1. THE STORIES OF YOUR
HISTORY
INTRODUCING OURSELVES
Introducing the students
Before the first meeting in France, we made films in which students introduced
themselves
Introducing the towns and regions
For the meeting in France in November 2011, in Norway in March 2012, in Poland in
May 2012 and in Italy in October 2012, students shew presentations of their towns,
their regions to the other students, teachers and parents.
Students prepared presentations of local museums and towns they shew in Poland.
CREATING A LOGO
Students produced different logos for the project. The logos were sent to the different
countries and one was elected in Poland in May 2012.
STEP 1: THE FAMILY STORIES
The circle of origins
The circle is divided in 8 parts, one for each of the grandparents. Students drew the
flags of the original country of their grandparents.
The map of the origins

2. Italy, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Russia, Turkey, North Africa…
France is clearly an immigration land.
On the contrary, Polish families are native of Poland which makes Poland rather an
emigration country. It is roughly the same for Norway and South Italy even if these
two countries have become lately countries of immigration (from Africa especially).
This work was interesting because students became aware that Europe is a
continent where people moved a lot and the different countries are connected to
each other through migrations.
The map of Europe we’ve drawn on the wall of the class room enables us to see the
origins of the families. Colored strings were placed from the original towns or
countries of the grand parents to the 4 towns (Morestel, Nowa Dęba, Carovigno,
Hoyanger).
It appears that half of the French students’ families come from abroad.
The family tree
Each students filled this family tree. Then we gathered them in a booklet.
The family story narrative
Each student wrote a narrative of his/her family story, put in a booklet with the circles
of origins and the family trees.
Then some stories were chosen and presented in other ways: films, cartoon, diaries,
PowerPoint… These works were presented in Norway, in March 2012
STEP 2: THE NATIONAL HISTORY
The narrative of the national history
Students were told to write the history of their country, as they know it, without any
preparation. They had about 45 minutes to do so.
NATIONAL HISTORIES COMPARISON
1. Do they use the Periods ? Do they know them?
Chronology isn’t the students’ major concern. They rarely use historical
Periods. Sometimes Renaissance, the Middle Ages but that’s all. They know
facts, important dates but rarely make links between the periods.
However some of them use their periods, I mean « the Viking era » in Norway, « the
Kings time » in France.
2. What event/Period is considered as the beginning of the national
history?
The answers are obviously very different.

3. Polish students agree on baptism of Poland 966. Some of them mentioned about
earlier times (the Slavic people).
Norwegian students mention the Viking era.
For Italian students Italian national history starts in 1861 after the Wars of
Independence and the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.
French students don’t answer very clearly to the question. Very few mention the
origin of the state: they talk then about the Gauls, the Francs.
It is interesting to see that for Polish students the origin is a religious event ;
for Norwegian and French people it is an ethnic origin ; for Italian it is a
political event. Although Italy is full of cultural richness, students place the
birth of the country in 1861. For Norway, Poland and France, the origin is old
and more cultural.
3. What characters are mentionned ? Do they speak about people ?
individuals?
Norway : Harald Hårfagre, Saint Olav, Leiv Eriksson, Snorre, Karl Johan, Harald V,
ABB are individuals that are mentioned. The laps are also mentioned.
They don't connect historical events very much to individual people.
Italy : the best known historical characters are Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe
Maldini, connected to Independence. Besides, students know about very important
characters such as Galileo, Dante, Frederik II.
Poland : all students said about characters. They usually mentioned Polish Kings.
Some of them mentioned about individuals (not only Poles) : Saint Wojciech ; Otton
III ; Gallus Anonymus ; Copernicus ; Tadeusz Kosciuszko ; Pilsudski, Pope Jan
Pawel II, Lech Walesa, Napoleon. Individuals connected with national movement,
the end of communism, cultural heritage, and the Pope.
France : many individuals, political characters are mentioned. Many are the Kings
of France (Louis XIV, Louis XVI), the presidents of the Vth Republic, Napoleon.
4. What events are mentionned?
Italy : The events frequently mentioned are the rebellions before the unity, the wars
of Independence and the Expedition of the Thousands.
This historical period is part of the curriculum plan, but is set at the end of the
year because of its chronological subdivision.
Therefore, our students have not studied yet, with method, the events and the
most important historical people in Italy as a state. However, in 2011we
celebrated the 150th
anniversary of the unity in Italy, so students had the
opportunity to learn a lot about that historical period thanks to the numerous
events fostered.
Norway: The constitution of 1814 is mentioned by everybody, the Viking era by
almost everybody. The unions by about 75% of the students. Christianity, the black
plague and Second World War by about 50%. The terror attack is mentioned by one
third! The discovery of oil by about one fourth of the students. Democratic movement,
industrialization, migration patterns are never or almost never mentioned. The
independence from Sweden in 1905 is mentioned by few students.

