Project description
The project addresses secondary students of 14-17 who are studying English as a foreign language. The aim is to develop students’ literacy skills with reading, writing and acting out literary pieces of participating cultures. At the same time teachers can share their teaching practices. There are 6 schools in the partnership with different experience in international projects and mobility programmes. The project is a continuation and development of a collaboration on eTwinning: “Our Reading Experiences”. The participating countries have several cultural and historical links so the students can extend their subject knowledge with personal experience.
We want to improve the students’ basic language skills: reading, writing and speaking, with exposing them to natural and meaningful foreign language environments. During the work we will use modern technology: web2 tools, social media, electronic devices, thus, make a bridge between traditional a 21st century literacy skills. Some participants bring their experience and expertise into the project while others are extremely motivated and eager to join this multicultural community. Italy has great knowledge in TIC (technology, information and communication), Lithuania has a drama club and Hungary includes drama in the language learning curriculum while Spain involves parents and stakeholders in their storytelling activities. All of them, and Turkey as well have experience in eTwinning. Croatia expressed their wish to improve their knowledge and skills in using new methods and technologies in language teaching. They have strong connections with local societies and institutions.
Both students and teachers will take part in several activities including reading and discussing selected books, writing drama scripts and acting out their play. Other areas of art such as design, illustration, taking photos and shooting films are incorporated in the tasks to deliver. The final products will be annotated book lists, a drama script and performance, a literary magazine, and literacy corners at schools. During their work students will read literary pieces, magazines, write stories collaboratively, share their ideas with presentations, discussions and debates locally and internationally. They will also meet with and learn from local theatres, publishers, and contemporary artists.
We expect that our students will get confidence in speaking in English, improve their reading and writing skills and communication competencies. While reading and sharing their ideas about books they will learn about and understand other cultures better and discover similarities among people of different nations. In order to reach that teachers will provide practices in reading, writing and speaking skills using methods like dialogic teaching, dramatising, and collaborative tasks. Students’ achievement will be evaluated with several tools such as questionnaires, tests, quizzes, self and peer evaluation sheets, interviews. Products of the project will be available in eTwinning and on the Internet.
We want to improve the students’ basic language skills: reading, writing and speaking, with exposing them to natural and meaningful foreign language environments. During the work we will use modern technology: web2 tools, social media, electronic devices, thus, make a bridge between traditional a 21st century literacy skills. Some participants bring their experience and expertise into the project while others are extremely motivated and eager to join this multicultural community. Italy has great knowledge in TIC (technology, information and communication), Lithuania has a drama club and Hungary includes drama in the language learning curriculum while Spain involves parents and stakeholders in their storytelling activities. All of them, and Turkey as well have experience in eTwinning. Croatia expressed their wish to improve their knowledge and skills in using new methods and technologies in language teaching. They have strong connections with local societies and institutions.
Both students and teachers will take part in several activities including reading and discussing selected books, writing drama scripts and acting out their play. Other areas of art such as design, illustration, taking photos and shooting films are incorporated in the tasks to deliver. The final products will be annotated book lists, a drama script and performance, a literary magazine, and literacy corners at schools. During their work students will read literary pieces, magazines, write stories collaboratively, share their ideas with presentations, discussions and debates locally and internationally. They will also meet with and learn from local theatres, publishers, and contemporary artists.
We expect that our students will get confidence in speaking in English, improve their reading and writing skills and communication competencies. While reading and sharing their ideas about books they will learn about and understand other cultures better and discover similarities among people of different nations. In order to reach that teachers will provide practices in reading, writing and speaking skills using methods like dialogic teaching, dramatising, and collaborative tasks. Students’ achievement will be evaluated with several tools such as questionnaires, tests, quizzes, self and peer evaluation sheets, interviews. Products of the project will be available in eTwinning and on the Internet.
Project timeline:
preparations
The coordinating teachers of the partner institutions have a video conference to establish the rules of the partnership. Main points of the project will be discussed and the exact dates of the activities of the first year will be decided.
first year theme: “Our Reading experience”
September 2015: Setting up Erasmus + project teams, blog
Project teams are set up at the participating institutions and tasks are distributed within project teams. Needs analysis is carried out among students, teachers, parents and partner organisations.
