Project

Project Description
Teaching Global Citizenship: Developing Tolerance through Graphic Novels is an inservice EFL teacher professional development project that has multiple aims, the most significant one being to increase tolerance and intercultural competence of preservice teachers (master students) of the Faculty of Education in Jagodina, inservice EFL teachers from Serbian primary schools, and primary school learners in Serbia. It has been developed in collaboration with a US expert in the field of teaching English to young learners and teenagers, Dr Joan Kang Shin, from George Mason University, Virginia, who has coauthored the project with Dr Vera Savić, from the University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Education in Jagodina, Serbia. The project is funded through a grant awarded by the Embassy of the United States in Serbia for 2020/2021 academic year.  The first training stage will involve 10 interactive online webinars authored, conducted, and moderated by the authors of the project and an EFL teacher/teacher trainer from Serbia, Ms Ivona Randjelović. The participants will be 25 highly enthusiastic and motivated teachers of English, who will be awarded a certificate on 6 ECTS for completing the university-level master academic course of Integrative Early English Language Teaching at the Faculty of Education in Jagodina, restructured to include global citizenship issues. The participants will be selected in November 2020, and the training will be held in the period February – June 2021. It is expected that the training will result in primary learners’ enhanced language skills, deeper understanding of global issues, and better appreciation of universal values such as justice, respect, dignity and equality.
Training Objectives
By the end of the project, the participants will be able to:
  • Explain the components of global citizenship, their role in the EFL classroom, and ways of developing them with young learners and teenagers
  • Use strategies for developing cultural awareness and intercultural communication skills with young learners and teenagers
  • Analyse the discourse of graphic novels and use a range of techniques for developing learners’ reading strategies
  • Analyse visual grammar and syntax of graphic novels/comic strips and use techniques for developing learners’ visual literacy
  • Use a repertoir of drama activities in the language classroom
  • Design appropriate teaching materials and motivational language activities based on using graphic novels/comic strips in the classroom
  • Design appropriate language activities for guiding learners through the process of creating a graphic novel/comic strip in collaboration
  • Design appropriate assessment tasks for measuring learners’ reading comprehension and creative writing
  • Apply a reflective approach to connecting theory and practice for achieving success in the language classroom
  • Use a range of strategies for collaborating with colleagues on designing teaching materials and activities.
Content of the project
  1. Global Citizenship in the EFL Classroom
  2. Cultural Awareness in the EFL Classroom
  3. Graphic Novels in the EFL Classroom
  4. Visual Literacy in the EFL Classroom
  5. Reading Strategies for EFL Readers
  6. Drama in the EFL Classroom
  7. Developing Classroom Materials for Selected Graphic Novels
  8. Developing Classroom Activities for Selected Graphic Novels
  9. Teaching Global Citizenship to 4/5th graders
  10. Teaching Global Citizenship to 6/7/8th graders
Project Timeline
  • Preparation stage: October – December 2020
  • Selecting the participants: October – November 2020
  • Restructuring the syllabus of Integrative Early English Language Teaching master course: November 2020 – January 2021
  • Designing training materials: November 2020 – January 2021
  • Online training: February – June 2021
  • Certification: June 2021
Project Authors
  • Vera Savić, PhD, Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics at the Faculty of Education in Jagodina, University of Kragujevac; project coauthor.
  • Joan Kang Shin, PhD, Associate Professor of Education at George Mason University, Virginia, United States; project coauthor.
Project Trainers
  • Vera Savić, PhD, Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics at the Faculty of Education in Jagodina, University of Kragujevac; teacher trainer.
  • Joan Kang Shin, PhD, Associate Professor of Education at George Mason University, Virginia, United States; teacher trainer.
  • Ivona Randjelovic, English language teacher at Pecenjevce Primary School, Serbia; teacher trainer.