Project "Wonderful World of Words" has the important aim of increasing the literacy and the interest for reading and writing in students of 7 partnering schools across EU. We have noticed that students read less and less, both in their mother tongue and in the second language, thus show difficulties in understanding texts. There are some migrants in partner schools, who face problems in reading and writing in their mother tongue and target language. Project "WWoW" will enable us to include all students in the learning process. Low reading rate indirectly causes ongoing problems, such as school dropouts and lifelong negative attitude towards education. Another important aim of the project is to teach students how to use ICT tools for learning. Students of all classes from 1 to 9 will write different kind of texts: poems, reports, essays, articles, questionnaires, which will be published and shared with all the schools in newspapers and in project website, which is going to be a motivation for students to make an effort to write and participate in the project. Each student will be involved according to his/her level of competence. Students with special needs will be also involved in order to improve their basic abilities as well. The newspapers conducted will be later used as an output for students and they will be used by teachers in their lessons. Students will improve their writing skills and interpretation abilities, by collaborate writing project called the “Walking books”: one school begins writing stories, the others continue, the last school has to edit it as a book. These stories will have some cultural taste, they will include folkloric elements so that students can understand each country better and this will raise awareness of European culture. The "Walking books" will be written by several school classes (in different levels of age and of competences), afterwards will be performed by the youngest pupils, while the eldest will make videos. Students can improve their writing skills and learn how to use ICT tools for a school work. As our students are growing in a world, in which technological literacy is becoming important we will help them to create and use e-books. The older students will participate in student meetings, which will have a different topic each time. They will have to establish contacts, make researches on the topics, collect materials and prepare questionnaires. The results will be displayed on the newspaper and on the school and project website. During the meetings they will be divided into international groups, working together as a team with a task to use different ICT tools, prepare a presentations (PowerPoint, Video, Flyer, brochure) and make self-evaluation of the activities. During the meetings students will stay with families. In that way they will connect more with hosting students and will have to speak English all the time. It will be an important opportunity to develop more self-confidence, improve language skills, learn a lot about another culture and find new friends. And for hosting families vice versa. The project also include teachers trainings in order to plan the activities effectively, monitor and assess the results. During the meetings they will share experiences and different ways of teaching and learning. Teachers will have the opportunity to have meetings with a local trainer or trainee (from University or from the schools) on the methods used in teaching reading and writing in the different countries and the usage of ICT tools in the lessons. Teachers will experience how pupils learn literacy in first classes, in classes with students with special needs, how they are motivated to read, the usage of games and ICT tools. All the materials will be collected in a booklet, in our mother tongue and in English, published on the project website and shared with the other teachers of the schools as well as in eTwinning and Erasmus+ platform. All the activities and experiences carried out will allow an effective impact in all participants directly involved. This experience will bring benefits that will last in time as an unforgettable experience for the students and will surely influence the way they see the school and the world and their feeling of being European Citizens. Teachers will have the opportunity to learn and develop a wider vision of the teaching methodologies, being open to cooperate and innovate, working in a transnational level. The dissemination of results will allow a wider impact, not only on the participants directly involved, but also a large community at national and European level, so that the results achieved and benefits can be used by other and lead to the development of new ideas and new projects. The sustainability of the project will result from all this learning, openness to innovation and awareness to quality of practices to address the ongoing challenges faced by teachers students, schools and European organizations.
Project "Wonderful World of Words" had important aim of increasing the literacy and the interest for reading and writing in students of 7 partnering schools across EU. Most of the actities were done by 6 partnering schools as school from Greece discarded the project after the kick-off meeting and teachers training in Greece. At the beginning of the project, we had noticed that students read less and less, both in their mother tongue and in the second language, thus show difficulties in understanding texts. There were some migrants in partner schools, who faced problems in reading and writing in their mother tongue and target language. Project "WWoW" enabled us to include all students in the learning process. Low reading rate indirectly caused ongoing problems, such as school dropouts and lifelong negative attitude towards education. Another important aim of the project was to teach students how to use ICT tools for learning. Students of all classes from 1 to 9 wrote different kind of texts: poems, reports, essays, articles, questionnaires, which were published and shared with all the schools in newspapers and in project website, which was going to be a motivation for students to make an effort to write and participate in the project. Each student was involved according to his/her level of competence. Students with special needs were also involved when possible in order to improve their basic abilities as well. The newspapers conducted were later used as an output for students and they were used by teachers in their lessons. Students improved their writing skills and interpretation abilities, by collaborate writing project called the “Walking books”: one school began writing stories, the others continued, the last school had to edit it as a book. These stories had some cultural taste, they included folkloric elements so that students could understand each country better and this raised awareness of European culture. The "Walking books" were written by several school classes (in different levels of age and of competences), afterwards were performed by the youngest pupils, while the eldest made videos. Students improved their writing skills and learned how to use ICT tools for a school work. As our students were growing in a world, in which technological literacy has become important we helped them to create and use e-books. The older students participated in student meetings, which had a different topic each time. They had to establish contacts, make researches on the topics, collect materials and prepare questionnaires. The results were displayed on the newspaper and on the school and project website. During the meetings they were divided into international groups, working together as a team with a task to use different ICT tools, prepare a presentations (PowerPoint, Video, Flyer, brochure) and make self-evaluation of the activities. During the meetings students stayed with families. In that way they connected more with hosting students and had to speak English all the time. It was an important opportunity to develop more self-confidence, improve language skills, learn a lot about another culture and find new friends. And for hosting families vice versa. The project also included teachers trainings in order to plan the activities effectively, monitor and assess the results. During the meetings they shared experiences and different ways of teaching and learning. Teachers had the opportunity to have meetings with a local trainer or trainee on the methods used in teaching reading and writing in the different countries and the usage of ICT tools in the lessons. Teachers experienced how pupils learn literacy in first classes, in classes with students with special needs, how they are motivated to read, the usage of games and ICT tools. All the materials were collected in a booklet published on the project website and shared with the other teachers of the schools as well as in eTwinning and Erasmus+ platform. All the activities and experiences carried out allowed an effective impact in all participants directly involved. This experience brought benefits that last in time as an unforgettable experience for the students and surely influenced the way they see the school and the world and their feeling of being European Citizens. Teachers had the opportunity to learn and develop a wider vision of the teaching methodologies, being open to cooperate and innovate, working in a transnational level. The dissemination of results allowed a wider impact, not only on the participants directly involved, but also a large community at national and European level, so that the results achieved and benefits could be used by other and lead to the development of new ideas and new projects. The sustainability of the project resulted from all this learning, openness to innovation and awareness to quality of practices to address the ongoing challenges faced by teachers students, schools and European organizations.