Detective Stories to Engage Students in Close Reading with the Use of Mobile Devices Erasmus Project

Project Title

Detective Stories to Engage Students in Close Reading with the Use of Mobile Devices

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

By the time young people in the EU leave compulsory education most of them have regularly made use of computers and the internet for a variety of activities. While the most common activities of young people using mobile phones are writing through text messaging (“texting”) and reading for information search and entertainment purposes,the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results showed that one in five pupils in the European Union have insufficient proficiency in reading. Compared to the 2012 PISA results, the 2015 results show that the share of low achievers has increased to 22.2%.In this regard, this proposal draws on the fact that as mobile phones, tablets, and other connected devices become more prevalent and affordable, wireless technology can dramatically improve learning and bring digital content to students.
By taking into account the above and being in line with the Strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020), the e-Reading Mysteries project aims to reduce the percentage of 15-year olds that are under-skilled in reading thus contributing to the benchmark that by 2020fewer than 15% of 15-year-olds should be under-skilled in reading at a European level. Specifically, the basic aim of the project is to harness the use of mobile devices so that they can be utilized for educational purposes among upper secondary education students (15-18 year-olds) and Enhance the literacy skills of students through the use of mobile devices by actively engaging them in close reading activities. The specific objectives of the project include the following:
•Develop the capacity of teachers working with students (15-18 year-olds) in using digital tools for addressing literacy goals;
•Increase students’ motivation to participate to literacy activities through the development of a series of detective stories with alternate endings;
•Develop an innovative rich media mobile-device-supported interactive environmentto allow students (15-18 year-olds) to create their own detective stories and share them to their peers;
•Provide advice and support to teachers on how to use the e-Reading Mysteries Toolbox and mobile-device-supported interactive environment;
•Use technology in creative ways so to enhance literacy practices of students (15-18 year-olds)
The e-Reading Mysteries proposal warrants a multiperspective approach to deal with the above issues and achieve a robust solution by providing access to interactive multimedia learning elements to promote reading and writing skills to upper secondary students on the one hand; and to provide teacher training opportunities for utilizing a mobile-device-supported interactive environment in the daily teaching practices of upper secondary school teachers.
The participants involved in this project are upper secondary school teachers who are already working in a school and their students (15-18 year-olds) in upper secondary schools. However, other school staff, school leaders, several policy decision makers, researchers, academics, people that work in after-school programs and other relevant stakeholders will be reached and informed about the innovative educational prospects on enhancing literacy of the e-Reading Mysteries project.

During the implementation of the project the following activities will take place:
IO1 e-reading Mysteries Teacher’s Toolbox. It will include four Modules on how to teach and write detective stories using close reading activities.
IO2 e-Reading Mysteries mobile-device-supported interactive environment and teacher training. The mobile environment will be developed by taking use of the powerful qualities offered by software for web-based environments that will allow the creation of detective stories that can be adapted to various characters and plots. Also, teachers will be trained in order to benefit from the educational use of the environment to their teaching practices.
IO3: e-Reading Mysteries Pilot Programme Implementations. Upper secondary schools will conduct pilot implementations with students in order to engage them in interactive writing activities.
IO4: e-Reading Mysteries Teacher Training MOOC: Upper secondary school teachers and other stakeholders will have the opportunity to access a free MOOC on how to use the e-Reading Mysteries resources in the development of educational content.

The project will be beneficial for upper secondary school teachers and students, as it is expected that at least 2000 upper secondary teachers in all XXX partner countries will directly and indirectly be reached by building their capacity on the use of innovative ICT learning tools in literacy education and/or be informed and trained on how to use the e-Reading Mysteries mobile-device-supported interactive environment to their daily teaching practices.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 150647 Eur

Project Coordinator

Jugendförderverein Parchim/Lübz e.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

• INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DE CASTELO BRANCO
• The Rural Hub CLG
• CENTRE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY LTD-CARDET
• INNOVADE LI LTD
• JAITEK TECNOLOGÍA Y FORMACIÓN SL