Nordplus Junior
"SEAL: SEA in our Life"
Norway
Lyngdal ungdomsskole
Lithuania
Vilniaus r. Nemenčinės
Konstanto
Parčevskio gimnazija
Latvia
Majoru vidusskola
EA
201

Main topics covered in the booklet:
- accummulative assessment,
- CLIL,
- flashcards,
- pairwork,
- raising students' motivation,
- teamwork
Nordplus Junior projects are funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and administered by INTERNATIONELLA PROGRAMKONTORET.
This publication reflects solely the author's opinion.
Nordplus programme cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Acknowlegements to all teachers and administration in the three participating institutions who contributed to Project work.
Nordplus J unior
"SEAL: SEA in our Life"

-Vilniaus r. Nemenčinės Konstanto Parčevskio gimnazija, Mickevičiaus g-vė, 20,
Nemenčinė, LT- 15170, Lietuva
Partners:
- Majoru vidusskola , Rīgas iela 3, Jūrmala, LV-2015, Latvija
- Lyngdal ungdomsskole , Stadionveien 2, 4580, Lyngdal, Norway
Coordinators:
Inesa Rusecka (LT), Linda Mersland (NO), Liene Millere (LV)
Duration of proj e ct:
2012.08 - 2014 .08
Mobility in Lithuania: October 20-28, 2012
Mobility in Norway: February 25 - March 4, 2013
Mobility in Latvia: January 22-29, 2014
Planned mobilities to Lithuania, Latvia and Norway:
6 teachers ,60 pupils
Project participants hosted by partners: in Lithuania : 4 teachers , 25 pupils in Norway : 6 teachers, 21 pupils in Latvia: 5 teachers, 26 pupils
Total Project participants hosted: 87 ( 15 teachers, 72 pupils )
This booklet was compiled by the Lithuanian coordinator.
This booklet reflects only the author's opinion.
Photos by Project participants are used.
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The main goal of Nordplus Junior Project „SEAL: Sea in our Life“ is to strenthen bonds between Baltic ant Northern countries by establishing cooperation and friendships between schools in
Norway, Lithuania and Latvia.
We also aim at fostering interest in Baltic and Northern countries, culture and languages from an early age – for this purpos e , as well as secondary school students , primary school pupils and preschool kids were involved in Project activities.
Project participants performed legends, compared proverbs, learned some expressions and songs in the partner languages, created a multilingual Picture Dictionary, made some videos about mobilities. As a result the Project participants spread a good word about the countries they visited and were ambassadors of own culture. So we strongly believe our Project activities helped prevent - and in some cases even fight xenophobia in our communities, who benefited from the Project dissemination at all stages.
Moreover, the Project brought together teachers from the three partner countries for one common target, i.e. to create and develop ways of raising students' motivation by using CLIL and other methods. One theme was used for all teaching materials – the Sea.
The successful Project activities prove that learning can happen outside classroom, ie. in museums, on excursions as well as doing field reserach. We compared educational systems of our countries and could learn from good practices in partner schools. Thanks to mobilities the teachers could share their teaching expertise on the international level.
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Teachers' concern with the dramatically falling students' motivation has never been as accute as these days. The teachers who cooperated within the present Project have put their professional expertise together to work out certain ways to raise students' motivation to learn. We tried to promote teenagers' interest in different school subjects by providing them with tools for a more effective learning.
The first part of the book is dedicated to Project experience in
CLIL, which has been ample during two years of project work
(2012-2014). Within the framework of the Project, the sea theme in English was integrated with eleven school subjects such as
English, Maths, Geography, History, Biology, Economics, Career
Planning, Physics, Chemistry, Music, Physical Education. CLIL lesson plans and resources were created thanks to cooperation of our teachers, including Project international collaboration.
Many of the developed CLIL lessons were also conducted during
Project mobilities to partner schools. What is more, CILL materials developed by Project teachers are stored in etwinning.
In the second part the experience in teaching foreign languages with flashcards is revealed. The method developed and used by the Lthuanian coordinator turned out to be effective as every student can experience their moments of success and all class are involved in active learning. Moreover, students enjoy working with flashcards as they can cooperate and communicate with peers. Still this method enables a more individualized approach to learners. The teacher's role is that of the facilitator's who organizes the process of learning and monitors the class providing help when and where necessary.
The booklet also gives practical tips how students can be motivated by accummulative points, how to set up teams and arrange teamwork as well as pairwork, how to plan a CLIL lesson, what kind of tasks can be suitable for CLIL lessons.
This booklet being based on Lithuanian coordinator's practice and Project teachers' support does not aim at being the one and only cure for all cases of students' low motivation but we hope it may provide a teacher with some ideas of how to improve students' involvement in the classroom by creating a more appealing and stessfree learning environment.
