Eficienta si calitate in educatie 2020

Eficiență și calitate în educație Sesiune națională de comunicări științifice Inspectoratul Școlar Județean Sibiu MAI 2020 1

Revista cuprinde lucrările pregătite pentru sesiunea națională de comunicări științifice a profesorilor de limbile engleză și franceză din învățământul preuniversitar din județul Sibiu, Ediția a III-a ~mai, 2020~ Responsabilitatea pentru conținutul articolelor revine integral autorilor. Organizatori: Inspectoratul Școlar al Județului Sibiu Universitatea „Lucian Blaga” din Sibiu ISSN 2559 - 3471 ISSN-L 2559 - 3471 2

Eficiență și calitate în educație Sibiu, mai 2020 3

CUPRINS EDITORIAL: Laura Rita Pitariu – Competența multilingvă – entuziasm și dinamism 5 Georgiana Mona Săvescu – Teaching the 4 C’s 6 Antonela Cornelia Corina Dobrin – Didactic Strategies for Stimulating Creativity during English Language Classes 9 Isabelle Nicole Voicu – The Importance of Creativity in Teaching English 11 Cătălina Cimpoeru – The Use of Literature in EFL Teaching 14 Georgiana Ursuț – Teaching English Using Videos 17 Maria Camelia Galaftion – Memorable Films – Great English Classes 20 Cosmina Almăşan – Using TED Talks in the EFL Classroom 25 Victoria Șerban – Media Literacy in the English Classroom 29 Mirela Negrilă – Technology in Education – Some Considerations 34 Marinela Onițiu – Introducing Project-Based Learning to English Classes 38 Daniela Bunea – Beads on a Wire 42 Iulia Maria Stoicescu – Global Citizenship / A Good Citizen / What Does It Mean to Be Global? - A Traditional Demonstration Lesson within Global Citizenship Erasmus+ Project, 2018-2020 47 Iuliana Ivan – Equal Opportunities in the Romanian Educational System 55 Cosmina Stan – Games for Teaching Speaking in the English Classroom 58 Mihaela Răulea – Methodological Approaches to Writing Transactional Letters 62 Minodora Beza – Solidarité à 50 ans de francophonie 67 Monica Moţ – Le projet pedagogique dans une perspective actionnelle de l’enseignement / apprentissage des langues-cultures etrangeres 73 Aura Maria Coman – L’apprentissage du français par la méthode des ateliers du F.L.E. – une approche authentique pour apprendre le français 82 Dan Dumitru Moldovan – Le rôle pédagogique du multimédia 85 Mirela Cristina Mateescu – Le Web 2.0: une boîte à outils pour les enseignants 91 Vera Piț – Irina Mavrodin, un model în practica traducerii 98 ~~~…~~~ 4

Competența multilingvă – entuziasm și dinamism Este binecunoscută în zilele noastre necesitatea consolidării multilingvismului și a dezvoltării competenței multilingve în cadrul Uniunii Europene. În Recomandarea sa din 22 mai 2019 privind o abordare globală a predării și învățării limbilor, Consiliul Uniunii Europene recomandă ca statele membre „să încurajeze cercetarea în domeniul metodelor pedagogice inovatoare, incluzive și multilingve și utilizarea acestora, inclusiv, de exemplu, utilizarea instrumentelor digitale, înțelegerea reciprocă și modalități de predare a materiilor prin intermediul unei limbi străine (învățare integrată a conținutului și a limbii) și să inoveze formarea inițială a cadrelor didactice.” Predarea limbilor este un element important în toate disciplinele dacă avem în vedere modalitățile diverse în care este folosită limba în sala de clasă și rolul crucial pe care îl joacă limba în învățarea și înțelegerea conținutului materiilor. Atingerea unui nivel bun al limbii literare este strâns legată de îmbogățirea cunoștințelor despre disciplina respectivă și aprofundarea înțelegerii acesteia. Învățarea limbilor este un proces dinamic și neîntrerupt – însușirea primei limbi și a diferitelor sale registre și stiluri continuă și este strâns legată de învățarea altor limbi, la diferite niveluri de competență, corespunzând condițiilor, nevoilor și intereselor fiecărui cursant. Autorii articolelor din prezentul volum susțin și practică o predare eficientă și inovatoare pentru o mai bună învățare a limbilor. Potențialul instrumentelor digitale poate fi valorificat din plin pentru o mai bună învățare, predare și evaluare a limbilor străine. Tehnologia susține achiziția lingvistică, punând la dispoziție tuturor celor interesați oportunități excelente pentru învățarea limbilor. Dezvoltarea gândirii critice și a educației media și a utilizării adecvate și sigure a tehnologiei sunt componente vitale pentru învățare, predare și evaluare în acest context. Toate aceste aspecte se regăsesc în paginile ce urmează, pe care vă invit cu drag să le lecturați. Inspector școlar, Laura Rita Pitariu 5

TEACHING THE 4 C’s Georgiana Mona Săvescu, Colegiul Național „Octavian Goga”, Sibiu Abstract: The 4 C’s are represented by the 21st century skills, namely: Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity and Collaboration. These are the essential skills to be taught in school in this day and age, in order to prepare students for the challenges they will be faced with after leaving school. Apart from this, teaching the 4 C’s makes learning an enjoyable experience and increases student motivation. Key words: skills, the 21st century, motivation, EFL, teaching, learning, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity In the 21st century foreign language class, one of the greatest challenges faced by educators is to teach not only the 4 traditionally-accepted skills – reading, listening, writing and speaking –, but also those adapted to the age we live in, i.e. the 21st century skills: Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration. The reason is quite easy to grasp and it resides in the need for students to be prepared for life, for the job market and for society. Fitting in implies being able to function properly, which, in turn means that students must go through a teaching-learning process that enables them to perform both independently and in groups, to interact on a daily basis, to be flexible and to adapt, to plan and build as planned, in collaboration with peers. Teaching Communication \"While education has always been concerned with the basics of good communication -- correct speech, fluent reading, and clear writing -- digital tools and the demands of our times call for a much wider and deeper personal portfolio of communication and collaboration skills to promote learning together.\" (Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel, 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times) Our world is indeed facing a communication crisis. Digital natives seem to be more comfortable in the virtual world than in the real one, in front of their devices than in front of people. In this context, it is the teachers’ role to help students learn the basics of communication and to set the scene for proper practice of communication skills in class. While it is true that communication is apparently an easy, every day task, it actually involves far more aspects than one would think at first sight. According to Stanfield, there are 8 fundamentals of communication: empathy, conversation skill, established listening and speaking procedures, respectful vocabulary, the power of pause, practicing speaking and listening in natural settings, introspection, turn-taking. Teaching them in no easy task, but it sure has its rewards. Teachers who choose to focus on teaching communication will help their student become efficient in life, will teach them compassion and empathy, emotional intelligence, assertiveness and will contribute to their mental well-being. Class activities that can help in this respect are: role-playing, oral presentation delivery, games, debates. 6

Teaching Critical Thinking Critical thinking is defined as the analysis of facts to form an opinion. Thinking clearly and rationally, if learned and practiced in school, prepares one for life. It is deeply connected with the ability to solve problems by making the right decisions. Critical thinking is the cornerstone of self-development and improvement. The latter are the very essence of education and school must be able to assist students in this endeavour of constantly becoming better than one used to be. Another essential aspect connected to the usefulness of critical thinking is closely related to one of the problems of the 21st century – fake news. Contrasting data and so much information to process every day, targeting the young generation via such a lot of sources makes critical thinking the most efficient weapon in the struggle to make sense of the world. Teaching Creativity Creativity is not just for artists. It is for everyone and, according to experts in psychology and education, creativity skills are needed for success in school and in the future workforce. What is more, creativity is associated with increased motivation and the joy of doing something. “Create” is at the top of Bloom’s taxonomy mainly because it facilitates deeper cross-curricular understanding. In the EFL class, creativity can be enhanced by activities such as: solving problem creatively, by urging students to think outside the box, encouraging students to act out original or ready-made monologues, merging English classes with drama classes, allowing students to work on “Passion Projects” every now and then, switching role with students and allowing them to become teachers for a particular activity. Teaching Collaboration “The ability to work with others, learn, share, express, and channel these efforts into powerful narratives that serve a greater purpose” (Cary: Communication and Collaboration: Teaching Children 21st Century Skills) is what defines collaboration. It is essential in the EFL class, for it enables the students to use the language in meaningful contexts and in order to achieve a goal. Knowing how to speak to who, when and where gives the students not only the ability to express themselves and communicate their passion but also makes them increasingly employable in a 21st century world where human connections and interactions are critical skills in an increasingly automated workforce. Just “getting the job done” is no longer good enough and there is an increasing gap between what schools are producing and what employers need nowadays. One way in which this gap can be reduced is to teach and give practice on communication and collaboration. It is definitely the closest instance to the use of English outside the classroom. In class, team building activities can be used successfully in order to foster mutual trust and reliance. This will, in turn, lead to successful pair and team work on a variety of tasks. Another activity that students enjoy is projects. Tasks for projects can be agreed upon together with one’s students, especially in high school. Allowing 7

them to participate in the decision making process for a project task makes them more motivated to collaborate towards the solving of the task. I have recently tried this with a class of 12 graders and the results were amazing: students had increased motivation levels, mainly due to the fact that they were allowed to collaborate with one another and the teacher in order to create a project task that was of interest to them. Although the four skills were presented separately in this paper, they are actually deeply intertwined. Communication and collaboration function best when they are combined and they can be taken to the next level, and so can students’ performance in school and later on in life, if they make use of critical thinking and creativity. They complement one another and bring added value to EFL class experiences. Therefore, teaching the 4 C’s makes educators become the change they want to see in their schools. Bibliography: Cary, Tatiana. Communication and collaboration: teaching children 21st century skills. 2016. https://www.virgin.com/virgin-unite/communication-and-collaboration- teaching-children-21st-century-skills, last accessed May 21st, 2020; Davila, Sara. 21st century skills and the English language classroom. 2016. https://www.english.com/blog/21st-century-skills/, last accessed May 21st, 2020; https://www.learnwithtworivers.org/collaboration--communication.html, last accessed May 21st, 2020. 8

