The “Three Languages, Two Countries, One Media” project aims to bring together thirty 12-year-old French pupils from Jean Mermoz Secondary School in Belleu and thirty 12-year-old Romanian pupils from Avram Iancu High School in Timisoara to work on a common goal: language skills (French, Romanian, English) and the creation of shared media. The originality of this project lies in its work on both foreign languages skills and native language skills. A previous eTwinning project between the two schools has allowed us to observe that the difficulties experienced by the pupils with both their mother tongue and a foreign language were rather similar. 20% of the French pupils were assessed as being illiterate when arriving in secondary school. Thus, we have decided to work together in order to overcome the difficulties by conducting an educational project with the teachers and by using trilingual school media as a means of expression and a learning device. This media will be available in both a biannual hardcopy and an electronic format via a website on which articles will be posted regularly. It will lead to in-depth work on media education and will reinforce and develop the use of ICTEs. This project fits perfectly within the Europe 2020 strategy as it aims to prevent early school leaving and to facilitate the future employability of pupils by improving the mastery of basic skills such as reading and writing. Over two years, the differentiated instruction method will consist of sharing activities such as reading, speaking, writing and understanding. Journalistic activities (writing articles, reading reports/book reviews, interviews, documentaries, photo reports, etc.) will be carried out in class and during a weekly extra hour of work dedicated to the project. Students will spend a week in the other country. Once there, as special correspondents, they will have to carry out interviews and report- which will enable them to be in a genuine communication situation. The project also aims to discover the host country’s culture and heritage - which will be made even more possible as the pupils will stay with their penpal’s family. These special correspondents will thus be able to improve their skills and promote their European heritage. The project will allow the students to explore freely and become more independent, and it will provide a window on the world. In the long run, it will allow the students to more easily integrate society and the employment market. The project will not concern only the 60 students who participate in it: it will also have a greater impact thanks to the regular enrichment of the media, the partnership with other local media and our broad plan of information sharing (hardcopy, electronic format, local, national and institutional publishing). In both schools, all the students and their families will become acquainted with our project as they will see exhibitions, take part in special cultural days, greet the penpals, and attend evening receptions. Our project is the meeting of two different cultures, of urban and rural areas, and of pupils facing various learning difficulties. But all of them will work on a collaborative multidisciplinary project which aims to remove barriers between various subjects and bring them together for better learning. With its cultural, patrimonial, and civic dimension, our project is above all deeply European.
The “Three Languages, Two Countries, One Media” project aimed to bring together thirty 12-year-old French pupils from Jean Mermoz Secondary School in Belleu and thirty 12-year-old Romanian pupils from Avram Iancu High School in Timisoara to work on a common goal: language skills (French, Romanian, English) and the creation of shared media. The originality of this project lay in its work on both foreign languages skills and native language skills. A previous eTwinning project between the two schools had allowed us to observe that the difficulties experienced by the pupils with both their mother tongue and a foreign language were rather similar. 20% of the French pupils were assessed as being illiterate when arriving in secondary school. Thus, we decided to work together in order to overcome the difficulties by conducting an educational project with the teachers and by using trilingual school media as a means of expression and a learning device. This media had been available in both our four magazines and an electronic format via a website on which articles were posted regularly. It led to in-depth work on media education and reinforced and developed the use of ICTEs. Over two years, the differentiated instruction method consisted in sharing activities such as reading, speaking, writing and understanding. Journalistic activities (writing articles, reading reports/book reviews, interviews, documentaries, photo reports, etc.) were carried out in French, English and Romanian classes and during a weekly extra hour of work dedicated to the project. Some students spent a week in the other country (others via the internet only). Once there, as special correspondents, they had to carry out interviews and report- which enabled them to be in a genuine communication situation. The project also aimed to discover the host country’s culture and heritage - which was made even more possible as the pupils stayed with their penpal’s family. These special correspondents were thus able to improve their skills and promote their European heritage. The project allowed the students to explore freely and become more independent, and it provided a window on the world. In the long run, it will allow the students to integrate society more easily and the employment market. The project didn’t concern only the 60 students who participated in it: it also had a greater impact thanks to the regular enrichment of the media, the partnership with other local media and our broad plan of information sharing (hardcopy, electronic format, local, national and institutional publishing). In both schools, all the students and their families became acquainted with our project as they saw exhibitions, took part in special cultural days, greeted the penpals, and attended evening receptions. Our project was the meeting of two different cultures, of urban and rural areas, and of pupils facing various learning difficulties. But all of them worked on a collaborative multidisciplinary project which aimed to remove barriers between various subjects and to bring them together for better learning. With its cultural, patrimonial, and civic dimension, our project has been above all deeply European.