This project is about ESL and basic skills. The EU want ESL should be down on 10% in 2020, and we are far from that goal in the EU. Research shows that lack of basic skills is the main reason for ESL. If a student does not have the basic skills, she will meet many defeats in the classroom, which will cause absence and in the long run lead to ESL. We know that many schools take initiatives to prevent absence, but we believe that new generations of pupils need new methods of teaching. We believe that what is going on in the classroom is, what motivates students, they must meet victories not defeats. Since ESL is a European problem it is natural for the four partners to try and develop methods of teaching, which will enhance basic skills and thus minimize ESL. Based on our Comenius project about immigration we know that especially immigrants and children of immigrants and some native speakers are in lack of basic skills especially in Math, National Language and Foreign Languages. Our goal is to enhance these basic skills in this group, which will lead to better marks, higher motivation and thus to less ESL. Our goal is to minimize ESL with 50% and to improve the marks by one grade.We are four secondary schools, who have worked together earlier with good results, and who all have at least 10% of students with immigrant background. We are all very experienced in international cooperation. We have cooperated in a Comenius project: Immigration – a European Challenge. In the involved schools we have in different ways worked with ESL mostly with administrative initiatives, and now it is time to take the initiatives into the classroom, because administration seldom leads to more motivation. To get more motivation we need to find new methods of teaching. With our international experiences we think that European cooperation will give a much stronger solution to problems. Creativity will grove through new inspiration.We therefore have developed a project focused on the eight European key competences:• Communication in the mother tongue• Communication in foreign languages• Mathematical competence and basic competence in science and technology• Digital competence• Learning to learn• Social and civic competences• Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship• Cultural awareness and expressionThere will be three Learning/Teachin/Training Activities, where we will have focus on one of the first three key competences + two of the other key competences. In January 2017 in Milan we will focus on Foreign Languages + sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. In April 2017 in Scandinavia we will focus on Math + digital competence + learning to learn. And finally in Bilba in January 2018 we will focus on Mother Tongue + + cultural awareness + social and civic competences.Every activity will have the following structure:Lecture about the school systemStrategies and structure of the hosting schoolWorking conditions (Contract) for the teachers)Discussion on these framesThe curriculum for the subject of the activityProblems of the subjectLectures by experts in the subject Normal classroom teaching (supervision), focus on the target group.Workshop about the observationsWorkshops about ESL (what does the host school do to minimize ESL)Lectures by experts in ESLWhat do you do in the subject to prevent ESL?Classroom teaching (supervision) again focused on the target groupInterviews with the students from the target group about the lessonsPlanning of new teaching methods, which must be used at least for two months. This will be the main contents of the activities.Guest teaching by the visiting teachersEvaluation of the activityAfter every activity the teachers involved in the project try the developed method in their teaching for at least two months. The method will be evaluated by teachers and students, and after that all other teachers will be informed about the method, the evaluation and the result, so that they also can try the new methods. As you will see from our time schedule, evaluations will take place regularly to ensure a high quality in every activity and between the activities. The dissemination among the teachers not involved directly in the project will be ensured through meetings with all other teachers teaching the subjects and through information for the whole staff.We expect to enhance the quality of basic skills, because we believe that what is happening in the classroom is the most important for the motivation of our students, and new generations ask for new methods of teaching.We expect that the project will have positive effects also in the long run in our schools. School staff will realize, that focus on basic skills of the target group will lead to classes with more equal conditions, higher motivation and less ESL.If the project is a success the dissemination to other schools in the regions, in the countries and in the EU will also have an impact on good quality of education.
This project was about ESL and basic skills. The EU want ESL to be down on 10% in 2020, and we are far from that goal. Lack of basic skills is the main reason for ESL. Without the basic skills students will meet defeats, which will cause absence and lead to ESL. We believe that what is going on in the classroom is, what motivates students. Therefore the four partners have developed methods of teaching, which will enhance basic skills and motivation and thus minimize ESL. We knew that the jeopardized students are in lack of basic skills especially in Math, National Language and Foreign Languages. Our goal was to enhance these basic skills for these students, which should lead to better marks, higher motivation and thus to less ESL. Our goal was to minimize ESL with 50% and to improve the marks by one grade. In the involved schools we had worked with ESL mostly with administrative initiatives, and now it was time to take the initiatives into the classroom. To get more motivation we needed to find new methods of teaching. So we developed a project focused on the European key competences:• Communication in the mother tongue• Communication in foreign languages• Mathematical competence and basic competence in science and technology• Digital competence• Learning to learn• Social and civic competences• Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship• Cultural awareness and expression. All 4 schools in the project are secondary schools Helsingoer Gymnasium, Denmark (PIC: 933055029) has 700 students and 75 teachers. The students come from very different social classes from the the very rich families to the very poor families. Most of our students are ethnic Danes, but we have a growing number of students from other ethnic groups. This is about 10 % of the students.The focus points of the scool are it, innovation and globalization. We have partnerships with many schools abroad. IES Botikazar/Botikazar BHI, Spain (PIC: 948945666) has about 700 students and 67 teachers. We offer a wide range of different programs, both academic and vocational. Botikazar BHI wants to support the implementation of the internationalization of student and staff exchange and the introduction of the European dimension in our curriculum. We are a multilingual school; we do not only use the two official languages in the region, Spanish and Basque, but English is taught very successfully as Content and Language Integrated Learning. Many students come from that disadvantaged areas, specially in courses in which the main teaching language is Spanish. As the school is located in a bilingual area (Basque and Spanish), we have different programs and innovative practices about national languages teaching methods. Olympiaskolan, Sweden (PIC 932775572) has general education departments in social science, languages, cultural history, natural science. The school also has programmes with vocational training.The school has students 705 students from lower middle class and middle class families with different origins - mainly from Sweden and 60 employees. We are and have been participants in several international projects. IIS Vilfredo Federico Pareto (PIC 942084759) has 750 students and 60 teachers. From it has had an experimental curriculum with courses that have always been innovative and open to new didactic concepts. Nowadays our courses range from vocational education in the agriculture fields to technical courses focused on business administration, international law and tourism as well as the building sector to liceo courses with social science option. It has a lot of experience in cooperations and exchange programs with many European countries. The “Pareto high school collects students from lower classes and immigrants (50%), 50% from lower middle classe and middle class families. The main activities were three learning, teaching and training meetings. In the first one we met to develop new teaching methods in Mathematics. In the second one we met to develop new teaching methods in foreign languages and in the third one we developed new teaching methods in mother tongue languages. All based on sharing ideas of best practice. You can find more information about the itineraries on our homepage preventing-esl.eu. After each meeting the teachers involved in the project taught after the agreed methods for 2 months. For all three projects our evaluation showed that the most important factor for motivation is the teacher's ability to motivate by showing engagement, lesson structure with relevant tasks, repetition, a good and quiet working environment, variation, individual focus. All the teachers have realized how important their relation to the students is to motivate the students. The key words to success are: involving students, relationship, communication/individual feedback, long term purpose and structure. For details in each of them we recommend you to go to our homepage: preventing-esl.eu.