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Discovering Our Literary Heritage across Language Barriers
Comenius Project
2009-11
Our current Comenius project focuses on exploring the literature and the literary culture of three partner counties – Italy, Germany and Belgium – and sharing it with each other through creative and artistic means. Keeping in mind that the richness of each language is not always possible to translate into words of another language, our aim is to express the ideas, feelings and emotions of a piece of literature (poetry in particular, but also other forms) through, for example, dance, drama, plastic arts, etc. Our main objective is to use literature as a tool to foster creativity among both students and teachers by giving them the opportunity and inspiring them to express literary works in an innovative way. We look forward to exploring literature from other European cultures and motivating students to engage with their own and other languages and express themselves through a variety of artistic forms.
Themes: We plan to approach the project based on 3 themes: political and social issues; myths and legends; and emotions.
Visits: Three project visits are planned over the next two years. The first will take place from 17-21 November, 2009 in Nuremburg, Germany. The second visit will be in Cosenza, Italy in April 2010 and the final visit will be in Bierges, Belgium in April 2011.
The hosting school of each project meeting will organize at least two half-days of workshops in which the students work with selected pieces of literature according to the chosen theme and “share” them using another form of art. In this way, we can overcome language barriers and discover how each country expresses a particular theme in its literature. Furthermore, the workshops will give students organizational and decision-making responsibilities as well as encourage them to work together; this interaction will help form bonds between them and allow them to get to know each other on a personal level.
Participating schools:
Co-ordinating school: L’Ecole Internationale “Le Verseau” Bierges, Belgium
Our school is an international school that operates within the Belgian system; approximately one-third of our student population in non-Belgian. French is the official language but we place a great deal of weight on the learning of foreign languages. In fact, we offer English as a first foreign language, the choice of Dutch or German as a second foreign language, and the chance to study Spanish in the final two years. Furthermore, English language and literature at mother-tongue level is available to our students who speak English as a mother tongue or who have the competence in English to follow this course. We also offer a drama course in English in year 4 as well as Communications and International Relations courses taught in English in years 5 and 6. While our students earn a Belgian school-leaving certificate that prepares them for university, the atmosphere at our institution focuses on opening students’ minds to the outside world. A great deal of importance is given to “Europe” not only as a cultural point of reference, but also as a fundamental part of our everyday lives. Two of the four main optional courses that we offer students in their final two years of secondary school focus on international issues. We strive to instil in our students the desire to discover, explore and get to know our European neighbours and to appreciate the richness of living in such a diversified continent, as well as to understand the role that Europe plays on the international stage. In fact, over the course of the six years of secondary school our students travel to a variety of countries (including France, the UK, Switzerland, Holland and Germany) in relation to their studies so they can learn more about the language, culture and history of places and people outside of Belgium.
We encourage our students to gain knowledge and experience of the world outside of the classroom by offering programmes such as Model European Parliament, Model United Nations, The International Award for Young People and Juvenes Translatores, as well as humanitarian projects where students work with mentally and physically challenged people from a local specialized school. Furthermore, we are involved in “Quinoa” humanitarian programmes in which students travel to a developing country to work on a specific project for four weeks.
Finally, our school strives to integrate students with learning difficulties and we have programmes to help those with dyslexia and hearing difficulties. Students with special intellectual and/or athletic talents are also given the opportunity to develop their skills while following the normal school system.
Sigmund-Schuckert-Gymnasium Nurnberg,Germany
Our school is a likely big secondary school where the pupils learn English as first foreign language, continuing with Latin or French in the second year; afterwards they can decide to learn French (if having Latin) and additionally in higher classes we offer Spanish or Italian. Having a lot of pupils out of resettler families from Russia, Romania and Poland we are due to give them a meaning especially to the common basis of life in Europe.
Besides we are applying to get “School of Human Rights” which includes a broad engagement on transnational purposes; for this we are working in two special study groups where the students come in their leisure time, “Human Rights” and “Politics and Contemporary History”, working for projects on international understanding.
Within the whole education a great deal of importance is given to “Europe” not only as a cultural point of reference, but also as a fundamental part of our everyday lifes. We strive to instil in our students the desire to discover, explore and get to know our European neighbours and to appreciate the richness of living in such a diversified continent.
Liceo Statale “Lucrezia della Valle” Cosenza, Italy
The school is situated in the south of Italy, in a cultural backwater of the town of Cosenza,. This is the reason why the all suburb is included in the social-advancement plans of the Municipality.
The school has a population of about 800 students. The vast majority of them are commuters. The commuting phenomenon is stressing and economically disadvantageous for these students who belong to low middle class families. Some of them live also tension situations in their families which often cause school difficulties or abandonment and social detachment.
There are some pupils with special needs that are supported by an assistant teacher. They are perfectly integrated in the school community thanks to the work of all the teaching staff and to the help of their school-mates.
The school offers four different courses: Pedagogical, Classical, Linguistic, and Social Sciences. All the courses have some subjects in common such as Italian, Maths and English but they differ for some specific subjects that characterize each course. There are many extracurricular activities in the afternoon such as drama, the choir, and courses for the preparation to the linguistic certifications etc. After five years the students obtain a secondary-school diploma that permis them to enter university.
In addition to the Comenius projects, the school is involved in other programmes financed by the State and by the Regional Government whose objective is to improve the students’ linguistic and logical competences.
The school has been participating in Comenius projects for some years with positive results both for the students and for the teaching staff. Coming in touch with other European schools, with their cultures, their ways of being and working, has definitely given a European dimension to the school as a whole. The students have enhanced their competences in the foreign languages they study and they have become much more cooperative in their learning process. The teaching staff has acquired the right awareness of how powerful is working in a European dimension in terms of methodological innovation, enhancement of competences, significant cooperation.
Our main aim in taking part in this partnership is to continue with the work already started, that has been proved to be of fundamental importance for a little reality like ours, so distant from the centre of Europe, to try to involve even more the whole school community, to strengthen the idea that cooperation leads to improvement of ourselves and the world around us.
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