Strip to Identity Erasmus Project

Project Title

Strip to Identity

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

STRIP TO IDENTITY: Project summary

1. Context and background

Together with our 7 partners, we created a comic book collection of 8 picaresque or folk-story-based narrative stories in search of our own identity. In our 3-year project, our pupils read stories set in their own regional and national environment and eventually turned them into a comic book version in English. Finally, we presented our comic books in a self-made comic book dispenser and inaugurated it at the Parlamentarium in Brussels!

In our project, we also used each other’s expertise to improve our professional teaching knowledge of the lexicon learning process, enabling us to better identify barriers to reading comprehension and to develop teaching practices to overcome these obstacles. Therefore, we tested a number of approaches adapted to different learning profiles such as age, socio-economic background or specific learning needs, within diverse learning contexts, including learning in our native languages as well as in a foreign language. We used existing expertise from previous projects or didactics, aiming at a unique cooperation between pupils, teachers and school management on the one hand but also of remedial teachers, special needs teachers and education authorities.

2. Goal

The didactic objectives have been manifold, e.g. stressing on the importance of basic skills of reading, stimulating the pleasure of reading, learning how to read and comprehend in a structured way, learning how to reflect on and summarise a text, first in the mother tongue, later in a non-native language but also learning about their own identity, cultural background and of course cross-cultural learning and discovering the core of a common European identity. Thanks to Erasmus+ we have also been able to offer virtual as well as real mobilities to underprivileged individuals who would never have had the possibility to learn on an international scale due to financial, physical and/or social impediments. Our KA2 project has also proved to help pupils (e.g. the individual mobility pupils) to raise their self-confidence and motivation to go on studying.

3. Number of participants

In total approximately 250 pupils and staff members (teachers, supporting pedagogical staff and headmasters) were in this project’s front row. Needless to say that the rest of the school populations in 8 countries together with numerous peers, parents, friends, neighbours etc. linked to the school will see and feel the immediate effect of our project activities. Approximately 800 people were involved in some way, including 250 people actively travelling on the many project meetings, joint-staff training and individual learning and teaching mobilities.

4. Activity description, method and outcomes

Starting in September 2014, we first organised a transnational project meeting to show all teachers involved in the comic book project how to use the comic book software. Using a web survey we shared each other’s views on how to assess project work and soft skills like social skills, enthusiasm, eagerness to learn, the ability to reflect, question and put things into perspective, group dynamics and cooperation skills, democratic and political awareness, life-long learning awareness next to intercultural experience and career options. During the first year, all partners wrote their story in their native languages and turned them into a first comic book draft.

In the second project year, pupils and teachers translated their comic book, written in their native or traditional languages, into English and started making supporting pedagogical files to explain crucial social, religious, political, historical and other information in order to fully understand and grasp the content of the comic book.

In the third year, we gave room to creativity to those partners who were inspired to write their own comic book from scratch, with new ideas, new approaches and even a personal design. Our external partners from China and Taiwan did so! Near the end of the project, the comic book collection was compiled, containing 8 comic books from each partner school and 2 from our external partners. These comic books have been presented at a press conference and official inauguration at the Brussels Parlamentarium on 4 May and the Irish Institute in Leuven on 5 May 2017.

Spread among the 3 project years, the long and short-term teaching and training mobilities were the binding agent of all activities.

5. Sustainability

All schools will carry on the partnership for years to come. The comic books we created have been spread among all classes at our schools to be used within our own curricula as teaching materials in lessons. The dispenser will be placed at school (the coordinating school to start with) and will assure the presence of the outcome of our partnership. The resources concerning remedial teaching, special needs, language policies etc. are available on our project website.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 277604,66 Eur

Project Coordinator

Miniemeninstituut & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Solski center Ljubljana
• Einstein-Gymnasium
• Sandnessjøen videregående skole
• Ahmet Kabakli Anadolu Lisesi
• St Joseph’s Secondary School
• IES Alto Palancia
• IIS PODESTI CALZECCHI ONESTI