A blog for the dissemination of the project activities will be designed and created.
Making introductions
Every participating organisation will update its multimedia presentation on eTwinning containing information on participating students, schools, hometowns and countries. The presentations will be published on eTwinning.
Informal language courses at schools.
October 2015: Project logo
The logo competition will be carried out at national levels and the final winner will be voted on eTwinning platform
1st Transnational meeting
Project coordinators revise and if necessary rearrange project activities according to the outcome of needs analysis. All participants take part in ICT workshops, acquiring the application of tools required for the implementation of project activities.
Workshops on European Language Portfolio, eTwinning training, programmes for making surveys and creating diagrams.
Choosing and creating curriculum for language courses and selecting common assessment tools.
Application of electronic learning and teaching materials, creating and applying e-portfolios. Workshops on monitoring learners’ progress and giving feedback
November 2015
Input measurement of students’ language skills
Teachers carry out the project input assessment of students’ language knowledge using common assessment tools.
Questionnaire on students’ reading habits (for students and for libraries)
Students cooperate on complying a common questionnaire for mapping out young people’s reading habits, carry out their surveys nationally and demonstrate and compare their findings with diagrams on eTwinning.
Interview with local libraries and other partner institutions
December 2015
Top 10 book lists
each country compiles his list of top 10 books based on a survey carried out in their schools among the students, and makes a presentation about them. Presentations are published on Twinspace.
Informal language courses at schools.
February 2016
1st student exchange
During the meeting students introduce each nation’s classical and contemporary literature and recommend books to each other.
Students jointly compile an e-book on presenting all participating countries’ major classical and contemporary literary figures using new ICT tools .
Students take part in competitions on testing their acquired knowledge during language courses.
Teachers observe lessons and take part in peer-teaching sessions exchanging good practices on teaching foreign languages, with a special emphasis on reading skills.
March 2016
Setting up “reading clubs”
Students set up their voluntary “reading clubs” with collaboration of local libraries and other partner institutions.
Selection of common author or reading
Teachers select 5 proposals for common reading (a graded reader in English) - students choose the final one by voting
Students read the book, and process the story and the language of the reading during the extra language classes, using the exercises and lesson plans jointly compiled by teachers during the joint teacher training event.
Students represent the story in their chosen form with the help of ICT tools and also traditional art forms.
Informal language courses at schools.
March 2016
1st Joint teacher training event
Sharing teaching practices
Focus on developing reading and writing skills: common reading strategies that can be taught to ESL/EFL learners; selecting reading materials; intensive and extensive reading skills; types of pre-reading, while reading, and post-reading activities; and ways to assess reading both formally and informally, structuring ESL/EFL writing activities and lessons; recommended outside resources to improve and expand teacher knowledge, methods, and materials of ESL/EFL reading and writing.
Short stories and poetry in the language classroom, creative writing methods.
Teachers compile a “task bank” for the selected reader and make a booklet of “lesson plans”.
Besides training sections:
creating common evaluation tool for assessment of 1st year
April 2016
2nd student exchange
European Reading Fair - presenting the books they have read from the other country - booklet “Our European Bookshelf”
Europe Day (9 May) - Students present their countries’ history and role within the European Union, take part in quizzes on the history and working process of the EU (previously prepared).
Reading competition on the common reading + students present their representations of the story.
Writing workshops- students work in groups and take part in collaborative writing tasks - for example alternative beginning or ending to the story, writing the story from the characters’ personal perspectives, etc.
All the materials created by students are made into an e-book and published.
May 2016
Informal language courses at schools.
Evaluation of students’ progress
Teachers carry out the end-of-term assessment of students’ language development using common assessment tools.
Teachers evaluate first project year with the help of self-reflection, student and parent feedback using quantitative and qualitative assessment tools.
2nd year theme : “Our joint writing experience”
September 2016
Launching 2nd project year
Summing up project findings so far.
Schools organise a project event locally to familiarise people with the project and recruit new participants.
Language input measurement.
2nd transnational meeting
Launching the 2nd project year:
Summing up the project activities so far- checking and rearranging the activities of the 2nd project year.
Creative writing competition rules and activity timeline is established. Responsibilities are distributed.
Common measurement tools are chosen and prepared for input measurement and identifying individual needs and difficulties. Problem solving sessions and case studies if needed.
