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    Happy summer everyone!

    For parents checking in on the school site - please know that senior students are working with Google Classroom . All assignments and announcements are now posted there.
     
    *** There is a summer assignment - details are on Classroom! 
     
     Bentornati!   Quest'anno siamo pochi ma buoni!  Avremo molto da fare ma impareremo e ci divertiremo
     
    I invite all my students to join our Google Classroom - you have been invited-   the code for "Summer for Seniors 2017  is: fktz73-- remember to access it with your school email!
     
         Here is your syllabus and my expectations for the year:
     

    Bentornati! Welcome back ... and welcome to the Final and Best year of our Italian language program!

    The perks:

         Senior year promises to be eventful and memorable!  Many important things will be going on, both academically and socially, and the work you do now will be the first that the colleges will see next September when they must guide you into the appropriate courses. As with Level 4 Honors, you will be able to sign up for four credits from the University at Albany, giving you a total of 8 credits as you enter freshman year.   At the same time, the Advanced Placement exam in Italian language is available to us in the spring.  We will be working towards that goal all year, and we will all be very well prepared and proud of ourselves by the time we say our final good-byes in June!

    The work:

         This year we will work on solidifying your use of Italian, and we will do so in the most practical and relevant manner that we can.  There will still be some grammar drills (OF COURSE!), but we will mostly explore current events and themes. You will be reading, writing, and above all speaking about these topics daily. Our pace and the level of complexity of the materials will be more accelerated than last year… I hope that you are up to the challenge!

     Assignments/ Course work:

          As in Level 4, most assignments will be ongoing, and you will need to keep to the schedule set for each.  At times you will work on your own, and other times with your classmates.  All students are required to respect deadlines and to follow through on daily assignments. It is your constant responsibility to continue to work on all daily assignments that are started in class. You will be sifting through a lot of material but you will be taught the skills for “extracting” what is most important. You are expected to be PREPARED EACH DAY with questions and to follow up on our discussion topics.

         It is also your responsibility to obtain and complete all missed work as soon as possible.  Incomplete assignments will affect your grade and late work will only be accepted–at my discretion- when caused by valid circumstances.

     Technology: 

    This year we will also be working more often with technology. We will need to become very familiar with it as the AP exam is now administered digitally. We will use Google Classroom to keep track of all work.

    We will try to do more and new activities in this environment. Oral presentations done at home and saved in Google will give you a greater sense of comfort and practice for speaking, allow for more opportunities to use the language orally, and free up more class time so we can work together on expanding knowledge.

    ** In order to record from home, you will need to use a recording program either on your computer or from the web- as well as a recording device. Please obtain these as soon as possible!

    Final Note:  The Internet, translation and  “original” works:

         As seniors and honor students, it is expected that you work diligently and with honesty. You will be asked to present original thoughts and writings in Italian, and although there are numerous sources available on-line for translation, YOU MAY NOT use them to convert your thoughts and complex phrases into the target language! Use of these programs- which use others’ words and linguistic terms- is the same as plagiarism!

         There are some approved “dictionary” sources that you are encouraged to consult for vocabulary and phrases, but you MAY NOT have entire sentences or paragraphs translated with such help! If there is ever a question about the “authenticity” of your material, be advised that disciplinary action will be taken!

    Evaluation for the course- as you should already know- encompasses the following major components:  (a) participation in class discussions and mandatory oral presentations, (b) research assignments and reports, (c) tests and quizzes, (d) written assignments and most importantly, the oral tasks done in Google!  You will also be evaluated on the amount and quality of work that you contribute during group assignments…. and as always… all components are of equal importance to obtaining your best results!

         If there is ever a problem, academic or otherwise, I can always be found in class after school or in the foreign language office… do not hesitate to seek me out!

    I look forward to a very exciting and fruitful year….. In Bocca al Lupo!