Abrud, August 10, 2023. The 4th grade students from “Avram Iancu” Middle School in Abrud attended this summer Alfabetar.ro literacy camp, organised by The Association for Values in Education (AVE), coordinator of Alfabetar.ro platform, in collaboration with InfinitEdu. At the camp, by applying project-based learning, the children used the literacy skills developed throughout the four years, employing resources available on Alfabetar.ro platform.
The 25 students started from an actual problem they had identified in their community, namely the need to have a leisure space nearby. Then, the children looked for a solution, exploring informative and literary texts using methods specific to literacy areas of intervention, such as: vocabulary, fluency, comprehension.
“By means of this project we wished to demonstrate that training the literacy skills on a daily basis leads to noticeable results: children understand what they read, they display critical and creative thinking and express their opinions with nuanced arguments”, (Daniela Stoicescu, teacher).
“It is an extraordinary feeling to find yourself in a classroom where the students and the teacher build together meanings based on the text, with no fear of failure. A literacy skill is built in class and by means of this weave of well-chosen questions, correlations between the text and personal experiences, all of which together make sense”, Ivona Munteanu, teacher, AVE literacy coordinator.
The project itself consisted in building a therapeutic alleyway in the yard of “Avram Iancu” Middle School, with the intent to use it after the camp completion, as well, everyone in the community being free to walk it.
The camp was offered to the students for free, with the support of BRD GROUPE SOCIETE GENERALE, BRD Asigurări de Viață, BRD Asset Management and Societe Generale Global Solution Centre, whereas the learning activities were videorecorded and will become examples of best practices on Alfabetar.ro platform. This platform is available for free to any educational establishment in Romania and provides resources, developed in line with the school syllabus, to assess students’ writing and reading skills.
The camp was a success also since it entailed a collective effort, with input provided by primary school teachers from the community, Liliana Mursa, Mihaela Negru, volunteers from the local pedagogical high school, representatives of InfinitEdu Association – Florentina Pufan, Daniela Stoicescu, Dragoș Sandu, from Carpathians Lifestyle and the Alfabetar team from AVE. Moreover, the alleyway construction was also possible with the involvement of the entire local community – the mayor, parents, other teachers, the project thus turning into a genuine learning context.
About The Association for Values in Education
The Association for Values in Education (AVE) is a non-profit organisation whose main goal is to bring the educational system in Romania to Europe’s top 10 by 2035. AVE wishes to transform the educational system in Romania into one that promotes respect, honesty, team spirit and responsibility. Full details are available at https://ave-romania.ro/.