Text Set Italian Government & Politics

Grade 12: Italian 4

Wendy SearleProfessor Kern

EDC 448September 23, 2012

Guiding Questions:

•1. What does it mean to live in a Democracy?

•2. In what ways do you think the Italian Government is different than ours?

•3. If you could design the perfect government, what elements would you include? Why?

Offline Texts

Prego! An Invitation to Italian• Lazzarino, Graziana, Andrea Dini, and Maria Cristina

Peccianti. Prego! An Invitation to Italian. 7th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.

• Levels of Meaning & Purpose: This textbook is written for high school students who are learning Italian as a second language. New topics and grammatical points are introduced explicitly, with examples, diagrams, and practice exercises.

• Structure: The text is very considerate because it is well organized with headings and subheadings.

• Language Conventionality & Clarity: Students will not be familiar with the more technical terms in the book, but will become more familiar with them because they are closely linked with learning a second language.

• Knowledge Demands: The most difficult aspect of the text is the background knowledge demands that it places on the reader. For example, the text assumes that a student will know and understand proper English grammar and parts of speech, which many students are unfamiliar with.

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Letteratura Italiana Per Stranieri• Balboni, Paolo Ernesto., and Anna Biguzzi. Letteratura Italiana per Stranieri.

Perugia: Guerra, 2008. Print.

• Sections of this text are more challenging than others, but this will be a great source for my grade level and above grade level students.

• Levels of Meaning & Purpose: This text offers an overview of Il Risorgimento and highlights authors and other prominent figures of that time period.

• Structure: Each section is clearly delineated with a heading and subheading and the book is arranged cronologically.

• Language Conventionality & Clarity: The vocabulary in this text will be challenging for Italian 4 students, but the text offers several features that make it considerate and accessible.

• Knowledge Demands: The students will need to have prior knowledge of the Italian language, but the content is explained concisely and clearly.

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Italian Peninsula 1860

"The Italian Peninsula before Unification in 1960." Map. European History. N.p., 5 Jan. 2011. Web. 25 Sept. 2012.

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The students will be able to understand this visual text easily and it will be a support as the study Il Risorgimento.

Italian Peninsula 1860 (cont.)• The map is appropriate for all students and will give them

a visual of the time period. They will use this while reading the first text to trace Garibaldi’s movements on the map.

• Levels of Meaning & Purpose: The student must interpret the map and its significance to the time period.

• Structure: Although reading a map is not a difficult task, this may be a stretch for students because the map is very different than present day maps of the country.

• Language Conventionality & Clarity: The language doesn’t present a challenge for the students.

• Knowledge Demands: The knowledge demands are somewhat of a stretch because this topic is content specific, but there are visual supports for the learner.

Online Texts

Risorgimento: Background History• Donnelly, Patrick. "Verdi: Music of the Italian Risorgimento." (2004): 1-

5. Peabody.edu. Web.• This article offers a concise and clear overview of Il Risorgimento. It

will be a great source for my students, and while the struggling readers may have difficulty with the text, there are other resources for them.

• Quantitative: The text scores a grade level of 15 on the Flesch Kincaid scale, but this result is somewhat skewed by sentences that list each region in the Italian Peninsula. I would include this in the classroom because it’s important to expose students to challenging texts.

• Levels of Meaning & Purpose: This text is straightforward and explains how each event is linked.

• Structure: The text is organized into clear paragraphs, but there aren’t pictures, charts, or subheadings.

• Language Conventionality & Clarity: The language in this text is grade level appropriate.

• Knowledge Demands: The students do need to have an understanding of Il Risorgimento, but this text offers a clear explanation of the causes of the movement.

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Flow Chart: Italian Unification

Butler, Chris. "The Unification of Italy and Its Effects." Chart. The Flow of History. N.p., 2007. Web. 26 Sept. 2012.

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Flow Chart: Italian Unification (cont.)• This text is a support to help all students, especially

struggling readers, understand the events of Il Risorgimento.

• Levels of Meaning & Purpose: This text is very straightforward and literal. It is broken down into the most basic terminology for the students.

• Structure: The information is organized in a flow chart, so it is easy to understand and follows a clear, logical pattern with bold print highlighting the most pertinent information.

• Language Conventionality & Clarity: There are some abbreviations found in this text, but the students are familiar with most of the language.

• Knowledge Demands: This text provides a succinct review of Il Risorgimento, but to understand the time period, the students would need to have more background knowledge than this text offers.

Unification of Italy: video clip• Unification of Italy. Dir. Ms. BuellTube. Youtube, n.d.• This video is geared towards my lower students and will be used as a

support to help all students comprehend this unit.