DIDACTIC STRATEGIES FOR STIMULATING CREATIVITY DURING ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSES Antonela Cornelia Corina Dobrin, Colegiul Economic „George Barițiu” Sibiu Abstract: Creative classrooms don’t just look different, they feel different. They provide an environment where students are more likely to express their ideas, think outside the box, challenge problems with innovative ideas and solutions and, most importantly, learn faster and more effectively. Teaching methods, types of fixation or evaluation exercises that were used successfully several decades ago can no longer be used exclusively in the new context. The activities that follow the development of students' creativity give the teacher a new role. This is no longer a source of information, but a mediator. The communicative method and group-work are popular methods of teaching English because they emphasize interaction as a means and purpose of learning a foreign language. Key words: creativity, communication, changes, dynamism, interaction Dynamism is the word that best describes our century and encompasses the multitude of changes and complex processes that take place at all levels of society, changes that go beyond the geographical boundaries. Europe opens its borders, promoting new values, including competitiveness, creativity and professionalism. The evolution of science and technology is accelerating and this evolution is possible due to the change of people's mentality. Professionalism in any field has become a driving force that implies competitiveness and lifelong learning, but at the same time it creates opportunities and greater chances of professional affirmation and fulfilment. In recent years, this has become a priority of education systems globally. Basic, formal education, along with non-formal education and lifelong learning, personalize and develop attitudes as close to the demands of the market and society, on the one hand, and the inclinations of the learner, on the other, supporting creativity and adaptability. Creativity exercises are meant to develop young people's thinking and help them adapt more easily to change. By definition, creativity involves original ideas and flexible thinking and refers to the ability to cope with the unexpected. Creative people are more motivated to overcome obstacles and find solutions, they are more willing to take risks and make great efforts to achieve their aspirations. Pursuing this goal it is natural that the language teaching itself be in a permanent evolution and change. Teaching methods, types of fixation or evaluation exercises that were used successfully several decades ago can no longer be used exclusively in the new context. Modern teaching strategies that focus on creativity come to complete the education process, leading more to an acquisition of English and not to conscious learning. The student directly involved in his / her training is an active participant in the learning process and not a passive receiver of information. The communicative method is one of the most popular methods of teaching English because it emphasizes interaction as a means and purpose of learning a foreign language. Through exercises of communicative type, whether it is about completing information or writing, rewriting, interpreting texts, recreating situations that mimic 9

reality, students are put in a situation to solve a problem, a problem that has several possible solutions, the result varying according to the imagination and knowledge bag of the pupils. Also, role-playing or improvisation activates the imagination of the students, developing at the same time fluency in English and self-confidence. Working in groups involving the idea of competition between teams with the purpose of solving various work tasks increases the motivation for learning of the students, because they remember better what they have learned. Students can be divided into groups and involved in activities in which the emphasis is on spontaneous communication rather than the language used, and the work tasks are solved through collaborative activities. The activities that follow the development of students' creativity give the teacher a new role. This is no longer a source of information, but a mediator. If the students have to solve problems, the teacher has the possibility not only to teach the necessary knowledge and skills, but also to create problems for which he/she does not have an exact answer and to work with them to discover possible solutions. Students need to communicate, and the teacher should help them find and select ideas that can be applied in the respective situations. Due to the changes in education, the teacher, although he/she has a solid basic training, cannot remain in the same stage. He/ She must adapt permanently to the new needs of the students. What worked with one group of students may not have the expected results with another, which is why the teacher folds in different teaching contexts, being always open to new and to the field of experimentation. Creative students are the result of teachers who are creative and turn to imagination to approach the teaching process from a new perspective. In conclusion, reality is constantly changing, and the motivation of the students comes from their desire to adapt and face the challenges. Professional and personal development is the main purpose of the educational process and a factor of progress, facilitating the adaptation to the ever changing professional, social, economic and informational requirements. Bibliography: Brumfit, C., Johnson, K., The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching, Oxford University Press, 1979; Larsen-Freeman, D., Techniques and principles in language teaching, Oxford University Press, 2000; Starko, A. J., Creativity in the Classroom, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers, New Jersey, 2005. 10

THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVITY IN TEACHING ENGLISH Isabelle Nicole Voicu, Școala Gimnazială Nr. 10 Râmnicu-Vâlcea Abstract: In a world in which technology seems to be advancing even more, teachers often wonder what they could do in order to maintain their students’ interest in learning English. English is all around us, everywhere we look we always seem to find something related to the English language, and children use it all the time in their games, encounter it in movies, cartoons, TV series, and music. This article attempts to illustrate how the fact that English is everywhere we look can help us be better teachers, with the help of creativity. Thinking out of the box may seem hard at first, but only at first. This article also aims to suggest a few teaching methods that could be applied in class. Key words: English teaching, creativity, creative teaching, creative thinking Teaching English has always been fun, and most students, no matter the level of language they had, enjoyed participating into English classes because they found them different, interesting, and, of course, fun. As one of my English teachers used to say, English is a state of mind, one which children, apparently, seem to enjoy. The question now is a simple one, a WH-question as teachers would often refer to it, and that is: why? Well, the answer is more often than not seen on children’s faces whenever they have their English lesson. Is it because English is so special, or could it be just any other language? English surrounds us, and children have access to it all day every day, no matter if they want that or not. Any language class is fun, but the fact that English is literally everywhere makes it easier for children to accept, and understand. In what follows, I will explain why English is still winning territories across the world, with a focus on Romania, define creativity and what it means in teaching, and also offer a few fun teaching methods that I myself have used in class, and I invite anyone to do so. In order to understand why English keeps on spreading, we need to understand that the English language can be split into three different circles. The following quote taken from Guy Cook’s Applied Linguistics is meant to clarify this: The Indian scholar Braj Kachru describes this situation as one in which English exists in three concentric circles: the Inner circle of the predominantly English-speaking countries; the outer circle of the former colonies where English is an official language; and the expanding circle where, although English is neither an official nor a former colonial language, it is increasingly part of many people’s daily lives. (Cook 27) Romania belongs to the expanding circle since English is starting to be a great part of our lives. The Internet offers us great help, but so do movies, and the trends that took over social media. Students use lots of English words without being aware of doing so. Here is where the teacher should interfere, adapt and create. All teachers are creative. Some of them might not even know it, but they are. If you find yourself in doubt, think of that moment you had to improvise because the printer did not work, or you forgot your books home. That is actually what creativity in teaching is all about and could be even much more. According to the online Cambridge Dictionary, creativity is defined as “the ability to produce or use original 11

and unusual ideas”. This definition not only provides us a meaning of creativity, but also subtly emphasizes the idea that creativity equals fun, and students love fun. Creativity is something we all have, but are probably unaware of it, \"everybody has the capacity to exercise creativity\" (Maley 6). The process of creativity does not involve technologically-advanced equipment, because its main and most important resource consists of the human beings in the classroom, “with their richly varied personalities, preference and experience” (Read 29). Creativity is important both in our daily lives, but also in teaching, because it offers us a new perspective on how to deal with different situations that occur. Carol Read describes creativity as thinking 'out of the box', coming up with fresh, divergent responses, original ideas and objects, new solutions to problems, or ways of looking at problems\" (30). Words such as Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp had little relevance about twenty years ago, whereas now they have created their own universe to which students seem to be very attracted. I enjoy the use of technology in teaching English, it has many advantages, but sometimes we can benefit from this, without actually using it. For example, one interesting activity that can be used at any teaching point would be to ask students to take a piece of paper, and design their own Facebook/Instagram page on paper, in English. They can either create it as they like, or follow the teacher’s instruction based on what they are currently learning. If you are teaching about cooking, or different dishes, then ask your students to create an Instagram page about a new dish they created. Or create the Facebook profile of a person that needs to have a set of qualities, and needs to look in a certain way. Depending on the skill that the teacher wants to develop, this idea works fantastically with speaking activities. They can work in small groups, or larger groups depending on what the teacher has in mind, or how he/she wishes to incorporate it into the lesson. They can talk about a different topic by creating the ‘stories’ posted by most of them daily on Instagram or Facebook, and that are quite in vogue these days. Students need their notebook, or sheets of paper, on which they draw something that they would include in their stories, and present it to class. The class can either guess what her story, or stories are about, or ask questions to guess, or the one who presents the stories can just talk about what he/she drew as if she were creating a story. This can be adapted in so many ways, with the help of creativity of course. Using creativity in teaching has numerous benefits for both teachers, and students. Creativity helps to reduce the stress that inevitably comes with the teaching, creating a more relaxed atmosphere in class. It is always a welcome breath of fresh air that may inspire teachers to design different activities starting from simple ideas that they might even take from their students. Whether is using words like ‘Master Chef’, or the name of a TV series they like, children will always get excited when their teacher is familiar with what they like, and with the fact that they have actually heard of it, or even watched it, and their interest is instantly caught. The excitement they have is similar to one many people, myself included, have when they hear their favourite song on the radio. It makes us feel closer to life. So does creativity combined with what children love make them feel closer to English. 12

Students also benefit from the creativity used in class by their teachers. First of all, they have fun, and students learn better when they have fun. Another important advantage creativity has upon students is that this way they learn how to be creative, and being creative is perfectly fine. Creativity surrounds us. We are creative when we are in need no matter if we refer to our daily lives or teaching. I believe that creativity enables us to relax a little, and activate that part of our soul that was surrounded by worries and stress. Creativity can help us cope through difficult situations, and can transform an English lesson from a dull one to an awesome one. Let’s all get creative! Bibliography: Cook, Guy. Applied Linguistics. Oxford University Press, 2003; Maley, Alan. “Overview: Creativity – The what, the why and the how”. Creativity in the English Language Classroom. British Council, 2015. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/pub_F004_ELT_Creativity_FI NAL_v2%20WEB.pdf, pages 6-13, last accessed May 21st, 2020; Read, Carol. “Seven Pillars of Creativity in Primary ELT”. Creativity in the English Language Classroom, British Council, 2015. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/pub_F004_ELT_Creativity_FI NAL_v2%20WEB.pdf, pages 29-36, last accessed May 21st, 2020. 13

