Student Learning

PoLT Online Professional Learning Resource – Principle 1

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Vignettes: Later Years - The Italian speaking community

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Example

The Italian speaking community

In Anna’s Year 12 Italian class students must complete a topic from one of the  VCE Italian themes Social and Contemporary Issues. The class is asked to compare the experiences of Italian migrants to Australia with those of recent migrants from Europe, Africa and Asia to Italy. Students complete all tasks in Italian.

The class is firstly shown a segment of film based on the Italian migrant experience in Australia and then one of other migrant groups to Italy.

The class brainstorms the issues, difficulties, challenges faced by migrants including personal stories of students and their families. Students in groups conduct research areas/issues identified using newspaper articles, internet sites, songs, stories, films poems and photos. Anna encourages her students to include personal, family stories and memorabilia in the research. She ensures structured support is provided for students where appropriate such as how groups are selected. Locations of resource materials that cater for preferred learning styles of her students including photos, audio taped interviews and articles are distributed to the students .

Prior to undertaking the group presentation Anna uses the progress checklist to provide students with feedback on their research and to ensure they have sufficient material to proceed to the presentation. The key criteria include:

  • Students negotiate the presentation format with group members and decide on the format.
  • Each group uses peer assessment to provide individual member feedback on contribution and performance.

After the group presentations, the class produces a chart comparing the similarities and differences experienced by the two waves of immigrants: to Australia and to Italy.