Programy Europejskie jako pomoc w nauczaniu języka angielskiego dzieci w szkole podstawowej na podstawie Projektu Comenius "Podróżujące opowieści 2010-2012"

Programy Europejskie jako pomoc
w nauczaniu języka angielskiego dzieci w szkole podstawowej na podstawie Projektu Comenius
„Podróżujące opowieści 2010-2012”

European Union Programmes
for Education: Teaching English
to Young Learners Based on Comenius Project „Travelling stories 2010-2012”

The main conclusions and consequences
of the monitoring and evaluation

written by
Kornelia Pokorniecka
 
Introduction
“The teacher should take into account all possible paths
that lead to opening minds and use them appropriately in all circumstances”
Jan Amos Komensky

School is a "greenhouse" that shapes the character, values, skills, talents and actions of successive generations of citizens of the world. In this respect, the school itself is a world. Jan Amos Komenský (Comenius), an educator from Czech who lived in the seventeenth century, whose name derives from the name of the project of the EU, believed that "schools must be open to the world." Guided by this idea, the Council of Europe highlights the importance of learning foreign languages as a priority in its politics, because the ability to use foreign languages realizes the fundamental objectives of the Community. Without understanding and agreement we cannot talk about cooperation, collaboration or co-creation of any common values.
The paper describes how schools are jointly implementing the Comenius project, and how it is presented to the students and teachers involved in the project. This chapter answers the question of how international project can affect the development of language skills, encourage and motivate learners to learning. It also focuses on the benefits of storytelling methods and how to deal with encountered problems.
The paper is also about the benefits that result from the project, the benefits to the school and how the implementation of project tasks affects the development of students and teachers.
1. Presentation of the Comenius Project “Traveling stories”
In the years 2010 – 2012 the Comenius project, “Travelling stories”, was carried out by the following 14 European schools: Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Portugal, United Kingdom, Ireland and Poland.
Each of the 14 participating primary schools was represented by their own story character - a little (toy) figure - which reflected the school’s region, culture and traditions. Each school had a book with the beginning of an interesting story about this figure and started to tell a story in which the subject was a problem to be solved. At the second school the children continued the story and sent it to the third school and so on. All participating schools helped solve this task in different ways.
Fitting it to the content or the continuation of the stories, the schools also gave information about typical social, geographic, historical and cultural conditions in their countries. The rotation of these story characters strategically around Europe was at heart of this project. This in turn provided a real, concrete stimulus for the schools to develop the children's writing skills. All partners agreed that creative writing skills was the learning area in which the children needed more experience in order to raise their literacy skills. They hoped to create an interesting and exciting ethos to this project in order to encourage children to reach their full potential in literacy.
All stories were published in real books which had gone through the hands of pupils in many countries and came back in the end to the children who started the story. The same texts and pictures documenting the work were also published on the website so that everyone could follow the continuation of all stories. At the end of the long journey each school received a filled book and the toy figure (maybe with friends it had met on the way or other souvenirs). These story books are supposed to be used in the participating schools, their neighbourhood schools and libraries after the completion of the project for reading purposes.
The 14 schools worked together as part of a multilateral partnership. The children of the participating schools creatively worked together for two years on the stories and also learned a lot about other countries in Europe.
The project used a storytelling method and explored the creative writing element while incorporating also traditional story figures.
This project allowed and enabled the implementation of tasks by combining the knowledge and skills in various fields and subjects. To integrate as many children as possible, tasks were varied and tailored to all ages.
This project allowed everyone to work, with the incorporation of drama, role play, music, art, ICT, geography, knowledge and a better understanding of the world.
The teacher chose a subject that would allow the children (ages 3 – 15) to work as independently as possible. The figures provided identification and an emotional touch. The continuity of the stories awoke a strong interest in the whole project it also ensured that all children participated actively.
Another objective of the partnership was to remove cultural barriers between European countries. This was effectively achieved by enhancing the knowledge and understanding of the partner countries’ cultures, languages, environments etc. Partners did this in a fun and motivational manner through the exchange of story characters, which was accompanied by detailed descriptions and information about the country it had been sent from.
The final partnership objective was to combine creativity with information and communication technology. All schools involved used E-Twinning as a platform for communication; it provided an effective and efficient exchange of information. With the use of E-Twinning, the pupils’ writing was accompanied with photographs or drawings which were uploaded and shared to keep the interest and the momentum of the communication alive.
The aim of the following chapter is to present all participating schools (i.e. the schools’ heroes, mission or problems to solve).
2. Participants in the Comenius Project and their travelling characters

2.1. Ernst-Reuter-Schule, Neu-Eichenberg, Germany
Ernst-Reuter-Schule is a small rural primary school. They have some pupils with special needs, but no migrant or foreign speaking families at all. As they are also called "European School of Hessia" they try to prepare their pupils for their future with many contacts to schools and pupils all around Europe. For more than 10 years they have had a pupils exchange program.
In this school, a teacher with 38 years’ experience in the profession was responsible for the realization of the project. He is a German, English, arts and science teacher. The project involved a group of 42 pupils ages from 7 to 10 years old.
The hero who represented this school was Hans in Luck, from a fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm, who lived in their region. Hans is travelling around and exchanging things, no matter what value things have. Once he came to hell and got banned: he should travel through 13 countries, stand 13 adventures and exchange 13 things, otherwise he would never ever get back home.
2.2. Mølkærskolen, Munkebo, Denmark
Mølkærskolen is a primary school with more than 400 pupils at the age of 6-16. The school is situated in a small town connected to a big shipyard. They have many well-functioning pupils, but also a big percentage of children with social and personal problems. Most of them go to normal classes and a few attend a special class. Most pupils and families are Danish. They don´t meet other ethnical groups to widen their intercultural knowledge and understanding. They teach three foreign languages: English, German and French. This year they offer Spanish as an extra subject as well. Pupils start to learn English in the 3rd grade (9 years oldIn this school, 4 teachers, with from 4 to 35 years’ teaching experience, were responsible for the project. They all teach Danish. Two of them are also teachers of English. The project involved a group of 102 pupils ages from 10 to 12 years old.
Heroes who represented this school were Søren and Mette. They are farm pixies from Denmark. A farm pixy lives on a farm and helps the farmer tend the animals on the farm. Farm pixies like children best but not many adults have seen farm pixies. It is as if something happens to children when they grow up so they no longer believe in pixies. Søren and Mette were born on the farm from the book “The Ugly Duckling”. They traveled around the world with Hans Christian Andersen. When Hans Christian Andersen died they moved back to the farm where they were born. They stayed there for many years. They often talked about how wonderful it was to travel with H.Ch. Andersen, to get out to see the world, so they were lucky to once again travel around Europe to collect fairytales or stories and pass them on.
They started off from Denmark in search of peace. They saw a lot on their way, met friendly people and beautiful scenery.
2.3. Általános Iskola, Szigetcsép, Hungary
Általános Iskola is situated in a small rural village on a Danube island. The elementary school operates with 162 students with 8 class. They have 4 groups living there together: Hungarians, Serbs, Germans and Gypsies. 10 % of pupils are underprivileged and have to be supported by school and local government. Pupils in this school learn German and the Serbian Language. Unfortunately at this school English is not.
In this school, 2 teachers with 20 years of experience in the profession were in charge of the project. They are German and art teachers. The project involved a group of 50 pupils ages from 10 to 15 years old.
The hero who represented this school was Kimi the horse boy who helped the poor in the vicinity of the nine-hole bridge on Hortobágy and he was hiding in the marshy region. He was very fond of his chestnut horse Kópé and his beautiful wife, Piroska. In the 1800’s, horse boys rode on horseback and stood for poor and fallen people. In order to protect them, the horse boys sometimes did illegal things. In generally, they were prosecuted by the law, therefore they took shelter in the open air in everyday life. They knew all about nature.
Nobody was hurt by Kimi. He would only watch animals and plants with eyes wide-open. Sometimes he would sit on the bank of the Danube for days and watch fish and birds. He liked the landscape such as reeds, sedges, acacia woods, vine arbours as far as the eyes could see. Kimi horse boy got on his horse and started the discovery of Europe.
2.4. Scoala cu clasele 1-VIII, Slimnic, Romania
The elementary school from Slimnic is situated in the countryside. From an administrative point of view, there are three schools, the first in Slimnic, the second and third in Rusi and Veseudi villages. In total, there are 430 students. Due to the historic background, the students of Slimnic school study German and English languages.