THE USE OF LITERATURE IN EFL TEACHING Cătălina Cimpoeru, Liceul Teoretic „Gheorghe Lazăr” Avrig Abstract: The use of literary texts for EFL teaching is both challenging and fortunate at the same time. The richness of expression, the exploration of new worlds, the beauty of ideas can be contaminating for young minds as long as the teacher has the necessary skills to make learners not just receptors but active creators of literature. Key words: literature, teaching, fiction, prose, poetry Literature is no longer commonly enjoyed by students and teachers alike due to the challenges of approaching literary texts. Lack of cultural background, the inappropriate choice of reading tasks, low interest or motivation or little reading experience represent the common problems that prevent students from enjoying literature in day-to-day life. Yet, English language teaching inevitably touches on literature, at least occasionally. How can teachers turn literary texts in good learning 'companions' for their students? Which texts are appropriate for classroom use? Several criteria demand closer attention when it comes to choosing literary texts for use in the EFL classroom, of which the most important are relevance and adequacy. Before starting using literature in the English classroom, teachers ought to cover a number of aspects that influence the choice of the texts and create the optimal context for the reception of a literary fragment. These include: the students' age; the common interests of the learners' group; students' English language level; the use of authentic or adapted texts. The selection of the literary materials is a task that requires a lot of time and dedication on the teacher's part, as well as good knowledge of the class. How to create interest in the literary text? Running one or more introductory lessons represents usually the common procedure for an effective reception of a literary text. The use of videos, PowerPoint presentations, paintings, visits to art museums, reading companions, e-books or watching drama performances are just some common examples that can successfully introduce the students to the world of literature. Such activities are meant not only to break the ice but also to boost students' interest in the world hidden within the page of a book. The EFL teacher's aim in the introductory part of the literature class is actually that of creating the optimal background for the reception of the art work, providing a meaningful experience to students and encouraging inner motivation. The aims of the intro lessons are reached when students come to the point where concept questions pop up in class activities: the WHEN, the WHERE, the WHY on which the teacher can then work to introduce the students to the literary text as such. 14

Teaching approaches Teaching approaches to literature vary greatly if we consider the diversity of literary forms of expression. The techniques used for poetry will differ from the approaches to drama or fiction. Moreover, the teacher has to cover two fundamental dimensions of learning: the in-class learning tasks and the follow up. For longer pieces of literature such as plays, short-stories or novels, the students' interest needs to be engaged outside the classroom too. Therefore, motivation, interest, curiosity and desire to learn have a significant role in the process. No matter the nature of the literary text, every literature-based lesson will inevitably revolve around two major poles: the while-reading and the after-reading tasks. In the planning stages of the lesson, it is for the teacher to decide on what aspects he/she will focus: − general concepts (poetic form, plot and characters); − cultural aspects (history, events, political figures etc); − literary devices (metaphors and figures of speech); − vocabulary (formal vs. informal, literary vs. non-literary etc); − literary techniques (monologues, descriptions, use of interior monologue etc). The receptive nature of the tasks represents the real hands on experience that students have with the text. Well selected activities that sparkle interest in reading become the first aid strategy that teachers provide to their learners. The ultimate goal of teaching literature is to actually make it an enjoyable experience that students will benefit from and extend outside the organized school educational structure. Let students do things! Starting from the idea that readers are co-creators of texts, it is precisely this involvement with literature that benefits students most. Would-be readers participate in the making of the text not only by reconstructing meaning, but also by adding to that meaning, developing understanding, prolonging characters' stories, identifying with characters and so on. It would be a huge learning and teaching mistake to consider the reception of the literary text as a passive occurrence. The more involved students are in the text, the more dynamic reading becomes. Creativity-oriented activities thus become the core of literature teaching. Learning means that students internalize knowledge, hence the text is absorbed into the student's thinking pattern, triggering negative or positive feedback. Positive reactions will increase interest in reading, which is why the teacher's ability to design and guide literature-based lessons proves essential. Among the most common dynamic tasks that actively engage students with the literary text we could mention the following: For POETRY: − finding rhyming words and then comparing with the original; − putting back together the jumbled lines of a short poem followed by comparison with the original; − trying creative writing in simple forms like cinquains or haikus; − short poetry recitals. 15

For FICTION: − writing letters to a favourite character; − entering the life of a certain character for a day; − role-play dialogs; − finding alternative endings to the story; − putting the story back together; − analyzing differences between novel and movie-based novel. For DRAMA: − acting out parts of the play; − attending drama performances; − designing clothes or stage props for a play. The focus on both creativity and innovation probably represent the best ways of triggering and maintaining students' interest in literature. The outcomes from an educational perspective are manifold and highly complex, as literature expands not just knowledge and cultural awareness but develops vocabulary, fosters critical thinking and stimulates superior cognitive processes. Although difficult, challenging and even disheartening at times, the educator's job when using literature for EFL teaching covers a wide range of skills, tasks and learning-oriented goals. The ability to make literature appealing to technology-savvy generations represents a daunting yet not impossible task for the teacher, as the said technology provides the tools that could change literary reception by the young minds. Bibliography: Jefferson, A. and Robey, D. (eds.) Modern Literary Theory: A comparative introduction, Basil Blackwell. 1984; Lazar, G. 'Using poetry with the EFL/ESL learner', Modern English Teacher 6, 3 and 4. 1989; Lazar, G. 'Metaphorically Speaking', Sigma 1. 1989; Lazar, G. 'Using novels in the language-learning classroom', ELT Journal 44, 3. 1990; Lazar, G. Literature and Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. 2009. 16

TEACHING ENGLISH USING VIDEOS Georgiana Ursuț, Liceul Tehnologic de Industrie Alimentară „Terezianum” Sibiu Abstract: In a world dominated by technology, teachers try to bring the outside world into the classroom using video materials. The purpose for using it is to develop the four skills, to provide information, appropriate content suitable to students’ needs and interests, to present and reinforce language, to stimulate language production. Video material stimulates interest, is a role model, expands students’ knowledge of the linguistic and cultural features of English as a foreign language and also provides effective material of the subsequent discussion. In order to create memorable and motivating classes, teachers plan and use different techniques adapted to the three parts: before watching, while watching, after watching. The great benefit of using video material is that it integrates listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, but also culture. Key words: technology, video, skills, techniques, purpose We are living in a world marked by technology called the digital age. Teachers are trying to adapt to this new age by showing more and telling less when introducing students to new information, concepts, and skills. One way of bringing the world into the classroom is by using video materials. Video is a valuable resource to use in class and helps students gaining a deeper understanding of content. It’s important to be mindful of how often and how much we use video. Using video, which can be films, documentaries, news clips, is a complex process that should start with a clear purpose for using it. There are many purposes for using video. Whether they are reading a piece of fiction or nonfiction, students benefit from contextualizing the person, place, or thing they are learning about. Video clips can assist our students in visualizing an event or a person, while setting the context historically, politically, socially, and emotionally. The purpose for using it is to enrich a text. Another purpose could be to build background knowledge on a topic. For example, when teaching holiday lesson to tenth grade students, the teacher turns on a three-minute video clip that shows examples of holidays. Deepening or solidifying students’ learning can be done by playing TED talks, TeacherTube, YouTube. For example, when teaching a health lesson to twelve grade students, the teacher uses the presentation called “How to live to be 100” from TED Talks. The most important thing is that a lesson should integrate listening, speaking, reading and writing, and also culture. There are many ways to exploit it to create motivating, memorable classes with a high level of language production. When planning a video lesson, a teacher thinks of it in three parts: before students watch, while they watch, after they watch. Before watching the video it is important to get students into the topic and you prepare them for what they are going to see. An essential step is to activate students’ prior knowledge, which helps them make connections between the video and the content already explored. Teacher also pre-teaches unknown vocabulary and uses tasks like brainstorms, quizzes, vocabulary matching or any other task that gives some background knowledge about what they are going to watch. The most 17

important part before watching is to give a purpose for watching. If this lack of purpose misses, students will enter the “TV mode” and will not focus their attention on what teacher wants them to learn from the video. According to Jeremy Harmer, there are a few viewing techniques which are designed to awaken the students’ curiosity through prediction. While they watch, students should be given short and simple tasks. Teacher should often pause either to explain because students don’t understand, either to keep them active. Stopping from time to time makes the use of the video a more engaging and effective tool. By pressing the play button and then fast forward, the teacher can ask students what the extract was about and whether they can guess what the characters were saying. The silent viewing method offers the students the chance to watch the video at normal speed but without the sound. Students have to guess what the characters are saying and after the teacher plays it with sound they can check their answers. During the video sequence the teacher can freeze frame the picture and then he can ask students to predict what will happen next. One way of provoking the students’ curiosity is through partial viewing. The teacher can use pieces of card to cover most of the screen and then remove them one by one so that what is happening is gradually revealed. Viewing tasks can be in the form of oral instructions or in the form of a worksheet or they can be a natural follow-on from the preview activities. Tasks can be listening, looking or interpreting. A lot of questions can be asked while watching: “How do the characters feel?”, “Where are they going?”, “What will he do next?”. According to Jim Scrivener, the tasks can focus on function, grammar, lexis or pronunciation. While watching, the students can see how intonation matches facial expression and what gestures accompany certain phrases. The answers to many questions will involve active interpretation of the visual as well as the audio messages. Focusing on gestures, facial expressions, body language is very useful when studying functional language. After watching the video clip, the teacher has a variety of tasks to choose from: a character study or making their own comic strip could follow a cartoon, a discussion could follow on naturally from a documentary, an interpretation, personalization (e.g. “What would you have done?”, a role play or a 'what happens next' could follow on from a short news clip, a letter writing from one character to another. In conclusion, the benefits of using video during the classes are: it provides context to the language and brings the subject to life, it’s fun and can help make a lesson more memorable, it’s excellent for practicing a wide range of language skills, beyond speaking and listening, the language used is often more natural, so students can hear the natural stress, intonation, pronunciation and rhythm, and students can listen for specific instances of English usage. Bibliography: Allan M. Teaching English with Video // Video-applications in ELT. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1983; Altman, Rick. The Video Connection: Integrating Video into Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989; 18

Harmer, J. How to teach English: England: Pearson Education, 1998; Harmer, J. The practice of English language teaching. Harlow, UK: Pearson Longman, 2007; Lansford Lewis, Six Reasons to Use Video in the ELT Classroom 2014. http://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2014/03/six-reasons-use-video-elt-classroom/, last accessed May 21st, 2020; Scrivener, J. Learning teaching: the essential guide to English language teaching, Macmillan Education, 1994; Effectively Using Videos in the College Classroom https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching- resources/teaching-strategies/effectively-using-video-teaching/index.html, last accessed May 21st 2020. 19

