WiseWords

The ability to communicate effectively is one of the most important skills now and one that may influence our life. Being able to express one’s opinion, be it in writing or speaking, to  find the best arguments and evidence to support them, to structure one’s line of thought and present a logical, well-constructed, vocabulary-rich and persuasive text / speech is paramount in many situations. The ability to use one’s voice, body language and understanding of your audience is also important when speaking in public and debating. It can make the difference when presenting one’s work at school or college, at a job interview or a meeting or when participating in the life of one’s community or country. 

The goal of our project is to encourage students to speak, to become more autonomous and think critically about the world around them. By learning how to write and deliver a speech students will be able to research a topic of their liking, write a text where not only structure but also language have to be mastered and practise its presentation to an audience in order to achieve the expected result. At the end of this activity they will be ready for the next step: participate in a debate. Research will now imply arguments in favour and against, students will work collaboratively and will learn about debate rules and format- introductions, opening statements, rebuttals and their appropriate language functions. We want students to become more confident and bold, to develop the ability to express themselves, to develop a sense of empowerment. It will help them to boost their confidence and will make them bold enough to speak in any situation without any hesitation. We hope our project will contribute to make our students citizens who can reason, articulate, listen, respond, lead and ultimately respect the others.

English - 8 months 

Luísa Lima - Escola Secundária Emídio Garcia, Portugal 

Alexandra Francisco - Escola Básica e Secundária Gonçalves Zarco, Madeira, Portugal 

Anna Tobiacelli - Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących Nr 1 STO, Poland

Fatma Akgül-Söke Yavuz Selim Anatolian High School,SÖKE/AYDIN-TURKEY

Barbara Hanjilec - Škola za umjetnost, dizajn, grafiku i odjeću Zabok, Croatia

Elena Sotiropoulou (Elen Soti) - 17 Lyceum of Athens, Greece

Sezi Eruygun - Otto-Hahn-Schule, Hanau, Germany

Bragança, Portugal - 64 (aged 16-17)

Madeira Island, Portugal - 22 (aged 16/17)

Poland - 10  (aged 12-16)

Croatia - 19 (aged 14 - 15)

Turkey- 8 (aged14-18)

Greece - 5-10 (aged 16-18)

Germany - 29 (aged 14-16)

Foreign Languages, Art, Citizenship, Geography, ICT, History, Music, Culture, Social Studies

General Aims:

• To foster the love of writing and speaking while developing vocabulary, fluency, speech and communication;

• To create bridges across the curriculum making students understand that a good command of language will help them not only understand any subject better but also understand other people’s opinions and express their own;

• To promote a deeper understanding of language and the world and ideas language expresses;

• To make students aware of other cultures and other perspectives through debate;

• To develop students’ writing, understanding, speaking, critical thinking and problem solving skills;

• To develop research techniques, learn how to find reliable sources, avoid fake news and consequently foster a responsible use of the Internet;

• To foster a more active participation in the community and, ultimately, the world at large while experiencing diverse forms of learning;

• To develop leadership skills;

• To stimulate creativity;

• To foster self-confidence and empathy as a way to develop students’ emotional literacy;

• To act and model behaviour that is safe, legal and ethical.

Specific Aims in English language teaching 

Speaking and Listening: 

• To raise awareness of linguistic diversity;

• To identify, understand and use essential oral skills such as being able to interact with others, using appropriate language, clarity, and strategies that emphasize or help express meaning and emotions. 

Vocabulary Expansion: 

• - To use a variety of strategies to develop and expand reading, listening and speaking vocabularies.

Comprehension: 

- To know about and understand different ideas ;

- To draw conclusions based on arguments and evidence.

- To develop students’ speaking skills, their capacities for analysis, synthesis and transformation;

Writing: 

- To compose various pieces of writing to address a specific audience and purpose.

- 1 - Meeting the partners 

- 2 – The pen is mightier than the sword

- 3 – Voices over bullets

- 4 – You’ve got the power

When

What

How

September

October

Meeting the partners 

• ME in other words

Using Thinglink, Word clouds, Voicethread students present ten(?) words that define who they are

October - November

The pen is mightier than the sword

• Words vs. Images Padlet

• Dangerous words

• It got to me

Expressing personal opinions: comment on the key sentence

Researching and discussing censorship

Learning about forbidden books and famous or impactful books

Collection of extracts, quotes, aphorisms that are relevant for students (to be done throughout the project)

December - February

Voices over bullets

How to make a speech: learning the ropes

Analysing famous speeches

Creating guidelines for a good speech

Writing and delivering a speech: contest

Skype

Video/audio podcasts

March-

June

You’ve got the power

• Class debates

• International debates

Learning language functions for debating

Choosing topics through online polls

Collecting arguments

Presenting arguments and evidence using 

Videoconference

Webinars on how Oxford debates and judging debates 

Live debates among international groups of students

Up to each partner to do them or not 

• Idioms/ Proverbs on books or words;

• Two-minute debates (x vs.y – topics picked at the moment)

Tangible Results:

• Improved language skills;

• A public Twinspace, videos, podcasts;

• Contribution to the understanding of how a good command of language and speech can help us understand and participate in our world;

• Building of an international group of teachers who exchange good practices and share ideas.

• Creation of original works as a means of personal or group expression;

Intangible Results:

• Contribution for the development of students’ personality and ability to act with greater autonomy, judgement and personal responsibility;

• The support of individual learning and the contribution to the learning of others through the use of digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively;

• Development of flexibility, cooperation, compromise and listening and speaking skills;

• Improvement of teachers’ professional practice and lifelong learning.

The choice of tools to be used will be made according to students’ instructional and contextual realities therefore each partner will be given the freedom to select what is most appropriate for a particular group of students within a particular educational context.

Google forms - for teachers, for students and live interviews. We will post the evaluation of the work developed, and reflect on what worked and what didn’t, what we learnt, what we feel we could have done better.