Text auf Englisch / Texte en anglais :
Link to TwinSpace and results:
Link to TwinSpace: https://twinspace.etwinning.net/26019/home
All TwinSpace pages have been made public except three pages (two Padlets and a timeline for questions of image rights), that's why we provide you with the username: ... and the password: ...
Brief description of the project:
From October 2016 to June 2017, 56 pupils between 13 and 14 years of age (in Lauterbourg (FRA) Bilingual classes of year 7 and Year 8 / in Bad Bergzabern (GER) class 8a) collaborated in the project entitled "Let's create and make our Franco-German neighbourhood live in the border villages of Scheibenhard and Scheibenhardt. A global simulation ". The teachers chose these two real villages because they are located near their schools. Scheibenhard(t) was originally one single village which was divided up into 2 parts (a French part and a German one) after 1815. The teachers "placed" a limited number of pupils in housings. In each housing the pupils had to agree on identities, a past and habits. Then we made these different characters get into contact on TwinSpace and during two real meetings in both schools in Lauterbourg and Bad Bergzabern in order to virtually create their new school and organize common projects. A trip to a third location allowed the pupils to really live together. The teachers developed the scenario (enabling written and oral exchanges), provided the necessary documents and digital tools, helped the students, were mediators and linguistic experts.
Pedagogical innovation:
What makes our first project special is the creation of an imaginary residential area in an existing location on both sides of the German-French border, close to our two schools. This created a connection between fiction and reality, which was an additional motivation for the pupils. Etwinning provided for the continuous exchange and further development of the project. In addition, three meetings took place. One of the most important pedagogical aims was to raise awareness of the very close neighbour and his way of life. In addition, it was important to use the partner language as often as possible, both in written communication and presentation as well as in direct exchange with the partners.
This project with its cultural entry aimed at improving linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic skills, was part of the "(European) citizenship education" and cultural openness. It was carried out with traditional worksheets and the contributions of the global simulation and the "Tandem language learning" (learning from each other). In the first part, pupils were able to share a "territorial diagnosis": the French used cold data such as maps and the Germans created warm data such as interviews for the partners. Together, they defined the challenges involved in creating our new neighbourhood. "Participatory democracy "was used in the planning of common projects. Collaboration between pupils (pupils working in pairs, in groups, between French and Germans, Year 7 and Year 8) was more frequent than a frontal teacher-student relationship. The interest in the project was aroused by the setting in real life (real places and partners), fictitious identities, creativity and freedom, the new use of eTwinning, the curiosity to see the project moving forward thanks to everyone's contributions on TwinSpace, maintained by the 2 real meetings and the trip to the third location.
Integration in the curriculum:
A new topic was prepared before each meeting, one week per month or once a week, thoroughly discussed during the meetings.
The focus of the project was set on language and intercultural skills. On the linguistic level, reading, writing and speaking skills were particularly developed, as the pupils worked on several tasks: understanding oral or written documents to discover the territory (part 1), writing biographies and presenting a daily routine (2), exchanging information and then creating our new school (3), cooperating to organize our common actions (4), discovering the common heritage and experiencing living together (5). The connection to the National Curriculum was quite natural: for example, setting up our own school allowed us to deepen the cultural themes "school and society" in our textbooks. To do this, pupils had to inform each other about the two schools (systems) and compare their advantages and disadvantages.
The two teachers developed a common assessment grid in written expression based on the criteria of the Common European Framework of References for Language for the levels A2 and B1: the pupils wrote their biography and presented a typical day. The project allowed us to assess our pupils in oral expression. It was a summative evaluation with some institutional calibration. At the German school, an oral examination was held: the teacher used the form of the role play for these tests, i. e. each pupil introduced their new identity in a monologue and then played a dialogue with their partner in a given situation. In France, pupils prepared for the oral expression test of the German certification (DSDI of the KMK) by presenting our project half way through it using a slide show.
The intercultural skill was developed mainly during the interaction phases: when the pupils shared their knowledge of the history of these two villages and their experience at the border (1), when they had to invent a past and common habits in real places on either side of the border (2), they noticed similarities and differences, they were able to act together to make our neighbourhood live (4), when they discovered the common heritage, they noticed the different functions of a castle throughout history and according to the country that owned it, when working on emotions before walking on the barefoot path (5), they realized that this experience in nature is considered as more positive in Germany than in France.
Communication and exchange between the schools and the partners:
We planned the different steps of the scenario, the pupils’ tasks, the digital tools and assessments during nine months before the project started. We divided up the responsibilities: Mrs. Roloff was more in charge of the overall simulation, Mrs. Abbé of the digital and historical parts. The rest was common. During the project, we were flexible enough to adapt to the different time each teacher had with their classes, to the profile of the pupils, and to the new skills and ideas of each teacher.