MEMORABLE FILMS – GREAT ENGLISH CLASSES Maria Camelia Galaftion, Colegiul Național „Octavian Goga” Sibiu Abstract: Teachers constantly try to find new creative ways of motivating their students and many have come to realise that using films in the EFL classes offers a wide range of opportunities. Both teachers and students may enjoy amazing and enriching experiences as good films constitute an invaluable source of inspiration for numerous class or group discussions, language practice and writing tasks. Several activities can be easily organised and adapted to the needs of our students in order to reach the goals of our lessons. Key words: films, Padlet, Smore, teaching, learning, human rights, discrimination, education, culture, translation Planning efficient and appealing lessons is a constant challenge that teachers face, and looking for the right resources, methods and activities can sometimes be exhausting and incredibly time-consuming. How can we reach our goals successfully? How can we keep our students interested? Of course, we all know the stages of a good lesson, the types of lessons, the theoretical approaches, but when we have to organise the details of each lesson, we often realise that, in practice, things are not always as smooth as they seem to be in theory. Films are amazing alternative tools that can provide us with many answers to our queries and help us offer pleasant and challenging experiences to our students. Why are films a great teaching – learning solution? First, our students are very familiar with various types of films; they watch them at home with their families and friends and they associate them with enjoyable free-time activities. This helps the teacher a lot because it increases student motivation. Another important reason is the fact our students learn English without even realising it since they listen to examples of authentic language in situations similar to real life. Then, the message can be deciphered rapidly with little effort because they have lots of visual clues such as signs, billboards, gestures, facial expression and body language. Finally, if our students love the main characters or the actors and are captivated by the plot, we will easily engage them in all kinds of follow-up activities. We will be successful on the condition that, before doing anything else, we analyse our students both as individuals and as groups, their interests, their social background, level of English competence and age. Also, the films we intend to use must be carefully chosen in accordance with the requirements of the syllabus and they must be planned in advance as an integral part of the yearly schedule of activities. When it comes to planning, we have several options: we can use a film as part of a textbook unit to expand the content of the ministry-approved textbook, we can also plan a completely new unit built around a film, or we can simply use films for extracurricular activities. It goes without saying that we should choose good films which promote moral values, give our students food for thought or illustrate major moments in world history. I will further refer to some examples of how I have used short videos, entire films, fragments or key scenes from famous films to reach the goal of my lessons/units. I 20

will start with a five-minute interview with Tom Hanks on the ABC morning show Good Morning America, promoting his 2016 film Sully based on a real incident on the Hudson River, in New York. This video was used for a speaking activity with a group of 11th graders. I posted the video on the class Padlet together with an introductory PowerPoint presentation and I invited my students to watch the interview at home. The information is available here https://padlet.com/cgalaftion/ytced8sueorg. The next day we watched the interview together and then we briefly reviewed the data they had in the PowerPoint presentation. I organised them into teams of three members and I invited each member of each team to focus on one of the following points: 1. The details of the interview – facts, names, dates, other guests, host, TV station etc. 2. Words connected to flying planes as well as other new or difficult words/phrases, 3. Tom Hanks and his career. Then, I regrouped them, so we had three groups of experts, one for each point. The last step: we presented the outcome of their research and group discussions. They could ask questions and they drew conclusions together. This can be planned as a simple listening and speaking activity or it can be an introduction to a next stage: watching one of Tom Hanks’ famous films, such as Forrest Gump, Philadelphia or Sully, and deal with the details/ideas of the film. The interview is amazing because there are many funny but also difficult moments to be analysed. There are lots of hints to his new film and reference is made to some famous characters he played in previous films. I think that such interviews are excellent examples of spoken English and wonderful starting points for further discussions on celebrities, shows, movies, and why not, philosophical ideas, social issues, moral values, great moments in world history etc. Another interesting example is Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator (2004), starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes and Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn. The students will find the film attractive and challenging due to its topic, actors, atmosphere and context. How can we use it? We can start with some translation practice because it has some peculiarities such as vocabulary items, special phrases, unclear lines, repetitions, lots of background noise, songs etc. We can start a debate on film translation: Which is better – dubbing or subtitling? Why? Should we stick to a faithful translation? Should we adapt the original to the target culture and language? How far can we go with the adaptation? Do we need a broader context, more information about the film and its characters before we start translating it? Then, we can invite our students to dub the favourite scene(s) (in English) or we can choose a key scene that we want to discuss with them afterwards. I found this idea on a Pearson site and we have the link here: https://eltlearningjourneys.com/2016/02/16/great-activities-for-using-movies-in-the- efl-class/. This activity gives our students the opportunity to practise pronunciation and have fun at the same time. We can choose one or two scenes. We should have two or three characters interacting in each of these scenes. The students have to get the pronunciation, the intonation and the timing as close to the original as possible – and 21

this is not easy! When everyone is ready, we can play each scene with the volume down and have the students ‘dub’ the dialogue. It would be great if we could hide the dubbers so that they cannot be seen by the rest of the class. At the end, the dubbers can be awarded symbolic prizes or medals for showing great talent. The Aviator offers a lot of interesting topics that we can tackle with our high school students. We can focus on the main character and his personal, psychological weaknesses as opposed to his social image of power. The film highlights the contrast between phenomenal public success and private behaviours close to madness, Howard’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, his obsession with perfection. We can also insist on the period of time that the film portrays – the late 1920s through the 1940s. There is plenty of movement around the characters, dancing and jazz music in the background. It is the jazz age, it is the beginning of motion pictures with sound tracks; it is the decade when the first commercial radio station in the USA goes on air in Pittsburgh (1920) and radio quickly becomes a popular entertainment medium. The crash of the stock market is mentioned in the film, one of the most painful moments in the history of the USA, `Black Tuesday`, 29th October 1929, which marked the beginning of the great depression of the 1930s. So, our students will obviously have lots of interesting things to learn from the film. Finally, I will refer to Freedom Writers (2007), starring Hilary Swank, another film that can teach great lessons. It contains many interesting scenes that can be discussed while watching it with the class. Pausing the film from time to time and asking key questions is the best way to approach it. This will also guide the students’ watching and understanding of the film. Or, we can ask our students to take notes about the most interesting scenes and deal with the details at the end. It would be a good idea to start by telling our students a few details about Hilary Swank, such as the fact that she is an American actress who won two best actress Academy Awards (Oscars), one for her difficult role in Boys Don’t Cry (1999) and the other one for the role of a female professional boxer in Million Dollar Baby (2004). We can write the title on the board and brainstorm some key words that come to mind at first sight. The students will come up with examples such as rights, creativity, equality, news, fight etc. We can start a spidergram and invite our students to continue completing it while watching the film. At the end, we can check the words with the whole class and add as many ideas as possible, discussing when and why exactly they decided to include the word/phrase in the spidergram. 22

Ours looked like this: A set of questions will help you better organize your discussions. If you want your students to have some time to think about their answers, you can assign the task for homework and then discuss it in the classroom. Here we have some examples: 1. Why did Erin Gruwell (Mrs. G) decide to become a teacher? What other job was she encouraged to do? 2. How would you describe the beginning of Mrs. G’s experience in the new school? What obstacles did she face? 3. How do the students in room 203 relate to one another at first? 4. What did Mrs. G do to engage her students? 5. Why do the students refuse to respect her at first? 6. Describe her husband’s attitude towards her teaching career. 7. How do the students see themselves in the scheme of society? 8. What diary entry moved you the most? Why? 9. Did Erin Gruwell change towards the end of the movie? 10. Did the students of room 203 change? 11. What was the main lesson of this movie to you? Follow-up activities:  Create a poster! Imagine that you are involved in the marketing of the film to a Romanian audience; part of your job is to develop a poster campaign. What images or aspects of the film would you highlight to reach your audience? Decide on the images and the message that you want to get across then make the poster.  Spread the word! Now, you are organising a press junket to launch the film in Romania. Hilary Swank will be your special guest. You want the main journalists and critics, influential bloggers and fans to attend the event. Therefore, you must let them know about the event and invite them to it. 23

Go to https://www.smore.com/ and write a newsletter to invite everybody to this amazing event! Good luck! Make it great!  Diary Entry Activity: Choose one of the following characters: • Eva • One of the boys in the class • Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) • Or another character that you liked or wanted to know more about Then write a diary entry about Erin Gruwell’s first day at school. What do you think about her? Do you want her to succeed or not? If you are writing as Erin, what are your ambitions and how do you think you’ll make them happen? Staying as the same character, now write an entry for one of the following: • the day the students go to see the Holocaust Exhibition • the day Miep Gies comes to the school You can find some more ideas here http://www.filmeducation.org/. To conclude, these are just some examples of memorable films and a few activities that can be successfully and easily adapted to any similar movie, documentary or video. It is sometimes difficult to find the means, the energy and the time to organise such activities, but I think it is worth trying whenever we have the chance. Undoubtedly, films are extraordinary sources of inspiration, emotion and information and, if properly selected, they will turn our lessons into great experiences. Bibliography: https://eltlearningjourneys.com/2016/02/16/great-activities-for-using-movies-in-the- efl-class/, last accessed May 21st 2020; http://journals.euser.org/files/articles/ejls_may_aug_17/Ramazan.pdf, last accessed May 21st 2020; https://edition.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/05/review.freedom/index.html, last accessed May 21st 2020; https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Writers-Widescreen-Hilary- Swank/dp/B000NOK1KC, last accessed May 21st 2020; https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-can-film-help-you-teach-or- learn-english, last accessed May 21st 2020; https://padlet.com/cgalaftion/ytced8sueorg, last accessed May 21st 2020; https://padlet.com/cgalaftion/q3trtvl7a1h6, last accessed May 21st 2020; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVh2vI6xNUw, last accessed May 21st 2020; http://www.filmeducation.org/ https://www.britannica.com/ https://www.smore.com/ 24

