Good morning. afternoon, evening everybody,

these are the third and fourth parts of the article on next page, since talking about the stars is always fine. All the times we say I con-sider, con-sidering, it means referring to the stars, according to the Latin ethimology. Being with them. Considering, means thinking of someone, something so relevant, meaningful to us, to be con-sidered among the stars.

That's always a good start. The human being started thinking looking up at the sky, wondering about those far twinkling points with no explanation so long ago, misterious, an invitation to start con-sidering things, reality, life, reciprocity, according to each one's perception, reflecting about the sense of everything surrounding us. Words are a sort of magic, if we just wanted to welcome them and communicate why they were born. Words are like faded stars, their meaning, or light, still coming to us, after very long time, a "visible" meaning.

This is methodology 2, three pages with questions for teachers I wrote for a three meeting reciprocal training, and  whoever wants to contribute to the improvement of the learning and teaching field.

It would be so useful if you chose, con-sidered,  the questions you think are more relevant and replied as a comment below. Being meticolous at this stage means to avoid neglecting what can be useful later on. 

In addition, to keep record of any development of our reflections can offer the possibility to meet the needs of whoever wants to share the effort to grow professionally and personally.

There is also so much of the methodology we "act" in our classes on the page called "Independent study projects: the use of art/photography in the EFL Classroom" on your right.

It will be engaging reading your comments and replying.

Anna - Coordinator

Good morning, afternoon, evening,

we are deeply convinced that a language, more than a subject is behaviour and that it is relevant the way we do something, the majority of times even more than what we actually do.

Furthermore, remember that what works with children works with adults too ( Professor Simon Sweeney, University of Leeds, Cambridge Days 2004, Pisa).

Considering that each one of us can produce personal reflections, innovative methodologies and teaching can be charachterized and developed. The same for pupils and students, who can conceive and make their own strategies become operative, thus supporting the teachers' effort to also make them grow in their personality. 

This is a page for whoever is interested in the teaching/learning field. Very soon we will upload worksheets for teachers to reply to, intended to make teaching more effective, trying to show how and where, according to our experience, a teacher with some insights can support students' language acquisition.

There are then a few key words we are briefly going to contribute comprehending: technique, method, methodology, curriculum. 

Technique is the way you work to obtain results. In the teaching/learning field a technique can be for example the strategy you adopt to draw pupils' attention. The technique can be isolated from a conceptual reference, from methods and methodology.

Method is the set of procedures adopted to articulate and organize the variables intervening in the learning/teaching process. Differently from the technique, the method presumes an adoption of a plan for your activity, showing how you operate to manage all the variables intervening in the process.

There are two different meanings for methodology: the first is the epistemological reflection on the nature and structure of methods, evaluating their principles apt to organize all the variables. The second means a didactical procedure so to be assimilated to the method. According to some scholars, methodology is deepen than method, meaning referring to philosophical, pedagogical principles, including personal ones.

Hence methodology can be the fruit of personal reflections and experience. Distinguishing the two terms, a method is a set of procedures, a specific way to implement pupils/students' learning, whereas a methodology is a set of philosophical approaches adopted to stimulate students' learning. 

Curriculum too can have two different meanings: the first refers to the general knowledge about the nature and structure of the teaching practice. The second refers to the planning of a course of studies, referring to the operative choices adopted to make teaching functional and effective.

It can be meant differently according to the cultural contexts. In Anglo-Saxon countries it is signified by sperimentation and research, in Italy it is meant as a speculative approach to justify the educational proposals. Here, with curriculum we mean the didactical planning, the process showing procedures, techniques, methodology, principles to refer to.

All these terms are correlated and subtend a superordinate dimension. Developing a methodology means referring to a method and one or more techniques; a technique can be singled out with no conceptual reference; curriculum is a superior set since it can involve more than one method; method is the didactic of a segment of a discipline. There is interdipendence among these terms.

