Innovative methods for increasing effectiveness of teaching English of 55+ learners

Erasmus+ Project

Key Action 2 –Strategic Partnerships

Tuesday 26 July 2016

Final activities



We are slowly coming to the end of our InMETE 55+ Project. After two years of cooperation all project's products are ready:





2. Nine detailed lesson outlines together with teaching/learning materials for teachers and students (each for two levels: elementary (A2-B1) and intermediate (B2))



3. Two curricula compiled for a one-year (60 hours) course for learners 55+, two levels: elementary (A2-B1) and intermediate (B2).




All of them have been presented during multiplier events that we have organized in Hungary, Italy and Poland at the end of our project. They have been also disseminated through different means (e.g. uploaded at the dissemination platform: the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform - http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/).


Each meeting started with the project film presentation: https://youtu.be/j3KWkO5-T9w. This great video was prepared by our Italian friends and shows why we had decided to have project about teaching English to seniors.

During dissemination events we invited teachers and educators working with seniors to feel as learners and we showed them some of activating, innovative and increasing cognitive functions of elderly learners activities that we had invented. We also asked the teachers and educators for their opinion about our products and presented exercises and here are some of their comments:

“I learned very interesting and unusual methods to teach English in a way which is easy and funny for both teachers and learners.” Italy

“It’s always good to hear about methods that really work. Thank you.” Hungary

“Great project, great film, great products – I’m impressed with your work, congratulations!” Poland

“Most of the activities are focused on games, having fun, speaking and vocabulary. It is exactly what our learners need.” Italy

“The method introduced was absolutely challenging and stimulating. I can’t wait to try it on my learners.” Italy

"It was great to learn about new methods and tasks, to talk to learners who were involved, and exchange ideas with colleagues.” Hungary

“I love the Resource pack and the Lesson plans – they really will help me in my lessons preparation” Poland

“The Resource Pack will be a great source of inspiration. There are some original activities never seen before.” Italy

“Great new methods of working, very good techniques and materials (lexis with pictures) + music. Lesson in the museum – extra! Something new, different, activating!” Poland

“The Resource Pack is really a good collection of ideas.” Hungary

“It was very innovative to have lesson in the museum and use game cards to teach language” Poland

"After attending this interesting meeting and some examples of lesson according to this new methods I have decided to change completely the position of desks and chairs in my classroom.” Italy

“The music activity was relaxing and motivating. I will copy it!” Italy

"In our everyday rush, we, teachers tend to forget about the importance of joy and games in classes. Thanks for the reminder” Hungary

"I need some time to come up with ideas and figure out how I can use the tasks and ideas, but surely I will use them! Thank you.” Hungary

“Thank you for a lots of new ideas for exercises that we can use during our classes!” Poland

We are very happy that people like our products and that they find them useful and inspirational. All our events were a great success!


Now we are working on the final project evaluation and preparing our final project report. It is also time for us to think how can we cooperate in the future and what common project we can realize together.


We would like to thank all teachers, educators and seniors who have helped us with our project. Without your hard work, brilliant ideas and support we wouldn't be able to achieve our goals!

            


Monday 4 July 2016

Multiplier Events

After our final international meeting in Rome, there is no time for any rest because each partner organisation is obliged to organise a so-called multiplier event, according to the project proposal. The main aim of the events is to share and disseminate the intellectual outputs of the InMETE 55+ project. 

The Polish partner is organising a conference for English teachers from non-profit organizations working on seniors’ education field in Kraków, in early July. The conference organised by the Italian partners will be addressed to Unieda English teachers working in Third Age Universities, Popular Universities and Cultural Associations, representing also associations in different parts of Italy. The roundtable by the Hungarian partners took place with the participation of more than 60 people on 25 June, and it was a great success as the pictures in the photo gallery: http://tinyurl.com/Multiplier-event-Hungary prove. Italian presentation from the meeting is avaliable here: http://tinyurl.com/Multiplier-event-Italy.

Our final project meeting in Rome

Unfortunately, the end of the project is getting closer and closer ... We had our last international meeting in Rome at the end of May. As usual, the Italian team prepared a perfect programme and involved some of the learners too. We did lots of necessary paperwork, agreed on several tasks that should be done in the coming months before putting an end to the project, were brainstorming on a possible new project, and, what's most fascinating, we organised three mini-lessons for learners too. 


During these 30-minute long lessons teachers from each participating country could demonstrate and try out some activities from our project products. All of the tasks were really successful and the learners enjoyed themselves very much.

You can see how great the atmosphere was during the meeting if you open the photo presentation – in our project Gallery: http://tinyurl.com/last-meeting-Rome

Saturday 2 July 2016