CONTEXT/BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT: The coordinating school, the Aldegrever-Gymnasium, has been certified as a European School in Germany. The school is constantly seeking to offer its pupils opportunities to engage with European topics. It is important for the teachers of this school that their students develop a European awareness which allows them to obtain both a critical perspective as well as a sense of tradition. The school has already coordinated one Comenius project from 2011 to 2013. Via e-twining we have managed to find four other European schools that share our pedagogical and Europe-oriented intentions. The topic of our project “Books can build bridges” seems to both us and our partners suited to challenge our students effectively and to spread the European idea beyond our schools. OBJECTIVES Our paramount aim is to enable our students to become active and responsible citizens and to engage with the idea of European unity while maintaining cultural variety in the different parts of Europe. In order to achieve that aim a number of competences are required. Therefore our project promotes: - German language skills (writing a novel, reading texts and working with them). English will also be used in the communication between the students; - Skills in reading and learning (reading texts, writing texts, interpreting scenes from films etc.); - Cultural awareness, historical and political awareness and the ability to use cultural terminology; - General and vocational education and training (preparation for university studies); - Mathematical and scientific competence (collecting and evaluating statistical data; interpreting cultural objects mathematically; reconstructing different calendars and chronologies); - Digital competence (digital presentation of project results; use of computers to communicate with partners); - Social competence (cooperation of students of the different partner schools). NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS The exact number of people involved in the project cannot be given at this stage. However, in each school at least half of the pupils of each year will be involved into the project in different ways. In addition, teachers from each school (at least half of the staff of each participating school) will be involved, as well as the students’ parents and representatives of numerous institutions (town authorities, tourist offices, churches and religious communities, public libraries, universities, archives, local organisations). DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES The student activities demand intellectual, creative, technological and social skills: Pupils will read and work intensively with European literary and historical texts; they will deal with the subject of film analysis; they will write their own texts and create their own works of art; they will use a variety of modern media to gather information and to communicate. In their work and communication with students from the partner schools they will learn to work together in a product-oriented way in mixed-nationality groups. METHODOLOGY USED TO CARRY OUT THE PROJECT In the months between the working meetings in the different countries the students will work in groups specifically formed for the different project activities. They will communicate via e-twinning, emails and Skype in mixed-nationality groups, to plan and coordinate the different steps and to record the results of their work that will be presented and finished during the next working meeting. Moreover, the students will live in families during their visits to the other countries. Thus they will find out about everyday life in different countries, and they will have a chance to participate in school lessons. RESULTS AND IMPACT ENVISAGED For each of our project modules the result will be a book in both digital form and print: 1. Book: A literary history of the participating countries by young people for young people; 2. Book: A European history book of the history of the participating countries 3. Audio-Guides: Literary and historical tours of the towns (will later be available in the tourist information centres of each town/region). 4. Book: Texts of the poetry slam 4.1 Video film of the poetry slam 5. Book: The project novel 6. Artwork: “Angel of three cultures” 6.1 Objects inspired by the “Angel of three cultures” 7. Creative artworks made with books 8. Book: A short philosophy of language, reading and writing: “Looking at limits”. POTENTIAL LONG-TERM BENEFITS - Implementation of project results into school curricula (History, Language and Literature, Philosophy, Religion) - Books in schools and public libraries; digital books on a project homepage - Implementation of university students’ work experience with school students within their teacher training.