Italian 111
Language Level I
Three Credits
Class meets Monday- Friday; 40 minutes each day
II. Marisa Dispenza- Instructor
Wantagh High School- room 212
dispenzam@wantaghschools.org
Extra help Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday: 2:20-2.50 PM in room 232
III. Course Prerequisite:
College Language Level I is offered to students who have completed Level IV Honors
with an 85% average or above.
IV. Course Description:
Italian 111 will continue to assist students to acquire a higher degree of proficiency in the
various skills required to comprehend and communicate in Italian.
The students will use the present, past and imperfect tenses to express themselves.
The students will also be exposed to cultural information regarding Italian regions, the
Italian fairy tale and Italian artists and these venues will serve as catalysts to enhance
each students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
V. Topics to be covered will include:
All fundamental vocabulary including: numbers, days, months, seasons, dates,
expressing centuries, family, school, animals, personal and psychological traits to
describe people, movies, artistic expressions etc.
Students will be able to ask and elicit information, respond to questions based on
readings write essays to critique, contrast and compare things.
Grammatical topics will include: noun/adjective agreement, direct and indirect
object pronouns, possessive adjectives, the present tense of all regular and irregular
verbs, the passato prossimo, l’imperfetto, il passato remoto e il congiuntivo.
Course Outline:
Week I: A review of all fundamental topics: numbers, days, months, seasons, weather,
present tense of all regular and irregular verbs forms, noun and adjective agreement.
Banter questions regarding the summer to stimulate conversation.
Week II: Review of il passato prossimo e l’Imperfetto
Reading: La Ragazza Mela
Highlight metaphors, good and evil
Symbolism, animals, colors
Italian in the news: Students are assigned a date in the semester to present a 3-5
minute oral summary of a news story about Italy. (ongoing for the first few weeks
of the semester.
Week III; Introduce the Passato Remoto for recognition purposes
Read: “Le Tre Cassette” and describe each character, personality traits
Discuss family relationships
Students will read “La Chitarra Magica” and compare the
characters in the story.
Students will discuss basic human needs
Week IV: Begin reading Pinocchio by Collodi
Discuss Il Giardino di Collodi in Italy
Take a virtual tour of Tuscany
Review of object pronouns (direct, indirect, double, double with passato
prossimo, ci e ne)
Students will discuss relationships and their influence.
Week V: Continue with Pinocchio
Discuss each chapter
Contrast School System in Italy and US
Infuse vocabulary and grammatical topics for each chapter
Students will discuss the theme of the passage of time, conflict, resolution, rite
of passage and prepare an essay response. (please see attached)
Week VI and VII
Students will write an original fairy tale (3-4 pages – 81/2 X 11;12pt font- illustrated as a
children’s book or delivered via storyjumper.com)
This is an in-class writing workshop.
Week VIII; Students will watch the movie: “Pinocchio” with Roberto Benigni
They will read an article about the actor and answer comprehension questions about each
portion of the movie as it is viewed in class.
Students will discuss the different activities as they occur in the movies, create an
invitation etc. There will be an exam including the movie, book, and grammar)
Week IX: Students will define “Art” and explore the different modalities used to express
oneself as they begin to explore the world of Italian Art.
Students will take a virtual tour of the various museums in Florence and explore different
artistic periods.
Students will review dates and learn to express centuries in Italian
Week X: Students will view samples of artwork from each of the masters beginning with
Giotto and ending with Modern Artists.
They will learn vocabulary including: foreground, background, light and dark etc and be
able to describe what they see. (A major exam on artists; vocabulary)
Week XI: Students will use the subjunctive to express what they think artists are trying to
convey in their work.
They will use: I see, I think, I feel and apply the present and present subjunctive tenses to
express their opinion as they review paintings from different genres. (subjunctive exam)
Week XII: Each student will select an artist to research. They will develop a ten slide
PowerPoint presentation and discuss the historical period in Italy, the artist’s inspiration
and influences, critique 5 works; express what they believe is happening and express
his/her preferences. (7-10 days in library/computer lab)
Weeks XIII-XIV: Students will present their work to the class for an oral grade.
No note cards may be used in the target language or in English and the entire presentation
must be delivered in Italian.
Books and Resources Used:
Ponti: Tognoszzi, Cavatorta; Cengage Learning; 2009
Crescendo; Italiano, Marchegiani; Thomson-Heinle; 2007
Super Ciao- Level 3; Morgana, Boselli, Manzoni; Editrice la Scuola; 2005
Insieme; Habekovic, Mazzola; Mc-Graw Hill; 1994
Pinocchio; Collodi
Online resources for students:
www.wordreference.com
http://www.pinocchio.it/eng/giardinogarzoni/
http://www.italiantourism.com/cosmo/KIDSITO-3.pdf
http://www.italiansrus.com/resources/art.htm
http://www.italianresources.org/italian/culture/