When was the last time you read a book? Have your reading sessions been limited down to your friend's status updates? A common sight in malls, school canteens at break times , in cafes , and wherever else teenagers hang out: three or four kids, hooded, gathered around a table, leaning over like monks or druids, their eyes fastened to the smartphones held in front of them. Everyday the situation is becoming worse as the children are reading almost nothing except for the facebook comments, whatsapp messages or tweets.With the popularity of computers, social media , habit of reading has taken a backseat. The lack of reading motivation students are experiencing is an educational problem which increases year by year and is widespread in everywhere in Europe.Not only our students but also their parents are so occupied in internet that they find little or no time for reading. And as a result the students loose success at school as academic progress depends on understanding, analyzing, and applying the information gathered through reading. A reading disability is the most common type of learning disability that has the possibility to end with ESL. Educational researchers have found that there is a strong correlation between reading and academic success especially in Maths and science .The researches of UNESCO shows that people that read in Europe is %21 and in Turkey it is %0.01.Pisa reports say that Turkey is 86 th in the World with the number of the people that read.This is the answer why Turkey's success is below the avarage of Europe in Maths and Science also. Partner schools from Portugal ,Italy ,Romania ,Lithuania, Turkey and Finland as the applicant country came together to develop new methods to improve motivation to read and improving reading skills of the children with the aim of increasing pupils success at school especially in Maths and Science and decrease the number of students that have the intention of Early School Leaving. During the project the partners will develop, promote and disseminate educational best practices, including new teaching methods and materials in order to enhance the quality of reading literacy. We also want to involve parents actively in the education process to increase the awareness of the importance of reading and stimulate reading at home. We will organise lectures about reading, organise 'reading activities' with parents and children at school and at home. Pupils will be involved in a range of activities: theatre, making book annonciations, conversation about books, prepearing emazazines ,searching about novelists ... They will gain knowledge and competency that will be useful for their future realization As a result of the project, the students will develop their imagination and artistic talents ( they will be writers , speakers, actors etc.) as well as their English language competencies and ICT skills. One transnational meeting and three learning , teaching ,training activities are planned during the 2 years .The outcomes of the project will be a website ,digital library,a DVD as an educational source about reading education ,recorded stage performances ,letter boxes ,e-magazines, TV news. In each partner school will be established project teams which will run the project activities ,organize reasing sessions ,competitions in cooperation with the city library.E-twinning will give the chance all project results to be shared with a huge public. The website of the project will help and support the dissemination and information activities, too.In each participant school , the members of project team will keep on doing their duties.It will turn into tradition .Every year the participants will work on increasing the number of members and will organize different events to keep the project results alive like Literature quizzes, online competitions..etc All project products will be free of any license.
The focus of this project 'Let's take a book' was to improve students' motivation to read and also to improve their basic reading skills. During the project all partner schools developed, promoted and disseminated educational practices including new teaching methods and materials in order to enhance the quality of reading literacy. We also wanted to involve parents actively in the education process to increase the awareness of the importance of reading and stimulate reading at home. During Learning, Teaching and Training Activities we arranged reading sessions at school and outside school e.g. in a shopping centre in Turkey. Every partner also prepared a theatre piece of a well-known author in their own country. We had reading lessons in public libraries. Students, for example, read poems of well-known authors in English and in their own mother tongue. We had lectures about reading. Every country prepared 10 lesson plans concerning literature, which we then carried out during Learning, Teaching and Training Activities. Locally all partners had events that had something to do with the theme. We had, for example, nationally well-known authors visiting our schools. We had reading days. The students in each school read either for themselves or the older students read for the younger students. We had 'city days' where students went to the city and talked about reading or just spent time reading a book. We arranged book talks together with the local library. The older students got acquainted with some books they liked and recommended them for the younger students. We had radio interviews where students and teachers in literature talked about literacy and reading.' The main objective of this project was to increase the awareness of reading and improve students' reading skills that are essential to the academic achievement. One focus was also to involve parents in the educational process to encourage reading at home. We also wanted to organize reading activities at school and outside school. One objective was also to develop students' imagination and capabilities. As a result we find that the students have become more interested in reading and they have gained knowledge and competency that will be useful in their future careers and educational paths. They have also developed their imagination as well as their English. This project will most likely benefit all partner schools, parents, students, teachers and other community members in many ways. All the activities, new teaching methods and pedagogical approaches from other partner countries as well as all educational contents of this project will help the schools in many ways. Implementation of new pedagogical strategies and the use of new teaching materials acquired during the project will lead to new ideas and teaching methods in every school. The amount of students with the intention of ESL will most likely decrease. The establishment of contacts with international schools will increase the educational level of students and help the integration of young people in Europe. Project member schools will realize the value of other European cultures which will broaden the horizons of the EU and will make them aware of European citizenship and to promote tolerance and respect of others.