PIPALE – Preventive Intervention Project for Learning to Read and Write – is a project in the field of L1 Portuguese teaching, developed by a team of researchers from the Linguistics Research Centre of NOVA University of Lisbon and supported by the Program for the Promotion of School Success.
The project targets preschool children and first and second grade children, and it aims at improving, since early school years, the quality of learning of Portuguese as L1, with a special focus on the following domains:
- language awareness
- early literacy
- reading
- writing
PIPALE is organized in three dimensions:
Assessment: all the children within the target school years are assessed before and after intervention (at the beginning and at the end of the school year) by means of the PIPALE diagnosis instrument, that enables the identification of priority intervention areas and the early detection of difficulties in the assessed domains;
Lifelong learning: educators, primary school teachers and special language needs teachers are involved in training workshops, aiming at improving their knowledge and practices in the domains within the scope of the project;
Teacher coaching: the team provides regular and systematic support to teachers’ practices, especially in planning and implementing effective strategies to develop reading and writing skills.
In the first phase, between May 2019 and December 2020, two school clusters from the Municipality of Sesimbra, the first funding entity, participated in the project: School Cluster Navegador Rodrigues Soromenho and School Cluster of Quinta do Conde.
In the academic year 2020-2021, PIPALE continued in the School cluster of Quinta Conde (renamed School cluster Maria do Carmo Serrote), integrating the Strategic Action Plan of this school cluster.
In the academic year 2022-2023, two school clusters from the Municipality of Seixal joined the project, with the support from the Municipality of Seixal: the School cluster Pedro Eanes Lobato and the School cluster António Augusto Louro.
In the academic year 2024-2025, PIPALE continues in these three school clusters: two from the Municipality of Seixal and one from the Municipality of Sesimbra.