IIS P. Sraffa Secondary School is a large vocational and technical institute in the town of Crema in the north of Italy. Since the current school year the school has absorbed another vocational institute so that it now offers a wider variety of courses.
Attended by 1171 students, it includes programmes of study to get vocational qualifications (regional mechanics courses) and practical or technical diplomas in eight different areas:
- Culinary Arts and Hospitality
- Health and Social Care
- Commerce
- Optics
- Dental Care
- Tourism (technical course)
- Mechanics
- Fashion
There are also evening courses for adults who didn’t manage to get a diploma when they were young and now need it to find a job or open their own business.
The school focuses on professional skills and in each course school lessons alternate with periods of vocational training in local facilities to enable students to acquire methodological and operative skills to be used in promotional, organisational and managerial activities.
The institute is a great resource for the area since it caters for the most vulnerable section of learners, the ones more at risk of early school leaving due to learning difficulties but above all family problems, disruptive behaviour, lack of motivation or challenges migrants’ children (about 30% of the total learners) face to integrate with other students.
A large number of the pupils come from other schools after failing the second or third year and they would be doomed to leave education if they didn’t have the opportunity to be accepted in a vocational course.
Moreover within the total number of students about 150 have special needs being affected by physical and/or mental disability, dyslexia, or having special educational needs.
These students are from different backgrounds (working/middle class, migrant families) and they have in common the fact of preferring doing practical activities but anyway besides focusing on abilities and professional skills the school has the mission of providing competences in the fields of the humanities and sciences with the ambition of endowing its learners with 21st century skills to enable them to face the requirements of the current knowledge society.
Finally, in the last few years the school has received grants (PON projects) to equip each classroom with IWBs, to set up a 3.0 classroom and to promote inclusive education as suggested by the National Plan for a digital School (PNSD), and to change its curricula so as to help students acquire the skills necessary to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
Mariella Brunazzi is a teacher of English Language and Culture in a Technical Institute called "IIS G. Galilei" – Crema and she collaborates with a Technical/Vocational Secondary School - IIS P. Sraffa - Crema for the implementation of CLIL modules.
She is interested in CLIL and innovative teaching methods and tools to actively engage students in lessons and increase their participation. She currently attends online courses mainly on 21st century teaching strategies offered by the European Schoolnet Academy and the Teacher Academy at the School Education Gateway, as well as eTwinning Learning Events.
She has gained experience in managing and planning European Erasmus+ and LLP projects in particular in the areas of education and training.
Maria Angela Cerri is a biologist and scientific researcher, specialized in Hygiene laboratory practices.
She worked two years as head of the laboratory of clinical analysis at Researcher Foundation and for more than ten years as head of the laboratory of hepatocyte cultures at a drug development company.
Now she works as a full time teacher of Food Science and Culture of Nutrition in a technical/vocational secondary school called IIS "P. Sraffa" in Crema, Italy.
She is interested in new teaching approaches, like CLIL methodology, to try to involve her students more actively and increase their motivation.
She was involved in Erasmus+/LLP projects.
The Institute of Secondary Education Ausiàs March is a state school educational center with 78 years of history imparting secondary education to students of the city of Gandia and of the region. Over the years has changed the type of teaching, adapting to the needs and different legislation. It is located in the center of the city of Gandia, with 78,000 inhabitants. Gandia is a city mainly of services, commercial nucleus of the region of the Safor next to the Mediterráneo.
The school is located in a historic building which is pending a comprehensive reform in the coming years to increase the available spaces and adapt them to our needs. It has 62 teachers, 622 students, a management team and non-teaching staff. At the IES Ausiàs March,
• Compulsory Secondary Education: from 1 to 4 (12-16 years), with 16 groups and 432 students. Within this stage the following programs are also taught: Program for Improvement of Learning and Performance, Basic Vocational Training (1st and 2nd year)
• Bachillerato(16-18 years): in the scientific and humanistic specialties, with 5 groups and 162 students.
The type of students is divided according to the stages:
• In ESO, the students come from state schools in the area and belong to a middle-low social class since the neighborhoods from which they come are working class. At present, due to the crisis, many families find themselves without work, without income and therefore some students show problems (lack of material, lack of motivation, etc.). However, in the center there are no problems of discipline and the environment is positive.
• In Bachillerato, students come from all over the city and there is a great demand for places, due in great part to the good results achieved by our students in the tests of access to the university, being our center the public institute that best notes has achieved in recent years.