Lesson observations and discussions, exchange of good practices. Handbook of good practices is updated.
September 2016
European Day of languages
Participating students jointly commemorate the European Day of Languages by completing an interactive quiz made by their peers on Twinspace.
Informal language courses at schools.
26 September
Translation Competition
Relating to the European Day of Languages students take part in a translation competition organized locally and translate a famous poem and/ or a short story from one of their national authors. Competition results and works are published on eTwinning.
Designing common interview questions for authors
Students jointly design a questionnaire for interviewing contemporary national authors using eTwinning..
Inviting and interviewing contemporary authors
Students invite a contemporary author to their school conduct, record and analyze their interviews and present their findings on Twinspace.
October 2016
Giving students practical language training on writing skills
Language trainings focus on development of students’ writing skills: writing Europass CV, informal and formal letters, reviews and articles. Familiarising students with useful websites for practising writing skills.
Visiting local newspaper editorials
Students take part in field trips to their local newspaper editorial and observe the work done there. They conduct interviews with the people working there and map out the possible problems and challenges they face during their everyday work.
Launching our common e-magazine
Students jointly design their common electronic magazine using ICT tools such as Joomag or Magazinefactory. Student groups of mixed nationalities are set up and roles are allocated. Student editors, different topics: literature corner (the different pieces written by students in the course of the creative writing competition, poems, etc), celebrity news, reviews, sport, etc…
Launching creative writing competition
Students take part in a series of creative writing competitions during which they have to produce different pieces of writing of several genres. This series of competitions will last throughout the whole second project year. Results are continuously published on Twinspace.
September 2016 - April 2017
October 2016
3rd student exchange
Students present and compare their findings on contemporary authors and present their biographies and works. They present their findings and experience at local newspaper editorials and present the portfolios.
Students take part in problem solving sessions and creative writing workshops.
Students collaborate on the e-magazine and jointly select input for the common short story.
Teachers observe lessons and take part in peer-teaching sessions exchanging good practices on teaching foreign languages, with a special emphasis on writing skills.
October 2016
Practical workshops at schools
Ss learn how to use a camera to record a film and study computer programmes needed to montage a film.
Informal language courses at schools.
November 2016
Our national theatres
Students carry out research and present their national theatres with the help of ICT tools. Materials are published on Twinspace.
December 2016
Video conference for students
Student exchange good wishes for Christmas and the New Year. They also teach some traditional game or song their partners.
February 2017
Mid-project evaluation
mid-evaluation is carried out among participants and partners using common qualitative and quantitative assessment tools, the results are compared.
March 2017
2nd Joint Teacher Training Event
Coordinators compare their findings of the mid-project evaluation and revise project plan accordingly.
Sharing teaching practices- teaching writing and speaking skills.
Focus on teaching Speaking skills and incorporating Drama techniques in the language classrooms:
Improvisation classroom activities for enriching communication skills, self confidence, spontaneity and risk taking; role play, story creation and dialogue building techniques to develop writing and speaking skills.
Teaching speaking skills with ICT tools, teaching presentation skills and rhetorical techniques.
Micro teaching sessions, lesson observations and feedback sessions.
handbook of good teaching practices is updated.
April 2017
4th Student Exchange
Students’ conference is organised:
- Presenting and asking and answering questions on each national theatre (clarifications)
-finding one common topic of the common short story that will be the basis of the final performance. Students collect national emblems characteristic of all participant countries to include in the story to represent the partnerships.
Students take part part in drama workshops, improvisation tasks, role-play sessions.
April 2017
National writing sessions
each partner works on a draft of a story for a common performance choosing the most significant national features, characters that should be shown, all the Ss consider every nation taking part in the project.
Informal language courses at schools.
World Book Day- 23 April
Each partner institution organises a project day at their school to promote reading. They present the project activities and results so far.
Students select the final short story through voting. Results are published on Twinspace.
May 2017
Evaluation of students’ progress
Teachers carry out the end-of--term assessment of students’ language development using common assessment tools.
Video conference for coordinators
Evaluation findings are discussed, conclusions drawn.
3rd year theme - “Our joint drama experience”
September 2017
Launching 3rd project year
Summing up project findings so far.