To define a method, techniques have to be indicated, to define a curriculum, methods, methodology and techniques have to be showed as a reference in the execution of the didactic activity.

We will appreciate anybody's contribution to make our profession more effective and functional so to have a new generation of bi/multilingual people.

Anna - Coordinator

Good morning, afternoon, evening everybody,

mainly Alena, Marina, Patrizia, Francesco and Giuseppe, 

if you like travelling and Great Britain, this is an article for you to read. After reading, 

1. describe with your own words the acronims of the title; 

2. say which way you would prefer travelling from one end to the other;

3. have you ever done anything similar, either in Italy or abroad?

Let us know, in class we'll listen to Mark Mason, who wrote a book about his journey.

Enjoy your English

Anna - Coordinator

Source: Speak Up, Novembrer 2016 Issue

Cochin web hosting: on page 4 there is a web site address, Check if there's any possible connections with videos, and on You Tube. We'll do the same. asap, let us know about any news. 

Hey

Bruno, Simone, Leonardo, Gianna, Giada, Giancarlo, Roberto, Samantha, Annalisa,

you can find here a few very useful pages: one is the beginning of an English conversation you can read before coming to class, and practice there with your mates; the second and third are about ordering at a restaurant. Let's start practicing before going there!

Think of possible little changes you can make and come ready to talk! 

Enjoy your English!

Anna - Coordinator  Source: Speak Up December 2016 and January 2017

Very good job, Simone, continue practicing on other pages!

Manicure: thank you, not bad thinking of Twitter too. I will consider the possibility and let you know. Continue writing, go through old pages. There are some we are proud of. Anna 

Anna

Good morning, 'afternoon, 'evening everybody!

I would like you to find the right order of these photos, thinking of a possible beginning and end of a special day, joining two Italian regions, Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. 

Last year I read an article on Mente & Cervello, a scientific magazine, about the Italy womens'  national deaf volleyball team, and I felt enchanted by their bilingualism, since I feel so attracted by the capability of any sign language to communicate. Body always comes first.

I thought of them and willing to share a project, after getting in contact with their technical director, Loredana, I went to Rimini, to film them while playing for the 3rd edition of the Deaf Volleyball Champion League, of the European Deaf Sport Organization. Italy was ranked third place.

The very short video I made had to partecipate in a mute video contest, the perfect way to highlight deafs' silence.

Homework 1: find the right order of the photos, say what you think and know about the sign language, if you have any experience and if you know anything about how deaf children are taught at school. 

In a film, recently released, Snowden, the American sign language is performed for the counter-intelligence.

We warmly invite you to visit an American web site called My smart hands. Tell us what you think of it and compare this experience with the Italian ones you might have.

Homework 2: find the proper translation of these Italian words: bruma, nebbia, foschia, caligine and write them down in an English context or while describing the photos you see here.

When translated with the help of a bilingual (Italian - English) dictionary, use the words found to translate them back into the other language and see if you get the same words you started with!

Homework 3: what is Mintonette? And the hidden secret?

We'll reply. Enjoy your English.

Anna - Coordinator

Last news: the very short film we shot participated in the #50 Secondi Lumière, a contest by the Cineteca di Bologna, and was selected among the twelve best for each cathegory. On Cineteca di Bologna's You Tube channel there are the winning and selected videos.  

Source: Mente & Cervello 2015 plus own source photos taken on November 26th 2016 

Good morning, afternoon, evening,

Ottavia, Anna, Patrizia, Alena, Filippo, Alessandro, Marina,

this is homework for all of you to consolidate what we started speaking and writing about in class, after listening to the article from Speak Up.

All five skills are involved, aural comprenension, i.e.listening, written comprehension, i.e.reading, written production, i.e.writing, oral production, i.e.speaking, and the final comprehensive one, interaction, once more in class.

Try to functionalize the content of the article writing answers to the questions below.