In this school, 5 teachers with 15 years’ experience were responsible for the realization of the project. They are Romanian and English teachers. The project involved a group of 65 pupils at the beginning, but all the pupils from the school were interested in the project and their number reached 90. They were at the ages from 11 to 15 years old.
The hero who represented this school was Martinel, a bear who travels through different countries to find his relatives. He was looking for living conditions of bears in other countries in the wild or in zoos.
2.5. Sredno Obshtoobrazovatelno Uchilishte “LyubenKaravelov”, Vidin, Bulgaria
‘Lyuben Karavelov Secondary School’ is situated in the Northwest of Bulgaria in the town of Vidin. It is a big school with 750 students. They start learning English at the age of 6 or 7.
In this school, 8 teachers with 11 years’ experience were responsible for the project. They are English, IT or primary teachers. The project involved a group of 60 pupils ages from 7 to 11.
The Hero who represented this school was Hitar Peter. Hitar Petar is artful (clever like common people), kind-hearted, witty, brave, and knows how to get out of every situation. Hitar Petar is a popular hero in Bulgarian folk tales and is found in hundreds of stories set during the Ottoman yoke (1393-1878). His “partner” is the Turkish hodja, Nastradin, who usually plays the part of the canny fool; the interaction between the two involves friendly jokes containing no malice. During the twentieth century, a number of famous Bulgarian authors had adapted some of the stories about Hitar Petar into novels. He is a stereotypical representation of the poor Bulgarian villager, who always finds a way to ridicule the greedy rich people.
2.6. Capa Atatürk Ilkogretim Okulu, Istanbul, Turkey
Capa Atatürk Ilkogretim Okulu is one of Istanbul's well-known primary schools with nearly 2000 students. Their students are mainly the children of wealthy families. The school employs 80 teachers.
In this school, 4 teachers with 12 years’ experience were responsible for the project. They are English teachers. The project involved a group of 120 pupils ages from 11 to 14 years old.
The hero who represented this school was Nasrettin Hoca, a famous philosopher and wise man who is ready to reply to every question. His physical appearance reflects his wisdom and sense of humour. He is short and a little bit chubby. He is also compassionate and friendly. Even though he is short, with the help of the big hat on his head he looks like a huge man. He solves problems by using his intelligence and he makes people happy. He is responsible for solving the riddle of a mysterious fountain. He embarks on a journey in search of guidance.
2.7. 6th Primary School, Tyrnavos, Greece
6TH Primary School of Tirnavos is a rural school. It is an (informal) multicultural school as almost 30% of the school population belongs either to Roma families that have recently settled in the area or immigrants from Albania, Romania or Russia that work in the local farms. Most of these students need extra teaching session and support to cope with their academic responsibilities.
In this school, 6 teachers with 20 years’ experience were responsible for the project. They are English and art teachers. The project involved a group of 70 pupils ages from 6 to 12 years old.
The heroes who represented this school were Phevos and Apollo. Phevos was the Olympic games mascot in 2004 and Special Olympics 2011. When the games were over he returned back to his normal life as being a student of primary school. The two friends enjoyed talking about people they met from all over the world and shared stories, fables and legends they had collected. They realized that they still needed more to collect in order to fill in a mythological atlas of Europe. So they decided to start traveling around Europe and find the myths.
2.8. Osnovna skola, Brodarica, Croatia
Primary school Brodarica is situated in Brodarica, a little place near Šibenik. It is a small school with 250 pupils.
They have no participants with specific needs, migrants or refugees. In this school, 5 teachers with 5 years’ experience were responsible for the project. They are mainly teachers of English and Italian. The project involved a group of 40 pupils ages from 9 to 14 years old.
The hero who represented this school was Cvita, a little sponge, who escaped the fishermen because he didn’t want to be turned into a decoration for someone’s bathroom. Being free he decided to become a sponge explorer. She is looking for beautiful landscapes and natural beauties in the countries that she visits.
2.9. Scuola Primaria Odorico, Pordenone, Italy
Scuola Primaria Odorico is a primary school in Pordenone. They have some pupils with special needs, and migrant or foreign speaking families. As they have so many different cultures in their school they want to develop the sense of a multicultural society and they want to give a chance to their pupils to be connected with other European Countries.