Schools organise a project event locally to familiarise people with the project and recruit new participants.
Input language measurements.
3rd transnational project meeting
Summing up the project activities so far- checking and rearranging the activities of the final project year.
Exact dates of the project activities are decided.
Joint writing groups are established. Rules and criteria for the best actor competition are decided on.
Common measurement tools are chosen and prepared for input measurement and identifying individual needs and difficulties. Problem solving sessions and case studies if needed.
Lesson observations and discussions, exchange of good practices.
September, October 2017
Joint writing session
Students work in mixed international groups via the Internet and write scenarios for the commonly chosen short stories.
Results are published on Twinspace.
Informal language courses at schools.
November 2017
5th student exchange
Students jointly work on the final version of the scenario – they divide the 6 act among the participating schools. Participants choose all the best parts of the proposed scenarios and combine them into one common scenario.
Students take part in creative workshops and choose the music and the props for the play.
Students take part in drama workshops and art sessions.
January 2018
Distributing roles
Students choose roles for the final performance.
Informal language courses at schools.
January, February 2018
Practical workshops
How to become a good actor – theatre workshops with professional actors in each partner country.
March 2018
Preparation of costumes and props.
Preparing costumes and rehearsing the final performance in each country.
April 2018
National performances
presenting the act in each country – at schools to teachers and students but also in the local community
April 2018
Best national actor competition
The best national actor competitions are held in partner countries.
Informal language courses at schools.
6th student exchange
Presenting and recording the final performance with international actors
A competition on the best international actor is organised.
Results are published on Twinspace.
The final performance is presented within partner schools and within the local community. It is also made publicly available online.
4th transnational project meeting
Summing up the project. Preparation of the assessment tools for students, parents, teachers and partner institutions. Finalising manual of teaching practices. Designing after project activities.
Dissemination
Project findings and results are published and results and good practices are distributed on local, national and international level using a varied kit of dissemination tools.
preparations
The coordinating teachers of the partner institutions have a video conference to establish the rules of the partnership. Main points of the project will be discussed and the exact dates of the activities of the first year will be decided.
first year theme: “Our Reading experience”
September 2015: Setting up Erasmus + project teams, blog
Project teams are set up at the participating institutions and tasks are distributed within project teams. Needs analysis is carried out among students, teachers, parents and partner organisations.
A blog for the dissemination of the project activities will be designed and created.
Making introductions
Every participating organisation will update its multimedia presentation on eTwinning containing information on participating students, schools, hometowns and countries. The presentations will be published on eTwinning.
Informal language courses at schools.
October 2015: Project logo
The logo competition will be carried out at national levels and the final winner will be voted on eTwinning platform
1st Transnational meeting
Project coordinators revise and if necessary rearrange project activities according to the outcome of needs analysis. All participants take part in ICT workshops, acquiring the application of tools required for the implementation of project activities.
Workshops on European Language Portfolio, eTwinning training, programmes for making surveys and creating diagrams.
Choosing and creating curriculum for language courses and selecting common assessment tools.
Application of electronic learning and teaching materials, creating and applying e-portfolios. Workshops on monitoring learners’ progress and giving feedback
November 2015
Input measurement of students’ language skills
Teachers carry out the project input assessment of students’ language knowledge using common assessment tools.
Questionnaire on students’ reading habits (for students and for libraries)
Students cooperate on complying a common questionnaire for mapping out young people’s reading habits, carry out their surveys nationally and demonstrate and compare their findings with diagrams on eTwinning.
Interview with local libraries and other partner institutions
December 2015
Top 10 book lists
each country compiles his list of top 10 books based on a survey carried out in their schools among the students, and makes a presentation about them. Presentations are published on Twinspace.
Informal language courses at schools.
February 2016
1st student exchange
During the meeting students introduce each nation’s classical and contemporary literature and recommend books to each other.
Students jointly compile an e-book on presenting all participating countries’ major classical and contemporary literary figures using new ICT tools .
Students take part in competitions on testing their acquired knowledge during language courses.
Teachers observe lessons and take part in peer-teaching sessions exchanging good practices on teaching foreign languages, with a special emphasis on reading skills.
March 2016
Setting up “reading clubs”
Students set up their voluntary “reading clubs” with collaboration of local libraries and other partner institutions.
