"Seeds of Tellers offers teachers tools based on oral literature (tales, myths and also nursery rhymes etc.) to help pupils master an autonomous, thoughtful and shared language, improve their cognitive faculties and facilitate the learning of reading and writing.FACTS19.7% of pupils in the EU had reading difficulties in 2015, compared to 17.8% in 2012 (PISA report). Only 4 Member States reached the reference level of less than 15%. The system has never reproduced social inequalities to such an extent, in the OECD particularly in France and Belgium. More and more children are entering kindergarten with delayed language skills and exposure to screens is making the situation worse. The lack of elaborate exchanges and vocabulary increases the gap between children according to their socio-cultural background very early on. However, success in learning is associated with mastery of speech, the foundation of all learning.For the sociologist B. Lahire, the mastery of the spoken word and degrees are the main social organisers: those who have learned to express themselves in public more often hold positions of responsibility.While 70% of professional speaking time is oral, this ratio is reversed at school: the written world dominates teaching practices. Oral expression in schools is very often directed from the pupil to the teacher, with the use of by heart learning and recitation. Oral presentations and examinations are prepared as if they were written documents. For the school, speech is born of writing. Today, the question of oral expression is resurfacing with new tests at the end of schooling. In Portugal, orality is emphasised, while in France and Italy a grand oral and a multidisciplinary interview are appearing.OBJECTIVES•To encourage self-confidence•To listen to and respect the word of others•To promote cooperation•To develop memory and vocabulary•To encourage the imagination•Discover and share the European oral cultural heritage•To fight against inequalities in learning which have increased during the health crisis.Training pupils to tell stories orally in class without a written support allows them to become emotionally involved, to experience pleasure and to pass it on in order to assert themselves as individuals and find their place in the group. Our credo: ""Listen better to speak better, speak better to think better; because when we think better, we write better.ACTIVITIESWe rely on oral literature, of which tales are a part of. Structured stories, from a common oral heritage, they offer a framework for reasoning, memory, imagination...Children's storytelling workshops have been held in schools in France, Portugal, Italy and Bulgaria.We have created www.seedsoftellers.eu, which gathers the 6 productions of the project (see results). Videos of adults telling stories have been made to inspire teachers.The resources are available in each language of the partnership as well as in English and meet accessibility and inclusion standards.TARGET GROUPSThrough the teachers we target students from kindergarten to 6th grade.PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS6 partners, 5 countries: 2 storytelling specialists (D'Une Parole à l'Autre and Grimm Sisters), 1 agency specialising in the creation of educational platforms (Les Apprimeurs), 1 organisation specialising in specific learning difficulties (Logopsycom) and 2 schools (AEPROSA, L. KARAVELOV)RESULTSO1-Pedagogical guide to set up oral storytelling workshops ""Storytelling at school to master speech"" (40 pages)O2-Multilingual library: more than 300 stories from oral literature to tell in classO3-Webradio: more than 110 audio recordings of students telling storiesO4-More than 20 videos of children and adults telling storiesO5-20 Educational kits linking the themes of the school curricula to the storiesO6-23 Pedagogical sheets to accompany teachers in the implementation of storytelling workshops in classUnder the aegis of the National Education and the City of Paris 14th, ""Storytelling Week"" enabled more than 120 teachers and 2500 students to participate in a storytelling circleFollowing this event, a project to train teachers in storytelling is planned. Financed by the French Ministry of Education, it concerns the Priority Education Network schools in Paris 14.Libraries, storytellers, teachers... spontaneously wish to contribute to the project, which we will run for at least 5 years.LONG-TERM BENEFITS•Fight against illiteracy, give a taste for learning•Reduce inequalities in learning•Increase listening, dialogue between individuals and cultures•Preserve and transmit European oral culture at school. To get to know traditions, peoples and the world better in order to prepare the future•To raise awareness in Europe of the importance of learning to master structured and autonomous speech."

<< Background >>According to the European Reference Framework for Key Competences For Lifelong Learning, “Everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and life-long learning in order to maintain and acquire skills that enable them to participate fully in society” (22 May 2018). To do so, a set of 8 key competences were identified. Amongst those, the concept of literacy or“ the ability to identify, understand, express, create, and interpret concepts, feelings, facts and opinions in both oral and written forms, using visual, sound/audio and digital materials across disciplines and contexts. It implies the ability to communicate and connect effectively with others, in an appropriate and creative way”. Literacy is a core skill, taught from a very young age, as early as 4 years old, most commonly in the form of reading and writing. Developing these skills is elementary in the goal of increasing life-long learning overall. According to the 2018 PISA results, in Europe, around one in five 15 year-olds (21.7%), are underachievers in reading. Underachievement even increased in reading over the past decade and further deteriorated: the EU-average underachievement in reading rate was 19.2% in 2009. Literacy challenges can arise in early education stages as writing skills are most often used as evaluation tools rather than tools to develop and create. Yet, it has been proven that creativity, imagination and overall alternative method to teaching literacy skills can improve student’s overall performance. When pupils learn to imagine, to create solution and find meaning in ideas, they are better suited to master language, writing, mathematics, and other learnings. In this sense, using storytelling as a tool to develop literacy becomes increasingly interesting. Commonly understood as an art to telling, reading or writing stories, rearchers have found that storytelling promotes listening skills, fosters imagination and creation, improves vocabulary usage and writing techniques among pupils and more. Using alternative methods of teaching literacy is also especially relevant for learners with special needs. There is no fully reliable estimation of the number of people with Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) in the EU but, together, SLD are believed to affect between 9% and 12% (according to the European Dyslexia Association) of the European people. This means that, in the EU, it represents between 10.9 and 13.08 million youngsters and a total of between 51 and 61,2 million of citizens (Eurostats numbers). Whether the pupils have been diagnosed or not, students with learning difficulties will face increasing challenges in the acquisition of basic literacy skills. In the EU Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 on Inclusive Learning, the council states that inclusive learning is: “providing the necessary support to all learners according to their particular needs, including those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, those from a migrant background, those with special needs and the most talented learners”.Therefore, when we take into account the need to increase literacy and its benefit to society in general, the evident strengths of creativity and storytelling, mixed with the goal of inclusiveness to all learners, a new teaching method arise.<< Objectives >>The goal of this project is to develop basic literacy skills in pupils aged 5-10 using writing, storytelling and creativity in an inclusive and innovative way. Specifically, by developing pedagogical resources centered around literacy, storytelling and inclusion, as well a practical tools rooted in creativity. The creativity component will take its place within the different activities organized in the project, ranging from participatory stories to story boxes involving more multisensory storytelling experience, which will allow children to learn through visual, kinesthetic and auditory practices.<< Implementation >>In this project, we aim at developing new pedagogical approaches to teaching literacy but also allow teachers to develop their own. In order to ensure that these activities developed to the best of their abilities, the content of the material produced will be thoroughly tested. Indeed, we are going to involve more than 400 pupils in the local testing phases, with at least 35 local teachers testing the material in their classrooms and an additional 50 with learning difficulties, DYS disorders or special needs. In order to keep high standards on all results produced, we are also going to organize 3 transnational meetings which will reinforce the knowledge of the partners but also the communication amongst experts and schools to ensure the best quality from the project. In additional to the testing that will take place across primary schools in different region of Europe, we will organize 6 multipliers events, where an estimate of 200 attendants will be expected. At these events, the projects results will not only be presented, but various workshops based on storytelling, literacy skills and inclusion will be organized.<< Results >>For the purpose of this project, we have decided to develop 5 results to ensure that the objectives are reached. First, we will create a series of 24 Storyboxes, with ready-to-use kits made to stimulate and engage pupil’s imagination and creativity, available in 6 languages (English, French, Italian, Greek, Polish, Romanian). The second results, in accordance with the first one will be a series of 24 participatory stories, used to increase performance and writing skills in classrooms, also available in the 6 languages of the partnership. Then, we will create 3 different guides and manuals to cover all bases of the project. First, a pedagogical guide on the different pedagogical outcomes of the practices created by the partners, with an additional section on how to approach literacy from an inclusive and adapted perspective, Second, a creation manual to provide teachers and educators a step by step process of the tools necessary to implement and create their own storyboxes or participatory stories, and finally third, an implementation guide will explain the different steps taken by the consortium to reach its goals, as well as practical comments from teachers and other education stakeholders in the partnerships.All these resources will be found on a website dedicated to the project and freely available in 6 languages. Consequently, in terms of intangible results, or general outcomes, we expect to provide teachers and specialists with first, a new outlook on literacy skills and its role in lifelong learning of pupils, but also more information about alternative methods such as storytelling and creativity and also with effective, specific and innovative educational tools to help pupils develop their writing skills. Furthermore, we expect to help teachers improve professional practice and provide them with easy access to pedagogically adapted resources, and ultimately to facilitate individualized support for students.For young pupils and pupils with special needs, we hope to support them with the acquisition of basic literacy skills through innovative pedagogical teaching, to help them fight against school drop-out thanks to more personalized pedagogy that encourages the learners’ progress, and to boost their self-confidence through better inclusion in the school curriculum.

<< Objectives >>Our main objective is to increase primary school pupils’ engagement in STEM by supporting inquiry-based learning and a multidisciplinary approach thanks to storytelling, with a special focus on the inclusion of students with learning disorders and girls. We aim to support students' self-recognition of their developed skills, promoting independent activities in the classroom by providing curriculum-related boxes as well as educational easy-to-use and replicable resources for educators.<< Implementation >>We will conduct a research phase before creating a pedagogical guide gathering all our research and proving the pedagogical benefits of the boxes concept for the STEAM approach. This will lead us to follow up on the creation of 35 STEM boxes, starting with a proof of concept, then the creation in itself, and the production of a box creation roadmap addressed to the teachers. We will also produce educational resources such as 70 pedagogical sequences to help teachers using our creations.<< Results >>At the end of the project, we will provide documents and reports on existing STEM kits and a pedagogical guide on engaging and inclusive teaching of STEAM in primary school. We will also create guides on how to create boxes and how to implement their activities in class for teachers. In terms of educational resources, we will create pedagogical sequences to help teachers integrate STEM boxes in class and an implementation guide to give a practical overview of partners’ experience.