Integrated Literacy in Action Erasmus Project

Project Title

Integrated Literacy in Action

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

Project Summary

Based on contemporary researches (Jacobs 1989; Lipson, et al. 1993; Cromwell 1989), European projects and surveys addressing the literacy issues (EU HGHGL, 2012, PISA 2018, PIRLS 2016, ADORE 2009, Eurydice 2011; EU HLGEL, 2012) as well as teachers’ own records of successful linking subject areas, all project partners agreed on urgent need to tackle this issue when deciding to initiate Erasmus+ Integrated Literacy in Action project. For the last decade teachers and students have been faced with radical changes in the educational processes. The “explosion” of knowledge, fragmented teaching schedules, concerns about curriculum relevancy, and a lack of connections and relationships among disciplines have all been cited as reasons for a move towards an integration of knowledge. Young people’s ability to make connections, to solve problems by looking at them through multiple perspectives, and to incorporate information from different fields, will be an essential prerequisite for their success in the future. An enduring argument for integration is that it represents a way to avoid the fragmented and irrelevant acquisition of isolated facts thus transforming knowledge into personal useful tools for learning new information and finally to achieve comprehensive literacy skills. One of the key project objectives is to open the possibilities for enhancement of student’s ability to see skills multiple times. Instead of teaching comprehension strategies in just one subject, teaching those strategies across multiple disciplines will give students an opportunity to see and implement them more often. Making connections within different areas of study by cutting across subject-matter lines and emphasizing unifying concepts, integration will focus on making connections for students, allowing them to engage in relevant, meaningful activities that can be connected to real life. Ultimately, this will create students’ higher level of understanding and retention of information and subsequently lead to the improvement of their literacy competences and increase of their intrinsic motivation. To address teachers’ most frequently asked questions, the project expert-teachers will, during the exchange of good practice and LTTA activities, turn toward integrated curriculum that is situated in a real-life context. In process of creating challenging, fun and meaningful tasks that help students connect to information, the participating teachers will be presented with the opportunity to learn about various areas of interest, exactly where their expertise is little or modest. Teachers, as well as students, will seize the opportunity to grow, reflect and be exposed to the richness that different perspectives offer, finally leading to the reinforcement of their teaching role and profession. During its life time, the project will include 32 students and 3 teachers per mobility (4). Many other participants (school staff, management, principles, parents, educational stakeholders etc.) will be included in various supporting activities and dissemination so that project can accomplish its goals and purposes.Our experience, culture and society have shaped our minds, and this cannot be disconnected from the learning environment. The cross-curricular instruction of integrated curriculum will encourage students to continue to make these relevant connections. The integrated curriculum approach is an ideal environment for valuable instructional methodology of cooperative learning and the concept of interdisciplinary classroom. While working together as a team, students will solve problems, construct knowledge, make connections within the existing curricula, dissolve the boundaries among the disciplines and finally become more aware of content area connections. Such learning environment will support academic and social needs and foster stronger student/teacher relationships. Tangible results of the project activities will be presented within The Case Study containing LTTA activities and mutual Integrated curriculum as the results of Expert-Teachers Open Class encompassing 4 subject areas: Media, Finance, Science and Mathematics. Intangible results will be reflected in the change of social and educational ethos whenever the benefits of integration teachings come into the focus of the educational policy decision makers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 129678 Eur

Project Coordinator

X. gimnazija Ivan Supek & Country: HR

Project Partners

• Gymnazium Pavla Jozefa Safarika – Pavol Jozef Safarik Gimnazium
• II GIMNAZIJA
• IES ERAS DE RENUEVA