That is why at the IES Ausiàs March we have aimed at improving the results of students in ESO based on the following aspects:
· Improve the linguistic competence of students and teachers.
· Reduce absenteeism and dropout rates to improve cultural growth and personality development by working with families.
· Promoting an open-minded attitude on the changing world, sense of responsibility, autonomy, critical thinking and tolerance.
· Network with European schools, strengthen 21st century skills in teaching and learning, more open and student-orientated learning environment,.
· Developing the use of information technologies at school, improve language skills and increase knowledge, experience and respect of other cultures.
In addition to the daily teaching activities, we are involved in all sort of projects to achieve the objectives mentioned above: language and computer examinations; competitions in mathematics, physics, sciences, computer science, Latin, Greek and philosophy. The school promotes the internationalization process through language studies, student exchanges, twinning with European countries.
All school personnel applying for the project has a great deal of teaching experience; everybody is familiar with ICT, interactive whiteboards, teaching platforms and other multimedia tools.
Amparo Bataller teaches computer science at IES Ausiàs March in Gandia, Spain. She's interested in CLIL methodology due to the fact that the school is starting a plurilingual project in order to teach some subjects in English. She's also interested in eTwinning projects related to ICT and computing . She involved her students in the project because she thinks it is important for them to know other schools, students and ways of learning. Last year she attended a course of eTwinning offered by Ministerio de Educación. She has taken part to European KA1 projects and, in the future, the school is going toplan a KA2 project. Her goals for future projects are 21st century methodologies.
Cristina Camarena Asensio is a computer science teacher at IES Ausiàs March in Gandia, Spain.
She is interested in CLIL methodology because she would like to introduce the English language to teach her subject and improve the motivation of her students.
Last year she participated in an etwinning course offered by INTEF and she would like to practice everything she has learned. She believes that eTwinning projects can be enriching for her students because they allow them to learn in a different, innovative and collaborative way, using ICT and to improve their English language. Furthermore, they can work with European schools and they can learn from other cultures.
Currently her school is involved in a KA1 Erasmus+ project and the idea is to continue working within this programme with other projects in the future.
The project focused on sharing experience and good practices in the implementation of CLIL modules and on explaining how CLIL activities are organized in each school.
Subject teachers together with L2 teachers planned and implemented CLIL modules in their classes, and carried out action research activities.
Students talked about their CLIL experience with their peers making a list of positive and negative points and giving tips to improve CLIL activities.
AIMS
The main objectives of the project were to:
- enjoy with students/teachers from other European countries the adventure of learning/teaching content through English.
- leave the zone of quite passiveness students have during traditional lessons getting more confident while learning with other European schoolmates.
- support the acquisition of 21st century skills in students by promoting problem solving and critical thinking activities and boosting creativity and divergent thinking.
- reflect upon CLIL as a methodological approach and exchange good practices (teachers).
- involve students in a discussion about CLIL to analyse their perspective and take advantage of their hints to improve lesson plans.
WORK PROCEDURE
1) Introduction. Partners introduced themselves, their schools and described their CLIL experience.
2) Sharing. Teachers shared and discussed CLIL modules they had previously created/implemented. Teachers shared useful websites for the area of interest and suggested helpful ICT tools.
3) Pupils of every school introduced themselves on eTwinning.
4) If not implemented yet, CLIL modules were put into action in every class.
5) Assessment. Teachers and Pupils evaluated the activities they had taken part in.
OUTCOMES
CLIL modules were implemented in the partner schools thus contributing to spread the methodology.
Sharing experiences improved the teaching and learning processes in each school.
The basis for friendship and future collaboration in other projects were laid.
TESTING THE CEFR DESCRIPTORS
Within the project a few descriptors of the CEFR Companion Volume were tested:
LEVEL B1
DESCRIPTOR
Can engage in real-time online exchanges with more than one participant, recognising the communicative intentions of each contributor, but may not understand details or implications without further explanation.
LEVEL B1
DESCRIPTOR
Can post a comprehensible contribution in an online discussion on a familiar topic of interest, provided that he/she can prepare the text beforehand and use online tools to fill gaps in language and check accuracy.
LEVEL B1
DESCRIPTOR
Can interact online with a partner or small group working on a project, provided there are visual aids such as images, statistics and graphs to clarify more complex concepts.