I. Topic: Intercultural dialogue through art and creative writing.
The whole project is based on European culture heritage. It encourages young Europeans to discover what they can share and learn from the others through concrete tasks in connection with art.
II. Main focus: the final product is in an ebook of short stories written & illustrated by students, based on shared artistic sources and selected during reading sessions by pannels of readers.
Artistic sources are chosen according to four different areas:
Year 1: Photography & Painting
Year 2: Sculpture & Literature
III. Joint activities
1. Partners visit art galleries in their countries or during meetings to find inspiration & discover the artistic heritage of partner countries.
2. They are asked to make research on the sources they have chosen & are encouraged to communicate about their research on a dedicated blog - the Book of Knowledge (messages, PowerPoint presentations, videos, audio documents, etc)
3. They are in charge of organizing reading & debating sessions when they welcome partner teams at home.
During these sessions, students have to select the best short stories according to different criteria (chosen by students). Debates are led in English.
4. The panels of readers reward the selected short stories during awards ceremonies, which they also organize.
IV. Results:
1. The awarded short-stories are incorporated into an ebook designed & illustrated by partners & published on the eTwinning Twinspace & other sites.
2. The photos taken during awards ceremonies are published on a dedicated blog - the Hall of Fame- and students are invited to post comments.
3. A tool blog - the Creative Writing Workshop - is created in order to provide resources to teach & implement creative writing in class.
Project Objectives
1. Cultural objectives:
- Allowing students and teachers to discover, understand and appreciate the culture of the partners through activities related to art and creative writing.
- Identifying, describing and reflecting on one's own cultural and artistic heritage and identity,
- Discovering similarities and differences between each of the cultures of the participants (students and teachers),
- Breaking mental barriers through exploring the other countries' cultures and artistic heritage,
- Bridging the gap between the different cultures and extracting the European dimension.
2. Communication objectives
- Developing a continuous dialogue between partners and enhancing the communication skills of project participants, through interactive and interdependent activities.
3. Social objectives:
- Enhancing students’ understanding of democracy by involving them equally in the activities,
- Implementing and promoting the Living Values of responsibility and respect,
- Developing empathy between young Europeans and European teachers through real cooperation,
- Preventing school failure and exclusion by using a creative approach and meaningful education,
- Developing organizational skills through planning and management of events in connection with the project.
4. Linguistic objectives:
- Developing English language skills, both written and oral, at level B1 and B2 (CEFRL) through writing activities and intensive oral communication.
5. Practical objectives:
- Developing students’ and teachers’ ICT skills. Throughout the project, students and teachers will use virtual learning environments and ICT-tools such as collaborative blogs, social networks, ebook makers.
6. Pedagogical objectives:
- Placing the institutional practice of writing in English in a challenging situation
- Encouraging creativity and imagination
- Educating the taste of writing to increase the joy of reading
- Writing in order to be read
- Completing the rational and analytical study of literature through intuitive creation
- Acquiring formal knowledge (stylistic, lexical, grammatical, editorial, etc.)
- Developing learning and teaching strategies transferable to other situations of communication.
Key Competences
Communication
in foreign languages
Cultural awareness and expression
Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship
Digital competence
Learning to learn Social and civic competences
