world language – Project-Based Italian

A Guide to the Alphabet Soup of Education Acronyms (Especially in World Language Teaching)

Dear First Year Teacher, keep calm and read on! Anyone who has spent time in education – whether as a teacher, administrator, or curious parent – has likely encountered a bewildering parade of acronyms. In world language teaching especially, the jargon can feel like you need a decoder ring just to follow a department meeting.Continue reading “A Guide to the Alphabet Soup of Education Acronyms (Especially in World Language Teaching)”

AI in the World Language Classroom: Helpful Tool or Academic Shortcut?

Artificial intelligence has arrived in the language classroom whether teachers invited it or not. Students at every level now have access to tools — ChatGPT, Google Translate, DeepL, Duolingo’s AI features, and many others — that can translate, conjugate, write essays, hold conversations, and even explain grammar rules in seconds. For world language teachers workingContinue reading “AI in the World Language Classroom: Helpful Tool or Academic Shortcut?”

La Festa della Donna

Suggestions for how to teach about Women’s Day to American students in Grades 7-12, including a lesson plan and student project guide. Do you celebrate Women’s Day? If so, how? Please share in the comments! What Is La festa della donna? Every year on March 8th, a unique celebration unfolds across Italy. Streets, workplaces, andContinue reading “La Festa della Donna”

Translanguaging in the Italian Classroom: A Practical Introduction for Italian Language Teachers in the United States

Student hands with red painted finger nails holding a pencil in right hand, ready to write in an notebook that has bubbles in which "hello" is written in various different languages

What Is Translanguaging? If you teach Italian in the United States, you already know your students bring a rich mix of languages into your classroom. Many speak English at home, others speak Spanish, Mandarin, or even Italian dialects passed down from grandparents. For a long time, conventional language teaching wisdom said: keep the target languageContinue reading “Translanguaging in the Italian Classroom: A Practical Introduction for Italian Language Teachers in the United States”

Creative Comics and Onomatopoeia Activities in the Classroom

a variety of blank speech balloons or thought bubbles in rows of three and in different shapes

Understanding Onomatopoeia: Sounds That Speak

Upper left hand corner: black silhouette or icon of a person with hurt knee saying Ahia in a speech balloon; lower left a ringing yellow bell with the caption Din don; lower right center, comic explosion graphics saying Bang, pum, boom; lower right corner: wow; center right a locomotive in black and white with white smoke from its smoke stack and grey smoke near the wheels stating ciuf ciuf; upper right corner: a yellow face emoji with full cheeks and holding a bitten apple, with the graphic caption gnam gnam; upper right center: comic explosion graphics, one on top is yellow and red with the word Vlan! and the lower one is a red explosion graphic with the comic bubble word Slap! in light blue.

What is onomatopoeia? Crack! Brrr! Mmmm! These sounds, representing actions, are onomatopoeic. In one blog I found this statement about onomatopoeic words: “…there is another way to make us understood without using meaningful words: onomatopoeias…” but I would argue that onomatopoeic words are very much meaningful as they are a helpful way of showing, notContinue reading “Understanding Onomatopoeia: Sounds That Speak”

Quick Onomatopoeia Lesson Plan for Kids

red barn with two haystacks peeking out from left and right side behind the barn with two horses' heads hanging out of an open Dutch door. Under the door are a white goat, a grey rabbit, a white goose, and a peach pig.

Learn Italian Animal Sounds: Fun Onomatopoeia Guide

This post all about onomatopoeia in Italian; the sounds animals make, for example, are not the same in Italian and English, though sometimes the sound is the same but the spelling uses Italian phonetics. Be prepared, though, for students to make these sounds in class – loudly! Cani e gatti (Cats and Dogs) While dogsContinue reading “Learn Italian Animal Sounds: Fun Onomatopoeia Guide”

8 marzo (March 8): La Festa della donna or Giornata internazionale della donna (International Women’s Day)

A bouquet of yellow mimosa flowers with 8 photographs of women from different parts of the world hung on a light pink background. 8 March Women's Day is written in red in the bottom right corner

March 8th is a worldwide day to celebrate women and their contributions to their societies and cultures. This tradition actually began on February 28, 1909, in the United States, to commemorate and honor the women protesting for better working conditions in a garment workers’ strike in New York City that happened in 1908. But accordingContinue reading “8 marzo (March 8): La Festa della donna or Giornata internazionale della donna (International Women’s Day)”

Where are the women?

Finding a complex problem for a problem-based learning unit can be daunting, but it does not have to be an earth-shattering or brand new issue to launch into a PBL unit and include students in the process. March is traditionally Women’s History Month and it spawned this question in my mind: where are the womenContinue reading “Where are the women?”