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CLIL Concept http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_and_language_integrated_learning
• CLIL is a term created in 1994 . It's an approach for learning content through an additional language (foreign or second), thus teaching both the subject and the language.
• This kind of approach has been identified as very important by the European
Commission because: "It can provide effective opportunities for pupils to use their new language skills now, rather than learn them now for use later. It opens doors on languages for a broader range of learners. It provides exposure to the language without requiring extra time in the curriculum."
• The European Commission has therefore decided to promote the training of teachers to "..enhance the language competences in general, in order to promote the teaching of nonlinguistic subjects in foreign languages".
Types of methods and tasks for CLIL lessons by Nordplus Junior „SEAL“
Methods for CLIL lessons :
• Making presentations
• Watching videos
• Mind – mapping
• Pairwork
• Teamwork
• Discussions
• Poster-making
• Glossary making
Comprehension tasks for CLIL lessons :
• T rue /F alse task
• Reordering sentences
• Multiple choice
• Sentence matching
• Answering questions
• Gap filling
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Advantages of CLIL lessons for students:
• A more dynamic lesson
• A greater variety of materials, including educational videos
• Seeing the subjects from a different point of view
• More practical knowledge is gained
• Encouragement of autonomous learning
• Prepar ation for future studies
• Adjustable for different abilities, ages
Disadvantages of CLIL lessons for students:
• More effort needed
• More challenging content understanding
Advantages of CLIL lessons for teachers:
• “ T ry ing on” other teacher's methods
• Exchang ing practical ideas with other teacher(s)
• Shar ing good practices/learn ing from bad practices
• Expand ing the range of teaching methods
• Using a wider choice of materials (available in English)
• Break ing the school routine
Disadvantages of CLIL lessons for teachers:
• More preparation for lesson
• Finding a gap in timetable
• Handling of unexpected situations in classroom
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CLIL: English and Biology by Nordplus Junior „SEAL“
Flora and Fauna of the Baltic and Northern Sea
(LT, 1st mobility)
F auna of the Norwegian Fjords (NO, 2nd mobility)
Visiting Museum in Klaipėda (LT, 1st mobility) Visiting Museum in Latvia (LV, 3rd mobility)
Methods: Teamwork, presentations by partners in Culture Center in Nemenchine, field research, teamwork
CLIL: English and Music by Nordplus Junior „SEAL“
Sea Songs in Nemenchine
(LT, 1st mobility)
Making songs (NO, 2nd mobility) Song contest „Pop Street“
(LV, 3rd mobility)
Method: Performance in mixed teams
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Jurmala performance of „Didam“ by students
(LV, 3rd mobility)
Jurmala Museum of Sea (LV, 3rd mobility)

Lesson „Numbers of the Titanic“ in Nemenchine (LT)
Lyngdal „Numbers of the Titanic“ in mixed teams LT-LV-NO (NO, 2nd mobility)
Jurmala - Maths Activities in Museum of Rainis – field research (LV, 3rd mobility)
Methods: Teamwork, making posters and presentations, mentoring in teams
CLIL: English and Career Planning by Nordplus Junior „SEAL“
Career on a Cruise Ship (LT)
Methods: Listening comprehension, dialogues
Jobs in Sea, Sea Ports by mixed teams ( NO) Students of Maritime Academy
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Sea Image in E.Hemingway's „The Old Man and the Sea“ (LT)
Students compare proverbs related to water
ENG-LT-LV-NO (NO)
Making a picture dictionary ENG-LT-LV-NO in
Jurmala (LV, 3rd mobility):
Methods/tasks: Watching a video, answering comprehension questions in pairs, finding descriptive language
(LT/LV/NO – ENG) , pairwork
CLIL: English and Physics by Nordplus Junior „SEAL“
Navigation and Magnetism (LT) Lingdal (NO, 2nd mobility ) - Floating
Methods/tasks: watching videos, answering comprehension questions, practical tasks, teamwork, poster making
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Lingdal (NO, 2nd mobility ) - Satellites Riga: Sun Museum - „How Moon and Sun influence Earth and Ocean“

Theme: Ecological Problems of the Baltic and Northern Seas (LT)
Methods/tasks: teamwork, presentations, discussions, watching videos and answering comprehension questions
Field research in Nemenchine and Klaip eda (LT, 1st mobility)
Field research in Lyngdal (NO, 2nd mobility)
Field research in Jurmala (LV, 3rd mobility)
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Great geographic discoveries (LT)
Methods: watching videos and doing comprehension tasks, teamwork, discussion
Jurmala (LV,3rd mobility) – Activities in Sea Museum
Lyngdal (NO, 2nd mobility) – „History of Vikings“
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Jurmala (LV,3rd mobility) – Activities in Sea Museum

Exhibition of drawings „My Sea“ in Nemenchine (LT)
Methods/tasks: presentations about sea paintings, exhibition of students'drawings
Students in mixed teams make a panoramic sea drawing, Jurmala (LV, 3rd mobility)
CLIL: Chemistry, Physics, English by Nordplus Junior „SEAL“
CLIL lesson „Water Solutions“ in Nemenchines K.Parchevsky Gymnasium ( LT)
Methods: watching a video and answering comprehension questions, teamwork, practical tasks
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Methods/tasks: Teamwork, poster-making about Beach Sports B each Sports (LV, 3rd mobility)
Theme: Water an d Beach Sports (LT)
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C ompetitions in sports summer camp (LT)

• Content understanding by stubents is crucial as the other subject is at stake.
