Project Factsheet

 

ASIA-EUROPE CLASSROOM (AEC)
INTERNATIONAL TEACHERS’ CONFERENCE

 

 

NAME: DANIELA IANNI / Email: danielaianni@aliceposta.it 

NAME AND CONTACT DETAILS OF HIGH SCHOOL OR SECONDARY SCHOOL:
ITIS “Stanislao Cannizzaro” (secondary school):
Via Consolare Latina 263, 00034 Colleferro (Roma), Italy
Tel: 0039 0697200405, Fax: 0039 0697236577. Email: danielaianni@aliceposta.it  

 

PROJECT NAME: THE WORLD IN A BOOK


PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

 

This project consists of reading activities to be carried out in tandem: the students of two classes of different nationalities share the experience of reading and analysing a literary work written in English and developing its main issues. The books can be novels, short stories, essays, collections of poems, or any other literary genre. The point is in that the students are really interested in the book chosen or proposed, in the issues it contains and in collaborating with foreign partners in order to:

  •  exchange opinions and ideas about the themes, characters, settings, events, style, language and all the relevant elements of the book

  •  find the most effective procedures to negotiate and mediate with the partners with the aim of producing common assignments and webpages concerning both the analysis of the book and the personal development of the topics they are mainly interested in.
Step 1 (Approximately September and October) :

 

The coordinator of the project updates the Website of the project. It contains:

  • the description and the schedule of the project

  • a link to the project general forum and chat room where the teachers can meet, see the proposals of the others, suggest their own ones, and finally find the school partner to create the tandem and start reading the book they have chosen

  • an updated list of books that the participating schools suggest

  • a form to propose new books to be added in the list

  • (when the tandems are formed) a specific Webpage for each tandem containing information about the schools and a links to their forum and diary .

 

Step 2 (Approximately November to February)

The school tandems start reading their books according to a time schedule they devise. At the very beginning of the project the students meet on their forum and exchange information about themselves and the country/town where they live, then a discussion area is opened on the forum about their first impressions on what they are reading. The discussion is guided by the teachers, who also exchange emails to check and fit the project schedule to the schools' timetable and tutor the forum activities.
The students complete the reading.
The exchanges in the forum go on and extend to more detailed discussions on the book. The teachers can open new discussion areas  according to the the students’ needs and interests and go on guiding and stimulating the exchanges .The final aim of this interaction phase is to establish the topics from the book that are relevant to the students and that will be developed in written work in the next step.
The tandems finish reading the book.
 


Step 3 (Approximately March to 15 April)

The students form mixed-nationality pairs (or small groups) who work both on single chapters/parts of the book and on the themes established.
In this phase they use only their personal email accounts because each pair must have a separate way of communication to create their work . The aim of the pairs' interaction in this phase is to collaborate in order to find an agreement on the working method and produce a common written work.The teachers guide the students' activities and correct their final works. The students have to find the best way of negotiating and working together. The teachers can make suggestions about methods and procedures to follow.

 

 

 

Step 4 (Approximately 15 April to end of May)

 

All the materials producedby the tandems (analyses and final works+information about the author, the full text of the book if it is available on the Web, links to other websites concerning the book, etc.) are organized in hypertext form and published in the website of the project . It is preferable the webpages are built by the students, possiblly collaboratively, in case this is not possible the  coordinator will do it. The final aim of this phase is to create as many websites as the  books have been read during the year. The homepage of the project will become a cyber library in which a number of books are presented, analysed, discussed and developed cross-culturally.
 

 


 

RATIONALE FOR THE PROJECT:


The cooperative projects with foreign partners are a bright example of new technologies of communication applied to English language teaching. Online communication is an ideal support to the communicative approach, which is based on the equation "language = communication", on the analysis of the learners' language and communicative needs, on the meaningfulness and the precise individuation of the communicative aims of the language activities.


The only problem, but at the same time also the most challenging aspect, is in that this kind of activities are often unpredictable and risk taking. But this is also the beauty of the experience, since unpredictability, speed, and extreme flexibility make it very motivating and meaningful to the learners.


Moreover these activities bring the teachers into play and often force them to face topics which are as new to them as they are to their students, and so completely change their role: they become co-ordinators, guides, tutors


Paradoxically virtual communication gives the English language teachers the opportunity to foster real communication. In the usual class simulations (role plays, information gap activities, etc.) communication is only realistic, that is similar to reality, but not felt by the students as real.


In collaborative projects the real class is enlarged to become a bigger learning community made up of teachers and students in presence plus teachers and students at a distance. They have tasks to accomplish by using a common language (English) and a common learning environment (the Internet).
A collaborative project concerning literature contains also the added value of a further type of communication: the messages coming from the writers and their vision of the world in which the students can find elements to share, to consider, or to adverse, a high discussion basis which can allow the young generations to develop their own vision of the world.

 

EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION FROM ASIAN AND EUROPEAN SCHOOLS/STUDENTS:

personal contributions to the discussions and the development of the themes derived from the books, containing also elements related to their specific culture, lifestyle, values, and vision of the world

MINIMUM NUMBER OF SCHOOLS/STUDENTS INVOLVED:


2 SCHOOLS/40 STUDENTS per each book

PROPOSED DURATION OF PROJECT:


Each tandem can decide the duration of their collaborative project according to the text they choose, their curriculum, their school organization etc. In any case the whole project starts in September with the updating of the Website. All the collaborations can start in different periods of the year but shoul be concluded within the end of May.
 


ICT TOOLS/ SOFTWARE REQUIRED:
Web server space for the project Homepage
Microsoft FrontPage or other Webpage editors
Web resources: