Advanced level teaching at City and Islington Sixth Form College
AS Italian
Description of lesson – Cucina Italiana
Teacher – Simona Candiolo
The five video clips show an AS Italian lesson, where students revise and consolidate use of the comparative and are introduced to the imperative set in the context of Italian cuisine. The lesson follows a logical progession as can be seen from the lesson plan (doc, 43KB). The teacher begins the lesson with instant and continued use of the target language and with good use of ICT and visuals with varied and differentiated activities which are fun and are clearly enjoyed by the students.
Good use is made of a native speaker of Italian, who is is a member of the group, to ensure that she does not become bored and that the advantages of her presence can be fully utilised. The importance of differentiation in such circumstances cannot be over-emphasised and this lesson gives several ideas on how to make effective use of a fluent speaker of the language who is also a student. A foreign language asssistant or other native speaker could be used in a similar way.
The use of game show type activities engages students and encourages light-hearted competition between the two teams. Students are able to practise all four language skills throughout the course of the lesson and those of all abilities are given the tools to enable them to participate fully.
Starting well using the target language and engaging student interest via a game The teacher begins the lesson immediately in the target language and makes use of a native speaker of Italian to assist her from the outset. The native speaker mimes various cooking activities and the students have to guess the verbs she is miming. The native speaker then shows the students various utensils and asks them to name these. The teacher displays the words on the interactive whiteboard. The students enjoy this starter activity and are now prepared to use this vocabulary later on in the lesson. View Video »
Making good use of ICT and images The teacher continues the food topic by presenting a series of images of different Italian foodstuffs using the interactive whiteboard. The students are encouraged to identify these foods. The students are then asked to identify the differences between the cuisine in Northern and Southern Italy. They are given cards to support them to produce sentences using comparatives to describe these differences. The teacher then collects these ideas and displays them in writing on the interactive whiteboard. This activity is an interesting consolidation of the comparative which had been covered in a previous lesson. View Video »
Using the comparative
The teacher continues the discussion about the differences between cuisine in the north and south of Italy by providing some comparatives on the interactive whiteboard. This acts as scaffolding for the students to produce their own sentences orally. This clip is a good example of a teacher discussing grammatical concepts with students in the target language. The students are then given prompt cards to help them to produce sentences of their own using comparatives. This ensures that all students contribute to the oral work. View Video »
Ready, Steady, Cook!
The teacher continues the cooking theme by splitting the class into two teams and challenging the teams to come up with a recipe which includes the ingredients on the card. Each team is given five minutes to write out a recipe using the imperative. This activity engages student interest and they work in a group to write out their recipe. Group members then read out their recipes to the other group and use is made of the native speaker to write out the recipes on the board and then to judge which is best. This activity ensures that every member of the class is playing an equal role and a potentially mundane grammar activity is given an interesting slant. View Video »
Call my bluff
The game show theme continues as the teacher introduces the final activity which involves the teams reading cards containing idiomatic expressions about eating. The teams give definitions, only one of which is correct, and the correct one has to be guessed by the other team. The native speaker reads out the correct definition and explains why it is correct. This activity again encourages participation of all students and the element of competition continues to keep them all interested.
At the end of the lesson a differentiated homework is set to build upon the material covered. For the majority of the group, the task is a reading comprehension where two recipes have to be changed using the imperative direct for one recipe and indirect for the other. The native speaker student is asked to prepare a presentation on Dieta Mediterranea which will be presented to the class in the next lesson. View Video »
Interview with the teacher - Simona Candiolo:
What strategies do you use to maintain the interest of the students in your AS Italian lessons?
Listen to Simona describing how she uses ICT, visuals and songs with her AS students. View Video »
Why did you choose to include a game show idea in your lesson?
Hear the advantages of using “Ready, Steady, Cook” as a way of enlivening grammar teaching. View Video »
How do you ensure that the other students in the group feel comfortable having a native speaker of Italian as a peer in the class?
Listen to the teacher describing how she deals with differentiation to ensure that all students are fully stretched. View Video »
Interview with students:
What sorts of activities do you normally do in your Italian lessons?
Hear some students talking about the types of activities they enjoy in lessons. View Video » View Video » View Video » View Video »
Why did you choose to study AS Italian?
Listen to some students explain their interest in Italian. View Video » View Video »