4. The choice is very much connected to the curriculum. In primary school, pupils
work mainly on the Viking era.
Poland : The main topics told by the students are the baptism of Poland, the first
Kings of Poland ; the different partitions ; the Napoleonic wars ; the birth of Poland in
1918 ; World War two and the Warsaw ghetto ; Communism ; the election of Pope
John Paul II ; The creation of Solidarność, the autumn of nation, Poland part of
NATO and EU.
The choice is also connected to the curriculum but students know their close
history by what they’ve been told by their families or whoever. Religious
events are part of Polish identity.
France: The French Revol is often spoken of, mostly «la prise de la Bastille», the
Declaration of Rights, Louis16 beheaded. Then they mention the World Wars with
very few details, and the Middle Ages (knights, peasants, crusades). Very few talk
about the industrial revolution, the football cup, Clovis, women getting the right to
vote.
We can notice that the choice of events is clearly connected to the curriculum
and the context: the French Revolution has been learnt a few months ago, as
well as the industrial revolution. The Middle Ages is in the curriculum of the
previous year. They haven’t learnt about the WW : that’s why these events are
just mentioned and not detailed. One specific thing is that many French
students mention the symbols of the Republic as part of the History.
Some of them mention the tsunami which has happened a few months ago.
5. What is their point of view?
The stories are mainly told in a political and military point of view : revolutions,
Kings, rights are frequent. The religious point of view is specific to Polish stories
when Norwegian stress on the social point of view, French and Norwegian mention
the ethnic belonging (the Vikings, the Francs, the Gauls).
The stories are mainly told in a national point of view. The choice of events is
clearly national, and when the events are European (for example the WW), they are
told in a national point of view. Which leads us to the third step of our work, the
European history.
The students mainly write about simple facts with no connection to the context and
with little content and understanding, cohesion. They show no personal point of
view; they don't say «I think» etc.
6. The narrative:
The narrative is usually not linear. It has little cohesion. It is a list of non connected
and non detailed events. It's not a militant or judgment narrative. These
characteristics we find in the four countries.
We think that the students were quite young (from 12 to 15) to have a personal point
of view or a critical approach on events. Moreover, they were not prepared for this
exercise. We then have what they remember, it is a raw material.
However the teaching methods are different. In France students are taught how to
write a historical narrative. But it’s a very new teaching methods and we can see
through this exercise that the students are not at ease with it. Norwegian teachers
focus on the links, but that’s not to be seen in the narratives. In Poland and Italy
historical narrative isn’t a key skill at school.

5. 10 major dates of the construction of the nation
We wanted our students to know a bit more about the history of other countries. We
decided to work on the construction of the nations and chose 10 dates for each
country.
Students made a PowerPoint presentation of each date.
We put all the dates on a timeline.
Timeline
French people made a game called timeline, to be played at the last meeting in
France. The cards were made after the 10 dates.
Rules
Each player (or group of players) receives 4
cards, side back.
The other cards are left on the deck.
One card is put in the middle of the table,
side up.
Each player places one of his cards near the
original card, before (on the left) or after (on
the right) in the timeline.
Then he flips over the cards and checks if the
date is correctly placed in the timeline. If not
he takes a card on the deck.

