Something that I personally like in our course, Letras Inglês, is the opportunity of starting our internship still in the second year of college. Two years ago, we had our first experience in the “estágio de extensão”, a moment in which we could get to learn thoroughly the history of the schools we were having our internship at and also the roles of all the work done behind the teacher’s acting, as the one headed by the principal and the secretaries.

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During the 2nd year internship, students were required to develop a project to implement in the contexts they were in contact with, one that could connect our university to the school and to the local community, extending and creating relations among all these instances. Then, in our third year, now as Juniors, we had our internship at Colégio Estadual Nilo Cairo. One of this school’s greatest recognition are the walls that surround it. The walls are all colored with multiple graffitis that get every student’s and passerby’s attention for its beauty and message.

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One of these graffitis really caught me regarding its message. On the right of it, there is a woman. On the left, there is another woman. She is a zombie. Above her, there are Instagram symbols: likes, comments and followings. On the left corner beneath, it is written: “digital life”.

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The project we have developed has its source in the didactic material entitled “For the love of graffiti: engaging on accessibility and art” from the Cleret Collection. With it, when applied to the six classes led by the five interns from the 3rd year, two classes for each pair and/or intern, we presented to students, through a didactic sequence, all about the art of graffiti and audio description. In the beginning, it was brainstormed and introduced the art of graffiti - its source, characteristics and the culture around it. Later on, students reflected on how important audio description of art is to people who cannot see. By the description, as the one I myself did in the previous paragraph, it is possible that the reader and/or listener imagine the graffiti without seeing it. Finally, after all the discussion around graffiti and audio description and its importance and characteristics, students produced their own audio description.

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Our goal, along with the authors, was reached when students successfully produced their written audio description both in English and in Portuguese. To conclude the classes, after pair review and teachers’ feedback, students recorded an audio version describing the graffiti. All this material should be posted on the school’s webpage in a social media, jointly with the pictures of the graffitis, in order to make it accessible to anyone who wants to consume it somehow.

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At the end, students loved the classes and the work done, leaving the teachers sweet feedbacks of their experience. And, for me, it was a pleasant moment, a remarkable one; it was my first experience as a teacher in a public school context. Finally, we could learn, along all the other lessons, that there are many fun ways of teaching English rather than the tradicional teaching.

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​All the work done with students can be accessed by the following link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iNg0wXaALHIo7sCqWWurXbdrF1kx-_Ev?usp=sharing