The wonderland of Languages aims to raise fluency and proficiency in foreign and mother tongue language, both oral and written, using innovative methods of oral story telling. It is inclusive, differentiating by outcome so that younger pupils, those with special needs, migrants and those with different learning styles will be able to take a full part in the project. It will also improve basic skills in pupils as they communicate with each other using a variety of multi media tools. Fairy stories has been chosen as a medium for language learning as all schools use stories as a part of normal teaching, ensuring the project will be easily and fully incorporated in each schools curriculum. There are nine partners, from Sweden, Czech Republic, Turkey, Greece, England, Portugal, Germany, Croatia and Spain, All the partner schools involved in the project have expertise in different teaching and learning areas and have skills which will be shared with other teachers over the course of three years. The methodology that will be applied in the project is to combine 3 different methods that each in its own way will improve language learning and promote inclusion and integration. By implementing them in a rationale order the methods will interact and amplify the childrens learning process.All participating teachers will learn:1. "Talk for writing". This method helps children to internalise the pattern of language required and so develop and improve reading skills. The method enables children to imitate the key language they need for a particular topic orally before they try reading and analysing it. 2. Drama as a way to work with inclusion. “Walking through a story”. 3. “The reading class” is a method to improve reading comprehension. Here 4 basic strategies are used to comprehend a text; RT (Reciprocal Teaching), TSI (Transactional Strategies Instruction) och QtA (Questioning the Author). To understand a text, the idea is that the reader predict, task questions, sort out uncertainties and to sum up. Each participating school will implement the first method in the classroom in their native language. Strategies and results will be discussed in the project group before moving on to the next method. The new method will build on the already implemented one and in so complement and develop it further. After the third method has been implemented and tried out, the same three methods will be used in the classroom but now in the schools second language. We plan to arrange a learning activity around ICT and the use of multi media in education as a tool for inclusion. ICT will play a big part in the project. Pupils will make cartoons /e books and videos of themselves drawing telling and performing stories and share them with students from other countries using Skype and E Twinning. They will plan, share and compare their work with pupils from different countries. The project will use existing methods which are backed up by research to work with language learning and inclusion. By developing them further and incorporate them in a bigger system, we will develop a model for how to improve language learning in our schools for children with different needs. On top of that every country shares their expertise and teachers will also share current educational research from their country.As Samuel Johnson said: ‘The same images, with very little variation, have served all the authors who have ever written.’All pupils will first learn to tell a story orally, initially in their mother tongue, They will walk through the story, draw pictures and use actions and drama to tell a story. Pupils will get to know the structure of the story very well using actions in addition to words. They then begin to tell the story in a foreign language, using the same actions to help them. Older pupils then transfer the story to print and film all to be shared on e twinning web site. Pupils share their work and perform with each other.After learning to retell many fairy stories, pupils will then innovate and write their own stories, sharing on film, in performances and in print, with other pupils and parents. The project will finally produce a joint book of stories. All outcomes will be shared on E-twinning,This project will improve language and second language skills acquisition, improve communication in mother tongue language and second language and equip pupils with the skills needed for them to realise their potential and to play a full part in the Europe of the future. Pupils will have increased fluency in their mother tongue and a foreign language, have improved basic skills in ICT, communication, music and writing. Teachers will all have increased confidence, have learned new language teaching skills and long term partnerships between pupils, teachers and families will have developed.Both pupils and teachers will gain an understanding and tolerance of other cultures and a deeper understanding of educational systems in Europe.
With this Project, we intended to contribute to foreign language education in our partner institutions. Foreign language education is a process seeking activity. That is why, we thought our project as a three year project in the planning stage. We started out with 9 partners however when Germany and Croatia left the partnership, 7 primary schools from 7 countries contributed to the project to the maximum and successfully carried out the responsibilities of the institutions that have left the partnership along with their own responsibilities. As a result, we can say that we have reached the objectives of our project after three years. However, we need to add that 3 years is a very long time for a project. We face various unexpected problems during the implementation of the project. Teachers, head masters leave their schools. Such changes are not an obstacle to reach the objectives but can sometimes slowit down. Aim in short: The aim in this project was to make language learning and foreign language learning inclusive and accessible to all children and educators. Number and profile of participating organisations: Taubeskolan (922328963) is a primary school opened in 2012. It is situated in the local distict Lundby in Gothenburg city and it is beautifully situated on Färjenäs Park in Västra Eriksberg. This is a newbuilt, modern area located next to the river. The residents of Eriksberg are mainly high income earners and well educated, but the pupils of Taubeskolan come from different parts of the local city district Lundby. The total amount of pupils in Taubeskolan is 284 and 29 teachers are working in the school. Cobden Primary School (930040269) is an expanding school ( currently 360 pupils ) situated in the Hastings ward of Loughborough in Leicestershire. The catchment area is in one of the most deprived areas of England. Many families are unemployed and many are single parent. Many children enter school at a very low level and there is a high rate of pupil mobility. Despite this, the school's expectation is that children leave school at age related levels of education. As many children have English as a second language, or have very poor language and life experiences, Cobden school staff work hard to enrich the quality of the childrens lives. The school places great importance on oral story telling and most staff have undergone training in Talk for Writing story telling techniques. Zakladni skola (923066939) is situated in the residential part of the town of Usti nad Labem. This school is 50 years old.. Nowadays there are about 600 pupils of the age 6 to 15 attending to this school. Lessons include foreign languages: English, German and Russian. They have participated in some international projects, e.g. they have been in a long-term partnership with the Montessori-Schule Chemnitz in Germany. Izzet Bezirci (919877385) is a state primary school opened in 2005. It was founded and named after Izzet Bezirci, a benefactor and education volunteer. The school includes a nursery and the grades from 1 to 4 (primary education) There are 60 teachers and 1300 students aged between 4 and 11. The school is situated in Karatay, which is one of the biggest of the three districts of Konya. Konya is a city in the Middle Anatolian part of Turkey. Karatay is the oldest settlement of Konya; in other words, it can be called, “ancient Konya”. It is highly populated with migrants from East Anatolian part of the country. CEIP Portal NOU (943601451) is a public school (3-12 years old) with around 230-240 students and 21 teachers. The school is in the center of Ibiza town. We are specialized on working with special needs students. We teach with alternative and augmentative communication systems. They have pupils from all around the world, but mainly from Romania, South America and Morocco. They teach English from 3-12 years old pupils teaching arts with CLIL (content languages integreated learning). Agrupamento de Escolas de Vieira de Leiria (943011691) is located in the municipality of Marinha Grande.This school consists of schools from Pre-school, 1st Cycle, 2nd Cycle, 3rd Cycle and Secondary education. Students come from the parish, nearby location, including some migrant children from Countries of Eastern Europe, China and some Portuguese-speaking countries. There are seven classroom teachers, two educational support teachers and two for special education. The school has 3 operational assistants and other staff who help clean and maintain garden spaces The 17st Primary School of Heraklion (931971636) is located in Heraklion. The school itself has 180 students aged 6-12 and is staffed by teachers both in morning and afternoon zone. Our school belongs to the schools with an extended program, which means that their students have the opportunity to attend english - computer ,art and theatre courses during their six year attendance in Primary School. In addition , there is also a class and a teacher specialized for stu