This project develops in a bilingual school with a special focus on cooperative learning and learning projects. Within this framework, theatre has been introduced in the classrooms in the last few years as a tool for working both curricular and extracurricular contents. This project is focused on 4ºESO students of this school and another Lithuanian school. The number of direct participants ranges between 50 and 70.The main objective of this project is the development of linguistic competence in English, which connects with the school bilingualism programme. For doing so, information will be continually exchanged between Spanish and Lithuanian students. This activity will force students to face real communicative situations where they can not use their mother tongue. Similarly, the achievement of all project's aims will help the acquisition of the seven basic competencies (digital, linguistic, learning how to learn, social and citizen, cultural and artistic, knowledge and interaction, science and technology).The Spanish team and its Lithuanian "twin team" will work in a co-lateral way, exchanging information steadily. Work will be divided in three stages.In the first term, the exchanged information will be on every group's environment (country, city, neighbourhood, school, etc.). At the end of the term, Spaniards and Lithuanians should better know their "twin team" and they have to be able to give a presentation about them to the rest of the school comunity.In the second term, the students will be divided in several groups of mixed nationalities and they will jointly write a short theatre play.In the third term, the students will decide the different roles that they will play in the performance (actors and actresses, costumes, atrezzo, etc.) and they will prepare and rehearse it. Once ready, both groups of actors will travel to the foreign country to perform the play.The evolution and results of this project will be measured monthly and evaluated quaterly. A control group from another school will be subjected to the same tests in order to check the success of a project based on real communicative situations for the development of communicative skills. This will allow us to objectively assess the efficiency of our students and the level of achivement of the planned objectives.In addition to the effect on the participants, we expect this project to have a flow on effect upon the school and its environment. We foresee this project to be a support for the implementation of theatre in English classes, because it will help the teachers to acquire competency in its application and evaluation. It will also help to develop a specific dossier in the journal of the Fundación Franciscanas de Montpellier devoted to pedagogical innovation in its different schools. Finally, we expect that this experience will help us to set up a stable link with the Lithuanian school in order to boost many other projects related to communication in a foreign language (such as, linguistic exchanges, pen-friends, etc.).
Context of the project The project arises from the impulse given in the Spanish center to the search for new forms of teaching. In particular, in the English area, the theater has been used during two courses as a way of creating communication situations and working other aspects of the language such as expression, pronunciation or non-verbal communication. For its part, the Lithuanian center has been working for many years successfully with theatrical performances, being a center of reference in the country, and not only in this area. This common interest in the theater, together with the possibility of combining it with the teaching of English and the opportunity to know a geographically distant country, was decisive for the formalization of the association. Goals; Proposed objectives: - To improve the linguistic competence in the learning of a foreign language (English) of the students through real communication situations designed by the teaching staff. - Use theatrical representation as a tool to improve linguistic competence, as a means of linking students from different countries, as a way of sharing cultural contents and as a generator of intra-group experiences. - Increase the awareness of cultural diversity (differences and similarities) between very different European spaces; In this case a southern urban environment with a rural - industrial north. - Promote the use of ICT as a tool for communication and teamwork. Number and profile of participating organizations; Only two centers participate in the project: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, concerted center of Madrid that teaches the levels of 2nd cycle of EI, Elementary and ESO. It has two lines per course, bilingual teaching until 1st of ESO at the time of developing the project. Located in the Alto de Extremadura (Latina). He belongs to the Franciscan Educational Foundation of Montpellier (FEFMONT) Naujosios Akmenės Ramučių gimnazija, non-compulsory secondary school located in the town of Naujoji Akmené in the Siauliai region in the north of Lithuania. The center was created in the 90s with the merger of previous ones. Description of the main activities carried out; FIRST STAGE Project announcement: The project communicates to the educational community (parents, students, teachers) through meetings and brochures. Choice of logo: Student teams design and choose the project logo together. Bi-weekly contacts: Face-to-face contacts via Skype in which teams exchange information to make presentations about the country, geography, history, art, the city and daily life. Presentations: Presentations to teachers' cloisters. SECOND STAGE- Weekly contacts: The students selected for the exchange write small theatrical representations on the migrations, the equality of opportunities, of gender, the environment and the democracy. Preparation of exchange visits: Spanish students not selected for the exchange prepared information for cultural visits. THIRD STAGE Student mobilities are carried out in which the works and planned visits are represented. Results and impact achieved; The objectives set by the project have been met and sometimes exceeded expectations. The impact achieved has been felt in: The students participating in the project, especially the one who had the opportunity to travel to Lithuania. Families who welcomed Lithuanian students into their homes, who were able to interact directly with them. The teachers and students of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart center, who had the opportunity to attend the theater performances and spend time with the Lithuanian students. The 3ºESO group of the Montpellier school in Madrid and some of their teachers, who were also presented the work created by Lithuanian and Spanish students. Finally there is a group difficult to quantify that also enjoyed the work when it was performed outdoors in Madrid (Parque del Retiro and Templo de Debod). We saw how many of them stopped to contemplate the show and even some were encouraged to participate in it. The teachers were able to inform the people who were interested in the show from the Erasmus + project. Long-term benefits, if any: It helps the implementation of theater as a pedagogical tool in the center. Improvement of audio systems in the center's auditorium. Creation of a collective awareness (among teachers, students and families) of the importance and benefits of language exchanges. Creation of a Department of Exchanges in the center to definitively implement linguistic exchanges in the different courses of secondary education. Coordination of future Erasmus+ projects