Monday, October 26, 2009

ACTIVITY PLAN SECOND YEAR

Project activities carried out in the course of the school year 2008/2009:
HOW WE INTRODUCED THE TOPIC:
Brainstorming about the topic;
Questionnaires for students (exchange of results)
Logo Competition: Invention of the LOGO of the project
Second step:
MUTUAL KNOWLEDGE:
§ Reciprocal knowledge activities: the students of every partner school introduced themselves, their own town and school and knew their partners through some detailed interviews/questionnaires;
§ Creation and exchange of multimedia products (Power Point) to introduce the partners’ schools/countries/classes/typical days…
§ Start pen friends: correspondence by e-mail and ordinary mail (creation of the classes’ mail boxes)
Third step:
PROJECT ACTIVITIES:
§ Projects meetings: (Italy, Bulgaria and Portugal) to plan/evaluate activities and methodologies, share practices, know the different cultures, compare school systems, monitor the project during all its phases;
§ Elaboration of cross-curricular teaching units in order to involve the teachers of the different areas in the development of the project activities;
§ Articles published on newspapers to spread news about the project
§ Creation of the project weblog to display the results, report on the work, its most important events, its progress….
§ Creation of a notice board about the project inside each school.
§ Collect and exchange: legends/tales (about each country)
§ Carry out some different activities about the legends/tales chosen: drawings, dramas, masks…
§ Exchange of the products obtained
§ Creation of the book: “Old Legends for a New Europe”
§ Final questionnaire for students
Project activities we intend to carry out in the first part of the school year 2009/2010:
§ Prosecution of the school correspondence
§ Involvement of the school staff: monitoring the number of immigrant students in our schools and their origin, and/or the number of emigrant students and their destinations; list and compare the “instruments” each institution has already created to make the integration of the foreign students easier
§ Use of the data collected by the school office staff to share ideas and suggestions about the first layout of a "School protocol". It will give criteria about foreign students’ enrolment and integration, define roles and tasks of all the school staff, the different phases of the students’ welcome at school and propose useful activities about the local language learning;
§ Start planning a language course (by computer) in order to reach two important aims: improve the knowledge of our cultures/languages and lay the foundations of a useful instrument to be used with our foreign students;
§ Plan “listening time activities”: parents/grandparents and/or people coming from other countries tell stories belonging to their own culture; compare, without discriminating, the different values found in the texts/stories read and listened;
§ Plan some teaching units about cinema: significant movies can let our children know each country’s way of living in a more real way and can let them better understand the relationships with others;
§ Study and compare toys and games of the different cultures, find differences and similarities (younger children);
§ Collect and exchange: traditional stories, lullabies, chants and so on (younger children).

ACTIVITIES ABOUT "AZUR AND ASMAR"

AZUR AND ASMAR
Suggestions about activities to carry out with students:
PRIMARY SCHOOL
LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES
- ask children to tell the story of Azur and Asmar using their own words, expressing their feelings about the two kids’ adventures.
- divide the story into sequences and make a synthesis of it in order to emphasize the meaning of the film.
LIVE TOGETHER
- analyse why Asmar refuses Azur and why Rospu’ criticizes the country that welcomed him. Let children say their opinions about it.
- Underline the values of welcome and of the respect of differences. Link them to the school life : listening to others, mutual respect, non-violence, understanding of difficulties…
DISCOVER THE WORLD
- find the Magreb on the map. Use the film and some pictures to discover its characteristics and its inhabitants’ lifestyle: climate, territory, food, traditions, clothes…
- think about the historical period in which the story takes place
ART
- make drawings of the sequences of the story.
- describe the scenery of the film: monuments, colours…
- make drawings referring to some aspects of the Islamic art, analysing pictures that show clothes, objects…

