Read more - be more

"""Read more - be more"" is a partnership of 4 schools from Romania, Turkey, Poland and Lithuania. It has been running for 18 months, from September 2018 to February 2020. Reading skills are part of the school curriculum for all schools. However, there is a common insufficiency and inefficiency in increasing the reading level. Our project proposes potential solutions to the existing problems that we regularly face through learning, teaching and training activities at local and transnational level. Like the similar projects that we have done so far, our main objective has been to raise awareness in reading. The aim of our project was to stimulate the interest of primary and secondary school students for reading, to develop and activate vocabulary and to acquire intellectual working techniques, to mitigate some of the causes that can lead to school failure. As specific objectives, the project aims to develop lifelong learning competences, offering a constant reading rate to students. We also tried to develop the literacy competence of the students, using literary and non-literary texts to understand the world in which they live. The direct beneficiaries of this project were the students and teachers in secondary education. We planned and realized a number of 48 students to participate in short term exchanges. They ranged in age from 11 to 15 years. Also, a number of 24 teachers participated in the training activities, according to the initial planning. The indirect beneficiaries were the other students from the partner schools, as well as other teachers. Also, as indirect beneficiaries, we can pass the parents of the students. We can quantify a number of 780 students and 69 teachers. As participants, we can list the guests at the different activities organized within the project. These are local contemporary writers (one for each partner country), former school students (three for each partner), librarians and booksellers (8). As activities we carried out: the selection and formation of project teams, the realization of the project corner as a means of dissemination, the reorganization of school libraries, the creation of libraries in each class, the selection of a logo for the project, the promotion of literature books in schools, conferences with contemporary writers, the viewing of films made after famous books, a parade of books, the use of modern reading technologies, visiting local libraries and bookshops, reading with family members, plays, making informative brochures for parents, which helps and motivates children to read, writing stories by students. The results of the project are: the library of each school has been reorganized, it is true that we have not had the opportunity to transform the school library into an ideal one, but they have become more attractive to the students, enhancing the exchange of experience between schools; all partner schools have reading clubs, so students can read books of different types or selections from books, discuss what they have read in small groups, and learn about authors; a booklet was made to inform parents about how they can motivate and support children to read; the project is popularized on school websites and on the project blog; students writing reviews and even their own creations (poetry and prose), published on school websites and in print journals of partner schools; the partnership is also promoted on e-Twinning, where results, images and videos made during the project are displayed; a virtual library (a list of free sites) that contains e-books and can be accessed online. Using the experiences of this project and its results, in the long term we expect the students, current and future generations:- improve their reading skills;- have a positive attitude towards reading;- realize that the world we live in is much more than the little space in which we move daily;- communicate more with parents and friends;- adapt more easily to a new lifestyle;- increase self-awareness and self-esteem. Teachers:- will improve the quality of education;- will increase the expertise in reading;- will deepen pedagogical approaches and teaching methods;- will share their own experience and best practices with other teachers;- improve their educational methods and methods; Teaching staff and students will:- increase their social and communication skills, not only in the national language but also in the English language;- develop their creativity, flexibility, empathy and responsibility;- increase their willingness to get involved in extracurricular activities;- improve their ICT skills and language skills;- gain team spirit;- enhance their social and communication skills. Parents will pay more attention to their children about reading skills and they will increase their support and involvement in school activities."