USING TED TALKS IN THE EFL CLASSROOM Cosmina Almăşan, Colegiul Naţional „Octavian Goga” Sibiu Abstract: Using TED talks in the EFL classrooms allows the teacher to integrate in their lessons interesting examples of authentic language being used to transmit powerful messages. The talks can help the students improve their understanding and use of the language, though activities focused on vocabulary structures. More importantly, they can develop the students’ critical thinking, if the teachers engage them in activities requiring them to analyse, evaluate and express opinions and arguments. Key words: TED Talks, public speaking, authentic, language structures, critical thinking The era of technology and of self-expression through the use of platforms that can make one’s voice heard has given rise to a very popular form of public speaking: TED talks. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and it is the name of an organisation that post talks online, under the slogan of “ideas worth spreading”. Originally focused on topics related to technology and design, the talks have diversified to include a broader range of cultural and academic content. Famous TED speakers from around the globe include Bill Gates, Richard Dawkins, Bono and many Nobel Prize winners. Although I do occasionally watch TED talks out of personal interest, my professional interest in them was sparked up three years ago, when I was faced with the challenge of holding a series of public speaking courses as part of a new educational initiative, called TED-Ed. It involved preparing students to give public speeches on topics of interest to them and this situation led me to do quite a lot of research into public speaking strategies and delivery tips and tricks. Learning about such talks from an ‘inner’ perspective has convinced me that while not all of my students would be comfortable talking in front of an audience or have anything worthwhile to share, most if not all can benefit from watching such talks and engaging in interesting activities on them. While public speaking is a very valuable skill which can be taught in the English classroom and mastered in time, through practice and personal motivation and commitment, widely available videos can be used with Upper-Intermediate and Advanced students in the EFL class, with multiple benefits. This paper will highlight some of the most efficient ways of using such examples of authentic English to develop not only language skills, but also critical thinking and creativity. Mark Mallinder explains in Teaching English Using TED Talks that “one reason why TED Talks can absolutely be considered to be “authentic,” is due to the fact that the speakers are not simply reading a script which has been written by someone else, as is often the case with a lot of language learning material”. While the talk in itself is scripted, the purpose for which the text was written is not to highlight the use of specific grammar or vocabulary structures, but rather to allow the speaker to share personal stories, passions and ideas that they think/hope will have a lasting impact on the audience. Another reason why the talks are examples of authentic language 25

is that the speakers are sometimes not even native speakers, a situation EFL students are likely to encounter in real-life situations. Thus, students will be exposed to a variety of accents and language varieties, which might help them realize that ‘standard English’ has become much more diverse nowadays. Another benefit of using TED talks in the classroom is pointed out by James Riley in Using TED Talks in the classroom, who claims that “It is rarely possible to bring world class guest speakers in to school to lecture students about their chosen field of expertise. It is, however, easy to bring their ideas and their passions direct to your students”. This particular benefit is also highlighted by Benjamin Levy, who says in Six Ways to Use TED Talks Effectively in Your Classroom Through Video that “By bringing together the best and brightest in a broad spectrum of fields, TED helps us pause and listen to the percolation of ideas in fields we may know little about like art, engineering, technology, music, and more”. Indeed, school is the place where students should find out about ideas and, by connecting them to previous knowledge, they can expand their understanding of the world around them and form new ideas of their own. TED talks can be used to bring diverse opinions, perspectives, questions and even conflict into classroom discussions and make students exercise their critical thinking. Benjamin Levy believes “TED talks are less about the absolute dissemination of information on a subject and more about their potential to incite a classroom conversion through the diverse voices and questions that TED talks raise.” For the reasons mentioned above, I believe using talks in the EFL classroom has a double benefit: the linguistic aspect and critical thinking. On the one hand, they are a great source of language structures used in an authentic manner that students can learn and on the other hand they can be used to generate ideas and debates. 1. The linguistic aspect While most TED talks use quite academic language, which might be a bit intimidating to lower level students, most of them have a transcript available for download for free via their website or the captions feature available on YouTube can help the students get a grip of the text being uttered. Language-focused activities can be used in a variety of ways: Pre-watching • Difficult vocabulary items can be selected by the teacher for students to look up in a dictionary and connect in a logical manner • Starting from pre-discussed vocabulary, students can predict what the talk will be about and express opinions • Students can use the pre-discussed vocabulary to give an account of a personal experience related to the topic • Students can be provided with small excerpts of the script to look for difficult vocabulary and predict what the rest of the talk will be about While-watching • Note taking activities integrate both writing and listening skills, while students pay attention to specific vocabulary structures – they can be asked to make a bullet-pointed list of key points being made using abbreviations or acronyms, 26

or the more visual variant would be for them to do sketch-noting, organizing key words in a graphic manner • Gap filling exercises require the students to focus on specific vocabulary items or details and parts of the transcript can be used by the teacher to create such exercises After-watching • Summarizing – Summarizing is a skill that often needs to be reinforced with practice; it seems deceptively simple because it requires a brief presentation of the points being made, but writing it (and giving credit, while not giving away every example and main point) can actually be a challenge. Some students try to include everything in their summaries while others don’t go deep enough. • Writing out the talk ‘Throughline’ – the core message, the main idea that the audience are supposed to take away from the talk, one sentence only in response to the question “If the audience was to forget everything else that was said, what is the one single thing that the speaker would want them to remember?” 2. Critical thinking A series of after-watching activities can prompt students to think not only of how the message was transmitted linguistically, but also fn what the perspective of the speaker was and how convincingly it was presented. Students are supposed to learn to exercise their critical thinking, to take everything with a pinch of salt, to question and check information and opinions. Some TED talks contain factual information, presenting sometimes statistics or hard data that students are not supposed to take at face value, but learn to double check. Others will simply present a personal perspective, the speakers’ own thoughts and values, which might reflect a personal bias that students should learn to recognize and evaluate. A series of activities to be done individually or in groups can help put the students’ mind to work: • Creating a mini-quiz from notes taken – containing a variety of tasks such as true/false questions, factual questions, discussion-based questions. When students create the quiz they will think critically of the details they choose to focus on. If the activity is done in groups, students can then switch the quizzes and solve them; thus, the activity can gain a competitive element, as well. • Facilitating a student-led discussion using the Harkness Table, as presented by Tan Huynh in The Harkness Discussion: Where Everyone Has a Voice at the Table - students first generate questions that they have from watching the video. Then have students sit in a circle, offer one question at a time, and allow the class to contribute answers. This way students are constructing an understanding of the text, thinking critically about the answers, and evaluating the validity of each other’s ideas • Presenting a different perspective from the one highlighted by the speaker – this can be done in groups, pairs or individually • Arguing against some of the points mentioned – this could be done after research is done by students on the selected points 27

• Doing research on statistics mentioned on the topic – this activity will teach them to double check the sources of information and analyse their credibility • Thinking of a personal example that might illustrate / contradict one of the points made – this activity will allow students to get personally involved with the topic, to personalize their response and relate it to their own environment and life experience Using authentic content from TED Talks will improve student motivation and increase engagement in class as well. Because of these advantages, it would be worthwhile to include TED Talks in your language classes more often to enrich students’ learning experience, because this type of activities represent a good illustration of the principle that says that teaching is more about facilitating learning experiences than delivering content. For the teachers of Advanced English students, here is a short list of popular TED talks to use in class 1. Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? 2. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story 3. Elif Shafak: The politics of fiction 4. Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability 5. Joe Smith: How to use a paper towel 6. Amanda Palmer: The art of asking 7. Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator 8. Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from 9. Maysoon Zaid: I have 99 problems …palsy is just one 10. Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days 11. Rita Pierson: Every Kid Needs a Champion 12. Lera Boroditsky: How language shapes the way we think Bibliography: Huynh, Tan. The Harkness Discussion: Where Everyone Has a Voice at the Table. 2016 in Empowering ELLs. https://www.empoweringells.com/a7-teaching-harkness/, last accessed May 21st 2020; Levy, Banjamin. Six Ways to Use TED Talks Effectively in Your Classroom Through Video. 2015 in Edweek Market Brief https://marketbrief.edweek.org/the-startup- blog/6_ways_to_use_ted_talks_in_your_classroom/, last accessed May 21st 2020; Mallinder, Mark. Teaching English using TED Talks. 2016 in EFL Magazine https://www.eflmagazine.com/teaching-english-using-ted-talks/, last accessed May 21st 2020; Riley, James. Using TED Talks in the classroom. 2018 in Teaching strategies. Cambridge Assessment International Education https://blog.cambridgeinternational.org/using-ted-talks-in-the-classroom/, last accessed May 21st 2020; Zang, Penny. Using TED Talks in the Classroom. 2019 in Medium https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/using-ted-talks-in-the-classroom- 8de97079c398, last accessed May 21st 2020; https://www.ted.com/playlists/171/the_most_popular_talks_of_all https://www.ted.com/watch/ted-ed https://www.ted.com/playlists 28

MEDIA LITERACY IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM Victoria Șerban, Colegiul Național „Gheorghe Lazăr” Sibiu Abstract: Media literacy, the ability to ‘read’ and ‘write’ or, better said, understand and create media content, is an essential skill in the world we live in nowadays. Being able to detect potentially harmful messages and being responsible while creating media are key elements in our digital students’ upbringing. This article will discuss some media concepts, offering some practical ideas of how they can be integrated or infused in the English classes so as to better equip our students when being exposed to mass media in all its forms. Key words: media literacy, core concepts, key competences, practical activities Nowadays, our students use technology and access different types of media on a daily basis. A survey conducted among a class of 9th graders at Gheorghe Lazăr National College, Sibiu, revealed that they use the Internet an average of 4-7 hours a day, mainly listening to music, socializing or watching videos. While doing so, they are also exposed to all types of information, from advertising to news stories. But the question is: how well-prepared are they to understand and detect the hidden meaning of all these media messages? Propaganda, fake or biased news, parody or satire, all require a certain set of skills in order to be deciphered. They might acquire these skills by a process of trial-and-error, or they could also be educated in this respect. As media literacy is a subject that is not yet in the Romanian curriculum, one might wonder whose role it is to build and develop our students’ media skills and how well-prepared we are, as teachers, to do so. Media Education and Culture Lab is a strategic programme initiated by the Centre for Independent Journalism in Romania, whose aim is to introduce media literacy elements in the school curricula of humanistic subjects (Romanian, English, French, History and Social Sciences) and to create a set of instruments and materials meant to make young people understand and respect the role of media in a democratic society, to distinguish between information and propaganda and to use social media responsibly. The main goal is to infuse elements of media literacy in the daily 29