In this school, 2 teachers with 7 and 39 years’ experience in the profession were responsible for the project. They are Italian, English, history, geography, P.I. and art teachers. The project involved a group of 40 pupils ages from 9 to 10 years old.
The hero who represented this school is a doll. Stella is a 10 years-old-girl who likes wild berries. She is a little rock climber so she is looking for mountains and places to climb. She is also looking for a flower, which her name come from, edelweiss.
2.10.Escola Básica do Primeiro Ciclo da Torre, Cascais, Portugal
Escola Básica do Primeiro Ciclo da Torre, most its students live in a poor neighborhood with many associated social problems. Families support is very low because most of the parents don't believe that school is the most important opportunity for a better future to their children. Several students are at risk of social exclusion. There are students from seven different nationalities, children of immigrants. 5 students with autism attend this school.
In this school, 1 teacher with 20 years’ experience in the profession was in charge of the project. She is a primary teacher. The project involved a group of 25 pupils ages from 8 to 9 years old.
The hero who represented this school was the little pirate Papa Milhas who once saw a big, big rock being swallowed by the sea, with a white horse and a couple riding on it. He decided to follow the horse in his ship to find the missing couple.
2.11. Clifford Road Primary School, Ipswich, United Kingdom
Clifford Road Primary School is a large Urban Primary school with over 400 pupils ranging from 3 to 11 years old. Their pupils cover the full range of economic backgrounds and they currently have 17 different languages spoken within school. The largest ethnic minorities are from the Polish and Bangladeshi communities but they have many children from Eastern Europe, including especially Albania, Lithuania and Latvia.
In this school, 4 teacher with 10 years’ experience in the profession were responsible for the project. They are English and primary teachers. The project involved a group of 50 pupils ages from5 to 9 years old.
The hero who represented this school was Orinoco, a womble, a creature that collects things that people throw away and uses them with other wombles. Orinoco is also collecting stories from children about the myths and legends that are local to the towns and villages that he is visiting.
2.12. Edgware Infant and Nursery School, London, United Kingdom
Edgware Infant & Nursery School is located in an urban area of North London. It has a very high proportion of children who speak English as an additional language (78%) and an even higher proportion of children who are of an ethnic minority background (88%). There are around 50 different languages spoken amongst their community; a variety of African, Asian and European languages. They have many children who arrive mid phase with no English from overseas - many from Romania. They have a very large community of Afghan children who speak Pashtu or Dari. Many of their children arrive with Asylum seeking or Refugee status.
In this school, 12 teachers with 14 years’ experience are responsible for the project. They are English as an additional language teachers. The project involved a group of 200 pupils ages from 3 to 5 years old.
The hero who represented this school was Paddington Bear. He loves travelling and therefore he is really pleased to be taking part in the Comenius project. This way he gets to travel all over Europe and meet lots of new friends and have lots of adventures.
2.13. St. Olivers National School, Killarney, Ireland
St Olivers NS is a co.educational Catholic school. It has 740 pupils. In these school children learn the Irish, English and French language.
In this school, 50 teachers with 10 - 25 years’ experience were responsible for the realization of the project. They are all subjects teachers. The project involved a group of 740 pupils ages from 4 to 11 years old.
The hero who represented this school is Oisin, a little red deer who lives in the woods near Killarney. Oisin loves listening to nana deer telling him about the adventures and legends of his ancestors. He decides to go on a wonderful journey around Europe to listen and collect stories and legends in other countries.
2.14. Szkoła Podstawowa Nr 8, Kołobrzeg, Poland
Szkoła Podstawowa Nr 8 is situated in the suburbs of the town. Nowadays 566 pupils at the age of 6 to 12 attend the school. The pupils live in the neighbourhood. There are only two children of emigrants from Bulgaria. In the school pupils learn German and the English language.
In this school, 2 teachers with 14 and 22 years’ experience in the profession were in charge of the project. They are German and technology teachers. The project involved a group of 100 pupils ages from 7 to 11 years.
