“American library on wheels!" is a one-year-long project idea aimed at enabling students’ approach of American history and culture through the reading of American literature works. Two groups of students from Greece and South Korea (nineteen 12-year-old Greek students and twenty-four 15-year olds from South Korea) are meant to get familiar with, analyze and connect aspects of US history and culture to their own context using English and technology as the media of communication and their work presentation. The project will be implemented with a view to add to the project’s impact and help partners develop their collaboration and communication skills. In addition to the international collaboration scheme, the two partner schools will disseminate the results through other networks they participate in, e.g. eTwinning, Council of Europe “Free to Speak, Safe to Learn” portal https://www.coe.int/en/web/campaign-free-to-speak-safe-to-learn.
Project Proposal
1. Objectives
As stated, the project will be implemented by students coming from 3rd Primary School of Zografou, Athens, Greece and Samcheock Girls’ High School in South Korea during the 2019-2020 schoolyear. The main aim of the project is to provide partners with opportunities to discover aspects of the American culture and history and make comparisons to their own cultural and historical background with a view to revealing similarities or differences. Georgia Gyftoula and Ingyung Hwang, English teachers at the two schools, have collaborated and developed this plan. The idea of the curriculum design has been based on Bloom’s taxonomy model (Bloom, 1956) which is connected to the essential questions the pupils will be addressed with (Calder, 2006).
Figure 1: Bloom's taxonomy and a sample of questions to be addressed to students
More specifically, the objectives of the project for both student groups can be summarized in the following:
● to expose students to American history and allow for an overview of the cultural and social context in a motivating and learner-friendly way;
● to create a meaningful and favorable learning environment for the use of English language;
● to help students develop all four skills in L2 through the use of literature;
● to provide an initiative for global conscience and national identity development;
● to involve students in purposeful activities, discussions, presentations, art work and technology use and
● to emphasize the common ground among the partner countries and the target culture with a view to promote understanding, respect to diversity and world peace.
These will be accomplished through the study of literary extracts or books focusing on the topics of: 1. European discovery of the new continent, 2. Native Americans’ life and culture, 3. Colonization era, 4. Slavery, 5. Migrating to the US, 6. Black and white, 7. Natural environment, 8. Modern lifestyle and culture. Thus, a small portable American library will be created in each school.
2. Procedures
Preparation stage (Think, Pair, Share - focusing on listening & speaking skills)
Teachers will prepare a booklet with the texts and the accompanying assignments and activities targeting specific areas and fitting the children linguistic and cognitive level (Karlin, 1980). To increase motivation, students will take a look at materials related to the chosen book/s (i.e. a movie posters, book covers, or trailers). Students and teachers will prepare their reading project schedule in class (set a day and time), create a reading corner with American culture exhibits and enrich the portable library with audio, visual and other authentic material brought from the US related to the study of the US history. Teachers will offer guidance so that all pupils are familiar with the blog postings procedure and ready to work autonomously.
A number of readers (occasionally authentic or adapted literature books suitable for the age and level of the class) have been recommended by Dr. Beverly Ann Chin, the director or the English Teaching Program, in University of Montana and Professor Kate Zoellner, Mansfield Library and they are included in the list.
Finally, a blog will be created for posting students’ work and keeping a diary of every activity. (https://wordpress.com/ or https://www.blogger.com)
While-reading stage (Extensive reading - focusing on reading & writing skills)
Students will work on the texts or books. Teachers may share lesson plans throughout the project life cycle, encourage and guide students to discuss about the story, role-play parts of it, supplement their reading with internet research findings such as music, art, film extracts and create audio files with students’ narratives. All work produced during the project will be published on the blog in written and audio form.
Post-reading stage (blog – focusing on reading & writing skills)
Students will share their thoughts and works using the blog. The whole procedure will be evaluated and the outcomes will be shared to local communities. A school event organization, reading time evening with parents and members of the school community, a theatrical play in English and an art exhibition held at school can be some of the options. Dissemination of the event through newsletters in the school newspaper and articles in the local press as well as promotion of the idea to other schools in the district will be pursued.
3. Significance
In the 21st century, English has become known as the language needed to succeed academically or professionally. However, we think that students need to learn English for building communication bridges with each other and fostering understanding among different cultures and history. By doing so, they eventually enhance their own critical and creative thinking skills and approach the model of global citizen. Furthermore, instead of adopting a teacher-centered teaching method in their classroom and forcing English students to learn for the test, teachers offer their classes an opportunity to use English so that they go deeper into the historical and cultural background and current realities of the English speaking country. After taking the workshop Reading Strategies that Improve Students’ Critical and Creative Thinking by Dr. Beverly Ann Chin in Montana, we decided to create and develop a project which uses the English language as a vehicle of culture and history, soothes human mind and soul through literature, suggests reading as a lifelong activity and encourages autonomous learning.
4. Results
The project aspires to provide students with plenty of opportunities to familiarize themselves with the cultural and societal context of the US. In addition, the chosen topics favor cross-curricular approach which means that the project will exceed the English classroom boundaries and bear benefits for the whole school community. Finally, students will learn more about the people whose language they study, partner with another diverse school environment and work collaboratively in a context which not only exposes them to new knowledge through the use of authentic material but also enables them to gain deeper understanding of global issues like migration, fight against racial discrimination and the pursuit of global cooperation.
References
Bloom, B.S., Engelhart, M.D., Frost, E.J., Hill, W.H. & Krathwohl, D.R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: Handbook I, Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay.
Calder, L. (2006). Uncoverage: Toward a Signature Pedagogy for the History Survey. The Journal of American History, 92(4), 1358-1370. doi:10.2307/4485896
Karlin, R. (1980). Teaching elementary reading: Principles and strategies. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.