ITAL 3016 aligned curriculum
Lecturer: Piera Carroli, Convenor or ITAL3016
Course: ITAL3016, Advanced Studies 2
Used with permission – thanks, Piera!
Download this page as worksheets:
Worksheet 1 (pdf, 88 KB)
Worksheet 2 (pdf, 140 KB)
GEND1001, Helen Keane (Gender Studies)
NEWM 2001, Cathie Summerhayes (Film Studies)
This page gives you Piera's original outcomes and then shows you how we re-worked things into a more aligned curriculum.
Piera's original learning outcomes
Piera’s original LOs showed a good use of active verbs, such as ‘research,’ ‘select,’ and ‘compare’ and she knew in her own mind what she wanted students to be able to do, know or understand by the end of the course; however, when she wrote her learning outcomes, she inclined to do two main things that could have confused students:
- In most cases, Piera put too many points into her statements by combing a number of outcomes into one numbered point
- Piera also tended to describe her assessment tasks at the same time as describing the outcome/s for that task
When writing LOs, it is essential to
1. Keep statements focused around the essentials and to not ‘mush’ things together
2. Not refer to the task itself, as the task itself does not describe the outcome you want from completing the task
| Learning outcomes On fulfilling the requirements for this course, students will have acquired the knowledge & competence to |
Analysis |
| 1. Read and discuss in Italian a variety of texts (written, visual, oral and aural), associating them to their social historical and linguistic context and recognize hidden meanings within words and grammatical structures (i.e., "invisible culture") and to identify different perspectives on Italian society within the texts, within Italy and within the class. | Has too many bits to it, and is thus a bit confusing |
| 2. Research, read and write reviews of literary texts and films (websites and libraries) to become familiar with structural patterns of this type of text (grammar, lexicon and vocabulary) as well as the formulation of short analytical texts, and become familiar with Italian literary and film production. | Refers to the tasks set themselves, and as such does not constitute a general statement about what students should learn by the end of the course, which is what we’re looking for |
| 3. Compare texts across media and genre (written / visual). | Not detailed enough |
| 4. Research, select and review a (literary) text and formulate a presentation explaining their choice of text for the purpose of the class community and broader audience (internet sites). | Refers to a set assignment task, and not to a general LO |
| 5. Write imaginative texts, individually and collectively to become aware of and experience author's anguish to focus on, and select genre. | Mixes a task with three separate outcomes |
| 6. Recognise word and grammar meaning and make choices on the basis of readers' response; use old ideas / texts and compose new ones (as is common practice in postmodern intertextual narrative in literature, cinema, art etc). | Has too many elements |
Piera’s revised learning outcomes
Below is an example of how Piera re-worked her original ITAL3016 learning outcomes so that they more closely aligned with her intended assessment. You’ll notice that the revised outcomes are slimmed down and focus on the core intellectual skills that Piera wanted her students to develop during the course.
By the end of this course, you should be able to
- Analyse different ways of beginning an imaginative text.
- Summarise the content of a text to convey the core qualities of a text.
- Identify the structural patterns (e.g., grammar, lexicon, vocabulary) of a text, as well as the ‘invisible culture’ or hidden meanings within words and grammatical structures.
- Analyse and critique different types and versions of Italian text so that you can discuss how socio-historical and linguistic context influences our perspective on Italian society.
- Identify the individual voice of the author or director of a text and explain how this impacts on your own experience of the text.
- Construct imaginative or creative texts of your own, both individually and collectively.
