C.L.I.L – Creativity, Learning, Inspiration and Language Erasmus Project

Project Title

C.L.I.L – Creativity, Learning, Inspiration and Language

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 : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Pedagogy and didactics; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The name of the project is “C.L.I.L. – Creativity, Learning, Inspiration and Language”.

This project was aimed to keep in touch teachers and children from different European countries in order to motivate them to learn foreign languages, to improve their ICT skills, to create CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) teaching materials focused on craft for children in a European perspective, experimented them in the classroom and verify their applicability in different contexts. The project was designed to bring the idea of European community into our classrooms, to support the learning in the curriculum and develop the communication skills of our children through innovative language learning. The actual CLIL method was introduced to schools, which had had no prior experience. Schools with experience shared their know-how among the group.

Children and teachers came from different parts of Europe: Finland, Spain, Czech Republic, Latvia and Poland. There were many different types of schools within the partnership (public, private, big and small) from various economic and social backgrounds as well as different experience with European projects. These differences brought us a rich diversity of ideas.

We knew that a CLIL lesson is not simply a language lesson, so we wanted to work together to find the proper way to exploit content-based materials for language, to provide a platform for the exchange of opinions and experiences concerning the interface between content and language in education. Practical subject such as craft was well suited subject and a good content for CLIL because it had that kind of theme which were simple to separate to be taught as a cross curricular theme and open to formal, non-formal and informal learning. Using foreign language in craft was able to easily combine into the concrete working.

We wanted like to make craft, design in English and then introduce CLIL in primary school curricula in order to improve qualitative and quantitative knowledge of English. The main activities were ceramics, recycled craft, cooking, technology craft and threads. We also wanted to enable pupils to be creative and inventive in designing. So through this project the pupils benefited from both language skills and motivation as well as increasing their practical skills.

To reach our goals we created database of CLIL-materials. Teachers created a database of materials which they used during their lessons. They developed new pedagogical approaches focusing on innovative language learning, especially, on CLIL. All the materials and the profiles of are available free on the website of project (https://sites.google.com/site/clilcraft2017). Furthermore, the database, magazines and all other materials created for the project are accessible there.To reach excellent quality of materials we organized seminars during the teachers meeting events in each school.

During project organized several video conferences. Students and teachers met on Skype to talk about different topics and taught each other. Both students and teachers were motivated to communicate with their new partner peers. Both students and teachers learnt how to use devices for making videos and how to use tools and software for creating and modifying. These were also focused onto increase self-confidence to use foreign language.

One part of our project was mascot travelling. By this simple activity we introduced to the youngest pupils advantages of the international projects the way they understand. At the end of project an Erasmus day was organized to show project to other students, teachers, parents, local community and press or other media. To remember and celebrate our cooperation we created a Calendar 2020 of results and products of the project.

The main result of our project was developing of teaching and changing of practices in teaching and learning by getting new viewpoint to teaching. On the other hand the pupils were encouraged to be creative and inventive in designing. The tangible results of our project are developed products, such as CLIL lessonplans and a website with a database.

What makes this project so valuable is the fact that it helped us all evaluate the way we are teaching, and the way our pupils are learning. We are sure that by bringing together the good practices in each of the schools, and by discovering new methodologies there is an important change that will last well beyond the deadline of the project. The partner schools will carry on using CLIL-method within their curricula and hopefully they will continue taking part in Erasmus projects in the future, with students and teachershaving more and more experienced in organizing and taking part in them.

Meeting and working together will bring out the aspects all European have in common and will blur the borders and differences that seem greater when we have not met.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 128865 Eur

Project Coordinator

Järvikylän koulu & Country: FI

Project Partners

• Saldus pamatskola
• ZUBIALDELHI
• Zakladni skola a Materska skola Klic s.r.o.
• Zespol Szkolno-Przedszkolny Nr 1 w Lezajsku