• Levels of Meaning & Purpose: This short film provides a synopsis of the of the Unification of Italy. It is narrated with explicit explanations of the topic.

• Structure: The film shows maps of Europe and of the Italian peninsula throughout the unification process and is accompanied by captions and a spoken explanation of Il Risorgimento.

• Language Conventionality & Clarity: Although the language is content –specific to a certain extent, it will not be too difficult for the students.

• Knowledge Demands: Although the film requires some content knowledge, it is a great asset to the text set because it explains the history and provides great visuals to aid students who have little prior knowledge of European history.

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“Qui si fa l’Italia o si muore”• "Frasi Di Guiseppe Garibaldi." Pensiere Parole. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept.

2012.• These quotes are appropriate for my grade-level students becuase the

language is not too difficult and they will use some inferecing skills to understand it.

• Levels of Meaning & Purpose: Analyzing and discussing the quotes will require higher level thinking skills and a deep understanding of Italian Nationalism to understand.

• Structure: The quotes will bring the students back in time and may be difficult to understand out of context.

• Language Conventionality & Clarity: Italian 4 students will be able to read these quotes and understand them literally without much difficulty.

• Knowledge Demands: There are significan knowledge demands placed on the students as they read and analyze the quotes.

“Non offro la paga, nemmeno i quartieri, neanche il cibo; offro solo la fame, la sete, la marzia forzata, le battaglie, e la morte. Lascia lui che ama su patria con il suo cuore e non semplicemente le sue labbre, mi seguire.

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Viva l’Italia• Viva L'italia. Dir. Roberto Rossellini. 1961. DVD.• Viva l’Italia is a film that depicts the third and final war

for Italian unification. It is appropriate for all students because the majority of the meaning is conveyed through action, rather than dialogue.

• Levels of Meaning & Purpose: The purpose of the film is to show Giuseppe Garibaldi’s military campaign, and this is done explicitly.

• Structure: This film is somewhat of a stretch for the students because some of there are occasional gaps between events and the political background can be confusing, but the military campaing is easy to follow.

• Language Conventionality & Clarity: The language will be difficult for the students, but there are plenty of visual aids to support their comprehension

• Knowledge Demands: The film will help the students access the more demanding texts in the curriculum.

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Political Cartoon• Tenniel, Sir John. "Garibaldi and Italian Unification.” Cartoon.

CartoonStock.com.Web.• The cartoon is appropriate for my

struggling readers because the picture conveys the message.

• Levels of Meaning & Purpose: This cartoon is an example of text that requires interpretation to understand.

• Structure: The students are not very familiar with this genre, and will have to consider how the author’s opinion influences their understanding.

• Language Conventionality and Clarity: There are no significant language demands on the student.

• Knowledge Demands: Although the literacy demands for understanding this cartoon are very low, it will place a high demand on students in terms of background knowledge.

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Va Pensiero• Pavorotti, Luciano, Zucchero, and Marco Boemi. Va Pensiero. Perf. L'orchestra Filarmonica

Di Torino. Zucchero. N.d. MP3

• Va Pensiero is a chorus from the opera Nabucco. Although it is follows the tragedy of the Jewish exile from their homeland, scholars argue that there is an underlying theme of Italian Nationalism. This song will present a challenge to all students, but the text itself is geared towards the grade-level and above grade-level students.

• Levels of Meaning & Purpose: This song reflects Italian Nationalism and requires interpretation to comprehend.

• Structure: The students will encounter a stretch to understand an opera song written in the beginning of the 19° century.

• Language Conventionality & Clarity: The language and vocabulary will be difficult, but the students are capable of reading the written lyrics.

• Knowledge Demands: The text will require prior knowledge to understand, but the other texts in the set will support the students and will help them understand this opera.► 4:08► 4:08

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bt9RTMDvX4

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Fratelli d’Italia• Mameli, Goffredo. "Fratelli D'Italia." 1847. CD.• Originally written as a poem, the lyrics were put to music and

became Italy’s National Anthem. This text will challenge above allstudents because they will have to infer the meaning, but my struggling readers will have difficulty reading the text.

• Levels of Meaning & Purpose: This text, although short, will require the students to analyze it to understand it.

• Structure: The song is a genre that the students may struggle with, but it was originally writeen as a poem, a genre they are more confident with.

• Language Conventionality & Clarity: The language in the song is difficult beacuase the vocabulary is challengin and because poems and songs don’t follow conventional grammatical rules.

• Knowledge Demands: The students will need to understand that time period and Italian Nationalism to understand this song.

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