Writing and speaking skills are generally rivalry and often the subject of much debate. Oral language is often considered as a spontaneous achievement, pre-existing at the beginning of the school curriculum, whereas writing is a structured learning process. Oral language therefore retains a predominant place in kindergarten but hardly survives the entrance to primary school where learning to write takes over. Competition and submission are often the terms in which the oral and written are thought of, as if it were necessary to choose between the two and as if everything related to the oral should be written. The first difficulty when we talk about "oral" in school is the variety of statuses that it covers and which makes its situation unclear. Oral refers to both pedagogical modalities, a tool for learning and a learning object in itself, which is particularly complex. pedagogical modalities simply refer to forms of classroom management through teaching such as a dialog course or the oral evaluation of an exercise, but which are not intended to develop skills or knowledge specifically related to the oral. a learning tool such as the emphasis is placed on disciplinary content, for example, in the context of making a presentation in French or history. At last, there are teaching situations purely dedicated to the oral, for example those in which one learns to formalize rules of communication, to say the texts, to make the best use of one's voice, to arbitrate a debate... Our project is part of these situations. Two key points were the subject of our attention in the design of Seeds of Tellers. From a pedagogical point of view, teaching oral language as an object could not be done in the form of traditional courses (with lessons to be learned...) as if it were academic knowledge and not a set of skills whose mastery is anchored in practice. From a didactic point of view, one cannot copy the objectives to be achieved on those of the written field (grammar rules, syntax, etc.) and analyse an oral performance as if it were a written text. Thus, if literature provides an inexhaustible and exceptionally rich source of material for learning to write, this project aims to make available for teachers resources that are natively oral. We didn’t want to focus on oral performances such are the ones of great orators or lecturers but rather to use an oral material that is at the heart of the popular tradition, close to children and which has already proven its power of eloquence: tales and legends, that are one cornerstone of the European culture and heritage. These stories will be either shared (common heritage) or specific to their territories (local/regional heritage). This is why we have decided to create the first European library of oral forms of storytelling dedicated to teachers and pupils. It will regroup: - a pedagogical guide on how to teach oracy at school - a multilingual library of a various range of tales and legends - a multilingual web radio of tales recorded by the children - videos of the most visual forms of storytelling (gestural counting) - pedagogical kits on thematic topics to a practical transversal approach of the resources and features - educational sheets in link with the resources and features to support teachers in the setting up of pedagogical objectives and implementation in class We wanted to address pupils of primary school because this is where the base of future learnings develops. In that way, this project will target: • Primary teachers, with adequate pedagogical resources to set up workshops about oracy • Pupils, to enable them to appropriate oral expression through familiar and fun literary forms and innovative digital devices • Education professionals wishing to set up workshops on orality and European oral culture All the contents produced as well as the platform will take into account an inclusive approach, in compliance with accessibility standards and providing functionalities to ease the access to contents for pupils with learning disorders. All the resources will be available in each language of the partnership as well as in English. This project gathers 6 european partners from 5 countries, balanced between organisations focused on storytelling (La Grande Oreille and The Grimm Sisters), organisations focused on creating content for the target group (Les Apprimeurs and Logopsycom) and schools (Projeto Scholé and Osnovno uchilishte "Lyuben Karavelov"). Seeds of Tellers is designed to function independently at the end of the project. By developing an easy-to-use platform and by providing educational sheets about audio and video recording, we expect contributors and users to appropriate the platform to develop it and make it live. By creating a set of innovative digital OER, we intend to contribute to oracy promotion for a better literacy and to stick to the objective of reducing under 15% of low achievers in basic skills by 2020.
Seeds of Tellers offers teachers tools based on oral literature (tales, myths and also nursery rhymes etc.) to help pupils master an autonomous, thoughtful and shared language, improve their cognitive faculties and facilitate the learning of reading and writing. FACTS 19.7% of pupils in the EU had reading difficulties in 2015, compared to 17.8% in 2012 (PISA report). Only 4 Member States reached the reference level of less than 15%. The system has never reproduced social inequalities to such an extent, in the OECD particularly in France and Belgium. More and more children are entering kindergarten with delayed language skills and exposure to screens is making the situation worse. The lack of elaborate exchanges and vocabulary increases the gap between children according to their socio-cultural background very early on. However, success in learning is associated with mastery of speech, the foundation of all learning. For the sociologist B. Lahire, the mastery of the spoken word and degrees are the main social organisers: those who have learned to express themselves in public more often hold positions of responsibility. While 70% of professional speaking time is oral, this ratio is reversed at school: the written world dominates teaching practices. Oral expression in schools is very often directed from the pupil to the teacher, with the use of by heart learning and recitation. Oral presentations and examinations are prepared as if they were written documents. For the school, speech is born of writing. Today, the question of oral expression is resurfacing with new tests at the end of schooling. In Portugal, orality is emphasised, while in France and Italy a grand oral and a multidisciplinary interview are appearing. OBJECTIVES •To encourage self-confidence •To listen to and respect the word of others •To promote cooperation •To develop memory and vocabulary •To encourage the imagination •Discover and share the European oral cultural heritage •To fight against inequalities in learning which have increased during the health crisis. Training pupils to tell stories orally in class without a written support allows them to become emotionally involved, to experience pleasure and to pass it on in order to assert themselves as individuals and find their place in the group. Our credo: "Listen better to speak better, speak better to think better; because when we think better, we write better. ACTIVITIES We rely on oral literature, of which tales are a part of. Structured stories, from a common oral heritage, they offer a framework for reasoning, memory, imagination... Children's storytelling workshops have been held in schools in France, Portugal, Italy and Bulgaria. We have created www.seedsoftellers.eu, which gathers the 6 productions of the project (see results). Videos of adults telling stories have been made to inspire teachers.The resources are available in each language of the partnership as well as in English and meet accessibility and inclusion standards. TARGET GROUPS Through the teachers we target students from kindergarten to 6th grade. PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS 6 partners, 5 countries: 2 storytelling specialists (D'Une Parole à l'Autre and Grimm Sisters), 1 agency specialising in the creation of educational platforms (Les Apprimeurs), 1 organisation specialising in specific learning difficulties (Logopsycom) and 2 schools (AEPROSA, L. KARAVELOV) RESULTS O1-Pedagogical guide to set up oral storytelling workshops "Storytelling at school to master speech" (40 pages) O2-Multilingual library: more than 300 stories from oral literature to tell in class O3-Webradio: more than 110 audio recordings of students telling stories O4-More than 20 videos of children and adults telling stories O5-20 Educational kits linking the themes of the school curricula to the stories O6-23 Pedagogical sheets to accompany teachers in the implementation of storytelling workshops in class Under the aegis of the National Education and the City of Paris 14th, "Storytelling Week" enabled more than 120 teachers and 2500 students to participate in a storytelling circle Following this event, a project to train teachers in storytelling is planned. Financed by the French Ministry of Education, it concerns the Priority Education Network schools in Paris 14. Libraries, storytellers, teachers... spontaneously wish to contribute to the project, which we will run for at least 5 years. LONG-TERM BENEFITS •Fight against illiteracy, give a taste for learning •Reduce inequalities in learning •Increase listening, dialogue between individuals and cultures •Preserve and transmit European oral culture at school. To get to know traditions, peoples and the world better in order to prepare the future •To raise awareness in Europe of the importance of learning to master structured and autonomous speech.