Visibility of eTwinning Projects Groups July 2019 Newsletter Newsletter 9 | Page 8

Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2019 Newsletter
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Curricular integration in the eTwinning project
Participating in a school project, whether eTwinning
or other, is always motivating and enriching. It can
also be the starting point for a significant
advancement in improving the quality of education.
However, it is not uncommon to hear from teachers
who are unaware of eTwinning, arguments such as:
"I participate, but it is that the curriculum is very
broad and there is no time to finish this…", "Make a
project, as well of the complete development of the
curriculum? It's a lot of work, not enough hours…”
Engaging Reluctant Readers with eTwinning
by Alexandra Duarte
It is urgent to dismantle these arguments and
proving that it is possible to develop the curriculum
of an integrated discipline in an eTwinning project
during school hours.
This is just an example of a possible project:
Objective of the project: to facilitate and motivate
the learning of the foreign language, interacting
with other cultures and traditions with the support
of the 2.0 tools.
Project description: Partners use a collaborative
document in which each one details the content to
work in English in your classroom, in a group; the
age of the pupils; school holidays and contact
information. The activities to be carried out, the
team's working groups and the schedule can be
planned in an online meeting, where all partners
participate. Questions that arise in the day-to-day
work are resolved through instant messaging in a
group created for this purpose.
This is just one example that confirms that, with
good planning of activities, adequate timing and
good communication among partners, it is possible
to develop the curriculum of an integrated discipline
in an eTwinning collaborative project, enriched with
the contribution of the European partners.
(2011), is the process of developing original ideas
that have value and innovation, the process of
putting new ideas into practice. Thus, the challenge
of education is to develop the huge creative
capabilities we all have.
Rosa Luísa Gaspar has been a primary school teacher for
32 years. She is an eTwinning and Scientix Portuguese
Ambassador. She is a children's book writer and
appreciates being part of a community of teachers who
share knowledge and believe in a future of collaborative
learning, coding and robotics.
The power of Reading
The power of reading is well documented in the
fields of the first language (L1) / second language
(L2) and EFL, and with diverse age groups
(Krashen, 2004), but, for some authors (Atwell,
2007; Gallagher, 2003; 2009), schools are not
doing enough – but killing the reading experience –
for the sake of an overloaded curriculum and
standardised tests. In fact, as school schedules and
curricula don’t incorporate the time needed for
pupils to extensively practise reading and writing,
eTwinning projects may provide the opportunity we
are looking for.
However, being an EFL teacher, I cannot ignore
speaking and listening in a foreign language
teaching / learning context. Reading and writing go
hand in hand and so do listening and speaking, but
unlike the first two, these latter are often “The
untaught skills” as Adler (2002) calls them. Though
speaking practice is limited, too, the truth is that
the demand for improving oral proficiency is
increasingly higher, especially in relation to English
as the international language of communication.
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