Piera's original assessment
| Assessment item | Analysis |
| 1. Class preparation and participation (10%) to read materials and prepare questions before class to explore different views and types of texts and participate in discussions and comparisons of own point of view/position and other students and lecturer’s stance in class discussion | Mixes description of the task with desired outcomes |
| 2. Book Club: Reading and writing log (Internet web sites, in class) (10%) to select a series of ‘incipit’ of texts (7-10) (written and visual), classify them by genre and identify their main characteristics and assess ‘best’ ones and explain why; then post a brief review of a text recently read to an Italian website | This item describes the assessment task and gives instructions for how to complete it. This isn’t a problem, necessarily: it’s just that item 1 (above) doesn’t do the same thing, so there is an emerging problem of consistency. |
| 3. Across media (written/visual) and types of text (literary/film/television drama/critical review of all texts) comparison (15%) to compare and discriminate between different ways of representation and identify subjective influence of author/director and how it impacts on the reception of the text; rank and judge all versions and adaptation of the same texts and justify your perspective. | Mixes description of the task with desired outcomes with instructions. |
| 4. Book Club: Written/visual/oral (10 minutes) blurb/review of selected text (15+10%) critically evaluate its content, author/s perspective and critical/popular reception in Italy and elsewhere | See item 2 (above) |
5. Book Club: Extensive presentation of selected text (20% - 20-30 minutes) for the purpose of asking students to:
|
Mixes description of the task with desired outcomes |
| 6. Book club: collective creative short story (20%) 1) Draw on the types of texts and genres studied in and outside the course; apply that knowledge to collectively select genre/s, protagonist, characters, setting, plot and all the main ingredients of a “good” story (e.g., appealing to readers but also with a strong social/cultural/historical subtext). 2) Negotiate which section of the short story each of the participants will write; write it all and then check for narrative coherence, linguistic expression. 3) Find a web site that publishes creative work in Italian and post it. | Mixes description of the task with desired outcomes with instructions. |
The re-worked assessment
Piera re-worked her assessment to marry up with her learning outcomes and provided a separate section that gave students detailed instructions on how to complete each assignment.
| Item | Length |
Weighting | Outcomes assessed |
| Class preparation and participation (Individual assignment, 10%) |
n/a | 10 % | 4, 5 |
| Cross-media/cross-text comparison and review (Individual assignment) |
1000 words | 15 % | 3, 4, 5 |
| Book Club assignment 1a: Incipit analysis (Individual assignment) |
1000 words, max | 15 % | 1 |
| Book Club assignment 1b: Write your own incipit (Individual assignment) |
One paragraph, max | 5 % | 6 |
| Book Club, assignment 2a: Write a blurb (Individual assignment) |
Two short paragraphs, max | 5 % | 2, 6 |
| Book Club, assignment 2b Extensive roundtable presentation of your selected book to whole class (Individual assignment) |
12-15 minutes | 20 % | 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| Book club, assignment 3 Collective creative short story writing and publication (Group assignment) |
1000 words per group member | 30 % | 6 |
Assignment instructions
We decided to develop a different table for students that laid out instructions for each assignment. That way, we could keep the LOs, the assessment descriptions and the assignment instructions separate from each other.
The assignments are designed to build on and/or complement each other. All assignments must be completed in Italian.
| Item | Assignment instructions |
| Class preparation and participation (Individual assignment, 10%) |
|
| Cross-media/cross-text comparison and review (Individual assignment, 1000 words, 15%) |
You will be presented with a text that has both an ‘original’ book version and ‘adapted’ film version. You will be expected to compare the first chapter of the book and the first 10 minutes of the film. In undertaking your comparison, you should consider
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| Book Club assignment 1a: Incipit analysis (Individual assignment, max. 1000 words, 15%) |
For this assignment, you are expected to choose your own material to analyse. You may present your analysis in a table, if you prefer.
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| Book Club assignment 1b: Write your own incipit (Individual assignment, max. one paragraph, 5%) |
Write your own incipit.
|
| Book Club, assignment 2a: Write a blurb (Individual assignment, max two short paragraphs, 5%) |
Choose a book from your incipit selection above (Book Club assignment 1a) and write a blurb for that book.
|
| Book Club, assignment 2b Extensive roundtable presentation of your selected book to whole class (Individual assignment, 15 minutes, 20%) |
Present your review of your selected book to the whole class. You may wish to
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| Book club, assignment 3 Collective creative short story writing and publication (Group assignment, max. 1000 per group member, 30%) |
The class will be organised into small groups so that you can write a short story together. You should
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