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CLIL as a tool for change in the Primary classroom
CLIL as a tool for change in the Primary classroom
Start date: Sep 1, 2014,
End date: Aug 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
Throughout this project we are applying for, as far as our school and teachers are concerned, we mainly aim to get to know new ways of approaching CLIL and teaching different Curriculum subjects through the English language, learn new methods to cater for diversity and different learning styles, analyse whether we have been carrying out a successful CLIL methodology so far and cooperate with other schools in Europe.
As for pupils, we would like to provide them with the opportunity to make use of their English in real situations with a communicative purpose, allow them to get to know and interact with children from other cultures, increase their intercultural awareness and make them considerably more autonomous.
To be able to do so, we have built up a partnership with other European schools and we have all formed a "Strategic Association" which is comprised by 3 different schools from Spain, Latvia and England. The Spanish school has nearly 4 years of experience using CLIL to teach Science and Art and Crafts, whereas the Latvian school has some less experience. The experience from the British school will also be incredibly beneficial for both the Latvian and the Spanish school as teachers will get the chance to witness other ways of teaching Science, Maths as well as other Curriculum subjects through English in actual native English contexts.
To be able to carry out this Project, we will first create a common blog where teachers will upload all the relevant experiences they have as well as resources that they use throughout its development. Moreover, teachers who take part in the project will design a set of didactic units around a certain Project and which they will also apply in the actual classroom situation. Accordingly, we will arrange a number of 1 week stays in our partners´countries during which pupils and teachers will be provided with the opportunity to integrate into the normal school day of the host country.
It goes without saying that these joint project work events will allow both pupils and teachers to work on one common topic of mutual interest for a term. These Projects would revolve around topics related to the host country. Therefore, both pupils and teachers from the three schools would be carrying out the same project in the term during which the stays take place.
t is worth highlighting that thanks to these stays and Projects, children will acquire skills not just on the areas on which the project would be focus but also, in terms of teamwork with children from other European countries, intellectual learning, usage of ICT, and so on. Similarly, these stays would be an actual "eye-opener" for children towards other cultures and ways of life. In addition, the fact that children come from cultures which are so different from each other, will mean that the impact would be even bigger. On top of that, pupils will significantly enhance their fluency and language usage when it comes to using their English.
We are actually fully convinced that through this project, teachers will also learn how to approach CLIL from different angles, Spanish teachers particularly will gain some first-hand experience teaching Maths and Numeracy in English, applying new ways of dealing with heterogeneous classes and using ICT with a wide range of purposes. Throughout and after this project, teachers will be able to come up with more stimulating activities which promote a memorable learning experience for their students.
After winding up the project, all the teachers will disseminate the blog where they have uploaded all the CLIL resources and experiences through the local and regional educational authorities as well as e-twinning. They will also stay in touch with each other in order to carry out some other further activities together.
Before bringing this summary to an end, I would like to highlight that, due to all the potential benefits I have laid out that this experience would bring about, this Project will go down in the three schools history and would be a significant moment throughout teachers´ professional career and children´s school lives.