This work presents the "MDH News" project, developed as part of the Institutional Teacher Initiation Scholarship Program (Pibid) in Fortaleza, Brazil, during the second semester of 2023. Pibid enables student teachers to gain early experience in public schools by developing after-school projects, supervised by school teachers, as a hands-on immersion before they encounter teaching practices at university.

This project, MDH News, was a school newspaper written by students in English, covering topics such as art, cinema, sports, school life, and issues relevant to their community. It was integrated into the English classes at Maria da Hora, a full-time public middle school in one of the lowest HDI (Human Development Index) neighborhoods of Fortaleza. The students (aged between 11 and 15 years old) had creative freedom to choose their topics and worked in teams in the school's computer lab.

The project was grounded in Brazil's Common Core Curriculum. Research on teaching across age levels, learning English as a second language, the use of technology as a pedagogical tool, and multimodal strategies to engage students informed this work. I collected data from the Instagram profiles of the Pibid group and MDH News, Google Forms used for student sign-ups, and feedback from students and school staff.

Analysis is ongoing but this project highlights the importance of giving underprivileged students a platform to express their voices, interests, and the challenges they face both at school and within their communities. I will share the students’ major themes and the particular challenges and successes of the project from our perspective as student teachers.