Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2023 Newsletter
Storytelling and Social Inclusion with Erasmus + and eTwinning by Branka Lamza , Ioanna Palogou , Johanna Laronsson , Cristina Palomo Ugidos and Maria Scarcipino Pattarello
Introduction Traditional teaching aids and media are now helped mainly by modern technology to make both learning and teaching easier . However , the instant accessibility of information has caused a lesser attention span among children and teenagers , who find it hard to concentrate on larger chunks of information and have problems with memorisation and mastering basic skills , especially literacy . Another problem is the lack of human interaction , which is being overtaken by social media . At this point , we are facing the moment of need to introduce a balance between technology and traditional teaching and learning aids . Storytelling and related activities are powerful tools to engage all levels of pupils , regardless of educational , cultural , social , health and geographic obstacles , to reach their full potential . Our Erasmus + KA229 project , Stories Bring Us Closer , was started in September 2020 as a partnership of primary schools from Croatia , Greece , Italy , Spain and Sweden . It was planned to be finished two years later . However , due to restrictions caused by the pandemic , the project was extended by June 2023 . The partners also carried out three similar eTwinning projects . There were storytelling activities with kindergartens , care homes for elderly people , schools for children with special educational needs and societies involving people with disabilities . Visits to these institutions and mutual participation in
the project activities with their users encouraged our pupils to embrace different age and social groups . They made them able to learn accompanied by diversity in all forms . This article will share ideas on organising activities to strengthen literacy skills and promote social inclusion .
II . osnovna škola Čakovec , Croatia One of our first project activities was an online meeting of residents of The Care Home for Elderly People Novinščak and first graders from our school , II . osnovna škola Čakovec . Initially , this meeting was planned as a visit of pupils and teachers to the home , but we decided to organise it online due to the previously mentioned restrictions . As we were approaching Christmas , we asked the care home residents to tell us stories of how they used to spend Christmas holidays as children , which they gladly accepted . The children learnt about traditions in their home region and other parts of the country . They could also compare how people spent their holidays in the country and the city . In the following part of the meeting , the children performed two songs , which they rehearsed especially for this occasion .
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