Descriptions
Riccardo Giumarelli (see bio) – Made in Italy, un percorso tra italianismi e Italian sounding
Il punto di partenza è quanto sostiene il linguista Vedovelli: “la lingua italiana è la seconda più vsibile nel mondo”. Da cosa deriva questo primato molto particolare ma altrettanto importante? Dalla presenza della lingua italiana nella gastronomia (menu, ricette, prodotti), nella moda, nelle insegne, nei prodotti più vari, e anche nell’italian sounding (cioè quelle parole che suonano italiano ma che italiane non sono).
Si comprenderà che c’è un legame stretto tra la diffusione dell’italiano e il Made in Italy. Si proverà a spiegare questo nesso attraverso esempi e argomentazioni. L’obiettivo è mostrare che l’idea globale di Made in Italy abbia contribuito alla diffusione dell’italiano, e viceversa, alimentandosi in una spirale positiva che ha determinato un’immagine molto positiva dell’Italia e della sua cultura nel mondo.
Elda Buonanno Foley (see bio) – Teaching Made in Italy with Movies: ‘La Grande bellezza’
In this workshop, I wish to ignite a conversation on the new role of teaching culture through a foreign language and the ways in which the selection of specific Web2 tools and clips from one film can assist in implementing this role while addressing differences in perspective and fostering cultural relevance. I wish to discuss teaching and learning methodology while presenting the current cultural issues and contexts within the Made In Italy concept. Finally, I wish to demonstrate that learning accomplishments through this methodology resonate more effectively with students and produce more consistent improvement in their intercultural skills.
I will briefly introduce the five-day unit on clips taken from the Italian movie La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) while discussing and studying the concept of Made in Italy in its artistic, social, political, and culinary relevance and those expressions of female or male identity, historical and social frameworks, religious and mythical items, artistic representations, visual and figurative interpretations, and the representation of gender, race, and minorities.
Ryan Calabretta-Sadjer (see bio) – Made in Italy: Teaching the Five As One Unit at a Time
At a time when students, parents, and administrators want to witness a more practical application to world language learning, MADE IN ITALY — based on the four pillars or the official four As: Abbigliamento (clothes), Agroalimentare (food), Arredamento (furniture) and Automotive (automobiles), adding a fifth, Artigianale (artisan) — offers a solution to this dilemma. This workshop will provide an overview to teaching MADE IN ITALY at the high school level. We will begin by examining the importance of assuming a varied approach to language learning and how culture can illicit functional language skills. Playing primarily off of the communicative and task-based learning approaches, along with a few others like the translation method, the instructor will model one entire MADE IN ITALY unit for the group. Additionally, some facts will be shared on the critical role Italy plays in the European market, underscoring why and how teachers of Italian need to re-think approaches to language learning to include cultural and linguistic knowledge aimed at preparing students for real world experiences.
The second half of the workshop will offer a ‘hands-on’ approach to designing a MADE IN ITALY course at the high school level, allowing the participants to do group work and start working on the second unit of the course.
Ilaria Costa (see bio) – Made in Italy with IACE
The presentation will focus on both methodological discussions and hands-on projects and units (on Italian Cuisine, Fashion and Design) that teachers can immediately use in their classrooms. Given that the concepts discussed in ‘Made in Italy’ have a firm basis in the real world, they lend themselves to a practical approach to language instruction. Teachers will learn how to use the brand ‘Made in Italy’ to ensure that students actively and effectively use the Italian Language while experiencing exciting, authentic instructional venues and materials. A key objective of this workshop will be to help students (6-12) better integrate what they learn in the classroom with the authentic Italian cultural excellence through a CBI (Content Based Instruction) approach. Workshop participants will also learn about ‘Made in Italy’ programs offered by the Italian American Committee on Education (IACE) to students and teachers of Italian (such as cooking classes at Eataly, design workshops at the Ferrari showroom and visits at the leading fashion firm Diesel). Multimedia educational material -for elementary/intermediate/advanced levels- will be presented and shared.
Lyn Scolaro (see bio) – Made in Italy: A High School International Internship/Azienda Virtuale con Prospect High School
Township High School District 214 has been recognized Nationally in leading the way in career pathways and redefining ready within their schools. Redefining Ready is a “national effort to transform the way in which we determine whether students are ready for college, careers, and life. The initiative looks beyond test scores, and provides a new set of indicators shown to increase the likelihood of success.” (www.RedefiningRead.org)
In an effort to align with the District goals of providing students with experiences in a global community, in career pathways, and international business, marketing, and entrepreneurship, Prospect High School’s AP Italian class was awarded a $100,00 grant over three years from the Frantoi Redoro in Grezzana, Verona, Italia.
Along with the Redoro project, the Italian 4 Honors course is in year 2 of a collaboration with the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame to create a visitors guide of the exhibits in the museum in both English and Italian.
This workshop will present the international internship and the project goals, and will demonstrate how marketing, import, social media and aspects of the food industry can be incorporated into the Italian language curriculum. Examples of lessons and activities that include language goals as well as continue the scope and sequence of the AP course will be presented. Participants in the workshop will model internship materials that marry business language skills and partner projects based on students’ interests and career goals. The presenter will also offer suggestions on projects that can be accomplished with companies currently in the United States since not all programs are offered an internship with an Italian company.