Each party proposed micro-tasks and a final task in small binational groups, progress in the project and growing complexity. All students spoke about themselves (example: Padlet) and their daily and immediate environment (example: map showing the travels at the border). Then there was enlargement in the nearby space and real time (example: interview of the person living and working in both countries) then the past (examples: webquest, timeline). Then we stepped into fiction. We mainly got to know our new identities. We then created a better world (example: our new school). We returned to reality (discovery of the common heritage and living together in a third location), with a larger space and we propelled ourselves into the future (example: the pupils organized a meeting in small bi-national groups within a 100 km perimeter).
When using TwinSpace as well as during the three real meetings, the pupils were instructed to always use the partner's language. This project involved all the pupils. Different forms of work were used: working alone or in national groups as pieces of a puzzle, exchanging information, ideas and opinions, and even voting among pupils in small bi-national groups. As the French pupils came from different classes with different teaching times, the year 7 and year 8 classes could take it in turns to correct the final productions of the biography and the story of the typical day. Pupils learned to work in groups, consciously dividing up responsibilities and changing responsibilities throughout the various tasks. The pupils used the tandem method in the fifth part to compare what they had felt, e.g. when planning together a weekend to explain the instructions, giving each other vocabulary, ideas, grammatical, lexical, phonological corrections... in order to achieve the filmed task.
Cooperation between the project partners:
We have tried to take into account the abilities and time of pupils and teachers. The French pupils had four hours a week, the Germans three. The pupils introduced themselves on Padlet, reacted on the TwinSpace. French bilingual pupils could approach the local history and geography in the language of the partner but none of the German partners did. That is why each group produced material accessible to all concerning the territory: the results of the webquest, an interactive game (timeline) from the French while the Germans carried out an interview of a frontier worker, material for the assessment of oral comprehension. We kept the most difficult part (the conclusions of the territorial diagnosis) for the meeting with the work on images and the game of the golden family. In the second part, the teachers presented the global simulation and the pupils were able to collaborate equally during the first real meeting because the final tasks were possible for an A2 pupil as well as for a B1 pupil. Students in small bi-national groups created their new identity and fixed other details of their fictitious life together by discussing points from a fact sheet. All of them wrote as homework assignments a biography and a one-day narrative, exchanged and mutually corrected these documents on epad.recit.org or TwinMail. For the third part concerning the school, the pupils exchanged materials (interactive games for the Germans, the rules of procedure and the list of canteen dishes for the French) before the second meeting. The teachers made them compare a list of points in bi-national groups and then create their new school (by reflecting on themes in groups of four and then on values by two using a cloud of words). The projects related to the neighbourhood animation were discussed in the fourth part: the pupils proposed, argued and voted on Tricider: this mainly in the year 7 and year 8 classes. As German pupils had one month less than expected in the second semester because of school trips and other school projects, they continued to work at home and collectively created the invitation following the debate between French students from both groups on Tricider. Looking back, we are pleased to see that these time and linguistic difficulties were overcome and became valuable for the development of the project, especially when our pupils' work was not simply parallel to each other, but contributed to something greater.
Use of digital media:
The systematic use of so many digital tools in the school environment was quite new for pupils and teachers. One of the two teachers was responsible for training herself before and during the project about the digital part of the project due to eTwinning courses or to distance numerous e-learning and tutorials. Gradually, the other teacher was able to take in charge some parts of the TwinSpace. When planning the project, we distinguished between the tools that teachers would use and those that pupils should use to communicate and collaborate at a distance. The tool also had to be easy to use and make pupils want to use it again for other group work beside this project. It goes without saying that the digital tool was also at the service of each goal of the project.
The pupils used epad.recit.org, TwinMail and Tricider to communicate and collaborate. Some pupils even responded to classified ads on the Padlet. Some pupils of the year 7 class helped to prepare the interactive games (LearningApps, Kahoot). The partners played it during the meetings. The year 7 could take over the work of the year 8 on the pages opened with the teacher account or using "Trumblr" (post-it online). The use of tutorials was very rare thanks to showing things with the beamer. Some instructions were given on TwinSpace. For time reasons and computer equipment available in each school, the work with the digital tool was presented and/or started in class and then completed at home by the German pupils, while in France greatest part of the work was done in class.
TwinSpace provided pupils, often in Padlets, with authentic documents that were useful in terms of situation, ideas and form. The digital tools made it possible to display and preserve all the final productions ("umap" made it possible to map the cross-border movements of pupils and to add their texts,"thinglink" to turn interactive their map of the district originally on paper with identity cards in Word or OpenOffice and avatars created on "avatarmaker","youtube" to host videos before meetings (interview made by the Germans, puppet theatre by the French to prepare a guided tour) or after meetings.
