Gli Stereotipi ItalianiI want my first lesson to be effective, easy to understand, engaging and most of all fun for the students. To achieve this, my lesson plan incorporates fun and interactive discussions about Italian culture and society that pokes fun at stereotypes and also looks at our fascinating arts.

Before starting the lesson fully, we will do a quick introduction and then ask each person to say their name and tell the group one thing about themselves. Then we would participate in some ice-breaking games to get everyone comfortable in their new environment and their new peers. The lesson would begin after this.

I would start my first lesson with two very important questions that I want to ask the class in order to lead an engaging discussion:

“What is the perception of Italy and its history?”

“Why do you want to learn Italian and what attracted you the most to our country?”

Then I would ask if any of the students would like to talk to the class about his/her own experience of Italy or its citizens and tell me which language expressions caught their attention the most if they have visited the country. (TASK 1) This will give the students a chance to tell the rest of the class their own experiences of Italy/Italian and give me more knowledge about what they already know or don’t know about Italy. This will help make it interactive and fun discussion.

To find out more about what the class thinks or knows about Italy I will ask each student to name an Italian stereotype he/she knows. Then each student will be given a card containing a sketch or the description of a typical Italian product or public figures, such as politicians, singers or actors.

We will all sit in circle and engage a conversation about the card each student recieved and the stereotypes named: I will explain the stereotypes; what’s true and what’s not and why

Italians are popular for certain things when most of them have never heard of things such as a mandolin. (TASK 2)

From there it would be interesting to have an overview of the country map and ask every student to name the regions they know and recognize from it and to see if they can place some cities in their correct spot. (TASK 3)

Following students’ answers, I’d provide them with a brief description of our culture....

and the roots of our society, using images and music (Italian music!) with the help of a projector.

Did you know that there are twenty regions in Italy?

Following this lesson, which would suit beginners too, I’d like to lead the advanced speakers into the interesting world of Italian cinema by starting from their knowledge of the classical films and directors. I will first ask the class to discuss in Italian their knowledge and perception of our cinema and then project different images and videos of it. (TASK 1 for advanced learners).

From there I would like to break the class into smaller groups where I will then ask them discuss, in Italian, the stereotypes that they may have seen in the clips and if they feel comfortable, to play short scenes with the represented in the films, using the scripts I’d provide. (TASK 2 for advanced learners)

I would also show the class how the Italian cinema completely changed in the last 50 years following the social and cultural evolution of Italy, also influenced by politics, and how different it is now. Indeed I want to give examples of two completely different types of new Italian cinema and see students’ reactions to them according to their knowledge of our classical cinema. The films I’d showcase as examples would be indeed: “Quo Vadis” and “They call me Jeeg”, both released a few months ago and award winning, as they effectively represent different taste of Italian cinema but also common and unusual stereotypes and curiosities about Italians.

To conclude the lesson students would be free to choose one of these films and discuss it in Italian in the next lesson; alternatively I’d list different Italian films and assign one to each person, with the same goal to discuss them further.

Alessia Agostinelli