The hero who represented this school was Bodzia, a stork. She lives in a village near Kołobrzeg. She wears a sailor's collar as all the pupils do, and white colors of its feathers and red beak looks like a Polish flag. She has a lot of friends. They are birds and other animals. She likes playing with kids, too. She is very interested in school life, she likes having fun learning new things together with the pupils. So she began her adventure of learning about the children of different nationalities, their native languages and their cultures.
3. Information about the method of storytelling used during project realization
The above presentation shows that the project engaged 107 teachers who cooperated with 1724 students from 14 countries. The age of students ranged from 3 to 15 years, therefore, the teachers used a variety of forms of work and they encountered other problems.
The method of narrative texts in teaching English to children was a well-known method to 60% of the teachers. Only 30% of the teachers worked with this method for the first time. The teachers gained the knowledge about the storytelling methods primarily from English language teaching books or learned about it in college. Not without significance for 14% of the teachers was the knowledge gained from the Internet. 7% of the teachers learned about this method during the project.
The survey showed that over 50% of the teachers used this method very often, not only for project’ tasks. They used it as a complement to other methods of work or occasionally, with the aim to introduce variety into classroom work.
Teachers who were not language teachers applied storytelling method only for the tasks of the project. For none of the teachers, this method was not suitable for working with children as a method of conducting.
Benefits of storytelling approach for pupils and teachers
While implementing the project tasks with the method of storytelling, the teachers noted many advantages of this method. They emphasized that it develops fantasy and creativity. It integrates lots of skills and encourages pupils to use the English language. This method encourages even more timid children to be involved in the work because story reading and storytelling is very creative and imaginative. It can be used for explaining many grammar structures also, not only for vocabulary building.
All the teachers agreed with the accuracy of the claim that the storytelling method produces a positive attitude towards reading skills and 86% of them claimed that it produces a positive attitude towards learning English in children. 86% of teachers thought that the stories have an important educational function. More than half of the teachers agreed with the opinion that this method has a very positive impact on children’s intellectual development (language development, imagination, thinking skills and assessment) and enriches the child’s dictionary with a large number of words, phrases and grammatical structures of the native and English language. The same number of teachers stressed the increase in a positive attitude to writing exercises.
More than 80% of the teachers noticed an increased interest among students in the country and the language of each partner school. The pupils gained a better knowledge of children in other countries and their cultures. Over half of them stressed that the project allowed children to acquire important information about people, ways of life and even encouraged to learn new languages.
Teachers also agreed with the opinion that children were engaged in activities and they liked to work with this method.
For the majority of teachers, working with the storytelling method during the project was enjoyable and working in this way brought pleasing results. It also significantly contributed to their professional development.
Summarizing the opinions of teachers on the method of storytelling, it can be stated that with these method children learn the language and the structure of stories; it also helps to extend children's vocabulary. Through this method we also develop in children passion for stories. Stories are effective educational tools because listeners become engaged and therefore remember better. While the listeners are engaged, they are able to gain new perspectives, inviting a transformative and empathetic experience. Listening to a storyteller can create lasting personal connections, promote innovative problem solving and foster a shared understanding regarding future ambitions. The listener can then activate knowledge and imagine new possibilities. Together a storyteller and a listener can seek best practices and invent new solutions. Teachers also pointed out that through implementing the project in this way, the children learn about stories from other cultures, which raises cultural awareness.
4. Drawbacks of storytelling approach for pupils and teachers
Besides advantages, teachers also emphasized the disadvantages of this method. First of all, the story sometimes brought different social issues to the surface and it had to be very carefully prepared. It was also very time consuming because the schedule was fixed and busy. To prepare one story teachers had only one month, regardless of other school responsibilities. Some stories were more demanding in a sense that they brought much more cultural and historical characteristics that they had to deal with. It required a lot of time to prepare the working materials and sometimes teacher had to cancel other things. During this project there were too many tasks and too short time to work on them. Therefore during the project reading, translation and writing of the stories required a lot of support from their teachers or other people.
Secondly, due to the large number of stories and the fast pace of work it was also a difficult to maintain the constant level of interest. In the middle of the project students felt tired with all the stories but towards the end the enthusiasm was again bigger and bigger, especially because they were expecting their hero arriving home.
Furthermore, the teachers pointed to the need to translate the text into the majority language and the need to adapt the story with the age of the children. These difficult situations forced them to seek creative solutions. Sometimes students engaged other people to assist them or used the Google translator, which sometimes resulted in ridiculous situations. Therefore teachers gave modifications to the story during the implementation of the task.
