucia@ig.com.br

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2) Brief Summary of the History of the Institution

In December 1989, a large number of deaf children were turned off from a Special Teaching School, as an act of “Philosophical Coherency ”, since they have not reached the demanded orality. Families were oriented by this school to allocate their students in another one that would use the Brazilian Sign Language as its basic way to communicate.

Since there was not a school with this characteristic in Rio and the National Institute for Deaf People (INES), a school from the State, was not able to fulfill this demand, Mr. Velasques, father of one of the deaf students, asked the speechtherapist of his son Lanucia Quintanilha to organize a school that would adopt the Brazilian Sign Language (BSL) as its official way of communication.

In March 1991, a project integrating deaf children with listeners was started. This project was elaborated within a private school, including only two children. The project was interrupted in March 1993, when this school was extincted and by the time it had already eight children. As this attempt to integrate these students was frustrated, it was decided that a new school only for deaf students should be build.

In order to continue with this educational proposal and desiring to extend it to every social class, race and belief, the Velazquez Association for the Assistance of Deaf People (AVAS) was created in March 21st ,1994. AVAS is a non-profitable Institution that maintains the school with the following purposes: promote the education and culture of deaf people; provide education of high quality for deaf children; provide a profession to deaf students, developing their intellectual vocation

AVAS tries to keep the Pilar Velazquez Educational Center.

The Pilar Velazquez Educational Center is a school that provides elementary education for deaf students with a bilingual proposal – Portuguese and BSL. The Pilar Velazquez Educational Center is located in Rio de Janeiro, Gloria.

The school attends children and adolescents that come from families of low incomes, with a history of constant repetition in public schools, a low self-esteem and serious difficulty to communicate. These students were not able to adapt to the regular schools and, therefore, need special schools. They come from distant and different places of Rio de Janeiro. Our students usually need to take at least two means of transportation to come to our school, taking around from an hour and a half to two hours to arrive to our school.

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3) Presentation of the Project

Title of the Project: Bilingual School for Deaf Students

Place for the Development of the Project: Pilar Velazquez Educational Center

Responsible for the Project: Lanucia da Silva Quintanilha

Main Objective: Offer specialized knowledge, through bilingual education for deaf students (Brazilian Sign Language and the Portuguese Language.), attempting to guarantee every possibility for a complete social integration of this citizen.

Our Target: Deaf children and adolescents from the State of Rio de Janeiro.

Period of Execution: During the year of 2006.

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4) Justification

The great number of deaf children and adolescents that were not able to find openings in the public schools or to adapt to the regular schools of Rio de Janeiro encouraged us to create the Pilar Velazquez Educational Center.

Traditionally, deafness is considered a serious deficiency. Because of this, the deaf person would require medical intervention to cure or treat his/her problem. The deaf community considers itself a linguistic minority with its own culture.

The philosophy of our pedagogical Project values the language and culture of the deaf community. Following this way, our Project includes deaf and listener teachers, fluent in BSL. These professionals are often involved in linguistic and educational workshops that discuss and find ways to the autonomy of the deaf community.

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5) General Objectives

Keep in Rio de Janeiro a school turned to the education of deaf students, giving space to the expansion of the cultural universe of students through the following bases:

+ Value and broadcast the culture and art of the deaf and listener communities;
+ Provide an environment in which the students would conquer self-esteem and trust, basic points for a real social integration;
+ Work with the consciousness, recognition and respect for the human values.

All these aspects help students to become active citizens that through a competent and active attitude will effectively collaborate to put the deaf community in a detached position in the social, political and cultural spaces.

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6) Specific Objectives

+ Kindergarten
+ Elementary School
+ Education for Adults and Adolescents (adolescents that are older than the students of the regular elementary school and need to conclude their study in a shorter period of time)
+ Pedagogic Training (For deaf adolescents that have a lower rhythm to learn).

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7) Implementation

Duration : From January to December 2006.

Goals for 2006 :

+ Kindergarten – 10 students
+ Elementary School – 20 students
+ Pedagogic Training – 10 students
+Total of attendance of deaf children and adolescents - 40 students

Goals for Familiar Attendance

+ Orientation and Familiar Attendance - 40 families
+ Teaching of Brazilian Sign Language – 40 families
+ Total of Familiar Attendance - 40 families

Indicators of Results:
Our students have been presenting excellent results. These outcomes can be attested by their families, by those students who were sent to the Brazilian Institute for the Education of Deaf People (INES) or by one the regular schools from the state, Infante Dom Henrique School, to which we regularly send students.
Our students are also well succeeded in the companies we recommend them to. Many ex-students are already working as instructors of Brazilian Sign Language in associations, public schools, teaching families and professionals in the area.

