The quote “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles” by Christopher Reeve, an actor famous for embodying Superman on the big screen, contains the the concise message why heroes are needed as a source of inspiration or guidance. In our opinion heroes play an important role in the lives of our students. They meet them in books, video games or on TV not knowing that their own area might have some heroes of its own to offer. Some might be more famous than others, but together they all make up a common story of each local community. It is very important for the youth of today to understand where they are coming from and to learn more about the local traditions and stories. They also have to the opportunity to build upon existing partnerships with the local refugee community entering a unique dialogue between their own tradition and stories and the ones of the refugees.They will achieve this by investigating the local stories and their characters which surround their communities. Each country will decide upon one of their heroes and the students will send them together on a common journey through Europe and all the participating areas. Each country will take ownership of a story creating a unique mixture of old characters in modern fiction reflecting upon the differences and similarities of each participating nation. In the end they will have developed transnational stories which do not know any borders.There are many benefits for students who engage into our international process of creative writing and its artistic representations. It provides an opportunity to engage into the study of English outside the regular institutionalised lessons and it will allow the student artists to use their creative potential and extend it beyond into professional practice within the creative industries. However, creative writing is also interesting for students of other disciplines, such as science or engineering, as it is a project to broaden their educational horizons, to encourage creativity and to develop writing and communication skills. This is why it was e.g. also introduced at the Imperial College London (focus on science and technology) to develop critical thinking and the ability for students to critique their work.The final stories will be presented in a multimedia reading event which will be the perfect setting to present the students' hard work. These readings will be held at each school and a travelling exhibitions of the artwork will take place after the project has been officially finished so that the project will be in minds of the communities. These reading events (in addition to the ones carried out during the transnational meetings) should increase the willingness of the students to further engage into local and international literature and develop a passion for reading, hence, developing their literacy skills.This stories will be transferred into a book enriched with some of the illustrations crafted by the students. Some scenes will be transferred onto the screen by videotaping them. The final book will be also published online being enriched with even more illustrations, the video scenes, and hyperlinks. These will allow for an interactive use of the book offering a huge amount of opportunities to the readers to further research the history and areas of the cities participating. Again, there will be a unique and effective mix of traditional printing and modern publishing techniques giving the students an excellent insight into the proper use of modern media which will lead to an improvement of their ICT skills.Our well-structured and considered project activities pursue a holistic approach to learning and teaching as they will develop and use the maximum of the students' input and potential. The trainings and workshops of literacies held by the participating institutions will contribute to the development of both, students and teachers. This is why our approach is more than 'only' a student project, it is also a didactical approach to boost literacies and the desire of each school participating to satisfy a specific need when it comes to enhancing their students' performances. Especially because the international context gives us the chance to bring the different approaches and programmes at each local school to one table to establish a curriculum. In addition literacies and ICT skills our project develops a range of soft skills that are valued by employers and universities all over Europe, such as team working, communications skills, working to brief, creative problem solving and being able to give and receive feedback.To conclude, our project "Literary Heroes" will not only provide a structured development of literacies and familiarise the students with their local heroes by researching and sending them on a common journey it will also teach them the necessary communicative and social skills to "be their own hero".
This project was conceived in the context of a recognition by the participating schools of a need to boost literacy and strengthen its status in their curricula. The EU journal (2012) states that “1.1 million 15-year-olds (i.e. one-in-five) have inadequate literacy levels” and identifies literacy as “the gateway to all further learning”. Taking this as our rationale, the participants developed the project under four literacy pillars with the following aims in mind: to boost literacy and creative writing; to consider different forms of literacy (literal, visual, digital, audio-visual) and incorporate them into the project; to gain an insight and understanding of their own local and international literary figures; to transfer skills and knowledge gained to peer groups; and to enhance teachers' competences through workshops and training. Five institutions took part in the project: Herzog-Christian-August-Gymnasium, Germany; Zespół Szkół Miejskich nr 1, Poland; IES Ramón Giraldo, Spain; Borrisokane Community College, Ireland and Sel kommune - Otta ungdomsskole, Norway. All schools are based in rural areas within their countries and all have a diverse range of students, some from economically disadvantaged families. During the various mobilities participating students took part in workshops as follows: Pillar 1 Literal Literacy: Norway: Into the storytelling mood; Creating a story; Polishing the writing Pillar 2 Digital Literacy: Poland: Creative Writing; Web two Zero applications Pillar 3 Visual Literacy: Spain: Creative Art and Drawing workshops Pillar 4 Audio-Visual Literacy: Ireland: Drama and Film Editing workshops Further details regarding the above workshops were included in the accompanying Teacher’s Manual. The aim of these workshops was to enable students to write a story about their local literary hero which also incorporated the literary heroes from all the other countries. At the final mobility in Germany, participating schools then presented parts of their story using elements of the different media skills acquired during the previous four pillars. These presentations were performed in various locations throughout the town of Sulzbach-Rosenburg, Germany thus ensuring local support for and involvement in the project. The results of the project include a number of different products which reflect the work carried out during the project and the newly acquired skills of the students. A teacher’s training manual was produced which documents the activities conducted during the various workshops outlined above. This manual combines the hands-on experience of teachers involved in the workshop with theoretical ideas about literacy teaching. The manual’s effectiveness is enhanced by the input of teachers from diverse cultural and pedagogical backgrounds and its dissemination among teachers within each school will ensure that the legacy of the project in terms of its promotion of literacy will continue long after the project has finished. A booklet of Glossary was also produced. The booklet was useful when travelling on the different mobilities and contained words and day-to-day phrases for each country. The glossary was distributed to participating students as a paper copy and also published online. Another product of the project was the common logo. It was our belief that a common logo would strengthen the sense of community of all participants and would symbolise cooperation and a sense of identification. The art departments of each school presented the requirements of the common logo to all members of their schools. In this way each student had the chance to contribute to the project. Students voted for their favourite logo which was used throughout the project for a huge variety of purposes (e.g. as letterhead, posters, website, t-shirts, final book etc.). The stories from each school were made visible throughout the project visits. Readings were organised which presented the latest version of each story. The final stories were then published in a paper book which was given to each participating student and school. The e-book to accompany the paper version of the book has not been completed in time for this report but is ongoing and will be completed in the current school year. A website was created which details all the activities, workshops and stories: https://elainelinehan.wixsite.com/literaryheroes The impact of this project has been felt at many levels. Firstly, for the countries involved, participation in the project has been vital in developing new literacy strategies at a school level. Secondly, the participating schools' reputations have improved, through the establishment and strengthening of ties with other Europeans institutions. Finally, the local communities have benefited from students' researching their local traditions, re-imagining and re-vitalizing them through creative writing and learning about the importance of self-identity and place while at the same time being European.