Gothenburg, 23/09 – 29/09/2018

The third CultureShake learning activity at the English School Gothenburg (ESG) took place from 23/09 to 29/09/2018.

The EU Commission awarded this CultureShake learning activity with the European Year of Cultural Heritage Label:

Aim

The aim of this learning activity was to continue working on the project´s products and finalise the intellectual outputs with student involvement. This was the culminating activity in the series of the previous learning activities at Singen and Stratford. After having reflected on the input and experiences gained from the learning activity at Stratford, pupils discussed and reflected in the last face-to-face meeting how to integrate the developed methods into their “Peer Teaching Material”. The teaching material developed after the second learning activity at Stratford was tested in class prior to the Gothenburg learning activity. The underlying goal of this learning activity was to involve pupils in collaborative writing, reviewing their work, revising it, and editing together with experts, students and teachers the final draft of the peer teaching materials.

Project objectives with this learning

  • promote language learning and linguistic diversity
  • promote multilingualism
  • develop the European dimension in education particularly through the multilingual focus
  • promote intercultural learning and open up spaces for transculturality
  • support mobility between teachers and learners

Content concept

The content concept follows the description of the learning activity C1 in Singen. For this learning activity it was even possible for one refugee student to receive a travel allowance. In this case the content concept came to life because the refugee student did not feel different in this setting as the environment in Sweden was very multicultural.

Preparations: The project partners had already planned the activities of this week two years in advance during the course of the contract initiation. Since the official start of the project on 01/09/2016 the conceptualisation was further specified, assessed and enhanced. Discussions with the workshop leaders and exploration of the extra-curricular learning environment took place during preparations in Gothenburg within the third transnational project meeting from 15/05 to 17/05/2018.

Participants

Pupils and teachers of the Stiftelsen English School of Gothenburg (ESG) in Sweden hosted pupils from the Friedrich-Wöhler Gymnasium (FWG). The learning activities were academically supported by Dr. Annette Deschner (University of Education, Karlsruhe), Dr. Mojca Kompara (Primorska University Koper in Slovenia) and Lisa Peter (tutor at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Stratford, UK).

The following activities took place during the week.

Sunday, 23 September 2018
The learning activity started with the travel day on Sunday. Due to stormy weather there were delayed flights, which set the stage for our seven-day venture with focus on “The Tempest”.

Monday, 24 September 2018
Monday morning we all arrived at the ESG and were warmly welcomed by the head of school, Mr. Potter. Year 8 students gave their partners a school tour. After this first encounter, students continued work on the CUSHA online dictionary. At lunch time we all mingled with the school community and enjoyed the meal together as on most of the other days. The workshop during the afternoon was dedicated to group work on the peer teaching material. At the beginning of the Gothenburg learning activity pupils analysed the evaluations of the tested teaching materials in class. On late afternoon students were picked up by their parents and host families for an evening event. The consortium met for an administration meeting.

Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Tuesday morning started with the testing of the material so far developed. Year 3 students were delighted by being taught by their peers. During the afternoon the peer activities were evaluated and next peer teaching sessions planned. As evening activity the virtual geocache “Our heritage: where the past meets the future” took place. As the evening activity the virtual geocache “Our heritage: where the past meets the future” took place – in line with 2018 as the “EU Year of Cultural Heritage” and the awarded EU label for this learning activity. The EU Commission decided to give the European Heritage Label to the third learning activity of CultureShake. The multilingual geocache on the connection between Shakespeare and Gothenburg´s present and past contributed to the idea of the European Heritage Label.

Wednesday, 26 September 2018
The morning started with a session on Boal´s “Theatre of the Oppressed” (further information on Boal in terms of this project can be found in intellectual output 4) took place and was videotaped for e-Twinning sessions and webinars for further teacher education in intellectual output 5. This session was followed by one on the CUSHA online dictionary. In the afternoon students edited the products of the virtual cache and uploaded them. Evening activities for students were organised by the host families and the consortium was given an unforgettable tour through the Botanical Garden in Gothenburg.

Thursday, 27 September 2018
On Thursday we were invited to show, test and discuss our intellectual outputs at our stakeholder school Öckerö Seglande Gymnasieskola, an upper secondary school for students aged 16 to 19. This gave us the opportunity to test different material from intellectual outputs 1, 3 and 4 with another different school type and older students.
In the morning the activities of the previous days were evaluated with the students. Based on this, activities were planned for the afternoon on Öckerö. Petra Hultén, our stakeholder and German teacher at this school, gave us a warm welcome and introduced us to the “school under sails”. Next the CUSHA students and experts immersed the Öckerö students into the CultureShake intellectual outputs. Students and teachers from Öckerö Seglande Gymnasieskola gave positive feedback on the project products: at first the didactic approach and the topic was very new to them, but then with more information and input they said they connected with the topic and methods.

Friday, 28 September 2018
The feedback from Öckerö was discussed and evaluated. Students worked in the feedback into the peer teaching material. This was according to the same process as during the whole week: students were supervised by the experts from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, University of Education Karlsruhe and Primorska University, the leads of the intellectual outputs as well as by teachers.

In the afternoon all CUSHA students met with year 8 students to go bowling. In the evening all were invited to a leaving party at one of the host family homes.

Saturday, 20 September 2018
Saturday was our departure day:

“These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air” (The Tempest 4.1.148-150).


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