6. Common Topics
As the narrative shew mainly a political and national point of view, as the dates were
on the construction of the nation, we chose to work on « Common Topics » : these
topics would be more economical and cultural ; they would be common to the four
countries.
The topics we worked on are :
- the christianization of Europe because it is a common heritage ;
- the expansion of the Vikings who went as far as South Italy.
- Trade in the Middle Ages which developed exchanges in Europe, economical
but also cultural exchanges: as the roads were safer, students, painters,
teachers could travel.
- Gothic art is to be found in all the countries ;
- Industry in the XIXth century: Europe is the first industrialized continent which
has made it ahead for more than a century.
- Royal Marriages : this topic was more political
Students prepared information in advance; then they met in Italy, shared their
information and did common PowerPoint.
STEP 3: EUROPEAN HISTORY
For this part, Italy had ceased working with us.
We chose to work on major European events of the XXth century:
- Life during World War Two
- Reconstruction after WW2
- Propaganda during the Cold War
- Autumn of the nations
- The feeling about European Union
Students mainly looked for witnesses, documents and made presentations in
Poland in March 2013.
This work was very interesting for students and for teachers as well. Especially
talking about Cold War and the differences in everyday life between Eastern and
Western countries. Recent history is needed to understand our world today, and it
appeared that few students really knew what had happened 30 years ago.
Working on it, talking to witnesses made things more concrete.
Here is a sum up of the debate which took place after the students’ presentations.

7. About the living conditions during WWII, we noticed many common points:
food rationing, curfew, bombing, black market, children set to the countryside…
Norway, Poland and France were invaded by the Nazis.
But in Poland things were worse for different reasons: the Shoah took place in
Poland ; German camps were set there. There were ghettos for Jews. Around
99% of the polish Jews died during this period.
Krakow was the German capital of Eastern Europe. Polish people bowed to
Germans like slaves. Farmers gave all their food to Germans.
They couldn't go to the cinema, couldn't use cars, paid phones...
Universities were closed. They used to have classes in private flats secretly...
Monuments, factories, houses, in both countries were destroyed but we can
report that Germans bombed all the north of Norway because they didn't want to
leave anything for Russians.
From London, French and Polish resistance started to be organized.
The Norwegian government was also established in this town. They tried to
motivate people to fight against the advancing German invasion.
Post-War period:
Reconstruction
American helped the 3 countries (Marshall Plan).
After the war, France and Norway were under the influence of Americans.
who were seen as heros. They called them Öthe SavioursÜ.
Of the 68's generation, this situation changed specially during the Vietnam War.
In Poland, at the beginning Americans were their enemy but after a while they
tried to look like them! However, they appeared Evil in Poland.
Cold War propaganda
Studying propaganda during the Cold War was very interesting because Poland
was not part of the same camp. Obviously our points of view are different.
After World War II, Communist Terror started for the polish population. They were
very scared (spies, denouncements...). They missed food and they were very
poor. Americans, English and Russians drew the polish borders without any
consultation with the polish government. Everything belonged to the nation (no
private companies). They imposed an economic plan. The Church was also
persecuted. They couldn't travel; it was very difficult for them to get a visa. People
tried to escape their country to find a life of freedom.
In France and Norway, it was different.
The births exploded (baby boom).The Economy continued to grow up with stable
governments. Work for everyone!! They were free to go anywhere.
They lived under Democracy.
The autumn of nations
This was a major event for Poland who became free in 1989. The first free
elections took place, it has since been a democracy.

8. In France and Norway people haven’t always understood how important this was.
Some people followed the news intensely, but the majority knows something has
happened, but when ? Where ? Why ?
European feelings
Poland belongs to the European Union since 2004, France since 1957 but
Norway isn't a member state of the EU.
Polish people have a very positive point of view about European union. They
have benefited from the EU and have joined it recently.
French people are mostly in favor of EU except for the common currency because
of the growth of prices in everyday life.
Norwegian people think EU is good, but not for their country, for others !
ADVERTISING THE PROJECT
During the two years of the project, we tried to share our work regularly with the
parents, the other teachers, the towns…
Mayors welcomed us in the town halls at each meeting.
Parents were invited to meet the foreign teachers and students.
Medias were solicited. In Norway a journalist interviewed all the teachers for the
local newspaper.
In France teachers and two students of each country were interviewed by the
local radio. A short radio show about Comenius was to heard at the end of May
2013 on «radio France bleu Isère».
Many articles have been written about the project in various newspapers.