History, literature and culture in comparison – Norway and Germany Erasmus Project

Project Title

History, literature and culture in comparison – Norway and Germany

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: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

Our project “Similarities and Differences in Norwegian and German literature” involves two schools, Ringsaker Videregaende Scole and Erftgymnasium Bergheim, and has already started as an email project. Since the Norwegian students are currently discussing German fairy tales in their German lessons, we decided to deal with the genre fairy tales first. And because almost all of the German students are familiar with the fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, but did not know anything about Norwegian fairy tales, it was a good starting point to get to know more about Norwegian authors like Alf Proysen or Asbjörnsen/Moe and then to exchange information and share reading experiences concerning Norwegian and German fairy tales via email. Because our students were highly motivated right from the start – and still are – we decided to continue the project and deal with series in part II as well as apply for an erasmus+ programme (adding the topic classic and contemporary Norwegian and German literature for part III).
One of the main goals of our project is to arouse our students´ interest in the literature of our partnership country and give them an insight into selected historical developments and current affairs by choosing suitable literary texts. At the same time we want our students to have a closer look at chosen literary examples from their own country and learn more about how they are perceived in another European country. Our project languages are English (used as a lingua franca) and German (taught as a foreign language in Norway) and will be equally used. It is one of our central objectives to use these languages in a practical and authentic context. Moreover, we would like to give our students the opportunity to be creative (at the moment the German students are preparing while-watching tasks for the German series Deutschland ´83 for their Norwegian partners, while the Norwegian students are going to do the same thing for their partners for a Norwegian production). Of course, the aspect of forming friendships is also very important for us.
The 23 Norwegian students attend the German lessons given by Mrs. Austvik and are 15 to 17 years old. The currently 15 German project participants all attend year 10 at the moment and have volunteered to take part in this “school club”. The project idea was presented to the whole year 10 (ca. 150 students) and students will still be allowed to join the project at a later stage. After one year, roughly after the second AUL, the project idea as well as the first results will be presented in year 10 and new groups will be formed. The project idea will remain the same, but small adjustments regarding the chosen main focuses (e.g. films instead of series) or slight changes concerning our methodoligy might be made.
In part I our students have already dealt with fairy tales, and for example presented their favourite German fairy tale, read a fairy tale written by Asbjörnsen/Moe and exchanged emails concerning their similarities and differences. In the second part, we are now dealing with the pilot episodes of the German series Deutschland ´83 and the Norwegian series Lykke Land, both dealing with important historical periods in our two countries (the Cold War and living in the FRG vs. the GDR one the one Hand and the discovery of oil fields in Norway in the 1960s and how it shaped the Country on the other hand). After that we are going to extend the spectrum and our pupils will present their favourite German or Norwegian series respectively. The main focus in part III will be put on classic literature (e.g. Ibsen vs. Goethe) and contemporary literature (e.g. Nesbö or Knausgard vs. Stanisic or Kling) or maybe song lyrics in the second year of our project.
We would like to use the AULs to create a homepage with tips for Norwegian and German fairy tales, series and books (which will be updated in the course of the project; blog entries made during the AULs could also be added). Field trips will help to gain a deeper insights into the topics we are going to deal with (e.g.to the Pröysenhuset in Ringsaker or the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn). Among other things, we are planning to organise a literature fair during our second AUL in Bergheim, where we will attempt to give an overview of contemporary Norwegian and German literature and present various passages from interesting novels.
In the long run, we hope to deepen our cooperation by carrying out further projects. Former projects our schools did with other schools, have shown us how beneficial they are for everyone involved and that they lead to more open-mindedness. Since our idea is a “universal” one, it can easily be transferred to other countries/regions (at least most parts of it). The two years´ duration of our project would allow us to establish a deeper bonding of our schools as well as allow us to make little adjustments and improvements where necessary and therefore guarantee a higher quality of the envisaged outpu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 58340 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ringsaker videregående skole & Country: NO

Project Partners

• Erftgymnasium – Europaschule der Kreisstadt Bergheim –