Who are we? Subjects Citizenship ICT General Studies (sogo gakusha) Summary Students produce a website to introduce aspects of their country to their partner school.  The project is designed to introduce to children the idea that there are a variety of things that make us who we are.  It fits in well with aims of the English national curriculum for citizenship classes such as 'learning to respect differences between people' and 'preparing to play an active role as a citizen'. The activity could also be part of IT, language or general studies lessons.   Participating schools Japanese schools UK schools Ikuchi Junior High School What to do The project can be completed at any time by a class in the home school and then the URL of the website can be sent to the partner school.  It's a good idea to put contact details of a teacher (not individual students) onto the site and include links to your school's official web site.   The Ikuchi Junior High web site is an example of the type of web page you could get your students to produce.  You might want to divide the site into four or five sections and assign groups of students to work on each section.  The categories suggested in the ABC 'who are we' project are symbol, events, customs and languages.  The symbols that you can investigate including flags, styles of dress and animals.  In the section on events,  students can describe special days and events such as 'coming of age day' (Seijin no hi) in Japan or the FA cup final in England.  They could find more information by interviewing friends or relatives or by using the Internet.  However, you or your students can choose which categories to use. Why make a website? If you are a language teacher or teaching another subject not related to IT it might seem like a lot of unnecessary trouble to get students to make this type of website.  However, there are a number of good reasons for embarking on this project. It is a task-based activity with a tangible end product.  Students learn through the process of making something rather than being told something. Students know that their work will be seen by others outside the school and in other countries.  This might encourage them to produce better written work.  It can also encourage them to think more carefully about the perspectives of other people. It doesn't rely on the active participation of your partner school.  Having students write e-mails to pen pals in club or class time can be valuable but it depends on the pen pal replying promptly to e-mails.  This is not always the case.  A website  project can be more reliably timetabled but it still retains the element of real communication with people in another country. Having a website which includes your schools address and the e-mail address of a teacher makes it easier for you to keep in touch with a partner school.  It also gives you a reason to communicate with your partner school.  Once you have finished your site you can show it off to your partner.  The pictures and descriptions on the site will probably elicit more questions from students than simple written descriptions in an e-mail. The process of making the site can include all kinds of learning situations and is not just limited to writing content for the site.  For example, speaking skills can be developed through discussions about the content and design of the site, reading and research skills will also inevitably be involved.  Students will also develop their IT skills as a by-product of taking part in the project.          Building a website Teaching your students how to build a website will inevitably be a time consuming business.  Fortunately, there is plenty of information on the web to help you out.  You could start by looking at the following sites: Webmonkey for kids:  This is an online tutorial to help students learn HTML and develop their own website. http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/kids/ Teachers Online Project:  Comprehensive guidelines on creating a school website: http://teachersonline.ngfl.gov.uk/topweek2.php3 Superhighway Safety:  Important information on privacy and Internet safety.  http://safety.ngfl.gov.uk/ Online resources The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's who are we project contains detailed instructions for teachers and students.  http://www.abc.net.au/civics/whoarewe/intro.htm Some information about citizenship education is available at http://www.dfee.gov.uk/a-z/CITIZENSHIP_EDUCATION_ba.html and http://www.nc.uk.net/servlets/Subjects?Subject=Ci   Click here to return to the projects contents page