Results, effects and documentation:
The global simulation allowed our pupils to experience living together virtually (possibility of more security and creativity for our pupils) and later in reality (which kept the pupils motivated). They developed their intercultural skill by comparing their schools and school systems (the similarities, differences, advantages, disadvantages), questioned their representations and managed to propose ways forward for their new school. We did not fall into the trap of an identity retreat on the pretext that the French village of Scheibenhard and the German village of Scheibenhardt were one village before 1815. In the course of the project, it was important for us to overcome this Franco-German framework and achieve a European cultural openness by recognizing common values such as freedom, respect for diversity (see the Charter of our neighbourhood proposed in the second part by the teachers) or tolerance (see the values of our new school proposed by bi-national groups of pupils in the third part). The first part of our project was nothing more than a "shared territorial diagnosis" (at our level). Our pupils tested participatory democracy: our neighbourhood committees were places for dialogue, initiative, concertation, information, training and collective development of projects on Tricider. Everyone's voice had the same value. What emerges from the final evaluation of the project made by the French pupils is their ability to collaborate 92 %, to argue for their opinions 88 %. The pupils advised themselves during the project not to vote for their best friend but for the best idea. Solidarity between the inhabitants of this neighbourhood (through online classified ads on a Padlet) is a fundamental value of active citizenship. The latest videos show that the pupils enjoyed working together and collaborated with pleasure, in national and international teams, which prepares them for their future professional lives and gives them an open mind.
The project and the intensive cooperation of the two teachers resulted in an official school partnership.
All TwinSpace pages were made public except 3 pages (2 padlets and a timeline for questions of image rights). The project's schedule and progress are visible in the "project blog" section. A bilingual page presents each part. The fifth part takes stock of the project as a whole.
Awards:
This project received the French national quality label and the national eTwinning 2017 award in the category "First project in college": "Remarkable bilateral project as much by the subject, stuck in reality and bearing meaning, by its wealth (many ICTT tools, varied and judiciously used; the scope of the project in terms of production), as by the soundness of the objectives pursued and the clarity of its organization. The times for meeting up certainly contributed to the strength of this project. The very clear structure of the Twinspace (each page is bilingual and contains a detailed summary) and the presence of structuring documents (calendar, explicit instructions...) testify to a good work of preparation and reflection upstream. The project is transposable and deserves to be widely released. We appreciated the peer support provided by the project. » The project also had the German quality label, and we were awarded the European eTwinning quality label.
We won the Tele-Tandem 2017 Support Prize of the OFAJ/DFJW, an international organization at the service of Franco-German cooperation. "Our Franco-German jury particularly appreciated your exceptional commitment as a teacher, which is reflected in this complex project, and the good cooperation with your partner, teacher in Germany. In your virtual global simulation project, you exploit the geographical and historical proximity of your two municipalities. In this way, your project becomes more relevant and important to your pupils. It is a good example of common work on European identity and cross-border common identity. In the tasks proposed, the pupils were able to put their language skills into practice and develop their creativity. We would have appreciated if you had used the OFAJ's platform e Tele-Tandem® for your project. But after all, we are not assessing the tool, but the way the partner classes worked and exchanged throughout the school year and it was very successful in your project. You used a wide variety of methods: you worked with Padlet, Thinglink, LearningApps, Kahoot and Tagul. This varied and targeted use of the CTBT is exemplary! In this way, the pupils were able to use and extend their digital skills on the one hand, and to communicate in real-life situations with German partners on the other. The meetings in January and April follow one another perfectly with the work carried out during the distance phases. »
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Kommentare / commentaires :
Im Fokus der Projektarbeit stand die sprachliche und interkulturelle Handlungsfähigkeit als übergeordnetes Ziel. Besonders hervorzuheben ist hierbei die Durchführung einer mündlichen Prüfung als Ersatz für eine schriftliche Klassenarbeit, die an unserer Schule für die Schüler der 8. Klasse mit Französisch als erster Fremdsprache im Hinblick auf die mündlichen Prüfungen in den Fremdsprachen Französisch und Englisch, die durch die neuen Bildungsstandards für das Abitur verpflichtend sein werden, stattfindet. Wir haben das Rollenspiel als Thema für diese Prüfungen genutzt, d.h. jeder Schüler hat seine neue Identität in einem Monolog vorgestellt und anschließend in seiner Rolle mit seinem Partner einen Dialog zu einer vorgegebenen Situation vorgespielt.
Pour les élèves français, le lien était assez naturel avec les programmes : en 4e, créer notre propre école permettait d’approfondir les thèmes culturels « école et société » de notre livre « Prinz und Bottelknabe». En 5e, rédiger des publicités pour des camps de vacances arrivait après l’organisation d’un voyage après le livre « Eine Tüte grüner Wind ». La notion de « rencontre avec d’autres cultures » est majeure dans ces deux livres, également dans la cinquième partie de notre projet. Nos inspecteurs d’allemand en Alsace préconisent d’intégrer autant que possible la découverte du patrimoine local dans nos cours depuis que l’option LCR n’existe plus pour les bilingues. Les objectifs et les évaluations présents dans le projet s’adossent au CECRL (B1 pour écrire/B2 comprendre), aux domaines 2 et 3 du socle commun. (TwinSpace : partie 5, page 6 pour les détails).