Introduction: humanity needs to read Earth together

Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe.
Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life.
The forces of nature make existence a demanding and uncertain adventure,
But Earth has provided the conditions essential to life´s evolution.
The resilience of the community of life and the well-being of human depend
Upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its ecological systems,
a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soil, pure waters, and clean air.
The global environment with its finite resources is a common concern of all peoples,
The protection of Earth´s vitality, diversity, and beauty is a sacred trust.
Earth Charter

This paper presents a study which has been developed at Programa de Extensão Ação Cidadã / Extension Program of Citizenship Action (PAC) , Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo/ Brazil. We aim to: (i) understand and develop a process of inclusion (Liberali, 2008) with students with reading difficulties and to (ii) analyse the role of reading in didactic material developed based on the notion of genre (Bakhtin 1997/1953) for elementary public school students (10-11 years old). This research focuses on the importance of developing critical reading (Rojo, 2004) in different areas at school. This research also discusses reading as an instrument and result (Newman & Holzman, 1993) activity. The results indicate that a genre based material and a critical instrument and result reading methodology (a) increase students' knowledge and attitude towards reading and (b) promote inclusion among students who start and are willing to go on with citizenship acting towards the protection of Earth´s vitality, diversity and beauty.

Acting as Citizens Program (PAC): "provide all, specifically youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to contribute actively to sustainable development" (Earth Charter 14.a)

Parents and children
Statues and vaults
Painted walls
Nobody knows what happened
She jumped out her window
From the fifth floor
Not easy to be understood

Sleep now
And only the wind outside
I want to be in a womb

I will run away from home
Can I sleep here?
I am afraid, I had a nightmare
I will only be back after three

My son will have
The name of a saint
I want the most beautiful name

(chorus)
We need to love people
As if there were no tomorrow
Because if you stop to think
Actually there is not

Tell me why the sky is blue
Explain the great fury of the world
My children take care of me

I live with my mother
But my father comes to visit me
I live in the street I have no one
I live anywhere
I have lived in so many houses that I can´t recall
I live with my parents

(chorus)
We need to love people
As if there were no tomorrow
Because if you stop to think
Actually there is not
I am a drop of water
I am a grain of sand
You tell me your parents don´t understand you
But you do not understand your parents
You blame your parents for everything
This is an absurd
Will you be a child like you

PAC is coordinated by Dr. Fernanda Coelho Liberali (general coordinator) and Dr. Maria Cecília Camargo Magalhães (general coordinator assistant and coordinator of PAC´s sub-group LDA (Reading in Different Areas) and has been active since 2002. In PAC there are many people involved (at the time of the writing of this article, about twenty five researchers from different Brazilian Public Institutions (City Mayor Education Authorities of São Paulo) and public and private universities from Brazil and abroad. All of us work to fight against the "fatalist and freezing ideology that circulates around the world. This position is typical of those who have lost their address in history" (Freire, 2006:21). In PAC, we know our address very well: Earth! PAC mainly works with adolescents, and the song we chose to start this section with reflects how worried we are about the youth from Carapicuíba, São Paulo and from Brazil, in general. PAC does not aim at bringing up children who "blame their parents for everything", feel like "jumping out of the fifth floor window" and "sleep on the street". On the contrary, PAC aims at offering opportunities for people to reconstruct themselves through language development in such a way the ones involved, mainly the youth, learn how to read Earth in order to be able to rewrite it as citizens.
PAC members are all volunteers, despite the long hours, long journeys (by car, bus, train, and/or underground and walking -from 1 to 3 hours to get from our homes to the school areas), long days and the infinite hard work and w