Most of the teachers used simplification of sentences or children substituted unknown words with other known ones. To help students understand the passage teachers also gave additional sentences and examples, so that they were able to try to read it by themselves even if in a foreign language. The teachers who worked with younger children preferred reading the real books with stories and interpreting them. After that the children retold the stories in their own words because sometimes the English used by the oldest pupils was difficult for the youngest age group. Teachers who worked with the older children did not give the texts any modification.
Moreover, the teachers were totally dependent on the internet and as this failed them so many times it was difficult to maintain the interest throughout the project. Another difficulty was the need to publish stories on the Internet. Tracking the fate of the school hero during the two-year trip was also possible only through the Internet. Inability to read and review real books for children of early school age was a big hurdle. Besides, despite the frequent visits of other heroes, students yearned for their mascots.
Summary
“Much can be learned in play
that will afterwards be of use when the circumstances demand it”
Jan Amos Komensky

All of the activities in the course of the project were more or less done by the students themselves. In this case, the project was easily guided and monitored by the teachers because the children had good English competence and good background knowledge from many other subjects, and above all the students were very engaged and had a lot of passion and ideas. This project was challenging for them in a sense that they could show their creativity and integrate their knowledge from many areas in one single story. The project was engaging and interesting for all pupils, as the story characters allowed them to link together creatively and digitally. All the pupils, from all the age ranges were able to relate to the stories through the story characters as visitors from another European land.
All participants of this project gained awareness of the diversity and the commonalities of the countries around Europe. The participant pupils learned a lot about the countries involved in the project. They gained a sense of belonging to a wider community, they were proud to describe themselves as 'young Europeans'. After this project, the pupils of each school can say "I know ... from Portugal, ... from Denmark" - and this for more than 10 countries! Children would love to travel to these countries. One of the most important outcomes of the project is that the children broadened their European horizons and that the cultural borders were moved.
This project also initiated an increased contact between pupils, ranging from pen friendships through class to class contacts up to former pupils exchanges.
The partnership could also result in good practice in teaching writing, by demonstrating different teaching strategies and showing how much can be achieved through cooperation with colleagues from partner schools.
Due to systematic monitoring and evaluation teachers could observe an emulation among their pupils in terms of participation in English, drawing, geography and computer lessons. The pupils who were less active at the beginning of the project became very interested in contributing to the project. In the classes the teachers observed a an increased attention on the part of the pupils, more questions from them and an increasing amount of individual work done both in class and at home. The writing skills could be improved as children were more motivated in their writing - they had a 'real' purpose to their creation.
Due to the involvement of all the different story characters, the staff and the pupils from all partner schools gained insight into all the different cultures, languages and local environment of many European lands.
All participating schools learned foreign languages, how to teach creativity, learn to learn and use modern technologies in their school programs. The project work was integrated in the schools' curriculums in the subjects such as mother tongue, foreign languages and arts. All schools gained experiences in international contacts with other schools in Europe, including different types of projects. Some of the schools also gained experiences in pupils exchanges. In this way they created another opportunity for learning English, improving interview skills and apply knowledge in practice.
The project work was the pupils’ work as much as possible. Teachers’ help was offered - appropriately to the pupils’ age - only sometimes in organizing and translating. Thus pupils could realize the project as their own product and esteem the products of their partners in other countries.
All books will be used in the neighborhood schools and libraries after the project for reading. They will also serve the purpose of exhibiting pupils’ works to illustrate the success of the project.
The project and cooperation with teachers from other schools and countries had also a definite influence on language development and the improvement of professional skills of teachers. This opportunity to learn about the education systems in other European countries, the sharing of experience is undoubtedly had a positive impact on teachers’ work and increased the motivation for further work. Schools’ staff were very impressed with the educational systems in other countries. They have made friends for life.
The added value of the project resulting from the cooperation on a European level was the possibility to share the experience of teaching, the appliance of new technologies and methods in our everyday lessons. The school was part of common project that let each of its participants to keep their own identity in every story. Both teachers and pupils learnt how to be individuals in a group but stay the part of the group. This project brought together European mixture that showed us even more how each of us is unique as a nation and an individual.