School name: Shawlands Academy

Teacher name: Jacqui Crooks

Project name: Culture in a Box

Twinned with: Collège La Fayette (France)

Project Description

In this project students from both partner schools research and gather information about their own countries, cultures and lifestyles. The information is then presented as Powerpoint presentations, electronic newsletters and / or digital video productions and shared with the partner school via the twinspace. Pupils from each school also prepare a physical box containing one item from each pupil to represent their lifestyle, and the boxes are sent by post to the partner school.

Results and Benefits

The children's ICT skills are developing greatly, especially in the use of multimedia. Skills and confidence in using the French language are increasing as pupils are actually communicating with a French peer group. Children take a pride in the work they produce, as they are aware it has an “audience”.

They are also developing an awareness of other cultures and lifestyles (differences and similarities) as they discuss and compare the diversity within their own class and with the pupils in the partner school.

Curricular integration

			ICT - S1 ICT curriculum is being taught though this project. ICT skills are being taught as tools to use to achieve a given outcome. The following strands of the Scottish 5-14 ICT curriculum are being covered : Using the Technology – cameras, websites, camcorders, email, forums, Creating and Presenting – Powerpoints, DVD, Searching and Researching – finding out about Scottish, Asian, Polish and French cultures, Communication & Collaboration – through eTwinning “twinspace”, Developing Informed Attitudes – through discussions on culture and diversity.
			French - Pupils French language skills are being developed as they translate parts of their work into French, and speak in French for DVD and podcasts.
			Drama- Pupils came up with the idea of creating a drama production about Internet Safety to send to partner school. They are working with their drama teacher on that.

Overall Quality

The children are highly motivated to produce work to share with their partner class and take great pride in their work. Their ICT skills and French language skills have developed greatly, along with their overall confidence. They have also developed an appreciation of the cultural diversity within their own class, as they share this information with their partner class.

The ICT skills of the teachers involved are also being kept up to date, as they attend eTwinning workshops and try out the new web technologies. A good relationship has been formed between the lead teachers in the two schools and they hope to meet up in the near future.

Have a look at more images from the project.