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Introduction
As an organization that celebrates the tremendous value of children's literature, and the huge impact that good books can have on the lives of children all over the world, IBBY Canada is pleased to be working on this ongoing project which brings children together through a shared experience of stories. IBBY originated in response to founder Jella Lepman's conviction that putting good books into the hands of young people could change their lives and lead to a brighter future for all. More specifically, she believed that by meeting new and different people in the pages of a book, children would develop a greater tolerance of, and respect for, one another. Introducing children to other cultures and other ways of seeing the world broadens their horizons and gives us all hope for a more peaceful tomorrow. And this most heartfelt belief, this basic foundation of IBBY as a whole, is what lies also at the heart of this twinning program!

Purpose
The purpose of the twinning project is to bring middle grade classes from different parts of the world together to get to know one another a little bit, to “build bridges” between children of different countries and cultures. This project will encourage participating students to share information about their own lives, families and communities with a certain focus on reading interests, favourite stories etc. The final activity to conclude their email partnership will provide them with the opportunity to create a story or picture of their email partner based on all of the information they have gathered during their email exchange. We especially recommend the project for grade 6 classes but it could but done with any age group with some slight modifications.

Getting Started
We begin by pairing each Canadian class with a class from another country. Using the completed application forms, we try to partner each class with a class that seems closely-matched ie. same grade, similar number of students. Most of the exchange throughout the duration of the program will likely take place via e-mail, although participating teachers/librarians are welcome to add their own touches to the project and may decide to send photos, mementoes, drawings and artwork, or even books to one another in the mail: the sky's the limit so be creative! Participating teachers will be given the contact information of their partner teacher and will then proceed to contact one another to establish how best to proceed. A Project Co-ordinator from the IBBY Canada Twinning Project Committee will serve as a liaison and a guide to assist you, so it is important that ALL e-mail correspondences between the participating teachers/librarians also be cc'ed to your Project Co-ordinator.

Suggested Guidelines:
Although this project is intended to be completely flexible, the following are some suggested guidelines and advice for how to approach this undertaking:

Step 1. The first step is for the teachers to take some time to get to know one another, your class situations and your basic expectations of this project, and to then establish between you how you wish to organize this partnership. You will likely wish to discuss your classes’ access to email and determine between you what is reasonable in terms of regular correspondence. For example: would it be possible to exchange emails weekly? Would bi-weekly email exchanges be more reasonable? It is important to determine this at the beginning so that the students will know when to expect to hear from their partners. The project quickly loses momentum if one class sends off their emails and then waits for several weeks, not knowing when they will ever hear back from their partners. Even if you decide that there will be long intervals in between, as long as the students know to expect that, you can work with that. You should also discuss your respective school calendars for the next several months, making sure that you each know when the other’s class will be on break or if there are particular events (ie. A school concert, a class trip, a major project) that will affect this project. Ideally at this point you can devise a rough schedule of when to exchange emails and replies (For example: in two weeks, on such-and-such a date, we will plan to send the introductory emails. The second set of emails, in response to the first, should be sent on this date, three weeks after the first).

Step 2. The second step is for the teachers to introduce the project to their respective classes. We will provide you with a brief introduction about IBBY and its mandate for this project that we would like you to share with your classes

Step 3. The third step is to actually assign e-pals to both sets of students. The students will begin by each writing an email introducing themselves to their partner. Sample questions for you to suggest that they think about when composing this email might include:

Once these emails have been traded, make sure that you (the teachers) have decided upon a date when the replies will be exchanged. At that point, when you exchange replies, also decide a date when the next set of emails will go out.

Step 4. In their second email exchange, the students will be asked to identify at least three things that they have in common with one another. OR, they can simply comment on the information they’ve learned about their partner (for example: “wow, I can’t imagine what it would be like to have nine brothers and sisters since I only have one! Is it hard to get a turn in the bathroom?”)

Step 5. In their next email the partners will share favourite books and authors. Suggested questions to guide might include:

Step 6. Have the students respond to their partner’s email. Ask them to include the following in their reply:

At the end of the project, participating teachers will send to their IBBY Project Co-ordinator the names of all of their students. Each student will receive a certificate of participation from IBBY Canada. Also, we would love to receive copies of the stories and pictures produced by the students: we would like to potentially include them on our website!

Other suggested class activities: These are activities that the participating teachers might agree to do with their students to share with their partner class.

Reminders: This is just intended to serve as a guide; you are welcome to modify and adapt the steps, questions and suggestions as suits your needs. This includes any possible curriculum tie-ins you might like to work out.

This project is best suited to classes that have fairly regular email access. It can be done by letter exchange but would likely require the elimination of some steps to accommodate mailing times.

If you are interested in participating in a twinning project, write to us at twinning@ibby-canada.org. Please let us know:

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IBBY Canada.org