Encouraging the use of storytelling techniques in the curriculum. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Encouraging the use of storytelling techniques in the curriculum.

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

In light of the European Year of Cultural Heritage2018 framework, we whish to valuably contributeby working with chidren aged from 05 to 08 in order to raise their awareness and encourage thepromotion of the cultural heritage of Europe.
The Stories, Fairytales and Legends all over Europe project gives the oportunity to 5 schools from 5different EU Countries (Latvia, Turkey Romania, Spain, Italy) to get in touch and work together.The project is developed based on a number of common needs among all partners. Morespecifically, reducing students’ tendency to be introverted and withdrawn, to display antisocial andaggressive behaviors is a central common need. Some more needs are to cultivate freedom ofthought and cultural awareness and knowledge in order to equip the pupils with the necessary skillsto sucessfully integrate in a complex multicultural society. Finally, a main goal is to render the schoolcurriculum wider and internationalised and inspire pupils and teachers to seek ongoing self-development.
The main aim is to provide our pupils with all the benefits of the European cultural heritage. This willfunction as a means of fascinating the children in order to motivate them to improve their schoolachievement. By manipulating stories as a core material, pupils’ interest in the topic of the project willbe safely raised so that they will be induced to willingly contribute to the programme. Pupils owninnate love of myths, fairy tales and stories. Stories are a strong means of teaching about life ingeneral, the self and others. Storytelling is a teaching tool which helps children develop theirimagination, empathy, creativity, respect, acceptance, tolerance, appreciation for diverse culturesand induce a positive mentality and attitude among all project participants indepndently of theirnational, racial and religious particularities.
Objectives:
– to raise awareness regarding the shared features and differences among the 5 European cultures
– to develop creativity and literacy skills of the pupils coming from 5 different EU schools
– to increase pupils’ willingness to express their feelings and thoughts
– to encourage the use of the storytelling technique throughout the curriculum
Τhe following activities following Fleming’s VARK model are designed in such a way as to address alllearning styles of pupils and fulfill the objectives of the project:
– visual learners: a logo, digital stories, questionnaires, Erasmus+ corners, wrist bands andbookmarks
– oral learners: group discussions, email exchanges, web-chat on a Facebook page or an eTwinningPlatform.
– reading or writing learners: PowerPoint presentations, magazine stories, Puppet plays scripts,dictionary and flyers.
– kinesthetic learners: construction of materials from the “Stories Arts and Crafts” workshops andcarnival creations.
These activities will iduce successfull learning to the pupils, especially those of a migrantbackground. Also the cooperation between schools and families, schools and external stakeholderswill be promoted through the planned projec activiites.
The directly involved target group consists of 125 teachers who can practically acknowledge the importance of adjusting teaching materials to match the different learning styles of their pupils. Theindirectly involved target groups consist of the pupils and their families as well as the localcommunities of the partners.
The targeted results to be yielded are:
-questionnaires
-Erasmus+ corners
-the logo of the current project
-presentations of the cities, countries and schools involved in this project
-presentations of national myths, legends, stories and fairy tales
-five digital stories
-one exhibition to display and promote all materials created in the “Stories Arts and Crafts”workshops
-five scripts suitable for five Puppet plays
-one thematic carnival (by using characters from myths, stories, fairytales, etc.)
-a dictionary
-two magazines
-ten lesson plans
-three webpages of the current project
-promotional materials: wrist bands, flyers and bookmarks
-the project’s e-brochure
-the DVD of the project
The activities are planned so as to promote social coherence by developing creativity, literacy skills,innovation, ICT skills, intercultural skills, social cultural competences, communal spirit, andcompetence of learning.
The outcomes of this partnership proposal is expected to reflect the learning experiences of theparticipants. A main objective of the project is to motivate other educationalists and people, who areinterested in holding events based on the same topic, to use the produced materials.Our school’s international cooperation will result in expanding our school’s institutional developmentplan.
The school curricula will acquire international features as the teaching tools and materials createdduring the partnership programme will continue to be used and integrated in our schools curricula.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 140250 Eur

Project Coordinator

Upesleju pamatskola & Country: LV

Project Partners

• Scoala Gimnaziala Nicolae Iorga
• Scuola dell’infanzia paritaria L’Albero Azzurro
• Colegio Cooperativa Lagomar
• MustafaKemal Ilkokulu