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OPEN LANGUAGE EDUCATION ACTIVITY

COERLL University of Texas at Austin

"IL PALIO DI SIENA"

Students will explore their own perspectives about "il Palio di Siena" and how the Palio relates to the cultural identity of a specific town, geography of Siena, history and animal symbology.

Targets here suggested can be modified according to the proficiency level of the students. We suggest to divide this activity between two or three classes.

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TARGET LEVEL: Beginning college (end of first semester/second semester), advanced high school.

LANGUAGE: Italian

ACTFL LEVEL: novice high to intermediate low.    

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This activity has been thought and developed with my outstanding colleague Sam Gaglio http://samgaglio.weebly.com

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(CC BY)

STEPS

  1. PREPARE FOR THE ACTIVITY
    Engaging the class: the teacher will show a video of the Palio di Siena to the class (Vogue Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID0kIaLaGLQ), engaging the students in a conversation about what they have just seen and explaining, through the answers of the students, what the Palio is.

    Then the teacher will give instructions on how the activity "Il Palio di Siena" will be conducted in class. The class will be divided into small groups of 2-3 students, which will research on one of the 17 contrade (neighborhoods). The aim of this activity is to produce a powerpoint containing the information found by each group that will give a brief presentation. Students must use materials that do not have copyright restrictions. Some images in wikipedia, for example, are under copyright law, and therefore cannot be used for their presentations.  It is recommended that each student talk for 2-3 minutes.

    Students will need to research on the internet about their contrada, focusing on history, location on a map, rivalries with another contrada, flag, color, and symbol.
    The task can be easily adjust to the level of the students. For instance, beginners can focus on the location on the map of the contrada, and give a tour of the streets to the class, thanks to Google maps, and check how each contrada is an autonomous entity, with its pharmacy, grocery store and church. Intermediate students will be able to research on the symbology of the animal or plant that represents the contrada.

    The instructor will demonstrate how to search using Google for open educational resources related to the topic. The instructor must stress the importance of researching first in the Target Language. During class, the instructor can show, helped by the students, how to research on a contrada of his/her choice. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrada_di_Siena The instructor can ask the students what is important to know, only by looking at the wikipedia index of the page of the contrada. "Che cosa è importante? Quali sono i titoli dei capitoli?"                    

                    

  1. PRESENTATIONS
    Instructors will dedicate a class (or two half classes) to students' presentations. A question that we suggest to ask the students is "perché il palio è importante per la tua contrada?"  (why is the Palio important for the neighborhood?) Instructor will show in class parts of the video "Il Testimone--Il Palio di Siena" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpqd6qhCJmU . Students' comments are welcome since this video does not add new information but offers a good summary of the elements of the Palio lived from the inside.


  2. RECAP
    Instructor will project in class a video of the latest palio, we chose the one of August 2016. The video can be stopped, so that students can have the time to recognize the horse of the contrada by looking at colors and symbols. Instructor can ask question such as: "Chi è la contrada rivale della lupa?" (who is the rival of the Lupa?)
    Special question about the horse and how they are safeguarded after their retirement. http://www.comune.siena.it/La-Citta/Palio/Tutela-del-Cavallo
    http://www.ctps.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/sportweeks.pdf

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  1. Students will explore different cultural aspects of the city of Siena and its tradition.

  2. Students will gain awareness in the social, historical, ethical, and religious aspects of the Palio

  3. Students will acquire a good knowledge of the geography of the city of Siena

  4. Students will improve their skills, talking in Italian and researching in Italian

  5. Students will learn how to navigate in Italian websites and how to search using the target language    

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RESOURCES

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrada_di_Siena (CC BY-SA)

(Contrade)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID0kIaLaGLQ (CC BY) Standard Youtube License

(Vogue video with English subtitles, 3'38")


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpqd6qhCJmU (CC BY) Standard Youtube License

(Palio di Siena Agosto 2016)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fJLkwkqyUM (CC BY) Standard Youtube License

(Il testimone, Il Palio di Siena, MTV program)

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https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palio_di_Siena (CC BY-SA)

(Palio di Siena)


http://www.ilpalio.org (CC BY- NC)

(Official Website of the Palio)


http://www.comune.siena.it/La-Citta/Palio/Tutela-del-Cavallo

(CC BY-NC-ND This is the official page of Siena town hall. The material as reported in the page http://www.comune.siena.it/Policy-Privacy can only be modified by the town's clerk's but is at public display for non-commercial uses)

(Horses retirement, Town Hall of Siena's website)


http://www.ctps.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/sportweeks.pdf (CC BY-NC-ND)

(Online newspaper about horses retired from the Palio)

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