"Let's Read: A Reading Promotion Programme Through Gamification" arises from a need, which is to develop a reading plan that encourages reading for pleasure for students increasingly reluctant to read both in their native language and in second language. Today's teenagers prefer other leisure and free time activities, such as video games or even board games, so it is necessary to define methods of reading promotion that use the techniques that stimulate the loyalty of these games and incorporate them in the curriculum for the development of reading. This is gamification, to introduce techniques and dynamics of games into non-ludic contexts, such as education. Therefore the main objective of our project is to promote reading in students, in order to develop their creativity, critical and divergent thinking, prevent failure and school dropout and at the same time to do so through an international project that allows us to share good practices on reading promotion with other schools in Europe, learning to work in teams in international contexts and developing active citizenship and a sense of belonging to a united Europe. During the next two years, we will analyze the different elements of gamification, starting from the "narratives" which are the context stories in which the different gamified activities are inserted, the types of players, the reward systems, and the dynamics. At each mobility, in which 5 students from each country will participate, together with the host students, we will focus on one of these elements, and using design-thinking as the work methodology, we will design our own gamified reading program based on the interest of the students. These dynamics will be put into practice in different countries upon completion of the mobilities. The local activities, in which some 2000 students will participate, are focused on working, with the techniques that result from the mobilities, different literary works that are being studied in the different countries or books that the students decide to read on their own, both in native or in second language, through fun dynamics such as booktubers, podcasts, thematic nights, webquests, the reading snake, etc, as well as activities to get to know each other and establish links such as videoconferences or competitions. At the end of the project we will have developed, thanks to the work and starting from the interest of the students, a programme of reading promotion using gamification techniques that will have served to encourage interest in the reading of the students participating in the project, not only of the participants in the mobilities, but also of all students from the educational levels where the project has been implemented. When performed internationally our students will have worked in teams, known other cultures through activities such as videoconferences or webquests, created videos, podcasts, etc., using English as a language of communication, so they will also have developed their communicative competence in English, apart from social and interpersonal skills. Our project wants to endure over time and be used not only in our schools in subsequent years, but also in all those schools throughout Europe which want to implement a model similar to ours, based on gamification, to make reading an activity fun, entertaining, social and dynamic.
"Let's Read: A Reading Promotion Program Through Gamification" arose from a need, which was to develop a reading plan that would promote reading for pleasure for students who are increasingly reluctant to read both in their native language and, of course, in foreign languages. Today adolescents prefer other leisure and free time activities, such as video games or even board games, so it is necessary to define methods of promoting reading that use techniques that encourage students to become interested, techniques that They are usually used precisely by video games to keep the user. It would be very convenient to study these techniques to introduce them in the curriculum and in this way encourage reading at the secondary education level. This is gamification, using game techniques and dynamics in theoretically non-playful contexts, such as reading and education. Therefore, the main objective that we set for ourselves in our project was to promote reading in our students, in order to develop their creativity, critical and divergent thinking, prevent school failure and early school leaving and at the same time , through an international program of these characteristics, share good practices in promoting reading with other schools in Europe with similar concerns, learn to work in international teams in educational contexts and develop active European citizenship and a sense of belonging to a United Europe. During these three years (two years first and an extra year approved by the national agency to be able to conclude our project due to the pandemic situation) we have analyzed the different elements of gamification, starting with the "narrative" that is the context story. on which all gamification is based. We have also seen a large number of activities, mainly digital, to make reading fun: booktubers, booktrailers, instagrammers, etc. We have analyzed the different types of players, reward systems and dynamics to facilitate the promotion of reading. Although we planned to develop a part of these elements of gamification in each mobility, the pandemic and the interruption of mobility meant that we changed this scheme and worked mainly through videoconferences and handouts that we distributed among the teachers in charge of the activity. . During the project we have held five mobilities (of the six initially proposed). The activities carried out in the schools outside the mobilities, that is, without taking them into account, have had an impact on more than 5,000 students, the vast majority directly. These activities have focused on working on the reading promotion techniques worked on during the project, such as those mentioned above, and others that have emerged during the march, such as the "simultaneous reading hour" that three times in the project, made that all these students simultaneously celebrate an hour reading their favorite books. Some of the activities have also been focused on disseminating the project, such as student newsletters and videoconferences, which although they were scheduled, had greater importance once we had to cancel the mobility due to the COVID19 situation. At the end of the project we have developed, thanks to the work and interest of the students themselves, a program to promote reading using gamification elements and that has served to increase the interest in reading of the students participating in the project both direct and indirect. Our students have had the opportunity, especially those who have attended mobilities, but also those who have prepared podcasts, newsletters and videoconferences, to participate in teams, learn about other cultures, etc. using English as the language of communication, developing communicative competence in this language, apart from developing their social and interpersonal skills. Our project is called to survive over time, since the activities learned and practiced by teachers will continue to be put into practice, especially in today's world where digitization is here to stay, and many of the activities proposed for development of reading are precisely digital, in order to make reading a fun, entertaining, social and dynamic activity.