AP course description:
About the Course
This course complies with DODEA Curriculum Standards, therefore activities will focus on Communication, Culture, Connections, Comparison and Communities. It seeks to enable students to enrich their abilities in both the spoken and the written language in order to be aware of the incredible wealth of Italian heritage. The selection of readings from contemporary authors stresses different aspects of Italian society, customs and traditions. Readings will also provide for language fluency improvement through vocabulary expansion, structure analysis, oral reports and written compositions. Viewing Italian television news reports, films, documentaries and reading newspaper articles will help to achieve these objectives. Lessons will be conducted entirely in Italian to include each and every talking exchange between the students. Students will also be encouraged to think in the target language. Comparisons between the target language and their own will be provided through several activities to include comparative grammar analysis, political situation awareness and theme-based exchange projects with local Italian students. Though our system has an open enrollment policy, students should understand that this course is designed for students who have studied Italian for at least four years. The breadth, pace and depth of material covered exceeds the standard high school Italian course, as does the college level textbooks and audio and print materials as well as the time and effort required of students. Students are expected to take the AP Italian Language and Culture Exam at the end of this course.
During the entire school year students are expected to frequently interact with Italian peers on a variety of occasions ranging from study trips to local places of interest combined with groups of Italian students from local high schools, to actual exchanges for multiple days during which students swap places with local Italian teen-agers. Exchange opportunities will also include local workshops, celebrations, athletic events and community service projects.
With the reinstatement of AP Italian Language and Culture, the Italian program at Naples Middle High School has become even stronger. The course gives students the possibility to deepen their knowledge of the target language and learn more about the culture. The course is an immersion language experience and it requires the use of Italian exclusively. The main objective of this course is to help students develop the three modes of communication (Interpersonal, Interpretative and Presentational) in the correct use of the Italian language. The lessons are based on the AP themes and subthemes. They include a variety of authentic resources, such as current events and literary pieces. All activities aim to stimulate students’ ability to interact in the target language in a wide variety of topics, such as social, cultural, literary and historical. Every lesson is designed to elicit active participation through individual answers, pair work and/or large group discussions. The textbooks used in class are useful and rich with helpful materials and language activities. Yet, I mostly use the original lessons that I create, based on the current events. A wide selection of different realia, such as readings, articles from newspapers and magazines, cartoons, commercials, movies and more is used on a regular basis. The use of technology is critical in my course. I use interactive activities on the Smart Board on a daily basis, Google slides presentations in Peardeck, video clips, digital games, online language activities and more.
CLASS MATERIAL
Main textbooks:
• Bozzone Costa, C. Ghezzi, M. Piantoni: Contatto 2A e 2B, selected chapters, Loescher, 2011
Supplementary materials:
• Marin: Nuovo Progetto italiano 3, Edilingua, 2010
• Bozzone Costa, M. Piantoni, E. Scaramelli, C. Ghezzi: Nuovo Contatto C1, Loescher, 2013
• Pennasilico, Panorama Italiano 3, Studio Arcobaleno
Side resources:
• Web Papers: Il Corriere della Sera, Repubblica, La Stampa, Il Fatto Quotidiano, Il Messaggero
• Il Quotidiano in Classe.net
• Focus Junior.it
• News on social media
Readings:
• A. Baricco, Novecento, Feltrinelli
• Abstracts from miscellaneous Italian literary masterpieces
Movies:
• La leggenda del pianista sull’oceano, Giuseppe Tornatore
• Ricomincio da Tre, Massimo Troisi
• Perfetti sconosciuti, Paolo Genovese
• Luca, Enrico Casarosa
• Quo vado, Checco Zalone
• Non ci resta che piangere, Massimo Troisi e Roberto Benigni
• La vita davanti a sé, Edoardo Ponti
• selection of clips from L’amica geniale
AP SYLLABUS
In this course planning, I indicate some of the most successful lessons I have experienced. I found it practical to divide the lessons by themes and content, but obviously the boundaries from one theme to the other are never rigid. Besides, I enrich each textbook activity with class discussions and original exercises. You may use and enlarge one chapter’s topic to cover a different theme. Also, a selection of the activities may be easily made without strongly impacting the learning experience. Finally, supplementary authentic materials are used on a regular basis, but they will not be always indicated.