Pay great attention to formal correctness, building up simple sentences: subject, verb, complement.

Present simple

1. What are holy wells?

2. Where can you find them in Ireland?

Past simple

3. What was the reason for celebrating the first of November in pagan times?

4. Why did people go to visit holy wells in pagan times?

5. What did they believe in? Make examples.

Passive form

6. What were these wells believed to cure?

Present perfect

7. Why have scientists validated some ancient people's beliefs?

Passive form and present perfect passive

8. Add any personal comment about the subject given and the work you have been asked to do.

Anyone else who wants to write comments on our page is very, very welcome.

We will reply.

Anna - Coordinator

Source:Speak Up, October 2016 

Gianna: nice job, your comment.

Irish is an adjective, add people; coordinate singular and plural, do not forget indefinite articles; I would  suggest celebrate rites; known around the world, past participle; even after, together after verb and object. Remember to decide when using present simple and past simple to help the comprehension of the subject.

Thank you, continue writing, Anna

Good morning, afternoon, evening,

it is with very great pleasure that we welcome all the new students to our courses.

First in class, then outside, in our "Open Air English Labs".

Start working contributing with personal and group initiatives to our classes!

London has always been a place of interest for English students, and with the new ones of you our talk could start with Carnaby street.

Read the article above and compare the reading at low-intermediate level with the listening in class, advanced level.

You will be asked questions to reply to, with formal correctness, but also creativity according to your personality and style.

Try to prepare questions to ask your classmates and be ready to respond to theirs.

Have you ever been to London?

What is your best memory of your visit?

Who did you go with?

Come to class with photographs and ready to talk about your experience.

See you there,

Anna - Coordinator

Source: Speak Up, October 2016 Issue

Gianna: it is a city you miss after visiting it, London, isn't it? Like any other place where you feel at home because of the language. Continue enjoying English Gianna!

Good morning

David, Giorgio, Letizia, Irene, Gabriele, Ilaria, Robin, Saverio, Matteo,

Alessio, Elisa, Davide, Kevin, Alyssia, Ilaria, Matteo,

week two then of our Summer English that's going to be soon in the open air.

Let's get ready to meet cruise passengers knowing something about their cruise ships, where the passengers embarked, where they are from, what their journey to come to Livorno was like.

Form pairs, search on the Internet and write the news you find, onto the papers on the walls. 

These are the names of the ships on Mediterranean cruise arriving in Livorno on July 27 and 28, whose passengers we are going to meet in Piazza del Municipio.

Arethusa, Brilliance of the Seas, Thomson Discovery, Carnival Vista, Sea Dream 1, Norwegian Epic, Celebrity Constellation, Oceana, Sovereign. 

Find enough news to write three formally correct sentences and inform consistently your mates about them. Try to look for curiosities, unusual news to strike your mates; we'll all give marks to your reports. 

Upload your comments so to let other people partecipate in voting including your families. 

Thank you all, continue working, our English will be soon "Open Air" after this first training in class!

Anna - Coordinator

Source: all photos taken in class and in the open air with students' parents' permission

Week three: let's learn how to give directions in Livorno and how to ask for drinks in a bar. 

This is Livorno's map.

Week four: studying Livorno before the boat tour. News from the Internet to form sentences in pairs onto the walls and tell them to classmates, interacting with questions and answers. 

Boat tour in English and Spanish to appreciate our city from the water and know how tourist guides work. While touring, the task is writing at least five words to form sentences when back in class, onto the papers on the walls, with the map of Livorno, the ideal city drawn by Lorenzo de' Medici as a pentagon.

After the boat tour, English laboratory at Bar Duomo, where English is "home", like being in England. 

Asking for drinks and having them offered by the teacher at only one condition: great English performance.

Week five: welcoming Meditteranean cruise passengers in Piazza del Municipio after training in class. Exciting!

