With the partnersip of 5 different schools from Lithuania, Turkey, Poland and Romania and Greece our project begins in September 2019 Reading skills constitute a major part of the curriculum for every school. Due to the fact that there is a common deficiency and poorness in developing reading literacy, our project provides solutions for potential problems based on learning, teaching and educational activities which are local and beyond national. Like the other projects that we have carried out up to now, our main objective is to develop the consciousness for reading. The goal of this project is to provide versatile labour techniques for primary and secondary school students by creating opportunities to activate their vocabulary and to avoid some basic problems which cause them to fail in their school lives. There are some other specific goals of our project, too. One of them is to create a lifelong reading rhythm for children in order to improve their learning competence. Moreover, we would like to make the students beware of the world in which they live, by developing the literacy competence based on literary and non-literary texts. Low secondary school students and teachers will directly benefit from this project. In order to take part in short-term exchanges, 48 students, between 12 and 15 years old, have been chosen. In addition, there will be 24 teachers taking part in their training activities. Other students and the rest of the teachers in our partner schools will indirectly benefit from our project. Furthermore, the parents of partner school students will also be able to make use of it. In this project, there will be 763 students and 68 teachers. We will be able to have the chance to welcome our guests, who are local writers (on efor each country), ex-students in the participant schools (at least three for each), librarians and booksellers in the activities that will be held during the project. The activities that we have planned are the formation of libraries in every classroom, introduction of literary book in schools, conferences with the writers, selection and formation of project teams, visiting local libraries and bookshops, using latest technologies to develop reading skills, watching movies and plays of well-known books, making students write their own stories, reading sessions with families and writing brochures so as to improve reading awareness. There will be several important outcomes of this project: students will exchange their experiences, all partner schools will form their own reading clubs in order to make their students read literary and non-literary books, reading will become much more attractive for students, students will be encouraged by the writers for reading and writing as well, all the partner schools will have their own newspapers and magazines, students will also be encouraged to speak English with the partner school students, there will be English-speaking-clubs in every participant school. The results will be: Students will be encouraged to read more. Students will develop their reading skills. Students will speak not only their local language but also English. Students will have a wider perspective of the world they live in. Students will communicate with people from different countries. Students will have greater self-esteem and self-awareness. Students will have the chance to adapt themselves to new lifestyles. Teachers will create a more qualified education environment. Teachers will share their experiences. Teachers will be more effective while teaching reading skills. Teachers will get to know the teaching methods of other countries. Teachers will improve the quality and diversity of teaching materials. Teachers and students will create an environment for cooperation. Teachers and students will have the chance to develop their ICT skills. Teachers and students will be more creative and innovational. Teachers and students will improve their communication skills. Parents will be more careful about their children in terms of reading. Parents will be more supportive to encourage their children to read more.
Our project started as a partnership among Romania, Turkey, Poland and Lithuania and Greece, but has spread to many different countries. Reading skills are part of the curriculum for all schools. Although there is a common inadequacy and inefficiency in promoting reading, writing and literacy, our project offers potential solutions to current problems we face regularly through learning, teaching and training activities at the local and transnational level. We can say that our project, which we started for this purpose and started with excitement, was interrupted a little in the middle of it, unfortunately, due to the pandemic. Although it seemed difficult to implement the aims of our project, we have no doubt that it gave us a new vision, since we came across a time when everyone had to stay at home and technological devices changed their reading and reading habits. In addition, we can say that the world of technology has a positive effect on children's vocabulary. We can say that we had a lot of time to catch the reading rhythm, which is one of the special goals of our project. While our students' sharing the works of important personalities in their own cultures helps us to catch an intercultural rhythm, we can say that the vast world between these five countries has begun to go beyond the age by fitting into a tiny library. For example, seeing the students who gained the ability to read and understand an interaction between different languages, and above all to interpret, and to see that they started to try to communicate with each other in their own language, was one of the best examples of how this reading rhythm exceeded the limits. . Although we planned 12-15 year old students and 24 teachers in this project, the number of educators and students who indirectly benefited from the project in each short-term relocation was much higher. For example, in a school we went to, we can say that a wide audience was reached because the whole school supported the project in a carnival atmosphere. Every school we go to can seem like it has evolved into a huge library. Visits to many areas such as school libraries, local libraries, huge university libraries have also reinforced students and provided tangible benefits for multidimensional thinking and comparison. The activities we suggested at the beginning of the project were, so to speak, very uninspired. The project partner countries worked so devotedly that, for example, each school had a project corner, as well as preparations such as carnival in all schools, and images like a reading festival were obtained. However, everyone could have made the project feel trapped in a narrow space, even in their own school, by making a project corner of the specified size. Going beyond that, he spread his reading and reading habits to the classrooms and the entire school, creating a very beautiful unity. In addition, the theaters, plays, e-books and video dramas examined were good examples of being conscious of the event as a whole staff. When we came to the results part of the project, we saw that these five countries already had a common library in a broad perspective. Isn't it the most concrete example of the fact that the foundations of the reading rhythm we are trying to provide were laid centuries ago, when students brought each other the literary works presented by their friends in their own language during the last library trip we made? But what if the awareness of students who decided to become a writer after the end of the project, or who wanted to publish their own e-books, or who wanted to give graphic support to the book that their friend wanted to write, was awakened? Artists who discovered their talents after the animations and recordings, children who want to go on their visual presentations and become directors, the adaptation of the books to life and therefore the success of the project? After the end of our project, our students will be able to deliver the project to wider masses as well as social media through the www.wereadthereforeweare.com platform, which we will prepare in order not to lose the communication and this reading rhythm, and to be able to inspire others while producing connected projects such as e twinning. will continue on its behalf. Who knows, the best results of our achievements will be the book that one of the project participants will publish in 5 years. The results will be: Students was encouraged to read more. Students developed their reading skills. Students spoke not only their local language but also English. Students have had a wider perspective of the world they live in. Students have been communicating with people from different countries. Students have had greater self-esteem and self-awareness. Students have had the chance to adapt themselves to new lifestyles. Teachers have created a more qualified education environment. Teachers have been sharing their experiences. Teachers have been more effective while teaching reading skills. Teachers have learned the teaching methods of other countries. Teachers have improved the quality and diversity of teaching materials. Teachers and students have created an environment for cooperation. Teachers and students have had the chance to develop their ICT skills. Teachers and students have been more creative and innovational. Teachers and students have improved their communication skills. Parents have been more careful about their children in terms of reading. Parents have been more supportive to encourage their children to read more.