2nd student exchange in Italy

2nd Student exchange

4-8th February 2019, Rome

February Agenda

Activities

The main topic of the meeting: Introduction of national myths or legend; Exhibition presentation of a partner country’s folk tale, Dramatisation of a mix of mythical/legendary scenes and figures, Debate, and Insight into Italian culture.

Prior to the mobility all partners shared a legend and a folk tale. The partners arrived at the event with an exhibit on one of the tales. Teachers prepared comprehension activities for the selected texts.

FORMATIVE ACTIVITIES:

Creativity: visual presentation of a folktale

Drama: some legends were acted out by students

Debate 2: Myths are outdated and young people nowadays do not understand their meaning and usefulness.

WORKSHOPS: Students were divided into two groups. One group prepared for the debate; first they collected ideas for and against together, then prepared their arguments in two teams and finally prepared for their speeches according their roles and their strategy. The other group 6 pieces from the tales and legends, wrote the script of play about a figure that travels through myths, legends and tales. Finally they acted out the play. Students and teachers participated in a Latin, a Physics and a History class. A scavenger hunt game was organised in a beautiful park near the school that used to be a mental hospital but now the home of several institutions and offices. The aim of the game was team building and developing social skills at the beginning of the visit.

The participating teachers had a project meeting to discuss and agree on issues related to project management and activities between mobilities.

STUDENTS PRESENTATIONS: on national myths, legends, symbols.

EXHIBITION: of the works of students of another country’s folk tale.

CULTURAL VISITS: Guided tours of the Capitoline Museum, the Pantheon, the Jewish Quarter of Rome, The Forum Romanum, the Colosseum, the Vatican Museum and St. Peter Basilica and some other ancient ruins and buildings in Rome accompanied by a photo contest with the topic of “meeting of the old and the new”.

RESULTS: Presentations on national myths, legends, symbols. Exhibition of folk tales. A video on the drama presentation of legendary figures and events. A video of the debate. Photos of the competition. Minutes of the teachers’ project meeting. Collection of texts and related comprehension activities for further use in the classroom.

DISSEMINATION: Students write their reflections on the activities of the week and an article about their own national history for the project newsletter.

EVALUATION At the end of the mobility students completed a questionnaire with observations, assessment and comments. Their experience was analysed within project teams and their reflections were collected in the project blog in the form of a diary as well as different testimonials about the experience.

Benefits

Social skills. Students worked in mixed nationality groups in the workshops and they had to organise themselves in their spare time. They did an excellent job. They accepted each other and involved even the shyer ones in the activities. Some of them took the leading roles: they were reliable, motivated the group and helped manage the programme.

Debating skills. Student who had experience from the Polish exchange assisted the preparation of the proposition and opposition teams as well as the moderator of the debate. During the debate there were some mistakes: tricky questions, opinion instead of question, non-formal behaviour, near quarrel situations. These were observed and discussed so that they can be improved until the next live debate.

Introducing legends and tales. Students felt proud of the richness of their own culture and at the same time they became curious about the others’. Some figures, events, themes were quite similar so they understood the idea of common origin and the universalities of human behaviour. During the guided tours they learnt about and saw the artifacts of the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. The photo competition was a good means of showing their understanding of the old and the new, the ancient and the modern.

Presentation skills. Besides the traditional PowerPoint or Prezi presentations some legends were acted out and the selected tales were presented in visual formats. It improved the students’ presentation skills and reading comprehension skills as they translated verbal information into pictures, stories into plays.

Teachers could observe how experienced students can tutor or instruct the less experienced ones; how effectively they share their knowledge. The Latin lesson observed lead to a discussion of language teaching and the role of culture in education. Observing students in the farewell party especially revealed how global our modern culture is. Project management issues, details of tasks ahead were also discussed.

Photos submitted by students for the photo contest:

photo contest entries

Student feedback:

I loved it

I had a really great time, I only had problems with the organisation.

I made a lot of new friend thank you for this, i can’t wait for then to come Hungary and be together again.

New experience

perfect

I am really glad, thankful I had the opportunity to participate in this program and it was one of the best experiences in my life.

Perfect!

Perfect!!!

I enjoyed a lot and it was a great experience