Biographies
Riccardo Giumarelli, Department of Cultura e civiltà, University of Verona
The aphorism that best represents me is Machiavelli citing Boccaccio: “it is better to act and repent than not to act and regret”. Like them I am Tuscan, a relentless soul in search of ports to enter and depart. After studying political science, I started to love books, research and writing, so much so that I stayed in university, first Florence then Trento. In Dijon and then Paris, I worked at the Italian Chamber of Commerce and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OCSE). When I returned to Italy, l landed a job at the University of Verona, where I conduct research and teach. During this time, I also married and am a father of splendid twins. My research interests include sociology, culture, and communication. Recently, I published “The Meaning of Made in Italy Changes in a Changing World” in Italian Sociological Review (2016); and since 2014, I pen the column, “Italica”, for La Voce di New York. I am also on the Advisory Board of Assocamerestero (Association of Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad) for Made in Italy e italian sounding topics, a member of the Steering Committee of “Scuola di Alta Formazione Schola Italica,” a member of the strategic committees Italics Wine Club India, and the “Piccolo Festival delle Spartenze, migrazioni e cultura.”
Among the many new beginnings and just as many endings, my constant is that I have always supported the Inter soccer club. In fact, it makes me sick to my stomach.
Elda Buonanno Foley is an associate professor of Italian language and culture at Iona College where she teaches several classes of language and cultural studies, from writing composition to advanced conversation, Modern Narrative and cultural studies, Dante, Early and Modern Italian Theatre, Poetry and Global Cinema. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the Graduate Center, CUNY, and a BA in Modern Languages and Literature and has also an online Certificate in Instructional Technology at the University of Maryland. She is the 2012 recipient of the Faculty Instructional Technology Award for her innovative project entitled Italian Style: The One Stop Website for a New Learning and Teaching Experience. She has published extensively on teaching methodology, on literature and film and organized several workshops on language performance and effective teaching activities, and has also designed new seminars in Modern Autobiography, Women writers and self Identity and Made in Italy: A survey in Art, Fashion and Design, Italian Pedagogy and a Seminar on Italian Contemporary Cinema. Among her latest books, there are “Fostering Culture Through Film. A resource for teaching Foreign Languages and Cultural Studies”. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, May 2016 and the last one published in July 2017 “In Viaggio per l’Italia: Percorso tra la lingua e la Cultura del Bel Paese” by Sentia Publishing.
Ryan Calabretta-Sadjer is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where he teaches courses in Italian, Film, and Gender Studies. He is the author of Divergenze in celluloide: colore, migrazione e identità sessuale nei film gay di Ferzan Ozpetek with Mimesis editore and editor of the forthcoming collections of essays, Pasolini’s Lasting Impressions: Death, Eros, and Literary Enterprise in the Opus of Pier Paolo Pasolini with Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (Dec. 2017). His research interests include the integration of gender, class, and migration in both Italian and Italian American literature and cinema. He was recently awarded one of four Fulbright Awards for the Foundation of the South to conduct research and teach at the University of Calabria, Arcavacata for the Spring of 2017.
He is currently the Director of Communications for the American Association of Teachers of Italian, the President of Gamma Kappa Alpha, the National Italian Honors Society, the Co-chair for the Committee of Graduate Students in the Profession for the Modern Language Association, an Executive Committee member of the Italian American Studies Association, and Secretary/Treasurer of the American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators. In May 2015 he received a research grant from the South Central MLA Association to conduct archival research on Italian American authors at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Calalbretta-Sadjer has received numerous teaching grants to adopt diverse technological tools into the world language teaching classroom and has created and teaches MADE IN ITALY at the University of Arkansas Rome Center.
Ilaria Costa was born in Rome, and received a Master of Arts Degree in Italian Literature and Art History from La Sapienza University in Rome in 1999. Relocating to NYC, she began a career in education at IACE (Italian American Committee on Education) in 2000. As Enrichment Program Coordinator, she developed and taught pilot courses for IACE programs and CBI (Content Based Instruction) courses, targeted to K-12 students, designed to promote the understanding and use of the Italian language and culture through an interdisciplinary approach. She has been serving as IACE Executive Director since 2008.
She has been invited to present workshops on teaching of foreign languages at State and National conferences, including the ACTFL, NECTFL, NYSAFLT, COLT, FLENJ. In 2004 she was awarded a fellowship by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Education Programs and in 2005 she received Connecting Collections, a scholarship for educators, awarded by MOMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum and the Guggenheim Museum.
Ms. Costa is an active member of the Italian-American community in New York. In collaboration with the Education Office of the Consulate General of Italy in New York, she organizes educational/cultural events, international exchange programs for teachers and summer programs for students. In 2011 she was the recipient of the“ Educator of the Year ” Award from the New York City Comptroller’s Office, and in 2013, the Association of Italian American Educators (AIAE) award.
Lyn Scolaro has been at Prospect High School for the past 27 years and has been teaching Italian for 36 years. Lyn earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Rosary College, now Dominican University. She holds a minor in Spanish and a Master’s Degree in Administration and Supervision from Roosevelt University and a Master of Arts in Teaching Degree from Aurora University. She is on the Board of the Osservatorio in Chicago and Italidea-Midwest which governs the new Scuola Italiana Enrico Fermi, and Board Member and Convention Co-Chairperson for the Illinois Directors of Student Activities. She has been a participant and presenter of Italian and Co-Curricular Activities for numerous organizations and has represented Italian on Capital Hill during Advocacy Week. Lyn also serves as the Vice President, K-12 of the National AATI (North America) organization and is a member of the College Board Development Committee for the AP Italian Language and Culture Exam.
Her AP Italian Class was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Frantoi Redoro in Grezzana (VR) in 2016, and her Italian 4 Honors class is currently working with the Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago to create a visitor’s guide for the museum in Italian and in English. She has been a contributor to the Fra Noi, Il Canguro of the A.N.E.A, to the book Italians in Chicago, and to the North American supplement of the Italian pedagogy journal In.it published by Guerra in Italy, L’Italiano: Scope and Sequence, Skills and Components. Among other recognitions, Ms. Scolaro received the Distinguished Service Award from the National AATI, for Outstanding Contributions to the promotion of the AATI and of Italian Studies in North America in 2012.