Selection of common author or reading
Teachers select 5 proposals for common reading (a graded reader in English) - students choose the final one by voting
Students read the book, and process the story and the language of the reading during the extra language classes, using the exercises and lesson plans jointly compiled by teachers during the joint teacher training event.
Students represent the story in their chosen form with the help of ICT tools and also traditional art forms.
Informal language courses at schools.
March 2016
1st Joint teacher training event
Sharing teaching practices
Focus on developing reading and writing skills: common reading strategies that can be taught to ESL/EFL learners; selecting reading materials; intensive and extensive reading skills; types of pre-reading, while reading, and post-reading activities; and ways to assess reading both formally and informally, structuring ESL/EFL writing activities and lessons; recommended outside resources to improve and expand teacher knowledge, methods, and materials of ESL/EFL reading and writing.
Short stories and poetry in the language classroom, creative writing methods.
Teachers compile a “task bank” for the selected reader and make a booklet of “lesson plans”.
Besides training sections:
creating common evaluation tool for assessment of 1st year
April 2016
2nd student exchange
European Reading Fair - presenting the books they have read from the other country - booklet “Our European Bookshelf”
Europe Day (9 May) - Students present their countries’ history and role within the European Union, take part in quizzes on the history and working process of the EU (previously prepared).
Reading competition on the common reading + students present their representations of the story.
Writing workshops- students work in groups and take part in collaborative writing tasks - for example alternative beginning or ending to the story, writing the story from the characters’ personal perspectives, etc.
All the materials created by students are made into an e-book and published.
May 2016
Informal language courses at schools.
Evaluation of students’ progress
Teachers carry out the end-of-term assessment of students’ language development using common assessment tools.
Teachers evaluate first project year with the help of self-reflection, student and parent feedback using quantitative and qualitative assessment tools.
2nd year theme : “Our joint writing experience”
September 2016
Launching 2nd project year
Summing up project findings so far.
Schools organise a project event locally to familiarise people with the project and recruit new participants.
Language input measurement.
2nd transnational meeting
Launching the 2nd project year:
Summing up the project activities so far- checking and rearranging the activities of the 2nd project year.
Creative writing competition rules and activity timeline is established. Responsibilities are distributed.
Common measurement tools are chosen and prepared for input measurement and identifying individual needs and difficulties. Problem solving sessions and case studies if needed.
Lesson observations and discussions, exchange of good practices. Handbook of good practices is updated.
September 2016
European Day of languages
Participating students jointly commemorate the European Day of Languages by completing an interactive quiz made by their peers on Twinspace.
Informal language courses at schools.
26 September
Translation Competition
Relating to the European Day of Languages students take part in a translation competition organized locally and translate a famous poem and/ or a short story from one of their national authors. Competition results and works are published on eTwinning.
Designing common interview questions for authors
Students jointly design a questionnaire for interviewing contemporary national authors using eTwinning..
Inviting and interviewing contemporary authors
Students invite a contemporary author to their school conduct, record and analyze their interviews and present their findings on Twinspace.
October 2016
Giving students practical language training on writing skills
Language trainings focus on development of students’ writing skills: writing Europass CV, informal and formal letters, reviews and articles. Familiarising students with useful websites for practising writing skills.
Visiting local newspaper editorials
Students take part in field trips to their local newspaper editorial and observe the work done there. They conduct interviews with the people working there and map out the possible problems and challenges they face during their everyday work.
Launching our common e-magazine
Students jointly design their common electronic magazine using ICT tools such as Joomag or Magazinefactory. Student groups of mixed nationalities are set up and roles are allocated. Student editors, different topics: literature corner (the different pieces written by students in the course of the creative writing competition, poems, etc), celebrity news, reviews, sport, etc…
Launching creative writing competition
Students take part in a series of creative writing competitions during which they have to produce different pieces of writing of several genres. This series of competitions will last throughout the whole second project year. Results are continuously published on Twinspace.
September 2016 - April 2017
October 2016
3rd student exchange
Students present and compare their findings on contemporary authors and present their biographies and works. They present their findings and experience at local newspaper editorials and present the portfolios.
Students take part in problem solving sessions and creative writing workshops.
