Context Nowadays, teaching methods must be quickly adjusted to meet the needs imposed by the dramatic speed at which the world is developing. Nevertheless, it must be born in mind that some teaching methods as well as skills are being more neglected because of using technologically advanced devices.They must be definitely saved from oblivion and on this account we want to start our a bit sentimental journey during which we hope to discover and/or rediscover a pure pleasure of reading that will improve students' basic competences such as language, communication as well as interpretation skills, critical thinking and the ability to conduct text analysis. Participants Students aged 13-18 form our target group. They have basic English skills (minimum A2 level). We decided to include this particular age group as they are old enough to be able to read in English but still young enough to feel enthusiastic about it. Therefore, the project is planned to reach a number of 400 students on average, the others having no sufficient command of English, but from the same age group will take part in artistic activities, cultural activities or activities which will can be performed in their native language. The project will also involve teachers of English from all the partner schools who will brush up their teaching methods. They will also exchange experiences and practices with their colleagues from other countries and it will help create an international network of modern and keen teachers of English. The total number of 110 students and 32 teachers will participate in the 4 exchanges planned, participants will be selected from the target groups. Objectives 1. developing students' enthusiasm and motivation for reading; (minimum 50% of target group) 2. developing students' creativity, imagination and language skills; (minimum 80% of the target group) 3. developing students' critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability; (min. 60% target group) 4. developing the ability to understand their own culture in connection with other European cultures; (minimum 70%) 5. promoting European values and developing cohesion between European citizens. 6. exchanging teaching methods and improving the material bases for teachers of English. 7. producing sustainable teaching materials and sharing them with foreign language teachers in their our countries and in other ones. Activities 5 exchanges are planned: C1 November 2018 -Turkey: Joint Staff: Training course, project meetings C2 March 2019 - Poland: Developing literary and interpretative skills through stories. C3 May 2019 - Greece: Teaching reading and critical thinking skills through stories. C4 October 2019 - Romania: Teaching writing skills and creativity through stories. C5 April 2020 - Portugal: Teaching speaking skills through stories. Developing self-confidence in the use of English. The exchanges will be focused on topic-related seminars and workshops, cultural activities, participating in lessons. In Turkey 1st transnational meeting will be organized for the purpose of the project management. It will be held at the beginig of the project. Methodology The project management included planning, organisation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and dissemination of results. At the planning stage - we identified the needs and established the aims and objectives of the project. During the organisation stage, dissemination and evaluation plans, action plans, timeline of events, distribution of tasks and resources will be elaborated. At the implementation stage, we will organise the selection, preparation and participation in exchanges. The final results of the project will be produced. The dissemination plan is aimed at sharing the results and activities within our partnership and beyond it, so as to impact the target groups, the institutions, local/regional/national/European target audiences. The evaluation will be done at every stage of the project and its results will be included in the impact report. Impact and results - We expect that our students will become more motivated and their language skills and intercultural competence will be highly improved. They are sure to become more self-confident as far as their ability to use English in classroom contexts is concerned and also outside the classroom. Their literary competence will also develop and they will become more sensitive to literature and their desire to read in English will be boosted. Moreover, they will improve their reading, speaking, writing skills as well as their interpretive, critical thinking skills, imagination and creativity. - Teachers will also greatly benefit from the project as they will become more motivated, their leadership will be performed in a better way as well as their team work and presentation skills.
Context Nowadays, teaching methods must be constantly adjusted in order to meet the needs imposed by the dramatic speed at which the world is changing and developing. Nevertheless, it must be born in mind that some teaching methods as well as skills are being more neglected because of using technologically advanced devices. They must be definitely saved from oblivion and on this account we want to start out a bit sentimental journey during which we hope to discover and/or rediscover the pure pleasure of reading that will improve students' basic competences such as language, communication as well as interpretation skills, critical thinking and the ability to conduct text analysis. Participants Students aged 11-18 formed our target group. Some of them had basic English skills and some of them intermediate or advanced level of English, according to their age and year of study (minimum A2 level). We decided to include this particular age group as they were old enough to be able to read in English but still young enough to feel enthusiastic about it. Therefore, the project was planned to address a number of 400 students on average. The others, from the same age group but having no sufficient command of English, took part in artistic activities, cultural activities or activities which were performed in their native language. The project also involved teachers of English from all the partner schools who brushed up their teaching methods. They also exchanged experiences and practices with their colleagues from other countries and it helped create an international network of modern and keen teachers of English. A total number of 131 students and 50 teachers participated in the 5 exchanges (including one exchange as a virtual one). Participants were selected from the target groups. Objectives Developing: - students' enthusiasm and motivation for reading; (minimum 50% of target group) - students' creativity, imagination and language skills; (minimum 80% of the target group) - students' critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability; (min. 60% target group) - the ability to understand their own culture in connection with other European cultures; (minimum 70%) - promoting European values and developing cohesion between European citizens - exchanging teaching methods and improving the material bases for teachers of English - producing sustainable teaching materials and sharing them with foreign language teachers in their our countries and in other ones. Activities 5 exchanges (including virtual one) were organized: C1 XII 2018 - Turkey: Joint Staff:Training course,project meeting. C2 III/IV 2019 - Poland: Developing literary and interpretative skills through stories. C3 V 2019 -Greece: Teaching reading and critical thinking skills through stories. C4 XI 2019 -Romania: Teaching writing skills and creativity through stories. C5 planned IV/V 2020 -Portugal:because of Covid-19 couldn't happen. C6 VI 2021 -Virtual exchange:Portugal: Teaching speaking skills through stories. Developing self-confidence in the use of English. The exchanges were focused on topic-related seminars and workshops, cultural activities, participating in lessons. In Turkey the 1st transnational meeting was organized for the purpose of the project management. It was held at the beginning of the project. Methodology The project management included planning, organisation, implementation, monitoring,evaluation and dissemination of results. At the planning stage - we identified the needs and established the aims and objectives of the project. During the organisation stage, dissemination and evaluation plans, action plans, timeline of events, distribution of tasks and resources were elaborated. At the implementation stage,we organised the selection, preparation and participation in exchanges. The final results of the project were successfully produced. The dissemination plan was aimed at sharing the results and activities within our partnership and beyond it, so as to ensure and enhance the impact of the project on the target groups, the institutions, local/regional/national/European target audiences. The evaluation was done at every stage of the project and its results will be included in the impact report. Impact and results As we expected our students became more motivated and their language skills and intercultural competence were highly improved. They became more self-confident as far as their ability to use English in classroom contexts is concerned and also outside the classroom. Their literary competence also developed and they became more sensitive to literature and their desire to read in English was boosted. Moreover, they improved their reading, speaking, writing skills as well as their interpretive, critical thinking skills, imagination and creativity. Teachers also greatly benefited from the project as they became more motivated. Their leadership performed in a better way as well as their team work and presentation skills.