Read with us Erasmus Project

Project Title

Read with us

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The basis of the partnership of 5 high schools from Poland, Germany, Sweden, Austria and Hungary was practical knowledge and active learning in order to broaden the mind, acquire new skills, gain essential experience and form expected social and civic attitudes based on intercultural dialogue.
Classroom learning from textbooks was replaced by activities on the local and European level. In the name of multilingualism, project participants worked in German and English. The project lasted 3 years and was carried out on 2 levels.
The aim of students’ projects (level 1) was to make participants aware of the value of European cultural heritage and its role in building intercultural dialogue. By overcoming cultural and social differences, students and teachers co-operated in building an intercultural dialogue on eTwinning platform and it concerned the contemporary man’s hierarchy of values (1), the surrounding world (2), the relationship between tradition and modernity (3) as well as European cultural heritage in the context of the homeland and other civilizations (4). These discussions were based on the project canon of 16 books and other freely chosen literary works. The participants also talked about their favourite books, authors and book characters. They encouraged each other to read, collected quotes from literary works and sentences about books, they wrote a novel together, reflected on what reading books could give, what their future was and whether that form of communication would survive. They also discussed the effectiveness of different activities that encourage reading (5).
This dialogue took the form of active and practical action during 5 international meetings. Students’ exchange and teacher training were held simultaneously at a particular school, and some agenda items were shared. In the intercultural week-long classes, students and teachers studied and worked on the project together. For better mutual understanding, it was essential to learn about the cultural heritage of a given region. The climax of each of the 4 thematic projects was a reading campaign prepared during the international meeting beginning the particular subproject. In accordance with synergy we prepared each campaign jointly with teachers and students of partner schools and with the support of institutions which deal with project problems on daily basis. With our campaigns which each school carried out under the guidance of trained teachers in school and local communities, we joined such initiatives as: ‘International School Library Month’ and ‘World Book and Copyright Day’. The lesson plans based on project canon books and other materials used in the campaign were collected in a guidebook “Reading Is Worth Your While – Let Me Convince You”. Through the 5th subproject we showed that a book was a good tool not only for preserving and shaping the cultural heritage, but also for building intercultural dialogue. Articles and comments in TwinSpace became the basis for 2 consecutive editions of the international school magazine “Miteinander”, established in a Comenius project 2013-2015.
Working out efficient strategies and effective techniques of work with students, leading to the development of intercultural competences (work and communication standards in the international team and tools for building intercultural dialogue), as well as increasing the number of teachers who
understand the need for such educational activities and have some experience in this area- was a paramount aim of the project (level 2). As a part of implementing intercultural dialogue in didactic and educational programs and as a part of improving the methods of teaching intercultural competences, the Curriculum of Intercultural Dialogue was developed. It is an extended and supplemented version of the Intercultural Competences Curriculum developed in the Erasmus+ project 2016-2018. It contains guidelines for teachers who would like to prepare students both for the international job market and for the peaceful co-existence of different cultures. As carrying out international interdisciplinary projects and teaching in multicultural groups requires professional staff, huge emphasis was put on expanding a professional profile of the participating teachers.
The developed educational materials will be used for didactic and educational purposes and made available to other interested users. An essential element of the project was dissemination of the idea of practical intercultural education based on literary works.
Acquired knowledge and developed awareness of belonging to one European space, the value of cultural heritage, including literature and the richness of cultural diversity, complemented by experience and acquired intercultural competences will help to better understand Europe and create
the bases for building intercultural dialogue.

Project Website

https://twinspace.etwinning.net/70816/home

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 137665 Eur

Project Coordinator

VIII Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Stanislawa Wyspianskiego & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Bundesgymnasium und Bundesrealgymnasium Kufstein
• Nemet Nemzetisegi Gimnazium es Kollegium
• Halepaghen-Schule Buxtehude
• Katedralskolan