teaching of different subjects rather than create a new media subject. From 2017 to 2019, a number of 94 teachers were trained in this respect and 3,500 students participated in media education workshops. The project is also meant to be a sustainable one in that the trained teachers have conducted workshops with other teachers and also implemented the instruments and materials in their classes. As part of the second year of the programme, while participating in the trainings offered by the Centre for Independent Journalism and sharing the relevant knowledge with both my fellow colleagues and my students, I understood the importance of media literacy and the benefits of infusing the English curriculum with media elements. One thing that became increasingly obvious was the great extent to which students lack the necessary tools to make informed choices when it comes to their media consumption while teachers lack the necessary tools to help their students become more informed media consumers and producers. This paper is another attempt at highlighting some media concepts while offering practical activities that can be used in the English classes. Misinformation and disinformation, generically or more popularly known as ‘fake news’, is one topic that has proven of interest and great usefulness among young people. While they have obviously heard the concept before, very often students have little other knowledge or skill to detect and act against the spreading of fake news. Misinformation (false or inaccurate information that is mistakenly or inadvertently created or spread) and disinformation (false information that is deliberately created and spread in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth) take numerous forms such as propaganda, satire or parody, biased news, false connection or context, manipulated or fabricated content, fake images or deep fake videos. In order to incorporate this topic in the English classes, I began one lesson with a class of 11th graders by engaging them in a word formation exercise starting from the word ‘to inform’. This was followed by a discussion on the difference between ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ and the different forms these could take. Working in groups, students came up with some ideas and examples taken from things they had already encountered while using the internet. In the same groups they had to prepare at home a presentation of one form of mis/disinformation, which they presented and then posted on the class Padlet. Another good way to start such a class (or maybe end it) is by playing the game Facticious, in which students have to decide whether a piece of news is true or fake, thus learning the first rule of spotting fake news: check the source. (http://factitious.augamestudio.com/#/). Another game, which this time they could play at home because it is a bit more time consuming, is Bad News. While helping them to become experts in disinformation, this game also enables them to recognise such instances in the media they consume (https://www.getbadnews.com/#intro). With younger students, the focus of the lesson could be on identifying some strategies that can help them spot fake news and finding examples in the social media. 30

https://www.ifla.org/ Another potentially negative influence of the media the students should be made aware of is the promotion of stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. Although some might argue that this problem has greatly improved in later years, it still exists and the less obvious it is, the more danger it poses for the young untrained minds. Some activities that can be incorporated in the English classes in order to raise this problem are: ✓ Choose your Apprentice – inspired from the famous TV series, this is a game in which students are asked to choose who to hire, being given layers of information about the candidates: first name, followed by last name, then picture of the candidates, sexual orientation, physical and mental status and at the end, educational and professional background. Each time a layer of information is given, they have to eliminate one candidate until only one remains. This is a good opportunity to discuss the dangers of judging by appearances and discriminating on very little information. ✓ Analysing news and advertising that contain instances of prejudice or stereotypes, like in the examples below: https://www.reddit.com https://ro.pinterest.com/ubjuniorenglish/section-c-stereotyped-ads/ 31

✓ Project – Don’t judge a book by its cover – students design book covers starting from different cultural stereotypes (they invent a title, the name of the author and choose a significant picture – see an example in the class Padlet below). https://padlet.com/pusa_h/c6zg2sg8p07y As stated and shown above, advertisements are a good source of media content which can be analysed in order to discover hidden meanings and messages, considering the fact that young people are so often exposed to them, whether they are walking in the street, watching a movie or following their favourite vlogger. Some basic questions can be employed to make students reflect on the powerful influence adverts can have on the viewer/listener: ✓ What target market segment does the commercial appeal to? ✓ What feelings/emotions does it trigger? ✓ What makes it memorable? What gives is stickiness (is it exciting / entertaining / controversial / irritating / does it have a good slogan)? ✓ Was the message successful? ✓ What was the strategy used? (ideal kids and family / being cool / amazing toys / celebrities / excitement / facts and figures / catchy slogan / glittering generalities/clichés / put downs) ✓ Did the commercial use persuasive language? (repetition / exaggeration / rhetorical questions / comparatives/superlatives / facts / opinions} ) ✓ What other elements contribute to the success of the commercial (length / music)? While it is undeniable that analysing media content is extremely important, it is also true that our students create and share media almost on a daily basis. They take pictures, create memes or videos, which they then post on different social media platforms, be it Facebook, Instagram or Tik Tok. That is why, no matter what digital media topic we approach, we should not stop at analysing the content but rather go a step further and engage the students in a process of applying the knowledge and creating their own media content in a responsible and informed way. For instance, as checking the source is vital when consuming media, students should be made aware that acknowledging the source when creating media is a must. It is also important to 32

offer our students a safe place to display their final products, see their peers’ work, appreciate and comment on it, such as the class Padlet. While planning a media-infused English class, it is important that teachers bear in mind some higher-order skills students should develop: understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and creating, which can be more specifically translated in a media context as: developing critical thinking, recognising point of view, becoming informed consumers of products and information, identifying the role of media in our culture, understanding the author’s goal or creating media content responsibly. Media literacy is not about protecting or shielding students from harmful messages by promoting a non-exposure strategy, but rather teaching them to ask the right questions: Who created this and why? Who is the message for? What techniques are being used? What details are left out and why? How did it make you feel? “Media literacy, therefore, is about helping students become competent, critical and literate in all media forms so that they control the interpretation of what they see or hear rather than letting the interpretation control them.” (Literacy for the 21st Century) Bibliography: Laboratorul de educație și cultură media. Centrul pentru Jurnalism Independent. 2017-2019. https://cji.ro/predau-educatie-media-2/, last accessed May 21st 2020; Literacy for the 21st Century: An Overview and Orientation Guide to Media Literacy Education, Center for Media Literacy. 2012. https://issuu.com/m_moraima/docs/media_literacy, last accessed May 21st 2020; “What is media literacy, and why is it important?”. News and Media literacy. 2020. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/news-and-media-literacy/what-is-media- literacy-and-why-is-it-important, last accessed May 21st 2020. 33

TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION – SOME CONSIDERATIONS Mirela Negrilă, Școala Gimnazială Nr. 4 Sibiu Abstract: Technology has progressed amazingly in the last few decades, but there are concerns that this comes at a high price for the quality of our lives. The role of technology in education has been a modernizing one. There are, however, some teachers who are becoming more sceptical about its unconditional use in the classroom. Firstly, favouring digital textbooks or materials over the traditional paper ones just because it is more modern is a mistake. Secondly, the attention span of younger students is getting shorter because of excessive use of technology in their spare time. While technology- facilitated lesson moments are attractive for students, especially for young learners, teachers should make sure they encourage learning, not just entertainment. Technology seems suitable for learning during a pandemic, and virtual classes can offer a reasonable alternative to having the school year disrupted completely. This could be the perfect opportunity for the children of today to taste boredom and be forced to make use of their imagination, instead of simply responding to stimuli. Key words: technology, English Language Teaching, modernization, attention span, young learners Technology has made amazing progress in the last few decades, but lately there have been growing concerns that it is claiming a share of our time that is too large. In fact, the comfort technology brings to our lives is something we tend to take for granted. Depending on the generation we belong to, we use various ‘smart’ gadgets with more or less ease. However, statistics show worrying figures concerning the amount of time we spend every day in front of a screen, be it a television, computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. According to the investigation of some journalists who are documenting digital habits, such as The Guardian’s Adrienne Matei, it seems to amount to 35 days in a year. This is one in ten days spent lost in the virtual world. Therefore, it might be justified to raise questions such as: Who controls who? Is technology our tool, or has it hypnotized us to such an extent that we cannot imagine our lives without it? The role of technology in education has clearly been a modernizing one, in all areas of education, and in English Language Teaching as well: “multimedia technology teaching has uniquely inspired students’ positive thinking and communication skills in social practice” (Shyamlee, 152). It is unanimously accepted that technological progress is beneficial when it comes to our home comfort (who can imagine their lives without a washing machine, fridge or mobile phone?). But is it relevant and desirable to adopt all technological advances in education uncritically? Experience shows us that it might be wiser to show some restraint. The foreign language teacher has long been an eccentric among her peers in 1990s Romania, carrying the CD player, audio CDs, workbook, handouts, alongside the register. The fact that modern language teachers have been pioneering various new methods and opened doors in teaching methodology is a known fact: “Technology has intervened in every discipline of Education. It has supremely modernized learning and teaching atmosphere” (Baloch, 75). Meanwhile, it seems that a lesson that is technology-free, ‘unplugged’ so to say, is no longer modern enough for current standards. (Alqahtani, 168) 34

In the middle of the invariable enthusiasm brought about by the novelty of technology in teaching, there are also teachers who are becoming more sceptical about its unconditional use in the classroom. Some of the most common objections can be summarized in two key notions: diluted content and attention deficit. The first one is an issue that should concern textbook writers and teachers alike, if we accept that a teacher is the most competent person that should choose the textbook for a class she teaches. The other concern has to do with the students’ abilities. We should take them in turn. Firstly, it would be the time to ask ourselves whether we tend to favour digital textbooks or materials over the traditional paper ones just because it is in fashion to do so. What about the content? Should that not be of more concern to us educators? Just because a course book is in an electronic format it does not necessarily mean that it is of higher quality than its ‘analogue’ equivalent. In our opinion, this is favouring form over content. The fact that the content in a coursebook might be scarce or insufficient depends on the authors, obviously, but should also be the responsibility of the teacher when she or he chooses to use it in class. Naturally, the outlook needs to attract students, especially if they are young learners, but standards of quality should be equally rigorous. We might easily find countless ELT articles online. What we as teachers ought to prioritize is such headlines like ‘10 Ways to Boost Literacy Using Audiobooks in the Classroom’, rather than teaching resources grouped around an online platform, and not according to a specific competence, like ‘12 Ways to Use Social Media for Education’. In fact, “With the favourable atmosphere by the mutual communication between teachers and students fading away, and sound and image of multimedia affecting students’ initiative to think and speak, English class turns to course ware show and students are made viewers rather than the participants of class activities” (Shyamlee, 153). Returning to textbooks, our responsibility should lie with the skills we are trying to build in our students, rather than aiming to introduce a certain type of technology in our teaching just to make it look ‘cool’. Secondly, the attention span of younger students is getting shorter with every generation and this is affecting learning in a negative way. In fact, what even adults may have noticed is that using so many gadgets ourselves, even we as teachers might not be able to maintain previous engagement levels in our daily activities, and it would be fair to assume that teaching might suffer from this as well. How do we address this problem, especially with young learners, if we continue to feed their hunger for more and more stimuli, and are afraid that if we do not, they might get bored? There are no easy answers, but this is worth asking because this tendency is noticeable and cannot be ignored, and it is more than just a generation gap between students and teachers, which we can assume has always existed. Limited focus brings along limited cognitive depth, and pedagogically speaking this is rather detrimental to students’ development: “cultivation of students’ thinking capacity should be the major objective in teaching and using of multimedia technology and it should not take up the students’ time for thinking, analyzing and exploring questions.” What cannot be denied is how attractive digital technology-facilitated lesson moments are for students, especially for young learners. Our role as educators should, however, make us pay attention also to how addictive they might be. It is for 35

