OUR PROJECT
This TwinSpace is part of our Erasmus + project. Here you have some of its details:
CONTEXT
We want to foster our students’ competence on their second languages, as they have few chances to practice them in real contexts. The improvement of their transversal competences will be crucial as well: using ICT tools to search and present information, developing entrepeneurship to develop activities with a real and useful purpose, reflecting on their own learning process, etc. Teachers also needs new experiences, methodologies and techniques to teach languages. They will prepare didactic sequences and tasks related to sociocultural aspects and intercultural awareness, sharing them during the transnational meetings and on the Internet to later use them with the students.
OBJECTIVES AND TOPICS
1- Get to know and value the sociocultural diversity showing attitudes of respect and tolerance.
2- Improve linguistic competence of second languages in real contexts.
3- Use ITC tools autonomously to search for information, analyze it and present it.
4- Transfer, learn and apply quality teaching methods.
5- Foster dialogue and individual or group decision making.
6- Foster artistic creativity.
We will focus on the preparation and implementation of integrated tasks taking the following topics into account:
a- Culture and creativity: the nucleus of the activities will have to do with the cultural knowledge of the countries involved (festivals, music, gastronomy, art, sport, etc.).
b- Second language teaching and learning: students/teachers will use the languages they learn/teach: Spanish, English, Italian and some German.
c- ICT – New technologies – Digital competence.
PARTICIPANTS
Most of our 11-17 year-old students find few opportunities to practise the language they learn in their environment (three out of four schools are in small towns, and two of them suffer the difficult economic crisis in Spain and Italy), with little or no contact with native speakers. than 200 participants will benefit from this Project, indirectly more than 2000. Teachers want to increase their abilities in the second language classroom, learning new pedagogical approaches, preparing integrated activities that may favour its implementation among their students and looking for better methods to evaluate them.
ACTIVITIES
- Website to publish our resources and news.
- Twinspace to communicate among students, create a logo contest, a calendar, etc.
- Travel guide or brochures, which will be used by students in their mobility activities.
- Integrated didactic sequences about music, sport, art and gastronomy and others.
- Rubric system to evaluate the project.
- Multilingual dictionary with useful expressions.
- Boardgame about sociocultural aspects.
- Benefic calendar on festivities and traditions.
- Mobility activities of students: art in Austria, sports in Italy, music in Spain and gastronomy in the United Kingdom. There will also be immersion actviities to participate in integrated tasks or to participate in normal classes.
METHODOLOGY
We will present integrated tasks related to sociocultural aspects and different subjects of the curriculum. We will deal with projectbased learning, problem-based learning, gamification, blended learning, etc. These tasks will have a communicative approach and will be developed in cooperative or colaborative groups. The situations will make our students make decision, develop entrepeneurship and ICT use. Teachers will learn new teaching methods, share activities, experiences, resources, etc. We have prepared five transnational meetings.
RESULTS AND IMPACT
- Students: knowledge on their own culture and others’; transversal and linguistic competence improvement; better school-results, etc.
- Families: harmony days, meetings, students’ accommodation, etc.
- Teachers: new educational systems, values and pedagogical approaches, improvement of their linguistic competences.
- Schools: new European bonds, development of resources and materials, etc.
- Town and region: promotion of the places, European identity, etc.
LONG-TERM BENEFITS
The didactic sequences or tasks will be used in future academic years. Its dissemination will allow other teachers to use them in their
context. Friendship and teaching bonds for future projects.