Read to succeed Erasmus Project

Project Title

Read to succeed

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

The aim of our project “Read to succeed” was to show the children and teachers that reading is not only the key to success and for future life but also experience joy and pleasure through reading and books.
With this project, which involved children aged 6-12 years and their teachers, (preschool and primary school) four schools from Finland, Germany, Slovenia and the Czech Republic exchanged experiences through international cooperation. We traded experiences through benchmarking and co-teaching in our partner schools during our project meetings.
We found models that can improve on the pupils’ reading ability. At the same time we developed the teachers’ pedagogical competence regarding reading and multi literacy.

The minimal number of reading projects was 16 but all participants did more projects than required.

During the reading projects we achieved all of our primary and secondary goals and objectives in which:

We strengthened the teachers’ pedagogical competence regarding reading through international interaction,
developed the schools’ strategies regarding reading ability and multi literacy and developed the pupils’ reading ability and reading comprehension,
stimulated curiosity for reading and created a positive reading environment in schools.developed methods that help weak readers,
supported the pupils’ skills in interpretation, production and evaluation of texts,
developed critical thinking regarding different types of texts,
developed an ethical and reflecting reading ability in a world of cultural diversity,
supported schools working with reading and the difference between the home language and native language of the pupils and stimulated reading with technical devices.

Involved were
< 300 pupils + 46 in preschool (aged 6) and 19 teachers in Finland < 360 pupils (start at the age of 6) and 38 teachers in Germany < 290 pupils (+100 in preschool) and 30 teachers in Slovenia < 450 pupils (age 6 to 12) and 25 teachers in the Czech Republic. We also included parents, the local community, local media and other educational institutions in the project. In Finland we had a workshop at the Faculty of Education and Wellfare Studies in Vaasa, in the Czech Republic we had a workshop at University of Palacky in the Paedagogical Faculty. In Slovenia we worked with the National Education Institute Slovenia. ACTIVITIES As soon as the project got approved we had our first skype meeting where all the important steps were dicussed and decided. Each partner created a noticeboard and organized a competition in their school to design a project logo. The Slovenian partner started our website: http://rts.splet.arnes.si/ We decided against a Facebook profile due to the young age of some of our pupils. The first meeting took part at the end of September in Finland. We voted for the winning logo, did lots of benchmarking and took part in the following workshops: Preschool (pupils aged 6) and reading Reading and pupils with special needs- methods for testing Multi-literacy (at the University). We found out about the library bus. The second meeting was in Germany. We did lots of benchmarking, joined a book reading with a famous author and took part in the following workshops: Reading skills and reading comprehension (library) Reading and pupils with special needs – how to work with immigrants Reading and pupils with different home languages The third meeting was in Czech Republic. Additionally to benchmarking we visited the school vernissage (Me and my book) and participated in the following workshops: Reading skills and reading comprehension (library) Curiosity for reading – reading culture – grown-ups as role models (theatre) The challenge of reading among boys and girls (University) and the workshop with a Czech literature teacher. In fourth meeting in Slovenia we did more benchmarking, visited a mobile planetarium at school and took part in the final ceremony of the national reading project and had a meeting with an illustrator and had the following workshops: Cooperation with outside stake holders IT equipment and the school library´s mission Reading and teacher competence In every country the school system was presented, the local authorities and mayors supported the meetings and a local cultural program was organized in every meeting. In the last meeting we discussed how all the goals were achieved and wrote the final report. Results,impact and long-term benefits We created a webpage, a multilingual dictionary and came up with a template for a reading strategy which can be used and adjusted in any school world wide and is a solid foundation for further developement. Pupils were able to actively participate and contribute to the project.This had a positive effect on their reading abilities.The project brought new knowledge and understanding,which can be used in the development of the schools curriculum.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 75950 Eur

Project Coordinator

Norra Korsholms Skola & Country: FI

Project Partners

• Osnovna sola Smarjeta
• Zakladni skola Hranice,Tr. 1. maje prispevkova organizace
• Grundschule am Amalienhof