the English teacher to decide how often and selectively she should spice up her lessons with technology. But technology should remain a medium to facilitate learning, creating atmosphere (by using a video or by projecting a picture), but not an end in itself: “modern educational techniques serves an assisting instrument rather than a target: and that should not dominate class. […] All in all, the multimedia as an assisting instrument, cannot replace the dominant role of teachers and it is part of a complete teaching process” (Shyamlee, 153). The scientific argument would discourage too much of it for the simple reason that the digital is designed to exploit our visually-centred brain, it is made to be addictive, and so only worsens the attention deficit we are trying to address. All this being said, however, teachers should not stand divided between technophiles and technophobes. “It's convenient for those of us who can remember a time when there were no distracting digital devices clamouring for our attention to place the blame for shortened attention spans squarely on the shoulders of technology. But that doesn't really get us anywhere, does it?” (Graber). It would be reasonable to say that technology is not going anywhere, and instead of fighting it, we should be ‘smarter’ and make it work for us, in enhancing the learning and teaching experience. The use of technology seems especially adequate at the time of writing, April 2020, when virtual classes can offer a reasonable alternative to having the school year disrupted completely since much of the world, including Romania, is in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. While imperfect, technology is a blessing which some of us have only just started to appreciate at its true potential. It is an amazing twenty- first-century tool. The wise thing for us to do is to re-evaluate its use in the classroom, make it work to the best possible educational outcomes for our students. But it should always remain a means to an end. What lies at the centre is the learner. In fact, an educator like Oana Moraru argues that this lockdown can be a perfect opportunity for the children of today: faced with the frustration of boredom, of not having enough stimuli to respond to, they will hopefully move from a passive- consumerist state towards an ability to make the little wheels of their imagination to use (Moraru). Whether or not this will come true remains to be seen. Bibliography: Alqahtani, Mofareh A. The Use of Technology in English Language Teaching. Frontiers in Education Technology. 2.2019. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335504030_The_Use_of_Technology_in_E nglish_Language_Teaching, last accessed May 21st 2020; Baloch, Sameera Sultan. “Transition to an Innovative ELT Classroom”. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, January 2014, Vol. 3, No. 1. http://hrmars.com/hrmars_papers/Transition_to_an_Innovative_ELT_Classroom1.pdf , last accessed May 21st 2020; Graber, Diana. ‘Kids, Tech and Those Shrinking Attention Spans’. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kids-tech-and-those-shrinking-attention- spans_b_4870655, last accessed May 21st 2020; Matei, Adrienne. “Shock! Horror! Do you know how much time you spend on your phone?”. 21 Aug 2019. 36

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/aug/21/cellphone-screen-time- average-habits, last accessed May 21st 2020; Moraru, Oana. “Educaţie şi învăţare de criză”. https://radioromaniacultural.ro/educatie-si-invatare-de-criza/, last accessed May 21st 2020; Shyamlee, Solanki D. “Use of Technology in English Language Teaching and Learning”. 2012 International Conference on Language, Medias and Culture. Singapore: IACSIT Press, 2012. http://www.ipedr.com/vol33/030-ICLMC2012- L10042.pdf, last accessed May 21st 2020. 37

INTRODUCING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING TO ENGLISH CLASSES Marinela Onițiu, Colegiul Național „Gheorghe Lazăr” Sibiu Abstract: Learning in today’s society should observe the trends and the students’ ways to adapt to and engage in activities in order to develop skills rather than learn by heart. Project-Based Learning does both of them: appeals to students and offers an alternative to learning in a more pleasant and durable way. Key words: Project-Based Learning, PBL, alternative, skills Today’s society has triggered new approaches and techniques to learning and, consequently, to teaching and assessment. Thus, Project-Based Learning (PBL) has developed as a new and more modern dynamic in which the students actively explore real-world problems and challenges in order to acquire a deeper understanding of their surroundings. Most studies describe PBL as a way of learning in which the students take active and meaningful part as to acquire knowledge and develop skills in a realistic rather than an artificial environment which used to be the classroom and subsequently the traditional class. Though, PBL is not to be equated with doing projects, which is one of the traditional ways of evaluating the students’ knowledge and skills at the end of or during a chapter. PBL refers to a means of learning rather than a way of assessing how much the students have acquired during a certain period of time or by a given moment. Another difference between doing projects and using PBL is that while the former may take place at home or at school, the latter can happen anywhere, as long as that is a real-world context. This also focuses on and explores genuine problems, not merely some for the sake of getting a mark or assessing the information in a chapter. The results of PBL are to be used and put into practice as to make the world a better place, solve a problem, raise awareness to something of utmost importance, etc. An important aspect when discussing the differences between doing projects and PBL refers to the roles of the teacher and the students. In traditional projects, the teacher was the one prompting the topic, assessing the work at the end, with little, if any, involvement of the students in the process. When it comes to PBL, the teacher’s work occurs before the project begins, sometimes giving in-class guidance. Moreover, in PBL the students decide upon the ways in which they investigate and try to discover the outcome of o process. This - the process - is one of the most important aspects and facets of PBL, rather than the focus on the product itself, and this is the way in which the students learn: by trying, by investigating, just like in the real world. Another major difference between doing projects and PBL is that the outcome or the products of the latter are presented to a wider audience, maybe the community, authorities, those concerned and the parties interested, not merely the classmates and the teacher. Thus, learning, in the case of a project-based approach, transcends 38

the classroom, trying to recreate real-world environments, enhancing the students’ motivation and their engagement in the process. Maybe not all the projects are feasible enough to be put into practice and developed in real life, but some of them will become the starting point of other programmes. There are some gold elements when it comes to designing a meaningful framework for PBL: a challenging problem or question - the driving question should be genuine, authentic; sustained inquiry - the students engaging in a rigorous process of asking questions, finding resources and applying information; authenticity - the project involves real-world context, tasks and tools; student voice and choice - the students decide what to tackle and how to do it; reflection - the students and teachers reflect on the task, the process, other ways of dealing with it; critique and revision - the students give, receive and apply feedback in order to improve; public product - the product will be presented to audience outside the classroom. All of these should be observed in order to reflect genuine PBL. https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl/gold-standard-project-design Moreover, when it comes to the teachers and their role in using and implementing PBL to classes there are some factors to be taken into account: design and plan - the teacher adapts a project to suit their students’ needs and expectations; align to standards - the teacher makes sure the project addresses key knowledge and understanding; build the culture - the teacher promotes the students’ independence, growth, open-ended inquiry, team spirit and attention to quality while learning/ working; manage activities alongside the students; scaffold students’ learning to support them; assess the students’ learning throughout the process; engage and coach the students during the project. These steps help teachers and students alike, 39

while benefiting others as well: schools, organizations, community and whole districts and countries. https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl/gold-standard-teaching-practices A good starting point ensures the success of such an approach. This is given by a good driving question - the triggering element which draws the students’ attention and raises awareness to different problems and issues, the one factor which engages and motivates them to get involved in such a project. According to John Mergendoller, the Executive Director of the Buck Institute of Education, an effective driving question is a “non-Googleable” one, that is one you would not get an answer to if you searched the Internet; one which would trigger critical thinking and make the students want to get engaged and do more to find an answer to. For instance, the students can easily search an answer to the question What is art?, while How does Art influence someone's life? is more likely to be a successful driving question for a project. Assessment is conducted throughout the project, the teacher designing rubric especially for the project in question prior to the students starting it. Be it self- assessment or peer-evaluation, it rather guides the students throughout the process, not merely grading them and their product. Such formative assessment helps them see what is alright and what should be adjusted or changed in order to find a solution and develop learning. Peer review is a powerful tool for both the reviewer ad the reviewee, helping them understand, learn and grow. All in all, there are very many advantages to using PBL in English classes: real-world connection, collaboration, the student in the middle of the learning process, engagement, critical thinking, multifaceted assessment, etc. It is a pleasant activity that is so captivating and motivating for the students that they get involved in it without hesitation on condition the teacher provides the right scaffolding and support. 40

The disadvantages - time consuming, sometimes limited access to resources and tools to do the project, the postponement of implementing the project - are by far outweighed by the benefits of such a learning approach when it comes to gaining knowledge and developing skills in the 21st century environment, transforming today’s students into tomorrow’s responsible and innovative adults. Bibliography: Larmer, John & Mergendoller, John R. Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning. 2010. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/sept10/vol68/num01/Seven _Essentials_for_Project-Based_Learning.aspx, last accessed May 21st 2020; O’Brien, Maggie. What is Project Based Learning? https://www.definedstem.com/blog/what-is-project-based-learning/, last accessed May 21st 2020; Schuetz, Robert. Project-Based Learning: Benefits, Examples, and Resources. 2018. https://www.schoology.com/blog/project-based-learning-pbl-benefits- examples-and-resources, last accessed May 21st 2020; Sherry, Brenda. Project-Based Learning (PBL). 2013. https://bsherry.wordpress.com/thinking-about-learning-2/project-based-learning-pbl/, last accessed May 21st 2020; https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl; https://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning; https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/school-learning-environments- and-change/future-focused-learning-and-teaching/project-based-learning-resource- guide/introducing-project-based-learning/Key-elements-of-project-based-learning; https://academy.schooleducationgateway.eu/web/developing-project-based-learning- in-your-classroom; https://v.gd/Dr04N8. 41

