Primary School Josip Kozarac, Lipovljani from Croatia is the coordinator of the project “Creative Readers”, which is in line with the National Reading Support Strategy 2017-2022 and the document Europe 2020: a Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. The project seeks to promote reading as a fundamental educational activity. We consider this topic to be extremely relevant since reading is the basic ability and essential for any other learning process. Educational opportunities of students depend greatly on their reading skills. So, we have set the development of literacy and encouragement of students to read actively and critically as the main objectives of the project in order to develop key competencies, according to our priorities, by raising the target groups' social inclusion and motivation for reading. This project offers solutions to the specific educational problems of certain groups in our school (students with disabilities, students members of national minorities and students in combined classes). In accordance with the set goals and priorities, we have selected partner schools from the Czech Republic, Greece, Latvia, and Macedonia, to share experiences of good practice, to provide dissemination of the best examples and solutions in several countries at the same time, and to approach the problem of reduced interest in reading from a broader viewpoint, not just from our country. All the planned activities have been formed to achieve the main goals and to provide a solution to specific problems of target groups. In cooperation with partner schools, we have methodologically developed project activities to connect them and the expected objectives and results. Accordingly, we have arranged the following activities: days of integrated lessons (reading list without borders, a book fair, promotion of selected books...), interpersonal and intercultural correlations, participation in national minorities' language lessons, creative interpretations of literary works by connecting literature with other arts (comics, film, picture books, radio games, dramatization), activities adapted to gifted students and the ones with disabilities, and participation in extracurricular activities. Planned mobility activities and other project activities will be conducted according to the specifics of each school. It is important to keep in mind that every activity will be focused on the achievement of the project's main objective. Target groups of the project are students with disabilities, students members of national minorities, students in combined classes as well as all the other students and interested teachers, especially those who teach mother tongue, foreign languages, art, music, and other subjects that can correlate with literature. The first mobility is planned for teachers and the other four for students. 2 teachers from each partner school will attend the first mobility, and 5 students (11 to 15 years old) accompanied by 2 teachers from each school will attend the other four mobilities. The teachers’ mobility at the Primary School Josip Kozarac, the project coordinator, will last 5 workdays (without travel). 2 partner school teachers from different literary and art fields will take part in these activities together with the host students. The expected results from this cooperation are: to gain a higher motivation and students' interest in reading literary works, to develop reading habits which will increase the level of students' confidence, to prevent early school leaving, to develop students’ critical thinking, and to increase their educational opportunities, especially of those who belong to more vulnerable groups. Students will also develop ICT competencies because our project includes the use of the eTwinning platform through which students will recognize the positive side of technology and the Internet, and see how technology can be used for educational purposes. Teachers will fulfill their education through formal and informal learning, and enrich their teaching methods with innovative and creative approaches and technologies by exchanging experiences and using a brochure with examples of the interpretation of literary works and videos of creative lessons. All the new experiences will be included in the curriculum of each school. The project activities will thus continue even after the project period, as both teachers and students will pass on the acquired competencies within the school environments and use them regularly. Being aware of the fact that the problem of reduced interest in reading cannot be solved only during the project period, we plan to use a systematic approach to the problem and to continue with the project even after its formal completion. The acquired knowledge and skills will have a long-term impact as the project results will be used continuously at the school level and will, therefore, improve the development of the school, as well as the local and broader community.
Primary School Josip Kozarac, Lipovljani from Croatia is the coordinator of the project “Creative Readers”, which is in line with the National Reading Support Strategy 2017-2022 and the document Europe 2020: a Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. The project seeks to promote reading as a fundamental educational activity. We consider this topic to be extremely relevant since reading is a basic skill and essential for any other learning process. The educational opportunities of students depend on their reading skills. So, we have set the development of literacy and encouragement of students to read actively and critically as the main objectives of the project in order to develop key competencies, according to our priorities, by raising the target groups' social inclusion and motivation for reading. This project offers solutions to the specific educational problems of certain groups in our school (SEN students, students members of national minorities, and students in combined classes). In accordance with the set goals and priorities, we have selected partner schools from the Czech Republic, Greece, Latvia, and North Macedonia, to share experiences of good practice, to provide dissemination of examples and solutions in several countries at the same time, and to approach the problem of reduced interest in reading from a broader viewpoint, not just from ours. All the planned activities have been formed to achieve the main goals and to provide a solution to specific problems of target groups. In cooperation with partner schools, we have methodologically developed project activities to connect them and the expected objectives and results. Accordingly, we have arranged the following activities: days of integrated lessons (reading list without borders, a book fair, promotion of selected books...), interpersonal and intercultural correlations, participation in national minorities' language lessons, creative interpretations of literary works by connecting literature with other arts (comics, film, picture books, radio games, dramatization), activities adapted to gifted students and the ones with disabilities, and participation in extracurricular activities. Planned mobility activities and other project activities have been conducted according to the specifics of each school. Each activity was carried out with the purpose of achieving the primary goals. The target groups were SEN students, students members of national minorities, students in combined classes as well as other students and teachers, especially those who teach languages, art, music, and other subjects that can correlate with literature. The 1st mobility was held for teachers, and the other 4 for students. 2 teachers from each partner school attended the first mobility hosted by a Croatian school. The 2nd and 3rd mobility were held online. The hosts were schools from N. Macedonia and the Czech Republic. Given that the mobilities were organized online, a larger number of participants was involved than planned by the project. Specifically, on the 2nd mobility 66 students and 22 teachers, and on the 3rd mobility 123 students and 26 teachers. The listed number of participants is without included mobility hosts. The other 2 mobilities were organized physically in Greece and Latvia. 27 students accompanied by 10 teachers participated in the 4th, and 15 students accompanied by 11 teachers participated in the 5th mobility. The implementation of mobility activities lasted 5 working days (without travel). The achieved results of this cooperation were higher motivation and students' interest in reading, developed reading habits, increased level of students' confidence, developed students’ critical opinions, and increased educational opportunities, especially for those belonging to sensitive groups. Students developed ICT competencies using digital tools, especially during online mobilities when they had a chance to see the positive side of technology using it for educational purposes. Teachers fulfilled their education and enriched their teaching methods with innovative and creative approaches and technologies by exchanging experiences and using a brochure with examples of the interpretation of literary works and creative lesson videos. All the new experiences will be included in the curriculum of each school. The project activities will continue even after the project period, as both teachers and students will pass the acquired competencies on within the school and use them regularly. Being aware of the fact that the problem of reduced interest in reading cannot be solved only during the project period, we plan to use a systematic approach to the problem and continue with the project even after its formal completion. The acquired knowledge and skills will have a long-term impact as the project results will be used continuously at the school level and will, therefore, improve the development of the school, as well as the local and broader community.