And … action! Erasmus Project

Project Title

And … action!

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

Five European primary schools from Greece, Germany, Iceland, Northern Ireland and Portugal joined in the project “And …action!”. The projects’ focus was on developing ICT and media literacy skills through creating and exchanging videos on various topics, using the genre “film” as a platform for intercultural dialogue and to discuss and appreciate the topic of “Diversity” in our European community. In student exchanges the children and their teachers developed their foreign language and intercultural skills. The projects’ approach was highly inclusive as there were children with special educational needs and those facing obstacles otherwise in all classes. The children in the partner countries connected through the medium “film” and the technical possibilities motivated them to be creative, share information about themselves, their views and interests, and their home town or city, and in this use their English language skills.
Throughout the two years of the project (with an extension of 7 months due to Covid19) the classes produced videos: in the first year documentaries about their schools and home town/city, and a film about a flashmob dance that was danced in all schools, filmed in each and then edited as a final video for the whole project group. News shows from all schools, updating the partners on current local events, were exchanged twice in the first 18 months. The second year of the project was dedicated to the making of animated short films on the topic of “Diversity” with a competition and short film festival which unfortunately had to be shortened because of Covid19. Every 6 months the group of teachers met, in order to further plan, specify, and evaluate the project activities. These meetings also included workshops designed to learn to work with the necessary tools and apps for the respective project activities. The workshops were held by local experts and teachers from the project group who had special expertise in the particular field. During the planning and evaluation sessions, teaching methods were discussed and then put into practice in each school, the focus being on group work and peer teaching, fostering social and collaborative skills. Teaching resources like notes for teachers for carrying out the main project activities, and checklists and self assessment sheets for children were designed during the meetings.
Student communication and mobilities were an important part of the project. Every class involved had a partner class they communicated with and many of the classes were able to meet in person during a student exchange. Throughout, the groups involved in the exchanges were whole classes, aged 11-13. This aspect was important to us because in a project focussing on inclusion, everybody must have the chance to participate in all activities. So, for children with special needs, special provisions were made, financially or by way of special personal support. During the mobilities the groups visited their partner classes and stayed there in host families, experiencing the hospitality of their friends, getting to know their country and – above all – communicating in English. They documented these exchanges in photos and films and shared the documentation – together with all other project results – on our website: https://andaction2018.wixsite.com/website/
We are proud to have reached our project objectives, above all the inclusion of children facing disadvantages, and the development of ICT/media literacy skills, in spite of the situation due to Covid19. All student exchanges could take place, and although the final teachers’ meeting could not be held, we managed to discuss the relevant details for the final project steps in a series of online conferences. The big film festival event that was planned in all schools could not take place, but the final voting was carried out with the help of online tools and the results communicated to all.
The benefits for all are obvious: Teachers and students alike have made friends in other European countries and many of these friendships are bound to last. They can make use of tools and apps in order to film and edit a variety of types of videos, can communicate through the internet with others and have improved their English noticeably. They have gathered an understanding of how people in Europe can work together and of the opportunities Europe has to offer.

Project Website

https://andaction2018.wixsite.com/website

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 148536,94 Eur

Project Coordinator

Charlotte-Salomon-Grundschule & Country: DE

Project Partners

• 3rd Primary School of Agios Nikolaos Crete
• Carr’s Glen Primary School
• Brekkubæjarskóli
• Agrupamento de Escolas de Montenegro