BEADS ON A WIRE Daniela Bunea, Colegiul Național „Gheorghe Lazăr” Sibiu Abstract: Arthur C. Clarke's story “Into the Comet” (1960), abridged for young learners by Helen Reid-Thomas (Heinemann, 1988), proves to be the perfect incentive for a creative and enjoyable cross-curricular project lower secondary students learning English as a foreign language can carry out integrating themes as varied as the Solar System, favourite numbers, doing sums with an abacus during their classes of English as a Foreign Language, Science, Mathematics, Art, ICT and Counselling, which will provide them with suitable and imaginative learning situations. Key words: reading, SF, Arthur C. Clarke, numbers, comets MOTTO: “They say every atom in our bodies was once part of a star. Maybe I’m not leaving… maybe I’m going home.” Vincent Freeman, Gattaca (1997) Reading is, most of the time, considered to be a bore by many tweens. But, as we all know, Reading is key to improving vocabulary, using English effectively in meaningful contexts, accessing other cultures and, of course, our own, developing critical thinking, expanding imagination, wondering, reflecting, even doing “non- reading” exercises in class! You always need to read!! We need to make our students realize the importance of this skill… for life! The story written in 1960 by the British science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke entitled “Into the Comet”, part of the collection named “Tales of Ten Worlds”, had been shortened and adapted for young learners of English by Helen Reid-Thomas (published by Heinemann in 1988). 42

This is the perfect example of non-boring reading. It can straightforwardly be a great incentive for a creative and enjoyable end-of-the-year project for lower secondary students, learners of English as a foreign language. Topics and themes from various curricular areas are integrated under the same \"educational umbrella\": the Solar System (Man and Society), expressing preferences for favourite numbers (Language and Communication), adding with an abacus (Mathematics and Science), and all during the classes of English as a Foreign Language, Science, Mathematics, Art, ICT, and Counselling. The students I did this project with were 12-year olds, and they were presented with adequate tasks, every single one full of imagination, thus allowing them to express themselves cleverly and resourcefully. We are surrounded by numbers, and at times we need to group them, or do calculations. There are people for whom calculations seem hard and tiring, and there are other people for whom calculations appear easy and pleasant. This is just how things are. Some people enjoy arithmetic. Others add, substract, multiply, divide because they need to. All people on Earth have at some point used numbers and done sums, even if it was just when putting together two pebbles for instance and noticing that one plus one equals two. We have played with numbers in our English classes, and liked them, even loved them! Here is our recipe! We started with facts about our Solar System, then we read the story “Into the Comet”. After this, the play with numbers began! First, we decided on our favourite numbers. Everybody has a favourite number! To make it smoother, we decided to think about favourite numbers from 2 to 12. Each of us stated their reasons for liking that particular number. The number was our age, or the number of siblings, or the birthday, or the number of pets, or the number of summer months, or the number on the basketball T-shirt, or the age of a little brother… 43

Then we started working around an ancient calculation tool, that beads-on-a-wire thing, and loved being abacists! We used representations of the Japanese abacus, and learnt how to write numbers and do sums! Here is number 2970: And now a simple sum: twenty-one plus fourteen equals thirty-five. First one moves one bead down: minus one. Then one gets down the bead meaning five. And one would have added four. Next one puts up a bead meaning ten, as number fourteen needs to be added. And here you are, the final result is thirty-five. 44

The information that we found out about our Solar System was also put into numbers in various, usually fun-filled, activities on the main website of the project: http://beadsonawire.weebly.com/. The main exercise is a text where empty spaces need to be filled in, most of the times with the right numbers! Here is an example about how long it takes each planet in our Solar System to go round the Sun. Another online activity was naming one’s favourite planet – using AnswerGarden https://answergarden.ch/, we could see that Earth has won so far: 45

Numbers are special, numbers are magical. Counting pebbles, moving beads on a wire, using a computer, saving or spending money - numbers are everywhere. It is up to us to employ them well. In this article, I have shared just a few reading ideas I have used with my students which have worked really well. Students got motivated, engaged and they were eager to do more reading! Hopefully, you will want to give them a try with your own students, adopting and adapting these ideas to make them fit your teaching reality to meet your students’ interests. Bibliography: Alexander, B. (2006). Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning? EDUCAUSE Review Beaver, J., & Carter, M. (2006). Developmental Reading Assessment, Second Edition. Parsippany, NJ: Pearson Learning Group. Kameenui, E. J., & Simmons, D. C. (May, 1997). Read*Write*Now! Activities for Reading and Writing Fun. A Joint Project of the U.S. Department of Education, the American Library Association, Pizza Hut, Inc., Scholastic, Inc., Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. 46

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP / A GOOD CITIZEN / WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE GLOBAL? - A TRADITIONAL DEMONSTRATION LESSON WITHIN GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP ERASMUS+ PROJECT, 2018-2020 Iulia Maria Stoicescu, Școala Gimnazială „Ion Luca Caragiale” Sibiu Summary: Școala Gimnazială „Ion Luca Caragiale” in Sibiu, Romania, officially represented by headmaster Constantin Romulus Simion, Erasmus+ project coordinator, hosted the 2nd Short-Term Learning Activity Meeting of the Global Citizenship Erasmus+ Project (reference number 2018-1-NL01-KA229- 038873_2), during 07th - 11th (12th) October 2019, having as guests the partner teachers and students from Spain, Portugal, Holland and Romania. The programme of the 2nd Short-Term Learning Activity Meeting in Sibiu was complex, interesting, educative-instructive, interactive and dynamic, all the activities within Global Citizenship Erasmus+ Project having been accomplished in complete success. Key words: Erasmus+ Project, Learning Activity Meeting, aims, workshop, global citizenship, project song, citizenship slogans, rights, duties/responsibilities, diversity For the students and teachers of Ion Luca Caragiale Secondary School in Sibiu, the week 7-12 of October, 2019 - the host week of the second mobility within the European project Global Citizenship - Exchange of good practices (within ERASMUS + Program, KA2 action, strategic partnerships between schools), ended in complete success. The mobility had been held in Sibiu, Romania, our prestigious educational unit having the honor of hosting the partner teams in the project, representing the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Romania through Alțâna Secondary School. The mobility program in Sibiu was complex, attractive and generous, efficiently combining educational-school activities with interdisciplinary and interactive- participatory data with the recreational-touristic ones, designed to acknowledge the Romanian cultural-historical, artistic heritage and discover the beauty of our country's nature. Within the Caragiale School, foreign teachers attended with interest and pleasure the two workshops prepared for them: Global Citizenship/A good citizen/What does it mean to be global? (7th grade B, prof. Stoicescu Iulia) and United in diversity - How English language brings people together (6th grade A, prof. Dobrin Bianca), as well as the workshops set up to present the specific educational system of each participating country (teachers’ workshop) and the schools within the children study (students’ workshop). At the same time, the foreign students shook hands with the Romanian ones and learned to dance within the workshop of folk music and traditional Romanian dances held by the professional dancers partners in the project. The meeting with the Romanian traditions, customs and ethnography had materialized by visiting the Traditional Popular Civilization Astra Museum and through the participation of our guests in the workshops of pottery, ceramics, handcrafts and glass painting offered by the folk craftsmen of the Museum. On Wednesday and Friday they had the opportunity to discover the beauties of nature and the historical-cultural-architectural values of our country, the Erasmus partners being delighted by the visit to the White Carolina Fortress and the trip during which they crossed the Carpathians, enjoying the beautiful view and passing by two symbolic monasteries of the country (route Transfăgărășan - Curtea De Argeș - Cozia - Valea Oltului - Sibiu). 47

The surprise and the strong point of the mobility was the complex Autumn School Fair event, organized for the whole community on the occasion of ErasmusDays, under the auspices of Erasmus meets Erasmus, a traditional autumn fair that brought together music-arts and entrepreneurship, bringing together hundreds of students, parents, teachers and guests from abroad. The activities were organized in collaboration with the representatives of Gymnasium School Nr. 23 Sibiu, who took part in the event accompanied by Erasmus partners from France and Greece, and those of Alțâna Secondary School. A real feast of the abundance of autumn gifts, with a multitude of specialties, Romanian delicacies and an atmosphere of solidarity, joy and general good mood, to the rhythm of traditional music and dances from Erasmus countries! Everything - a valuable \"baggage\" of good taste, culture, education, tradition and Romanian hospitality, worthy of sharing by foreign guests to families, students, teachers and friends abroad! To conclude, taking part actively within the project activities proved to be very useful, educative and formative both for teachers and for students involved in the Global Citizenship Erasmus+ project. If we were to draw up a SWOT analysis of the project, we definitely have to mention only Strengths and Opportunities, and not Weaknesses and Threats. Global Citizenship Erasmus+ project proved to be of total success, and we are looking forward to beginning our next Erasmus journey: MaGIC - Motivate Games, Increase Competences, Ion Luca Caragiale Secondary School's Erasmus+ project for 2019-2021. Lesson Summary Date: 8.10.2019 Grade: 7th B Title of the lesson: Global citizenship/ A good citizen/ What does it mean to be global? Type of lesson: learning/practising vocabulary - Global citizenship Number of students: 25 Lesson aims: ➢ to learn about global citizenship/citizen & to be global concept ➢ to practice global citizenship vocabulary Lesson objectives: by the end of the lesson the students will be able to: ▪ speak about global citizenship/to be global concept ▪ name the rights and responsibilities of a (good) citizen ▪ solve worksheets properly Materials used: - printed large pictures/images: Picture US - A Collection of 26 Photographs for Classroom Use - vocabulary worksheets - laptop&TV screen (short films and songs on You Tube) - global citizenship Word Search (on-line version) - notebooks - whiteboard 48

The Song of the Project - Lyrics: Iulia Maria Stoicescu, English teacher 1. 9. We are global citizens, We are global citizens, Citizens, citizens, Citizens, citizens, We are global citizens, We are global citizens, My dear planet! My dear planet! 2. Global citizens inspire, They inspire, they inspire, Global citizens inspire My dear planet! 3. They make the world a better place, A safer place, a fairer place, They make the world a better place, My dear planet! 4. They build it up with love and care, Love and care, love and care, They build it up with love and care, My dear planet! 5. They fight for all the human rights, Human rights, human rights, They fight for all the human rights, My dear planet! 6. They protect the environment, The environment, the environment, They protect the environment, My dear planet! 7. So join together for global change Global change, global change, So join together for global change, My dear planet! 8. Have an impact on the life, On the life, on the life, Have an impact on the life Of our dear planet! 49

Snapshots of Activities