Our project "Similarities and Differences in Norwegian and German literature" involves two schools, Ringsaker Videregaende Scole and Erftgymnasium Bergheim, and has already started as an email project. Since the Norwegian students are currently discussing German fairy tales in their German lessons, we decided to deal with the genre fairy tales first. And because almost all of the German students are familiar with the fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, but did not know anything about Norwegian fairy tales, it was a good starting point to get to know more about Norwegian authors like Alf Proysen or Asbjörnsen/Moe and then to exchange information and share reading experiences concerning Norwegian and German fairy tales via email. Because our students were highly motivated right from the start - and still are - we decided to continue the project and deal with series in part II as well as apply for an erasmus+ programme (adding the topic classic and contemporary Norwegian and German literature for part III). One of the main goals of our project is to arouse our students´ interest in the literature of our partnership country and give them an insight into selected historical developments and current affairs by choosing suitable literary texts. At the same time we want our students to have a closer look at chosen literary examples from their own country and learn more about how they are perceived in another European country. Our project languages are English (used as a lingua franca) and German (taught as a foreign language in Norway) and will be equally used. It is one of our central objectives to use these languages in a practical and authentic context. Moreover, we would like to give our students the opportunity to be creative (at the moment the German students are preparing while-watching tasks for the German series Deutschland ´83 for their Norwegian partners, while the Norwegian students are going to do the same thing for their partners for a Norwegian production). Of course, the aspect of forming friendships is also very important for us. The 23 Norwegian students attend the German lessons given by Mrs. Austvik and are 15 to 17 years old. The currently 15 German project participants all attend year 10 at the moment and have volunteered to take part in this "school club". The project idea was presented to the whole year 10 (ca. 150 students) and students will still be allowed to join the project at a later stage. After one year, roughly after the second AUL, the project idea as well as the first results will be presented in year 10 and new groups will be formed. The project idea will remain the same, but small adjustments regarding the chosen main focuses (e.g. films instead of series) or slight changes concerning our methodoligy might be made. In part I our students have already dealt with fairy tales, and for example presented their favourite German fairy tale, read a fairy tale written by Asbjörnsen/Moe and exchanged emails concerning their similarities and differences. In the second part, we are now dealing with the pilot episodes of the German series Deutschland ´83 and the Norwegian series Lykke Land, both dealing with important historical periods in our two countries (the Cold War and living in the FRG vs. the GDR one the one Hand and the discovery of oil fields in Norway in the 1960s and how it shaped the Country on the other hand). After that we are going to extend the spectrum and our pupils will present their favourite German or Norwegian series respectively. The main focus in part III will be put on classic literature (e.g. Ibsen vs. Goethe) and contemporary literature (e.g. Nesbö or Knausgard vs. Stanisic or Kling) or maybe song lyrics in the second year of our project. We would like to use the AULs to create a homepage with tips for Norwegian and German fairy tales, series and books (which will be updated in the course of the project; blog entries made during the AULs could also be added). Field trips will help to gain a deeper insights into the topics we are going to deal with (e.g.to the Pröysenhuset in Ringsaker or the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn). Among other things, we are planning to organise a literature fair during our second AUL in Bergheim, where we will attempt to give an overview of contemporary Norwegian and German literature and present various passages from interesting novels. In the long run, we hope to deepen our cooperation by carrying out further projects. Former projects our schools did with other schools, have shown us how beneficial they are for everyone involved and that they lead to more open-mindedness. Since our idea is a "universal" one, it can easily be transferred to other countries/regions (at least most parts of it). The two years´ duration of our project would allow us to establish a deeper bonding of our schools as well as allow us to make little adjustments and improvements where necessary and therefore guarantee a higher quality of the envisaged outpu
The joint project of the two schools Ringsaker Videregående Skole and Erftgymnasium Bergheim, "Similarities and Differences in Norwegian and German Literature", was began even before the project started with an active exchange of letters and emails. At the beginning of the project, the students worked with the topic of fairy tales in their German lessons. That's why we used that as a starting point for the project. The German and Norwegian students thus had the opportunity to exchange and compare their fairy tales and literary history. The students found some differences, but many similarities in the literature of our countries. They learned about the Brothers Grimm, Asbjørnsen and Moe and Alf Prøysen, among others. Since the students found the exchange via e-mail to be motivating, we wanted to develop the cooperation further and applied for the Erasmus+ project. The students who took part in the exchange were all between 15 and 18 years old. The Norwegian students attended the German lessons of Ms. Austvik and her German as a foreign language colleagues and attended different grades of the Ringsaker Videregående, where the majority of the students involved were in the 2nd grade of the upper school. The partner students of the Erftgymnasium where in the 10th grade at the time of the exchange and took part in the project through being participants in an AG. The AG was open to all year groups. After a year we changed the group and recruited new students, mainly from the newer years. The project ideas remained largely the same, even if slight thematic adjustments were made (e.g. films instead of series). Other topics were e.g. contemporary literature and song lyrics, always with an emphasis on the respective cultural similarities and differences. The project has allowed us to delve deeper into the respective literature, culture and art of our countries and to see them in a larger historical and European context and from a different perspective. At the same time, our students got a unique opportunity to practice their English as a lingua franca and German as a foreign language, which was a great motivation for many of the students. Especially the visits and project weeks in the respective countries were very motivating and for many a special reason to get involved in the project, since they would need the knowledge and preparations from the email/letter exchange for this. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we had to change or cancel most of the exchanges, which was a great loss. We were able to partially replace some of the exchanges with a few project days and ultimately, we were only able to organize one mutual visit. On the digital project days, the students created great series/film proposals in small groups and presented them to each other and the teachers. For example, they made book, series and film pitches on different cultural and historical topics that fit our project. They had to invent roles, plots, points of conflict in the series/films/books and also had to be able to explain and justify them. Thereby they used and practiced their creativity, cultural understanding and foreign language skills. During the school year, and often the school year before, the students have had several exchanges of letters on different topics. The letters had different purposes. Several of the topics and letters have led us to work with different German and Norwegian films, series and literature in advance, before being able to write/meet digitally. Ms. Austvik's German students also worked with the project for the most part in class, not just the specific students who ultimately took part in the digital project days or the visit to Germany/Norway, but all their classes as well as the other German as a foreign language classes of the Ringsaker Videregående. During regular project work, the students compared, for example, excerpts from literature by the Brothers Grimm and Asbjørnsen and Moe or Ibsen and Goethe, dealt with European history through the series "Deutschland 83" or with the respective youth culture with the series "How to sell drugs online fast" and "Skam". The students who took part were very excited about the opportunity and praised the project. Many have also recommended it to the younger students. Several of the students are also in contact with their project partners after the project. That is why we would like to continue and develop the cooperation so that more students have the opportunity to participate and gain knowledge, experience and contacts for life. For this reason, we have applied for a new application for our cooperation.