Wonderful World of Words Erasmus Project

Project Title

Wonderful World of Words

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

Project “Wonderful World of Words” had important aim of increasing the literacy and the interest for reading and writing in students of 7 partnering schools across EU. Most of the actities were done by 6 partnering schools as school from Greece discarded the project after the kick-off meeting and teachers training in Greece.

At the beginning of the project, we had noticed that students read less and less, both in their mother tongue and in the second language, thus show difficulties in understanding texts. There were some migrants in partner schools, who faced problems in reading and writing in their mother tongue and target language. Project “WWoW” enabled us to include all students in the learning process. Low reading rate indirectly caused ongoing problems, such as school dropouts and lifelong negative attitude towards education.

Another important aim of the project was to teach students how to use ICT tools for learning. Students of all classes from 1 to 9 wrote different kind of texts: poems, reports, essays, articles, questionnaires, which were published and shared with all the schools in newspapers and in project website, which was going to be a motivation for students to make an effort to write and participate in the project. Each student was involved according to his/her level of competence. Students with special needs were also involved when possible in order to improve their basic abilities as well. The newspapers conducted were later used as an output for students and they were used by teachers in their lessons.

Students improved their writing skills and interpretation abilities, by collaborate writing project called the “Walking books”: one school began writing stories, the others continued, the last school had to edit it as a book. These stories had some cultural taste, they included folkloric elements so that students could understand each country better and this raised awareness of European culture. The “Walking books” were written by several school classes (in different levels of age and of competences), afterwards were performed by the youngest pupils, while the eldest made videos. Students improved their writing skills and learned how to use ICT tools for a school work. As our students were growing in a world, in which technological literacy has become important we helped them to create and use e-books.

The older students participated in student meetings, which had a different topic each time. They had to establish contacts, make researches on the topics, collect materials and prepare questionnaires. The results were displayed on the newspaper and on the school and project website. During the meetings they were divided into international groups, working together as a team with a task to use different ICT tools, prepare a presentations (PowerPoint, Video, Flyer, brochure) and make self-evaluation of the activities.

During the meetings students stayed with families. In that way they connected more with hosting students and had to speak English all the time. It was an important opportunity to develop more self-confidence, improve language skills, learn a lot about another culture and find new friends. And for hosting families vice versa.

The project also included teachers trainings in order to plan the activities effectively, monitor and assess the results. During the meetings they shared experiences and different ways of teaching and learning. Teachers had the opportunity to have meetings with a local trainer or trainee on the methods used in teaching reading and writing in the different countries and the usage of ICT tools in the lessons. Teachers experienced how pupils learn literacy in first classes, in classes with students with special needs, how they are motivated to read, the usage of games and ICT tools.

All the materials were collected in a booklet published on the project website and shared with the other teachers of the schools as well as in eTwinning and Erasmus+ platform.
All the activities and experiences carried out allowed an effective impact in all participants directly involved. This experience brought benefits that last in time as an unforgettable experience for the students and surely influenced the way they see the school and the world and their feeling of being European Citizens. Teachers had the opportunity to learn and develop a wider vision of the teaching methodologies, being open to cooperate and innovate, working in a transnational level.

The dissemination of results allowed a wider impact, not only on the participants directly involved, but also a large community at national and European level, so that the results achieved and benefits could be used by other and lead to the development of new ideas and new projects. The sustainability of the project resulted from all this learning, openness to innovation and awareness to quality of practices to address the ongoing challenges faced by teachers students, schools and European organizations.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 143474,6 Eur

Project Coordinator

Kuressaare Gümnaasium & Country: EE

Project Partners

• IIS Ragusa Kiyohara-Parlatore
• 51 Secondary and Primary School “Elisaveta Bagryana”
• Istanbul Ticaret Odasi Bilim ve Sanat Merkezi
• Agrupamento de Escolas de Vialonga
• Siauliai “Rasos”progimnazija
• Primary school Parapotamou