Cruise passengers from all over the world happy to be welcomed by students and to help them in practicing the language. generous, helpful people from all the states of USA, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, North Europe, but also India, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, so many different accents and approaches to the idea of spending a few minutes with students. 

Hundreds of Livorno's maps distributed with information ablout how to get to the station, where doing shopping, which cities visit in Tuscany, how to manage with trains and coming back to the ship. Embodied language, with all the possible nuances of mood, personality, good will to spread a common international code to communicate.

Week six: back in class to write in pairs dialogues as a comment about the entire course onto the papers on the walls and play them without reading any more.

Whoever wants to write a comment will be welcome, we did like working this way, we enjoyed any single moment. 

Join us? Soon, sure!

Anna - Coordinator

Source: all the photos taken with students' parents' authorization. 

Hi everybody, 

our Summer English Classes are going to start this year too! 

In addition to meeting cruise passengers, we are going to practice the language also in places where tourists usually get together like bars, cafés.

Come to class ready to behave in English. After the first activity, having breakfast, we will write dialogues in pairs onto papers on the walls and we will role play them. 

We will have a look at last year's students' productions, stories on cardboards based on photos from magazines.  We will ask them to tell us about their previous experience, how they got their inspiration and working with fun and committment, we will be ready to meet Mediterranean cruise passengers this year too, on July 27 and 28, two days on which so many English speaking passengers are disembarking in Livorno to set up their trips and visit Tuscan cities. 

We will also visit Livorno from the water, going on a boat trip along the canals, in the beautiful Venezia neighbourhood and invite you all to come with us to welcome English speaking people and practice the language, thus enriching both, ourselves and our city. 

Anna - Coordinator

Source: photos taken last year with the kind students' parents' permission.

Good morning, afternoon, evening,

our last class with Cecina's students was a long walk between two farmhouses owned by two of them in Castagneto.

The perfect way to be enchanted  by charming Tuscan landscapes, vineyards producing some of the best wines well renowned all over the world. We learned a lot listening to Stefania while walking and smelling perfumes. The history of the places, how vines are grown and wine is made. 

After a very nice lunch at Stefania's premises, Podere S. Maria, we went to Colle Donatucci, where Francesco had a surprise for us: a friend of his, a retired University Professor from Scotland, William, came to visit us so to give everybody the great opportunity to listen to a native speaker of English and practice the language among swallows flying under the porches from nest to nest.

First a little uncertain, after a little they became confident we were there only to enjoy the whole environment, including their darting flights.

Bolgheri and Castagneto  Carducci are among the 70 remarkable places all over the world that the New York Times invites not to miss. We wouldn't like to. 

On July 16, on occasion of the feast of the Madonna del Carmine, we have read on the Internet Castiglioncello di Bolgheri is open to the public. We called the owners and understood it is a pilgrimage; pilgrims walk up to the church after the opening of the gate early in the morning, and after the service they leave the place.

Some news about the castle.

It is first mentioned in the 780 AD. It is on top of a hill overlooking Castagneto and Bolgheri, solitary and almost inaccesible, quite striking. From it the eye can range from the vineyards below going down to the sea and the islands of Elba and Corsica. 

Inside the castle there is the armory where the stone coats of all the families who have had the property are kept, Gherardesca's, Pannocchieschi's, Soderini's, Incontri's, Gherardesca's again.

Unfortunately we did not take good photos of our Walk & Talk Class in Castagneto's surroundings, we mainly have memories to be kept and shared with you at any possible occasion.

Anna - Coordinator

Eleonora: thanks for your comment. Quite likely the pilgrimage is only for residents, and at the castle they do not like having strangers with them, even if interested in religious celebratiuons.

Android hack games: it is a topic close to so many hearts, I believe, like yours, yours like ours? Both? 

Gianna:   just something to change. Thet the whole world, article - were born in this countryside, past - visit cellars and, no singular indefinite article - I have so many memories of beloved people (more common than persons), there. Great job! 

Anna - Coordinator