eTwinning project 11/2019 - 5 /2020
Bartolena Middle School, Livorno, Italy and Oriveden yhteiskoulu, Orivesi, Finland

Finland and Italy : let’s cross our cultures!

The aim of our project was to understand and foster the cross-cultural awareness of students by integrating their individual development, IT, culture and language learning.

This project provided cultural diversity activities in a variety of settings, for example workshops, informative posters and presentations for students between 12-14 years old and the working language is English.

All project activities were uploaded in TwinSpace. At the end of this project, the students were expected to learn the importance of cultural diversity and gain cultural awareness. The pupils had the possibility to step beyond one’s own culture and successfully interact with peers from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. We combined theoretical understanding with practical application of a wide range of motivating and creative activities.

Project info

• Language: English

• Age group: 12-14

• Schools: Bartolena Middle School, Livorno, Italy and Oriveden yhteiskoulu, Orivesi, Finland

• School subjects: English Language, Art, Geography

Description of the aims of our project:

- To elevate cultural awareness

- To study the cultural background of the students coming from different countries

- To do cultural activities via twinspace blog and share these documents with other students.

- To organize an informative presentation of different countries

Description of the working methods

1st month: An icebreaking activity: Padlet activity in which students and teachers introduce themselves. Group formation, project and participants registration on Etwinning website

2nd month: Getting-to-know-each-other, Christmas and New Year’s Eve traditions, winter passions (informative cards, slideshows or other). Competition for the best project logo

3rd month: information exchange : “My school” (videos, slideshows and pictures)

4 th month: information exchange : “My hometown, my country” (any form e.g. Powerpoint, video, pictures, posters, slideshows...)

5th month: “ A famous woman of my country”: create a slideshow and goolge form survey

6th month: “cross cultural meeting” (with Skype) and follow up activities:


Evaluation

Goodbye messages

At the end of the project pupils write a short goodbye message including ONE thing they have learned during the project and a piece of advice they will implement when using the internet from now on.

Survey for pupils

Pupils respond to an end of project survey created by the teachers including questions like: “Did you enjoy taking part in a project with other countries?”, “Which task did you like the most?”, “What skills did you improve as a result of the project?” etc.