On the basis of a SWOT analysis carried out in La Torreta High School, we have found some problems among our students dealing with reading comprehension, oral and written expression and a lack of experience in teamwork. So, we have designed a project based on the search of solutions to this lack of knowledge. This academic year 2017-2018, we are developing an inner project in the 1st course of Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE), this project is based on the promotion of reading and the improvement of coexistence. In this project, we make use of successful educational actions (AEE), as for instance Interactive Groups and Dialogic Circles, which are gathered in the European program INCLUD-ED. We also include activities which imply the use of computer tools in order to create digital products such as booktrailers and booktubers. With these products, we improve our students’ digital competence as well as their communicative competence and creativity, they also develop teamwork, always based on a perspective of dialogic learning. Our aims are the improvement of the reading and communicative competences, the use of TIC, the improvement of coexistence, the promotion of the involvement of the educational community, the inclusive teaching, and the international participation. With all these objectives, we are looking for the transformation of schools to achieve a higher participation of the educational community, the school success (improvement of students’ performance), the improvement of the learning process in the schools as well as their prestige, all this through the participation in an international project. The target group to carry out this project will be the students who will be studying the 4th course of CSE next year, as we consider their age, the appropriate one. We have chosen as partners two international Spanish sections, one in Avignon (France) and another one in Cagliari (Italy), since their students are being taught Spanish Language and Literature, and also Geography and History in Spanish; these subjects are taught by native teachers from our country. This implies that our project is very appealing for them, because their students have the opportunity to improve their communicative competence in Spanish, giving a practical sense to the use of the language, and sharing educational experiences with students from our country through eTwinning (basic in our project) and the programmed mobilities. We include three types of mobilities; -one mobility of teachers at the beginning of the project to coordinate and be given training in AEE and booktrailer making. -three short-term mobilities of students, in each country of the partnership to share common experiences and products. -three long-term mobilities, one in Spain for the other partner schools, and two mobilities of Spanish students into the French and Italian schools. These mobilities will be very useful for the cohesion of the partnership, the coordinated development of tasks among schools, and they will also give students the opportunity to live an educational experience in other countries. We will make use of social networks, eTwinning, webpages and meetings with all the implied schools in order to promote the project. We will receive the support of the Teachers Association in Elda (CEFIRE), the Education Department in the Valencian Community, and the Education Attachè Office of the Spanish Embassy in our partners’ countries. Moreover, we will be supported by the Seminars of Learning Communities in the Valencian Community. The products of the project will have a positive impact on the participants, and also on the primary schools assigned to La Torreta High School, as well as the secondary schools which have any relationship with the participant schools.
Based on a SWOT analysis carried out at IES La Torreta, in which we detected that our students showed deficiencies in reading comprehension and oral expression in Spanish at many levels, we decided to write and apply for this project. Two International Sections of Spanish were sought as partners, since their needs were complementary to ours, regarding the promotion of students’ reading and speaking skills in Spanish. The objectives we set ourselves were: -The improvement of communication skills in Spanish -The improvement of skills in the use of ICT by students. -The improvement of school coexistence, through the application of Successful Educational Actions, such as Literary Gatherings. -The promotion of the participation of the educational community. -Inclusive teaching. -International participation. To do this, we developed a series of activities, which can be grouped into two types: Activities financed by the Project: mobilities for teachers (one, which was carried out in Elda at the beginning of the project, in October 2018), long-term mobilities for students (exchanges of students were carried out between the Spanish center and the two partner centers, lasting two months) and short-term mobilities with students (one in each country). Unfunded activities: all those that were carried out throughout the life of the project, and that served for the development of the project and the preparation of the short-term mobilities (literary gatherings, story contests, book trailer workshops, attendance at plays, discussions with writers, etc). All these activities, perfectly compatible with the ordinary activities carried out in class, were designed to meet the objectives of our project. As a result of this project we sought the transformation of all schools involved by promoting the participation of the educational community (in dialogic gatherings, where families were invited to participate, and in students’, both long and short mobilities where the families were in charge of welcoming visiting students during their stay in the host country). The improvement of the teaching process of the partner centers was also sought, by putting into practice the aforementioned Educational Success Actions (ESA), and their prestige and international projection, by participating in an Erasmus + project. All these results can be expected in the short term, but also in the medium and long term. The aforementioned transformation of the schools and the improvement of the teaching process require the maintenance of the ESA over time, and the opening of the teaching activities to the community. At IES La Torreta, this is a path that we started 4 years ago, and that little by little we are consolidating, through actions such as, for example, this project. In the partner centers, this has been the first approach to this type of dynamics, so the long-term impact of the project will depend on their willingness to maintain this type of ESA. In any educational center, participation in an Erasmus + Project is a mark of quality, as well as a commitment to project the center abroad in the long term. For IES La Torreta, this project has been one more step in our internationalization plan, and the ratification of the importance we give to it. For our partner centers, this has been their first experience, the beginning of a long journey of future projects, for sure.