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The Multilingual Library for Children in Europe
The Multilingual Library for Children in Europe
Start date: Sep 1, 2016,
End date: Aug 31, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
More than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe in 2015, sparking a crisis, as countries struggled to cope with the influx. Just to mention one country, Sweden, in 2015, received asylum applications in the ratio of 1,667 per 100,000 in proportion to its population (BBC news/world-europe-3413).How to deal with not only migrants’ immediate primary needs, but with integration into Europe schooling and labour market? How to guarantee dignity and respect for mutual cultures? MultiLib answers by taking into account the importance of children’s education, since they herald future Europe. Primary school teachers who play a front-line role in education, need to acquire a broader repertoire of teaching strategy to tackle the challenge of teaching increasingly multiethnic and multilingual classes.The project provides primary school teachers with high quality innovative didactic tools to equip for this task: a Library which is a unique OER with 24 multulingual e-books in 6 language versions, plus 12 e-books in original languages of immigrants in Europe (translated in 6 languages). A total of 156 e-books beautifully illustrated by picture book artists and accompanied by a Set of book-based Activities for Children and a Teacher Guide. Through the use of the resources, teachers enable primary school children, both from local and migrant background, to: • develop a sense of social inclusion• enhance intercultural understanding • make children from ethnic minorities, and particularly from newly arrived migrant families, proud to share their culture and language, and pleased to learn about others• acquire skills that will contribute to their future employment in a labour market increasingly requiring multicultural knowledge, mobility (therefore language skills) and ICT competences • enjoy collaborative educational activities with creativity and fun while enhancing love of reading, literacy, language and artistic skills.Different types of partner organizations ensure that the project is implemented effectively and professionally. The consortium includes: primary school from Sweden, foundation with European network of primary schools from Belgium, language school from Czech Republic, art and education provider from the UK and universities from Greece and Turkey. All partners work with local primary schools and with group of immigrants.All products will be embedded into the partner institutions didactic offerings as they respond to direct needs of the organizations involved but not less importantly they will be OER mainstreamed through networks of multipliers across Europe and beyond.The uniqueness of the resources and the fact that they are OER with free download from the project website, plus a detailed, effective and innovative dissemination plan, guarantees a strong level of project sustainability.The project ends with an International Conference on MultiLib and topics such as inclusiveness and multicultural approaches. This will be a major event featuring leaders in education and streamed on the project website.