Here are some activities created for intermediate and low advanced classes.
1. Virtual locker.
Objective: introduce oneself and talk about likes and hobbies.
I usually use this activity at the beginning of school year, in level 3. Instructions are in the document. Students describe how they would decorate and fill their locker, based on some information on their life and their tastes and hobbies. Then, they present it to the class.
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2. Il mio tempo libero.
Objective: talking about pastimes.
Class discussion on sports, hobbies, board games and more. Instructions to create a skit in groups. Questions on videogames, fun facts and practice with a ruzzle game. Useful words and expressions. Presentation to prepare about their free time; presentation to the class.
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3.La scuola italiana.
Objective: assessment on “la scuola italiana” unit.
Fun activity to assess knowledge about words and expressions related to school and school subjects. It is more effective if used in a Peardeck mode. The activity includes: general questions, elicitation of definitions, true/false exercises, school schedule to fill out, listening exercise.
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4. Indovina la parola!
Objective: play with definitions of school subjects and school-related words.
Instructions are in the document. Students play this game in class and have fun guessing the word based on the definition given by the components of their team.
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5. Descrivi una foto.
Objective: describe a picture of a family trip.
The document includes the instructions for this activity. Students need to select, describe and present a picture taking during a family trip (real or imaginary) in detail.
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6. Raccontare una gita.
Objective: summary of useful expressions to describe a trip.
This is not really an activity, but more a useful chart to review and utilize typical expressions to describe a fun trip. I have my students study this chart both for a dialogue activity (questions and answer as indicated) or to prepare a video presentation on Flipgrid.
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7. Scena di un film.
Objective: describe a scene from a famous movie.
The instructions and an example are provided in the document. Students select a scene from a famous movie (possibly Italian) and describe it in detail to their classmates.
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8. Lingua in contesto: cosa sai dire in italiano?
Objective: show confidence in using the target language in a variety of situations.
I use this activity in a Peardeck mode at the beginning of the school year with my Italian IV class. I find it a very effective tool to explore my new students level of competence and confidence in using the language in several likely situations.
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9. Parliamo di sentimenti.
Objective: describe human feelings and comment on a famous Italian fairy tale.
The activity includes a reflection on several emotions, questions on memories, class discussion on the morale in the famous fairy tale “Pinocchio”.
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10. Se fossi.
Objective: practice with conditional tense.
This activity requires students to imagine they need to describe their personality based on a series of similarities. For each image, they need to write and present a paragraph in which they explain the nature of the similarity.
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11. Samantha Cristoforetti.
Objective: discuss a piece of current events.
This activity includes: read an article about Samantha Cristoforetti, understand and underline the key words and expressions, synthetize the paragraph, answer questions based on the article, do a research on Samantha Cristoforetti and on another extraordinary Italian woman.
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12. Summer/assessment
Objective: weekly independent work
Instructions to students to work on weekly independent work: In order to practice your advanced Italian and get familiar with authentic material, you are strongly encouraged to do some extra activities in the target language. The list below is a guide for helpful activities. The grid that follows is intended to help you with your weekly activities. It is critical that you do a little bit every week. Your weekly assignment will be graded as homework, and it is extremely precious for your own learning progress and your preparation for the AP exam, which is mostly based on authentic material.
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