Reading in the Digital Era Erasmus Project

Project Title

Reading in the Digital Era

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: Creativity and culture; Inclusion – equity; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The 22-month long (September 2019-July 2021) Erasmus+ project “Reading in the Digital Era” is a result of the cooperation between Képés Géza Általános Iskola (Hungary) and IES Clavero Fernández de Córdoba (Spain).

The main objectives of the project include improving the students’ linguistic competence, promoting a comprehensive approach to language teaching and learning, as English will be the vehicular language of the project and fostering reading as an enjoyable free time activity; thus, supporting the individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and competences. In addition, the inclusion of sensorially impaired students as well as of the students at risk of social exclusion, whose participation is prioritised, is of great concern in this project. In this view, the teachers’ role is deemed key. Therefore, other aims of the project are improving the teaching skills and quality by better delivering oral presentations and mastering dealing with dyslexia. Last but not least, increasing the students’ awareness of belonging to the European Union and of the role its policies play in their lives is an important goal in this project, too.

Although the project is directed mainly to school students aged 13-14, teachers are essential participants, too. The students participate in the activities designed and guided by the teachers during regular school hours. However, only 12 objectively selected students can take part in the mobility. The teachers, in turn, act as organisers, leaders, mediators and evaluators. They also disseminate the results of the mobility. In addition, they are main actors of two transnational formation meetings.

During the project’s first stage, students will read traditional national stories or tales, translate them to English and forward the translated, as well as originally produced, texts to the partner school, who will work on the these tales. In the second part of the project, the previously chosen by the students tale will be adapted to be performed on the stage. Different activities related to the theatre will also be researched. Meanwhile, in the transnational meetings, the teachers will teach each other what they master best: how to deliver oral presentations and how to deal with dyslexia, which will help to acquire the objectives of the project.

The methodology used throughout the project is communicative, comprehensive, competential and task-based. The activities focus on the active methodologies based on learning to know (acquiring basic competences), learning to do (problem solving, mainly in teams and in different contexts), learning to live (inclusively, with different ones) and learning to be (individual’s integrated development in the globalised world).

The expected results are both tangible and non-tangible. Among the first ones, there is a storybook composed of the tales translated by the students into English, a product of the first mobility with the students, as well as a recorded audioplay and a theatre performance, which are produced after the second mobility with students. Among the non-tangible results, better teaching quality thanks to new mastered skills, improved communicative competence in English, a better social inclusion and a greater awareness of the role of the European Union in people’s lives will be found. Promoting reading will improve the teenagers’ study techniques and that the boosted reading comprehension will not only have a positive impact on their school grades, but will also create an alternative for spending the teenagers’ free time.

The project is expected to have a deep impact on both schools as it is our first European project. Therefore, our students’ psychological development will be influenced by opening their minds, changing the perception of their environment, their current lifestyle and widening the horizons for future possibilities. The teachers will also benefit from other teachers’ methods and teaching experiences, which will definitely enrich their approaches and thus have an impact on the teaching results in the longer term. Thanks to this opportunity, we also expect a great interest towards our common further initiatives within the European cooperation, which will help us grow and improve as educational communities.

In the long term, the improvement of communicative competence in English will probably be seen only after some time. It will influence positively both students, whose better linguistic skills will make them more employable in the future, and the participating teachers, whose increased teaching quality will benefit the students in the future, too. In addition, targeting social inclusion will continue to be a sustainable and differentiating factor for both schools.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 42852 Eur

Project Coordinator

IES CLAVERO FERNÁNDEZ DE CÓRDOBA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Képes Géza Általános Iskola