Dressed to CLIL Erasmus Project

Project Title

Dressed to CLIL

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

How can we go a step further with the implementation of CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) in our Primary or comprehensive schools, place more emphasis on its cultural component (CLIL has 4 Cs: Content, Communication, Cognition and Culture) and allow our students and teachers to further develop their key competences in authentic environments? These are the common questions 5 schools from the Netherlands (leading country), Spain, Slovenia, Italy and Latvia want to address during this project. “Dressed to CLIL” is a play of words which means, that in our particular case, we are up for using CLIL.

Throughout this international experience, we will have a joint staff training event at the very outset of the project where participants will share their areas of expertise: use of the international curriculum and CLIL to teach different curriculum subjects e.g. Maths, Science, etc. (Netherlands), use of hard CLIL (teaching a subject using an additional language, it’s a content-based approach) when teaching Science and integration of ICT in all classes (Spain), use of ICT to approach mixed-ability classes and use of soft CLIL (teaching foreign languages using topics from different subjects) within their English lessons (Slovenia), use of CLIL to teach Technology & Science (Italy) and use of hard CLIL to teach Science & Social Studies as well as soft CLIL to reinforce the vocab they use in Science within their English classes (Latvia). On top of that, there will be trainers who will help teachers approach CLIL from wider angles and increase their awareness when it comes to designing CLIL didactic units.

What is more, this project will include pupil mobilities (one to each of the participating countries) during which pupils will be part of the working and design process of the didactic units, as there will be workshops especially aimed at that goal. Furthermore, during these mobilities, we will implement some of the materials we have created for those CLIL didactic units with students from the 5 cultures so we will witness how certain cultural topics work with pupils from different countries.

Apart from the activities which require funding, there will be many other activities which will be carried out via online on eTwinning where children will be at the heart of the learning process. These activities include getting to know each other through vokis (interactive avatars), Christmas cards exchange, and so on.

Therefore, the 3 main goals of this project can be summarised as follows:

– To create 2 CLIL didactic units which revolve around the development of key competences and which emphasise the cultural aspect of CLIL.
– To allow teachers’ and students’ development of key competences with an emphasis on foreign languages in authentic environments through an actual European CLIL school network we will set up in order to allow our children and teachers to work together at an international level.
– To upgrade an existing CLIL course including different European angles through which CLIL is approached in different countries around Europe. This CLIL course will take place in Slovenia and will be advertised as a KA1 opportunity.

Thus, we are expecting the following results:
– boost of teachers’ quality of teaching practice to use CLIL which can be seen in their lesson plans.
– enhancement of all participants’ linguistic skills in the English language which can be seen through regular tests (pupils) or in the classes and in professional communication with fellow international colleagues (teachers).
– Students’ use of key competences for cooperative activities with their European peers.
– 2 CLIL didactic units.
– An upgraded one-week CLIL course with different European perspectives.

As for the profile of the participants, we have students and teachers who have already experienced Erasmus+ projects (most of the schools) but others like the Spanish school which are new in this world but which have lots of experience on eTwinning and whose project co-ordinator, has led 4 Erasmus+ projects in his previous school. It is worth noting that the Slovenian leader has worked for the Educational Authorities from that country since she was part of the team who designed the existing Slovenian CLIL curriculum. As for the leading school, they have plenty of experience leading KA1 projects but this will be their first time ever coordinating an Erasmus+ KA229 project. The Italian and the Latvian schools also have significant experience CLILing and in Erasmus+ and fantastic teams which will help this project become a big international success.

Prior to bringing this summary to an end, it is worth highlighting that the long-term benefits of this project will be an excellent opportunity for the teachers for their professional development. As for the pupils, it will be a unique experience for them to have first-hand experience in international exchanges which will stand the test of time in their memories.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 162435 Eur

Project Coordinator

pcb de Ontmoeting & Country: NL

Project Partners

• Istituto 3 Comprensivo Nocera Inferiore
• CEIP NTRA. SRA. DE LA FUENSANTA
• Osnovna sola Dobje
• Rigas 34 vidusskola