SECONDARY SCHOOL
FIRST LANGUAGE
- Analysis of the story of Azur and Asmar: description of places and characters.
- Activities on the topic of fantasy: fantastic characters, magic objects and powers, the heroes’ challenges, etc.
- Reading of other tales taken from the Arabian literature, such as the “The Thousand and One Nights”.
- Invent and write down the continuation of the story.
EDUCATION TO CITIZENSHIP
- Talk about the values of welcome and respect, found in the film.
- Analysis of daily situations of comparison/quarrel/exchange among people of different cultures, referring particularly to the teenagers’ experiences. Are there any values or behaviours through which it’s possible to conciliate the differences? Is it possible to let difference become a value and not a space of misunderstanding and prejudice?
- Analysis, in the Declaration of Human Rights and in the Italian Constitution, of the articles about liberty and equality without any distinction of race, sex, language, colour or religion and discussion about the topic.
HISTORY
- Locate Mohammed’s and Islam’s birth and the Arabian- Muslims’ conquests in the correct space and time. Compare these events with the history of our country from the 6th to the 10th century.
- Compare two maps of Europe, Northern Africa and Middle East before and after the Arabian expansion in the Middle Age.
- Talk about quarrels and exchanges between Christians and Muslims.
- Point out the scientific, artistic and cultural conquests carried out by the Arab people over the centuries.

GEOGRAPHY
- Look for the geographic characteristics of the countries on the South of the Mediterranean (climate, vegetation, cultures..).
- Study their inhabitants’ lifestyles (houses, food, clothes, traditions..)
SCIENCE
- Point out the Arabian-Muslim’s world contribution to mathematics (introduction of numerals and of zero in the Western world, invention of algebra), to astronomy or to medicine.
ART
- Look closely at the representations of the Islamic art in the film (architecture, decorations, handicrafts). Do some researches on the topic, studying the typical monuments of that architecture (mosques with arches, minarets, palaces..) and the decorations of buildings.
- Carry out activities such as paintings, drawings, collage, trying inspiration by the Islamic art.
- Find out the steps and the techniques of the film making

Sunday, October 25, 2009

4TH PROJECT MEETING- ISTANBUL- TURKEY

19th of October –Monday
08:30 = meeting in front of the hotel
09:00 = arrival at the school – greeting newcomers the Headmaster( Gazi Primary School )
10:00 = visiting the classes in the school
11:00 = show time in the school garden ( Turkish Folk Dance- Songs- variety dances )

12:00-13:30 = lunch in the school
13:30-14:00 = going to Eğitim Gönüllüleri Vakfı (the Charitable Foundation of Education Volunteer)
14:00 = visiting the classes in the Education Centre
15:30-17:30 = Project meeting in the conferefence hall
17:30-18:00 = going to the hotel
18:00 -19:00= having a rest
19:30 = meeting in front of the hotel ( we will take the Bulgarian Group)
20:00 = dinner in the Galata Kulesi (Galata Tower) ( it will be Folk Dance Groups, Belly Dancer , Harem Show )
20th of October – Tuesday
08:30 = meeting in front of the hotel
09:00-12:30 = arrival Sultanahmet Region ( it is called historical peninsula)- visiting Sultanahmet Mosque ( Blue Mosque ) , Ayasofya Müzesi ( Hagia Sophia Museum ) (20 euro) , Arkeoloji Müzesi ( Archaeology Museum ), Yerebatan Sarnıcı ( Cistern Basilica ) 12:30-13:30 = lunch in Sultanahmet Köftecisi ( a restaurant in Sultanahmet ) ( 8 euro )
13:30-14:30 = going to Dolmabahçe Sarayı (Dolmabahçe Palace)
15:00-17:00 = visiting the Dolmabahçe Sarayı ( Dolmabahçe Palace ) 17:00-18:30= free time
19:00 : meeting in front of the hotel
20:00 = dinner in Sabancı Öğretmenevi ( Sabancı Teachers’ House) in Beykoz ( it is in the Asia Continent)
21st of October - Wednesday
08:30 = meeting in front of the hotel
09:00= arrival to Topkapı Sarayı ( Topkapı Palace ) ( this palace is the centre of administration during Rome Empire, Byzantine Empire and Ottomon Empire )
09:00-12:00 = visiting the Topkapı Palace
12:00-16:00 = sailing on Bosphorus with the boat and visiting Kız Kulesi ( Maiden’s Tower )
Note : Lunch in the boat ( fish )

16:00-19:00 = having a rest or free time , if you want ,you can to Kapalı Çarşı ( the Grand Bazaar ), (we can take you there).
19:30 = meeting in front of the hotel
20:00 = dinner in the restaurant of Point Hotel in Taksim ( it is near Taksim Square , one of the centre of İstanbul)
23:00 = saying farewell to each other

First year final product



The book "Old stories for a new Europe" is finally ready!! The book, edited by the Italian schools of San Lorenzo and Pergola (PU), collects all the stories written by teachers and children of the classes involved in the LLP project. This is the cover,...




...this is the cover's back...








...and the index.