January 2020
Real or Fake_ article1.pdf
An experience in the mountains_article2.pdf
L'AltRoparlante_article3.pdf
L'AltrRoparlante: a plurilingual project in Italy
Five schools in Italy are involved in a project about multilingualism creating lessons in the languages of foreign students of the classes. These schools are located in four Italian regions: Lombardy, Piedmont, Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. The project wants to “give voice” to all languages . During the different activities pupils in the primary and secondary school study topics using all the languages of the class: you can learn new words, traditions and customs of foreign students in many languages.
In all schools there are students from many countries such as China, Pakistan, India, Ivory Coast, Romania, Brazil, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ukraine, Senegal, Nigeria and with this project they can share their native language with the class creating interesting and innovative tasks and activities.
Last year pupils worked on geographical vocabulary: made volcanoes, valleys and plains with cardboard and prepare labels in different languages; they also made a bingo about geography in Arabic, Urdu, English, German, French, Portuguese, Romanian, Bulgarian, Chinese. It was a great fun to learn new words and new alphabets, people do not use the same letters and do not write from left to right everywhere. Last year they studied human rights in different languages, created games for the school in three or four languages. Some students worked on detective stories and stories of migration writing them in many languages, what a strange way of studying!
On 21st February, the Mother Tongue Day, they had the opportunity to learn Urdu alphabet and know new traditions around the world. Some students made bookmarks to give as a present, others read stories from the world and say hello in all languages, some of them share quotations about friendship in all languages of the school. That was great!
It is important to speak your own language because with the language you say something about yourself, the language is part of a person.If you can’t use your own language at school, you are not accepted and you are something different.
The project gave the opportunities to understand how difficult it is to study a new language written in a different alphabet, to listen to different sounds, languages are a wonderful world to be discovered.
This project was awarded by the European Label of the Languages 2018 as one of the best project in Italy.
All this s possible to be done in the schools thanks to the supervision of the University of Foreigners in Siena who is always present to support teachers and students to carry out translanguaging tasks.
Italian and foreign parents are also involved in the activities as “experts” of the languages and formative meetings for adults are held in the schools. Foreign students are also more integrated in the classroom tasks as they are the language experts, they can translate and pass quickly from one language to another.
How much you can learn if only you look around you, the project underlines that all languages have the same power at school and in the society. The results of the project are positive and can give everyone the possibility to be himself without hiding the real identity, the real language and the real life of everyone.
It is wonderful to say that in the world there are many languages but all smile in the same language.
Authors: Livia Bonetti and Kevin Maccarinelli
Real or fake?
Forgery means copying documents or things to cheat people and it is very common on the Internet because people want to earn more money and they are willing to do anything to cheat others. They often want to spend less, but they do bad actions, as a consequence you have to pay attention when you buy anything on the net.
The most forged products are: clothes, toys for children, technological and electronic products, food and medicines.
There are five points to consider in order to recognise a forged product
Look carefully at the site, check if it is harmless
Pay particular attention to the price
Look carefully at the label of the product you are going to buy
Control the origin and the quality of the product
Look carefully at the seams and finish of the object.
On 13 November 2019 students of the secondary school G. Bertolotti in Gavardo, in the north of Italy went to the theatre in the city of Brescia to see a play on forgery entitled: “ Everything I am going to tell you is false” played by the actress Tiziana Di Masi, with the participation of the police officer Salvatore Russo. The message of the play was clear: Be careful when you buy anything.
It was a very instructive and informative experience. Students had the opportunity to learn about an urgent problem in a different way by watching a short play. This theatrical work underlines the business of forged products in the different economic fields (food, fashion, mechanics, medicines, videos, etc.). A small group of people earns a lot of money controlling the market of forged products. During the play the stage becomes a warehouse and the actress talks to the audience creating a multimedia show. Images of exploitation, police actions in illegal factories and
warehouses together with an intense speech help the audience to learn, to touch , to realise the different aspects of this dangerous economic and social problem. It a kind of journey through relevant pieces of evidence told by people who are victims or try to fight against this problem.
Customers can fight forgery trying to take responsible decisions when they choose to buy anything. Everyone should be able to make the right choices to build a better world!
Authors: Sara Filippini, Rebecca Lepoboselli and Giacomo Bonora
An experience in the mountains
Every September students in our school (a middle school in the north of Italy) start the new school year in a different way. Students and teachers go on a school trip in the mountains for three days. Itis a very nice experience but also very tiring. The experience takes place in the middle of the Alps in a fantastic place, students and teachers live away from the “world” without internet connection and mobile phones living in small wooden houses. Here in this wonderful scenery two group leaders help the teachers to organise various interesting activities.
The school trip starts with a long walk in the mountains to reach the destination of the three-day stay, then there are orienteering activities and games. The aim of the school trip is to know each other, try to become friends and make a book with photos and words of the experience.
It is really great to discover the real character of schoolmates and teachers, at school they are boring and it is difficult to imagine them as normal people living a normal life; it seems they are nice and understanding!
Breakfast, lunch and dinner are in the canteen, teachers and students share everything: it sounds strange but it is great! Every morning after breakfast all the participants meet at the meeting point in the middle of the camp and the two leaders explain what they are going to do during the day. Several activities are
planned: long walks in the mountains, walking barefoot in the cold water of a stream , looking at a waterfall, listening to the eagle in the sky and writing about feelings and emotions.
The end of the day is exciting too. In small houses, in the middle of the wood and in the middle of nowhere groups of students with a teacher go to sleep. It is an important moment because they can share the experience of the day, talk about different topics, laugh and play together.
After three wonderful days you forget mobile phones and technology . You realize all these items are not so important in everyday life because you can talk with your friends and you can touch and feel their support, you are nearer and closer to people, and this is fantastic.
On the last night at the camp all the students, teachers and leaders meet around a great fire, the last experience is to share what was learnt during the trip, it is a moment full of emotions. This is a great way to start a new school year, school is not so boring, it may be also wonderful!
Authors: Laura Vezzoni and Serena Filisina
2