Project description:

Creating an English School Newspaper is an enjoyable, creative and educational process! This project aspires to involve many European learners in the creation of a common Newspaper! Each issue will be thematic, so that all participants can get an idea of what is going on in their partners' side. Participant learners will also have the opportunity to interact via Twinspace, improving thus their speaking/typing along with their writing skills! Practising skills simulates real-life communication in a fun-filled project that will help everyone realize the emergence of English as an international language and expand their horizons. Learners will also have the opportunity to feel like citizens of the world, members of a vast community, outside the barriers of their local surroundings. Using English as the vehicle, this project will provide useful insight on their peers' daily routine, interests, customs and mentality, allowing everyone thus to become more tolerant with diversity.

School Subjects: Cross - Curricular

Language: English

Learners' Age: 8-12

Web Tools in use:

Chat, email, TwinSpace, Titanpad, Various Software (Powerpoint, videos, photos, drawing, etc), Answergarden, Googledocs, Video Conference, School blog posts, Project Diary, Forums.

Aims and Objectives:

Primary objectives: a) to expand the learners' horizons, b) to develop the learners' writing and reading skills in English, c) to promote cooperative learning, d) to realize the emergence of English as an international language. Secondary objectives: a) to promote cross-curricular learning, b) to advance the learners' familiarity with technology, c) to promote writing and reading comprehension with a real-life purpose, d) to familiarize learners with looking up in dictionnairies, conducting research, note-taking, e) to promote learner autonomy and self-confidence.

Procedure:

Each participating school prepares its part of the newspaper in English (up to 5 pages), presentinging the topic that has been agreed by all participating teachers and exploiting projects suggested by the course book. Once an issue is ready, partners upload or mail their part for other participating schools to read / print as a whole. After that, learners may also exchange comments on each other's newspaper, or chat about it in Twinspace. After the first issue is issued, the same procedure is followed for the rest of the issues.

Expected Outcomes:

Learners involved in this project will have the opportunity to develop their writing and reading skills in English, while being involved in a fun-filled process. By reading their peers' articles, they will have the opportunity to expand their horizons and feel like citizens of the world, members of a vast community, outside the barriers of their local surroundings. Using English as the vehicle, this project will provide useful insight on their peers' daily routine, interests, customs and mentality, becoming thus more tolerant with diversity.