• Visual materials and practical work (if relevant/possible) will assist understanding.
• A glossary of terms should be used (can be done by students).
• Dictionaries should be available.
Scheme for setting – up teams :
2 stronger students: A,B
2 weaker students: C,D
• A, B get a task to do, while C, D listen to them and take notes.
• Stronger students teach the weaker ones (in pairs: A-C, B-D ).
• Questions based on the text are set (by the teacher, or by students). Alternatively, a plan based on the text is made.
• Stronger s tudents can prepare questions/plan at home, weaker students do tasks in
First Language (eg. glossary). At school students practice the tasks in pairs A - B, C- D. Then students change pairs: stronger- weaker, i.e. A-C, B-D.
• In every team there should be at least one student who is more advanced in English
(A/B).
• In pairs A-C, B-D (stronger-weaker) stronger students should not do all by themselves, they must get the weaker peers to work on the task and explain/ translate singular words for them, if necessary.
• The subject teacher can choose to appoint „subject experts“ in each team.
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Introduction: first in English (EL) by the English teacher, then in First Language (FL) by the subject teacher.
Input: in English - by video, audio, written texts, or presentations by students, then in FL- the content can be translated by students, summarized by the subject teacher.
Output: in English for strong students (at this point : pair A-B do the tasks in English, while C-D can accomplish the task in FL. The amount of English output depends on the class.
Conclusion of the lesson: first in English (done by students in pairs A-B , or teams A-B-C-D) .
Afterwards students A,B report results of the team to class in English. Summary can be done by the English teacher in EL. Then students C, D try to present/translate results in FL . Summary in FL by the subject teacher follows.
Teachers' role: English and subject teachers monitor students' work prividing help in both language and subject. Teachers should check understanding by frequently asking comprehension questions, orally or giving them in writing. This can be done in EL (by the
English language teacher) and FL (by the subject teacher).
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Main points of „flashcard“ method
• Teacher's role: a facilitator setting up the process and monitoring the smooth flow of learning.
• Teacher's preparation for the lesson: choosing target vocabulary .
• Accummulative assessment and mentoring: students get points for active work, successful task completion. Students also get additional points for mentoring, i.e. helping peers. In each team a mentor can be appointed for the lesson. Mentor's role should be given to different students in the team.
• Teachers should not forget oral praise, students should be encouraged to praise their peers.
• Peer assessment can be applied to give accumulative points to students.
Theoretical b ackground of the method: exposure to vocabulary , associative learning.
Scholars about flashcards
• “ Probably the most consistent finding related to good vocabulary instruction is that students need multiple exposures to a word to learn it well.” ( Lawrence at al.
)
• “Once vocabulary words have been selected, teachers should consider how to make repeated exposures to the word or concept productive and enjoyable.” Ensuring that the multiple exposures are significant and engaging is an important priority for teachers, and fortunately there is a plethora of interesting and exciting ways to reinforce new words. ( The National Institute for
Literac y)
• “ Anyone over 25 can surely remember making vocabulary flash cards, writing words over and over to learn the spelling, and generating example sentences to...cement the meaning... Today's students have an endless supply of mobile vocabulary flash card apps to choose from, so they don't have to carry around a lame pile of colored index cards. ...The method of repetition to learn new words is not likely to fade anytime soon, nor should it according to mounds of research.
”
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Authors of “ Maximise Your Memory: Techniques and Exercises for Remembering Just about
Anything , 2000 / Lavinkite atmintį: Būdai ir pratimai įvairiausiai informacijai įsiminti, 2000 claim that establishing mental associations with this word helps to memorize this vocabulary item.
There are 3 methods to facilitate memorizing vocabulary, according to the above resource, while below examples are provided by Project.
- Finding words that sound similar in your language/ other language you know.
This category could be imagined as transparent, as if made of glass.
Eg. It. Citta - Eng. City
- Creating a rational link based on the meaning of the target word with the
equivalent in your language/other language you know.
Eg. It. Ombra lt.
Šešėlis, Eng.
Shadow, Association: Eng. Umbrella
(Possible association: An umbrella helps to make shadow ).
- Establishing irrational links , based either on the words meaning, or pronunciation .
This method helps with words that are not phonetically or semantically similar to semantical eqivalents in languages you know.
Eg. It. mosca– lt. mūsė, Eng. fly, Association: Maskva (lt) , Moskwa (pl)
So to memorize the word „mosca“, you may try to imagine clouds of flies over
Moscow (or over the Kremlin).
Advantages of using flash cards according to Project practice
• can be used with all class sizes from elementary to advanced levels students
• e ffici e nt use of classroom time, all students' involvement at any time
• e very student who contributed is awarded (accumulative assessment)
• group-based interaction between students is encouraged
• s tudents encourage peers to feel more comfortable and confident
• s tudents feel friendly and learning happens naturally
• every student can experience success
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• n on- threatening environment
• mo re time to learn and dare to ask for more explanation
• can learn something meaningfully
• stronger students can solidify their knowledge
• quicker development (collaboration on the same/similar level)
Homework: students do reading comprehension tasks and translate the text.
Two students make flashcards while others read/translate the text.
How to make flashcards: on one side – the word in English, on the other – the exact translation.
• Teacher can give the students accumulative points for making flashcards.
• The choice of target vocabulary depends on the class and teaching aims.
• Target vocabulary may include single words, clusters, expressions, grammar points.
Homework: students learn the target vocabulary.
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1. Learning with flashcards: the pile of flash cards is shared among the groups.
S et the time ( eg. 5-10 minutes) to learn/ revise each pile of flashcards.
2. Working in teams : One by one students take a flashcard from the pile and translate the word , others listen, help or correct if necessary . Students may start from translating EL into
FL, then FL into EL. Modifications are possible. T he groups send their pile clockwise when the time is over .
3. W hole class revision (1 0 -15 minutes ): A volunteer reads out the words Eng>? , then FL>?. Those who know the answer should raise their hands. The teacher, or a volunteer challenges one of them . Accummulative points can be given for this part as well. S tudents are a ctive, as they experience their moments of success.
4. If time allows, students make questions / text plan based on the text.
Homework A: students learn / revise the target vocabulary and get questions/ text plan to use as prompts for speaking on the text.
Homework B : if you did not have time to make questions during the lesson. Students are given 5- 10 flashcards (difficult words) to write a story. These can be random words or especially chosen important words of target vocabulary.
Evaluation: accumulative points are given for students' speeches/ stories.
- 3 points – for students who knew most words, 2 – half of the target vocabulary, 1- some of the vocabulary.
- Give at least one point for the weakest students if they have made an effort.
- Penalize some points in case stronger students have not tried hard enough.
- You may ask students to assess their peers.
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1. S tudents use flashcards to revise vocabulary in teams (shorter time is given - 5 min utes for one round)
2. T he re maining time ( 20 -30 minute s) is used for language practice. First A and B speak , C and D listen and take notes , then students work in pairs A-C, B-D. Students A,B should provide help – mentoring to students B,D.
Result: stronger students learn and remember to use longer clusters, while weaker ones can try and express simple ideas.
S tudents write a vocabulary test : 5 target words E-?, 5 target words FL-? and get to answer questions set on the text (can be individual tasks for A,B,C,D) .
Advantages: students prepare to answers all the questions, the test does not take long, students cannot copy from others.
List“. Next time they write, they are allowed to look at their „Trap List“ . Teacher may collect
Variations of working with flashcards :
• S tudents can make sentences with random words to write a story.
• If a student does not know the word at the top of the pile, they take it „home“ an d have to memorize it /take a note of it.
• Students can take tur n s to challenge others with the most difficult word they have in their pile.
• Students can get a point for creating a memorable association.
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· A Multilingual Picture Dictionary ( English – Lithuanian- Latvian- Norwegian) with Partner Country Posters
· Boo s t ing Students' Motivation: CLIL and Flashcards in Classroom
These publications in their digital form can also be found in etwinning as well as other materials created by Project, including :
presentations of our legends related to the sea,
collection of proverbs about water in Lithuanian-Latvian -Norwegian,
more CLIL resources and lesson plans ,
presentations about our countries' cuisines, famous people, marine artists,
games and presentations about partner countries for primary learners.
Public link to Project TwinSpace: http://new-twinspace.etwinning.net/web/p83420
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• A Multilingual Picture Dictionary ( English – Lithuanian- Latvian- Norwegian)
& Partner Country Posters
• Boo s t ing Students' Motivation: CLIL and Flashcards in Classroom
These publications in their digital form can also be found in etwinning as well as other materials created by Project, including:
presentations of our legends related to the sea,
collection of proverbs about water in Lithuanian-Latvian -Norwegian,
more CLIL resources and lesson plans ,
presentations about our countries' cuisines, famous people, marine artists,
games and presentations about partner countries for primary learners.
Public link to Project TwinSpace: http://new-twinspace.etwinning.net/web/p83420