Methodology:
One of the big problems in the education of deaf learners comes from the process of learning the Portuguese language. The learning of Portuguese is essential since a representative part of their academic and social lives is attached to the fluency of the Portuguese language.

Until a little time ago, the teaching of Portuguese for deaf learners was conveyed the same way it is given for listeners. Because of this, this process could never work. The most serious consequence was the belief deaf learners were cognitively handicapped compared with “normal” people, the listeners. However, when the teaching of Portuguese is given with a different perspective, the situation changes completely.

The teaching of Portuguese as a second language for deaf people is put as a promising alternative. This new approach intends to convey the reading and writing of the Portuguese in a interactive perspective, adopting the methodology of Portuguese as a second language. This main goal is supported by the appreciation of the Brazilian Sign Language as the basic element of the culture of the deaf community and the appreciation of the Portuguese language as the basic element of the culture of the listeners. We also strive to make clear the different sociocultural spaces which the Brazilian Sign Language and the Portuguese occupy and to stress the connection between the reading of Portuguese and the reading of the world.

The teaching of Portuguese as a second language is considered by the people who work in our school one of the basic elements of the pedagogical work. From the activities developed, all the other disciplines can count with an extra source of reflection and a new channel of knowledge: The sources of written material.

As far as a linguistic minority is concerned, which is the case of the deaf community, the access of Portuguese means access to power and new possibilities of consciously and actively interact in the world. Besides this, as we are always reflecting over the relation among language, culture and society, we have a great concern with the process of building up the citizenship of our students. Therefore, having the academic goal as a starting point, we achieve simultaneously the cultural and social segments.

Preparatory Activities:
Enrollment of students, organization of classrooms, selection of the teachers, interview and evaluation of new students.

Executed Activities:
Education for Kindergarten, Elementary and Pedagogic Training Classes. Presentations of theatre and dance for the deaf community by the end of the year in Glaucio Gil Theatre in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro.

Monthly Cultural Visits:
House of Reading
Museum of the Republic
Museum of Modern Art

Several visits, according to the disposability of the museums throughout the year : National Library, Banco do Brasil Cultural Center, Paço Imperial, Correios Cultural Center.

Brazilian Cultural Parties: For students and their parents in Clube de Regatas Botafogo.

Workshop of Literature and Reading: Speeches about literature and presentation of works done by students to their parents, friends and guests. This workshop happens usually on May in our school.

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8) Schedule of Activities

Working Time:
From 12:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

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9) Monthly Costs and Revenue of the Project

Monthly Cost - US$ 9.259,26

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10) Development of the Pedagogical Project of the School

The evaluation of the development and learning of our students must be in harmony with the planning and development of the activities in function of the pedagogical planning built by the school.

Students will be evaluated through tests, works, written tests of Portuguese, in the Brazilian Sign Language, participation and interest demonstrated in class.
The people responsible for the evaluation of students are the professors of Kindergarten, Elementary, Pedagogic Training, Pedagogical Technical Counsel. This counsel is constituted by the pedagogical Director, the Portuguese consultant and the Brazilian Sign Language consultant.

Throughout the year, the following pedagogical meetings will be taken:

+ General meeting of Planning – In February, before the beginning of classes. All the teachers, the pedagogical director, the Portuguese consultant and the Brazilian Sign Language consultant participate in the meeting for the elaboration of the planning of the year.

+ Biweekly Meetings for teachers of Elementary with the Portuguese consultant for the improvement and adjustment of the teaching of the Portuguese Language to students.

+ Weekly Meetings of the Portuguese teachers with the Portuguese consultant. Mondays, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

+ Biweekly Meetings of teachers with the Pedagogical direction for the following up of the planning.

+ Bimonthly Meetings of teachers in which the academical development of students are discussed.

+ Monthly meetings of all teachers, general and pedagogical directors and Language consultants in which pertinent points are discussed, such as: the education of deaf students, reading, writing and the culture of deaf learners.

+ General meeting of pedagogy in December, for evaluation and planning for the next year.

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11) Parterns of the Project

+ Mosteiro de São Bento
+ Associação Nóbrega de Educação e Assistência Social –ANEAS
+ Capemi
+ Federal Justice – CPMA
+ National Federation for the Education and Integration of Deaf Learners – FENEIS
+ Catholic University – PUC-Rio

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12) Attached Documents

+ National Certificate of the Institution
+ Social Statute
+ Identity of the Legal Representative
+ Title of Public Utility given by Federal Justice
+ Register of Institution of Public Interest for the Civil Society

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