Students collaborate on the e-magazine and jointly select input for the common short story.
Teachers observe lessons and take part in peer-teaching sessions exchanging good practices on teaching foreign languages, with a special emphasis on writing skills.
October 2016
Practical workshops at schools
Ss learn how to use a camera to record a film and study computer programmes needed to montage a film.
Informal language courses at schools.
November 2016
Our national theatres
Students carry out research and present their national theatres with the help of ICT tools. Materials are published on Twinspace.
December 2016
Video conference for students
Student exchange good wishes for Christmas and the New Year. They also teach some traditional game or song their partners.
February 2017
Mid-project evaluation
mid-evaluation is carried out among participants and partners using common qualitative and quantitative assessment tools, the results are compared.
March 2017
2nd Joint Teacher Training Event
Coordinators compare their findings of the mid-project evaluation and revise project plan accordingly.
Sharing teaching practices- teaching writing and speaking skills.
Focus on teaching Speaking skills and incorporating Drama techniques in the language classrooms:
Improvisation classroom activities for enriching communication skills, self confidence, spontaneity and risk taking; role play, story creation and dialogue building techniques to develop writing and speaking skills.
Teaching speaking skills with ICT tools, teaching presentation skills and rhetorical techniques.
Micro teaching sessions, lesson observations and feedback sessions.
handbook of good teaching practices is updated.
April 2017
4th Student Exchange
Students’ conference is organised:
- Presenting and asking and answering questions on each national theatre (clarifications)
-finding one common topic of the common short story that will be the basis of the final performance. Students collect national emblems characteristic of all participant countries to include in the story to represent the partnerships.
Students take part part in drama workshops, improvisation tasks, role-play sessions.
April 2017
National writing sessions
each partner works on a draft of a story for a common performance choosing the most significant national features, characters that should be shown, all the Ss consider every nation taking part in the project.
Informal language courses at schools.
World Book Day- 23 April
Each partner institution organises a project day at their school to promote reading. They present the project activities and results so far.
Students select the final short story through voting. Results are published on Twinspace.
May 2017
Evaluation of students’ progress
Teachers carry out the end-of--term assessment of students’ language development using common assessment tools.
Video conference for coordinators
Evaluation findings are discussed, conclusions drawn.
3rd year theme - “Our joint drama experience”
September 2017
Launching 3rd project year
Summing up project findings so far.
Schools organise a project event locally to familiarise people with the project and recruit new participants.
Input language measurements.
3rd transnational project meeting
Summing up the project activities so far- checking and rearranging the activities of the final project year.
Exact dates of the project activities are decided.
Joint writing groups are established. Rules and criteria for the best actor competition are decided on.
Common measurement tools are chosen and prepared for input measurement and identifying individual needs and difficulties. Problem solving sessions and case studies if needed.
Lesson observations and discussions, exchange of good practices.
September, October 2017
Joint writing session
Students work in mixed international groups via the Internet and write scenarios for the commonly chosen short stories.
Results are published on Twinspace.
Informal language courses at schools.
November 2017
5th student exchange
Students jointly work on the final version of the scenario – they divide the 6 act among the participating schools. Participants choose all the best parts of the proposed scenarios and combine them into one common scenario.
Students take part in creative workshops and choose the music and the props for the play.
Students take part in drama workshops and art sessions.
January 2018
Distributing roles
Students choose roles for the final performance.
Informal language courses at schools.
January, February 2018
Practical workshops
How to become a good actor – theatre workshops with professional actors in each partner country.
March 2018
Preparation of costumes and props.
Preparing costumes and rehearsing the final performance in each country.
April 2018
National performances
presenting the act in each country – at schools to teachers and students but also in the local community
April 2018
Best national actor competition
The best national actor competitions are held in partner countries.
Informal language courses at schools.
6th student exchange
Presenting and recording the final performance with international actors
A competition on the best international actor is organised.
Results are published on Twinspace.
The final performance is presented within partner schools and within the local community. It is also made publicly available online.
4th transnational project meeting
Summing up the project. Preparation of the assessment tools for students, parents, teachers and partner institutions. Finalising manual of teaching practices. Designing after project activities.
Dissemination
Project findings and results are published and results and good practices are distributed on local, national and international level using a varied kit of dissemination tools.