Topic: Poland in the European Union

Author: Anna Rabiega

Addressee:

8th grade primary school student

Core curriculum:

XII. International affairs.

The student:

3) presents the basic benefits for employees and travellers related to the presence of Poland in the European Union; finds information on the use of EU funds in his municipality or his region.

The general aim of education:

The student has basic knowledge on international affairs.

Learning outcomes:

The student:

• presents various kinds of investments that were made in Poland with European financial assistance.

• explains what the rules for projects for granting EU financial help are.

• prepares his own proposal of a project that could be financed from the european funds.

Key competences:

• communicating in a foreign language,

• digital competence,

• learning to learn,

• social and civic competences,

• sense of initiative and entrepreneurship.

Teaching methods:

• discussion,

• brainstorming,

• teaching conversation using movies, interactive exercises,

• snowball method,

• project method.

Forms of work:

• self‑learning,

• work in pairs,

• group work,

• whole‑class activity.

Material & equipment needed:

• computers with loudspeakers/headphones and internet access, headphones,

• multimedia resources from the e‑textbook – chapter: Polska w Unii Europejskiej, Poland in the European Union,

• interactive whiteboard/blackboard, felt‑tip pen/a piece of chalk.

Lesson plan overview (Process):

Introduction:

1. The teacher presents the goal of the lesson: You will find out what conditions must be met by the project in order to obtain funding from the European Union and prepare your own proposal for a project that could apply for co‑financing from European funds.

2. The teacher asks the students to pair up and recollect the basic facts about the European Union. To this end, they are to prepare mind maps answering the question: „What do we know about the European Union?”. If necessary, the teacher reminds the students what the method consists in. He also informs the students about the time limit for completing the task.

The students write down the information and draw associations. Then the teacher asks one of the students to draw the map on the board, and the others give him their suggestions. At the end, the students and the teacher verify the information provided. If the students have a problem with the recollection of the facts, the teacher can ask them guiding questions, e.g. What is the European Union?, How many members are there? When did Poland join the European Union?.

Implementation:

1. The teacher asks the students to look at the photo gallery from the „Poland in the European Union” abstract, and then using brainstorming answer the question: „How can the presented objects be related to the European Union?”. He specifies the time to complete the task, and explains the method if necessary. The students present their suggestions, and a selected/willing student writes them on the board. Then the students select and verify their ideas. At the end, the teacher asks one or several students to summarize their work.

2. In the next step, the teacher asks the students to give examples of investments made with European funds (e.g. in the area of their residence or places they visit during holidays), to write them on the board and determine, which areas of the economy they belong to.

3. The teacher informs the students that they will watch a documentary about investments co‑financed from European funds (Polska w Unii Europejsiej, screen 1). He asks the students to pay particular attention to which sectors of the economy these investments are made. This information will be used to do Exercise 2 from the abstract „Poland in the European Union” that refers to the movie. The students together with the teacher discuss the solution of the exercise.

4. The teacher informs the students that they will seek answers to the question: „What are European funds?”, that is, they will build a definition of this concept. He says that the students will work with the snowball method:

a. First, they will individually answer the question.

b. Then they will merge into pairs, compare their proposals and write a list of their joint solutions on a separate sheet.

c. Next, the students will gather in fours and confront their positions in a similar way, and the collected solutions will be written on a new sheet.

d. Later, the students will merge into even larger groups until the whole class speaks of the problem. All the answers along with the arguments agreed by the whole class will be written on the board.

5. After the students complete the task and establish the definition of European funds the teacher verifies it and, if necessary, completes it.

6. In the next step, the teacher writes on the board three rules for granting funding from EU funds: sustainable development, equal opportunities and information society. He asks the students to explain how they understand these principles. If the students have problems with defining the terms, the teacher may ask guidance questions:

• What should „develop” as part of sustainable development? What does „development” mean? In reference to what should this development be „balanced”? What kind of balance is meant? What does it mean that there is to be balance between these areas? For example, the economy is to develop; economic development depends on economic growth (GDP) and technological progress; while developing the economy, one must remember about the natural environment; the balance lies in the fact that economic growth and technological progress do not take place at the expense of environmental degradation.

• Who is to have „equal opportunities”? Who in society can face inequality of opportunities? How could the disparities be removed? For example, disabled people, because they do not have such easy access to offices as healthy people; removing disparities – facilitating (physical or virtual) access to offices: construction of driveways, services provided online.

• What associations does the term „information society” evoke? What can the „information” of society mean? Or maybe it's about digitalization? What would „digitalization” mean? How can projects implement the principle of dissemination of information?

The teacher writes students' suggestions on the board, and then during a teaching conversation together with them he verifies the information, using the interactive widget (flashcards), and if necessary, completes the information. He explains to the students that the principles learned apply to the allocation of EU funds for various investments and each project must meet them.

7. The teacher informs the students that they will use the acquired knowledge, to assess which of the listed projects meet the rules of granting of EU funding. The students do Exercise 3 from the abstract. Together with the teacher, they discuss the correct answers and indicate errors that disqualify other projects.

Summary:

1. The teacher asks a willing student to summarize the lesson from his point of view. He asks other students if they would like to add something to their colleague's statements.

2. The teacher informs the students that they will be divided into teams and their homework will be to prepare an investment project that they think is needed in their town and can be financed from EU funds (Exercise 4 from the abstract). He informs the students that they have 2 weeks to complete the project. If necessary, he explains the principles of using the project method. As a first step, the teacher suggest the groups the preparation of a project mind map. He also presents to the students the rules according to which an application for an investment project should be prepared:

• What is your project about? (description max. 7000 with spaces)

• When and where will you implement your project? How long will it last?

• What do you want to achieve and why?

• What is the current situation and what do you want to change in it? What do you need in order to do this?

• Who will your project influence? How? To what extent?

• How is your project different from those completed so far?

• How does your project complement the investments carried out so far?

3. Homework proposal:

a. The teacher asks the students, in addition to the project preparation, to find in the coming week at least one investment made from European funds and be ready to talk about it during the next lesson.

b. Listen to the abstract recording to review the material and new vocabulary. Then do the vocabulary exercise at the end of the chapter.

Notes for the teacher:

The teacher must remember to ask at least three students about examples of such investments at the next lesson.

When working with the project method, attention should be paid to the composition of the teams created. The teacher can choose a lottery – it works when the differences between school achievements of students from a given class are not too big, and the students already have experience in group work.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Poland in the European Union

Watch a short documentary about the investments in Poland financed by the European Union. Pay attention to these sectors of the economy, which gained the most. Then solve the exercise.

All these projects have to foster:

• sustainable development,

• equal opportunities,

• information society.