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"The Travelling Story of the European Teenager" TRA.STO.TEEN
 * **BILATERAL COMENIUS project** under the **Lifelong Learning Programme** to be developed during the period **1.08.2010-31.07.2012 **
 * it is a project between two schools- **//"Aurel Popp" Art High School from Romania//** (//project coordinator) and// **//IES Juan López Morillas from Spain//** //(project partner)//
 * The project has been funded with support from the European Commission


 * SUMMARY of the project **

This Partnership is about developing literacy skills. It wants to make students read more, create and write their own story. The first year focuses on encouraging students to read Romanian and Spanish books that deal with teenage life. The project teams select the passages that portrait the youth life, identify the teenagers’ features depicted, make the general portrait of the fictitious character. These passages and reading comprehension activities are gathered in an optional literary course. A new pedagogical method for teaching literature is issued- 'old' classical themes to be recreated, 'up-dated' by the nowadays students. Students draw the characters’ portraits and organize an exhibition with them. They have a debate about the role of books. A dictionary with literary terms and every day expressions in six languages and school library reports are elaborated. Questionnaires to evaluate students’ knowledge about the two countries, their interest in reading books and their English knowledge will be implemented throughout the whole project. Web site and forum are created. In the second year students create their own story of the European teenager. It has the project’s title. One school starts the story, then it is continued by the partner school. The story travels between the two schools-countries. The chapters are written alternatively except the end- created by common teams. Then they dramatize it. The story and the play are written in Romanian, Spanish and English. Their story is made as a digital book too. The joint end products are the literary course, the book, digital book, the play performed by mixed nationalities teams. There will be an exhibition of the book, of dictionary and materials to encourage reading. Final and evaluation reports are made.

**PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY**

Project activities will follow the specific objectives of the LLP: to promote creativity, to promote language learning and linguistic diversity, to encourage the best use of results, innovative products and processes, to promote cooperation and intercultural dialogue. It addresses the following priorities: improving literacy skills, motivation and learning to learn skills. Other concrete objectives are: to help students (re)discover the taste of reading, get better school results, plan, develop activities and critical thinking, to improve vocabulary and literacy skills, to develop the European dimension of education, to promote LLP, to improve teamwork abilities, to provide teachers and schools with modern teaching methods, to improve foreign languages and IT skills, to offer students and teachers a unique lifetime experience.

Society seems to have replaced books with commercials and TV shows. Students are not to be blamed for this, as their parents, who should be their first role models, do the same. It is a fact that many teenagers lack communication abilities, have poor vocabulary because of less reading. Another problem to be addressed: because of a dense school curriculum, there are a few activities to improve literacy, foreign language skills and critical thinking. The project wants to improve literature classes- by providing a literature course to help teachers but also art, foreign languages and IT classes. Students have to acquire IT skills, but we, as educators can show them that originality, the world of words may go hand in hand with the world of computers.

To achieve our objectives, students are helped to read and enjoy books. They debate on the value of reading; communicate, share experiences, ideas, arguments, opinions. This helps them improve their native language and stimulates their imagination. By writing a story they develop their creativity, vocabulary and literacy skills. They improve their language skills by reading, creating materials and communicating in English, translate them into different languages. They create the web site, forum, digital book, write a dictionary, a story and play. They are also involved in creating the optional literature course. Students and teachers work in teams during all activities. They learn from their peers throughout the partnership and from mixed nationalities groups. The project helps schools’ prestige and develops their European dimension through cooperation between partner schools.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein