ReadTwinning aims to address the ongoing need for effective strategies and tools to promote reading among young people, bridging school activities with personal interests and fostering social connections across students of different classes, schools, cultures and countries. The need for a strong, active and methodologically innovative commitment by European schools in promoting a love for reading among young people is confirmed by all available data on reading literacy.In the EU, 1 in 5 15 year-olds is a low achiever in reading. The proportion of low achievers is above OECD average (490) in CY (437) and RO (444) and average in IT (490), UK (490) and PT (492) – Pisa 2015. In the EU the rate of low achievers has increased since PISA 2012 (1.9% increase to 19.7%); and the gap between best and worst performing countries is increasing. The EU is lagging behind the 2020 target to have less than 15 % of low achievers. Children from disadvantaged households and with migrant backgrounds are less likely to be able to read well at school and to be motivated to reading than their classmates – and this has the potential to be devastating for their future lives.“ReadTwinning: Connecting students through shared interests to develop a love for reading” will address these urgent needs by developing and testing an innovative approach whose main aim is to motivate 9-15 year old students to read more and enjoy more the experience of reading and, in turn, improve literacy.The strategic partnership will:- Author “ReadTwinning Guidelines” e-publication providing teachers and other stakeholders with methodological guidelines to implement ReadTwinning- Develop the OER - ReadTwinning Platform (www.readtwinning.eu) and toolkits to offer students and teachers online “ready-to-use” tools to connect students based on similar interests, shaping for them a rich, motivating, shared reading environment based on ‘parallel’ reading of the same book or thematically connected books. Through ReadTwinning readers from different years, schools, cities, and even countries can find reading partners with similar interests and enjoy books together.- Develop a set of 6 practical lessons plans. The plans provide teachers and parents with examples on how to integrate the ReadTwinning approach into their classroom activities (supported by parents at home) and practically define the competences of the ‘Connected Reader’- Launch of 2 Blended training courses for Connected teacher and Parental engagement. Both courses foresee the self-assessment of learning outcomes and the recognition of competence acquired by teachers through a certificateTo engage the most unmotivated and underperforming students, ReadTwinning combines a customised reading path with digital skills and networking. The resources will be launched, pilot tested and widely disseminated across Europe.The dissemination strategy is oriented to reach the school sector, at first, as well as relevant stakeholders active in other sectors, such as public libraries, digital publishers, local organisations, “GLAM” actors, technologists and digital makers, citizens. Sectorial and cross-sectorial strategy will rely on 10 multiplier events organised in 5 countries and further activities, such as the circulation of 2 recognizable brands (Connected Reader and Connected Teacher), press-conferences, e-newsletters, mass-use of social networks.Structurally embedded in the logic of the project are:- 1 Joint Staff Training event in IT to deepen the ReadTwinning approach and collaborative parallel reading.- 3 short term exchange of groups of pupils in RO, PT, and CY. A unique occasion for 12 students from vulnerable groups to take part in an international experience and collaborate with EU peers in reading activities.Main impacts on teachers will be: increased competence in cultivating young students’ motivation and reading abilities; a greater responsiveness to the needs of disadvantaged groups by developing, amongst others, competences in involving parents to support pro-reading strategies. In the medium/long term, these impacts will be sustained by: the availability of multilingual OER; the creation of communities of Connected Teachers, that favour networking, and stimulate continuing professional development in this field.Main impacts on students will be: Foster a positive attitude towards reading and greater motivation thanks to the attractiveness of personal interest-based approach, the social dynamics created, and the support of parents. We expect this impact to be amplified in the medium-long term: dissemination activities, carried out even after the end of the project promoting the platform, will generate a higher number of users, thus increasing the community and fostering an even higher engagement on the side of participants that have participated in its testing and creation.Reading is the key to unlocking every child’s full potential and opens up a world of possibilities.

"This project embraces Social Inclusion, Innovative Practices in a Digital Era and Social and Educational value of European Cultural Heritage. Its main objective is innovation and the theme “MARKA: innovation and inclusion in the construction of an identity curriculum”. The partners are 4 schools from Portugal, Estonia, Italy and Cyprus, an NGO from Macedonia and FPCE from the University of Porto. About 2010 students from 8 to 18 years of age, 86 teachers, 1 senior researcher, 2 junior researchers, dozens of technicians and specialists in heritage, museological, environmental and artistic education participate directly in the project activities. Within each partner, it involves the collaborative work of dozens of educational staf members: school boards, international project team, intermediate leaders, project teams, pedagogical and administrative structures, technological teams, educational support services for students with fewer opportunities and teams of dissemination. In facilitating and follow-up activities, it involves dozens of decision-makers and external professionals linked to education, heritage and the environment, at local/regional/national and international level. It results from a collective effort to internationalize and innovate the educational service, and establishes 30 months for its completion and 2 years for impact assessment.Its objectives are: Innovative methodological procedures for inclusion, which strengthen the profile of the reflective teacher, able to face the educational challenges of the European Education Area and in the most innovative educational trends at European level in terms of curricular articulation and principles of outdoor education, digital education and heritage education; Promote the participation of partners from the educational territory to build an identity curriculum, qualifying the inclusive educational; Contribute to the development of the construction of learning tools that facilitate inclusion, with high transferability and sustainability; Contribute to the development of European education, through intellectual production in transnational cooperation, fulfilling the European Commission's goals for education.It involves 3TPM, 5LTTA, strategically and chronologically planned by profile and geographic location, whose triangulation embraces the EU countries, 6 Multipliers Events and 2 Intellectual Outputs. It is structured based on the formation of leaders in an international context and replication in terms of local activities. It considers the curriculum implementation processes, focusing on the development of Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, based on a participatory, experimental and action-research methodology, whose focus is the contribution of students in the construction of the curriculum and the creation of resulting outputs, the knowledge of a reality and its understanding, creativity and the application of critical sense and that have an impact on the local environment, an identity curriculum as a vehicle for local response to transnational social priorities and as an opportunity to implement a methodology that effect inclusion and that promotes innovation.With partners, this project allows qualifying, scientifically sustaining, disseminating, extending in space, to new contexts and territories, educational and over time, the MARKA Methodology, based on the pedagogical uses of the MARKA APP and Methodological Guide and improve them with new contributions from users.In addition to the development and consumption of good educational practices and innovative practices, it aims to impact on a local/regional/national/international level, which is why it has designed an ambitious Dissemination Plan that reconciles face-to-face contacts and digital potential. The products, results and Intelectual Outputs of this project are highly transferable, per se, ensuring the sustainability of the project.We understand that it triggers, in a holistic and systemic way, changes that reinforce the quality of the responses of European education systems to global challenges, in the immediate and long term. It responds effectively to the urgent needs of all schools in the EU: to improve, in terms of quality, innovation, excellence and internationalization; create INCLUSION strategies for a broad spectrum of its students, contributing to create a cohesive society; using European heritage to identify Europeans with their common past; changing educational paradigms to teaching-learning centered on the development of skills in students; to reinforce the professional profile of the entire teaching career; promote the alliance between school practices and research in education, in a transnational context; improve language learning and promote the EU's wide linguistic diversity and sensitivity to different cultures.It broadens horizons, offers new perspectives, under the Erasmus+ motto: ""Enriching lives, opening minds""."

Poor reading performance combined with a general disinterest for reading has long-term consequences for both individuals and society. However, the percentage of low achievers in reading at the EU level has actually grown in recent years, from 17.8% in 2012 to 19.7% in 2015. According to needs analysis that took place at the time of the proposal, in the EU, 1/5 15 year-olds were considered as low achievers in reading. Additionally, according to PISA (2012) results, the proportion of low achievers was dramatically high in CY (32,8%), RO (37,3%), IT (19,5%), PT (18,8%). Also, the proportion of non-readers was very high in PT (60%), CY & IT (44%), and RO (48%).Living Book aimed at addressing these urgent needs by developing and testing an innovative approach whose main aim is to motivate 9-15 year olds students to read more and enjoy more the experience of reading given that student motivation is, in fact, a key factor in successful reading.To engage the most unmotivated and underperforming students, The Living Book combined customised reading paths with digital creativity. It explored and implemented various solutions to “digitally augment” the experience of students while reading a book.The aim was to turn the physical book into a “Living Book”: an intense-lived experience for young readers who can participate, transform and augment what they are reading, thus applying digital competences, collaborating with peers, developing reading skills and, ultimately, being more engaged in reading. The project’s consortium was comprised of 9 partners from 6 different EU countries. 4 out the 6 countries involved have among the highest proportions in Europe of 15 year-olds students that are low achievers in reading, and of non-readers in the total population, namely CY, RO, PT, ITThe Living Book project consortium also attained a productive combination of experienced and newcomers with high degree of complementarity of profiles and expertise. This allowed the consortium to maximize the impact of the project and ensure high quality transferable results.Leading role was assigned to the European University of Cyprus (EUC), given its experience and qualified staff in managing EU funded projects and track record towards innovation in the field of education. Methodological expertise for designing a coherent framework for the Living Book approach is brought by the Italian Association “Forum del Libro” (AFOB), whose associates are amongst the most prominent Italian experts in the field of reading promotion.R&D of the Living Library Platform was ensured by Gryd Ltd, specialized in the design of advanced e-learning platforms and interactive resources for students and teachers. The 4 Schools in CY, RO, PT and EE played a key role in this project and brought great expertise to the design and development of didactical resources and practical lesson plans for teachers revolving around the Living Book approach. They also offered inputs to partners in charge of other IOs in order to design products in line with the needs and expectations of the target groups. Schools also led the pilot experimentation in their territories. Mobility activities were coordinated by the Estonian school, given its expertise in transnational mobility of teachers and pupils. Municipality of Vicenza led the dissemination package and University of Beira Interior (UBI) coordinated the quality assurance task. In terms of results, the project:-Authored “The Living Book Guidelines” for teachers-Developed the OER - The Living Library Platform (www.thelivinglibrary.eu) and toolkits with the aim of offering students and teachers online “ready-to-use” tools to augment the reading experience with rich media content.-Developed a set of public and freely accessible 47 practical lessons plans. -Launched 2 Blended training courses for Augmented teacher and Parental engagement.Structurally embedded in the logic of the project were:-1 Joint Staff Training Event held in Cyprus to deepen The Living Book approach and ICT-enhanced reading-4 short term exchanges of groups of pupils in RO, PT, CY and EE. The main identified impact on teachers was the increased competence in cultivating young students’ motivation and reading abilities; a greater responsiveness to the needs of disadvantaged groups by developing, amongst others, competences in involving parents to support pro-reading strategies. In the medium/long term, these impacts will be sustained by: the availability of multilingual OER; the creation of communities of Augmented Teachers that favour networking and stimulate continuing professional development in this field.Lastly, the main impacts on students were the development of positive attitude towards reading and greater motivation thanks to the attractiveness of the blended approach proposed, the social dynamics created, and the support of parents.