Development of the literacy skills of students in primary and middle school is the main objective of our project . Since nowadays students have to work with new forms of reading and writing, literacy skills are becoming of high importance. All partners are aware of the necessity of the issue and are eager to develop skills which will also be transferable in comprehending written text, processing it and using the reading material to give a creative output. 5 schools from Estonia, Iceland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Spain are the participants in this project. These schools have considered developing literacy skills as an important issue. The schools involved are both municipal and private, include students of various cultural and social background. The partners have agreed that the theme of the project, Sharing Legends and Myths, is appropriate and beneficial to all participants and will allow the teachers to effectively involve the students into the learning process, thus improving their literacy and foreign language skills. The partners plan to achieve the objectives of the project through student involvement in researching the legends of their countries and producing their own creative understanding of the reading material (presentations, comics, plays, translations). We aim at motivating our students by allowing them to share their creative outputs with the international audience, thus increasing their interest in reading and processing the information in the foreign language. Information regarding the flow of the project and part of the creative outputs will be exchanged through the project website, which is available to all participants at any time and will remain open for public use. During 5 partner meetings, the students will have a great chance to hear the legends from the horses mouth and be taught by teachers from different cultures. Through the project, the students will develop communication, IT, and writing skills, gain new factual knowledge and valuable experiences and competences. The partner meetings will provide the teachers with the opportunity to co-teach, give each other feedback and exchange methodology concerning literacy skills development. This also allows for the colleagues to observe each other as they implement theoretical ideas in practical lessons based on the legends. Throughout the meetings, the teachers will also discuss the adjustments needed to be made to the teaching process. Moreover, they will come to a conclusion which teaching approaches are culture specific and which can be used internationally, which will enable them to create a teaching kit applicable in any school of partner countries in the long run. Apart from the on-line teaching kit, final products will include: -comics based on the national legends, -a book of legends translated into English with reading tasks ,- a video recording of teachers' performance in the internationally staged play. All of these materials will be available for further use by partner schools as well as other teaching institutions and libraries. We are intended to incorporate the benefits from this project across the curriculum and use them in future curriculum content and pedagogy.
Literacy skills of students in primary and middle school development was the main objective of our project . The project partners had agreed that it was an important issue and had been aimed to develop skills, transferable in comprehending written text, processing it and using the reading material to give a creative output. The participants of the project were: Sakala Eragumnaasium (Tallinn, Estonia), Hristo Botev Primary School (Sliven,Bulgaria), Scoala Gimnaziala Nr.1 Gura Humorului ( Gura Humorului, Romania), P.E.I González Valverde S.L.L ( Murcia, Spain). The schools involved in the project are both municipal and private,and include students of various cultural and social backgrounds. The theme of the project, Sharing Legends and Myths,was considered as appropriate and beneficial to all participants and empowering the teachers to effectively involve their students into the learning process, thus improving not only their literacy but foreign language skills as the project was run in English. Students were involved in researching the legends of their countries and producing their own creative output after having understood the reading material (translations into English and native languages,making presentations, creating comics and sketches), through which objectives of the project were achieved. Students of all partner schools shared their creative outputs with the international audiences. Doing so, they increased their interest in reading and processing the information in the foreign language. Information regarding the flow of the project and part of the creative outputs were exchanged through the project website available to all participants at any time and will still remain open for public use during 2 more years after the end of the project. The partner schools had 4 meetings where the students of the host schools had a chance to hear the legends presented and taught by guest-teachers from partner schools. Throughout the project, the students were developing communication, IT, and writing skills, gained new factual knowledge and valuable experiences and competences. The partner meetings were also beneficial for the teachers. They provided the counterparts with great opportunities: to co-teach, give each other feedback and exchange methodology concerning literacy skills development. During their visits, the colleagues observed each others' lessons, implemented theoretical ideas in practical lessons based on the legends; discussed the adjustments to be made to teaching the legends in particular environments . The above-mentioned enabled the teachers to create an online- accessible Teaching Kit which has appeared to be useful for all the teachers who have applied it internationally being interested in literacy skills development. Final products include: - Magazine based on comics on the national legends, -Teaching Kit containing lessons based on national legends translated into English ,- Video recording of teachers' performance in the internationally staged play,-Web-quest based on national legends, -Booklet with legends translated into English and adapted to the use in classes by the teachers' team . All these materials will be available and beneficial for further use by partner schools as well as other educational institutions and libraries. To sum up, the most significant aim of the project was to advance students' literacy skills as a result of working out good teaching practices and methods. Besides, the legends which teaching is supposed to be based on are and will always be up-to-date, which will give the project outcome a longer life and dissemination.