My Project: European Newspaper

AGE GROUP: 12-16 YEARS OLD

NUMBER OF PARTNERS: 2-3

LANGUAGE USED: ENGLISH

TIMING: October – May (one school year)

AREAS INTEGRATED: FOREIGN LANGUAGE, COMPUTER CLASS, LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

CONTENTS

• The use of English grammatical structures: present, past and future tenses.
• Vocabulary related to the themes: sports, technology, outdoor activities, education, everyday language, hobbies.
• Article structure (how to write an article, parts of an article).
• Writing a description (the use of adjectives).
• E-mail structure (information to include when writing an email).
• Story telling (who, when, what happened).

OBJECTIVES

• Learn how to use ICT tools succesfully.
• Communicate in the English language (reading, writing, listening, and orally)
• Culture diversification (Learning about other cultures).
• Work collaboratively (in groups and with other schools).
• Respect others opinions.
• Review peers work.

METHODOLOGY:

1. Students in the chosen classes will work in groups of 4.
2. Each group will be assigned a section (or column) in the newspaper.
3. The different groups will work on an event that they have engaged in in their school related to their section.
4. They will be guided in how to complete their task, presenting them different guidelines depending on what they are working on.
5. Once completed their different articles, they will share them with the teacher who will correct and evaluate the task (using a grading rubric based on the contents and design).
6. The complete newpaper will be put together by the target teacher who will share the complete file online with the collaborative schools (in pdf format). It will then be printed out by each school to share with the rest of the student body.

ACTIVITIES

1. Choosing Newspaper Title and Logo. : Students in their groups will come up with a title for the European Newspaper and a logo that represents it. They will share their results in a PADLET, and to create their logo they will use logomakr.com. Once the students from the different schools and classes have shared their titles and logos, each group will evaluate the different choices with a rubric the teacher will hand in. The 3 with the highest scores will then be voted by all the students participating in the proyect, using for the newspaper the one with the highest votes. The results of the first evaluation will be shared on a twinspace page which the different teachers may edit to write down the results.

2. Writing the different articles for the newspaper: Each group will write an article covering an event for the section they have been asigned. They will follow a guideline and use an editing program to write it and include pictures.  The articles will be sent to the teacher by email. She will upload the articles to google drive, where students from the different schools can read the articles before publishing them.

3. Writing comic strips. The groups in charge of writing comic strips will work together on the story and drawing of the comic. They will base their comic on a situation or event taken place in their school, and the characters will be the students themselves. Their drawings will be scanned  to be included in the comic strip. They may use a word processor or any other application or programm they know how to use.

4. Writing the contact page. Using a PADLET, each student participating in the project will introduce themselves, leave an email or social network so other students can contact them and meet eachother.  They may add information, or edit the one existing throughout the project. When composing the newspaper, the PADLET will be exported and shared in the common European Newspaper.

ICT TOOLS USED IN PROJECT:  PADLET, TWINSPACE, EMAIL, GOOGLE DRIVE, SCANNER, WORD PROCESSOR, GOOGLE FORMS.

EVALUATION

The different activities will be evaluated by the students and teacher with rubrics. The end product will be evaluated by the students of the school with a survey (google forms)

COLLABORATION

Students and Teachers will work together in PADLETS, GOOGLE DRIVE, EMAILS, and SOCIAL NETWORKS, to construct a common product, read about others experiences, learn about other cultures, and contact with other students from different parts of Europe.

FINAL PRODUCT

A complete Newspaper written in a word processor (word) which integrates articles of the different sections from different schools of Europe.

    DISSEMINATION OF FINAL PRODUCT

Each school will print out the final product of the project so they can share with the student body (they may print a series of number of copies and handout to the students participating and others from other classes). Then, post online on the school web page (or any other shared platform) in digital format so anybody of the school community can read it or print it.