93577 - Workshop on Textual Analysis (C)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the lab activities, the student:

• is able to apply the concepts covered in the integrated course within a simulated learning environment;
• is able to critically reflect in a group on the proposed topics.

Course contents

Reading, Understanding and Playing. Language Games and Language Teaching

The workshop offers a pathway on language games as opportunities for reading, comprehension, text production and reflection on language. Its aim is not to present a collection of playful activities, but to show how texts based on transformations, errors, nonsense, ambiguity, constraints and rewriting can become teaching tools for closely observing how language works.

The work will begin with the reading and analysis of texts that bring out different ways of playing with language. Through words, sounds, sentences and short texts, pupils can learn to recognise similarities, differences, double meanings, expressive possibilities and different ways of constructing meaning. Play will therefore not be considered as a merely recreational activity, but as a form of language exploration.

During the workshop, selected texts by significant authors such as Gianni Rodari, Toti Scialoja and Edward Lear will be analysed.

The activities will focus on several key aspects: words that generate stories, creative errors, transformations, modified fairy tales, nonsense, rhyme, rhythm, sound associations, and the relationship between sound and meaning. Experiences will also be proposed in which fixed structures and constraints become opportunities for invention and for the construction of comic, unexpected or absurd situations.

The proposed activities will make it possible to connect language games with comprehension and text production. In particular, the workshop will focus on how to help pupils understand how a lexical transformation works, grasp ambiguity or an effect of nonsense, recognise the role of sound and rhythm, invent words or texts by following given rules, and discuss what changes when a word, a sentence, a story or a point of view is modified.

Particular attention will be paid to the transition from play to reflection. Each proposed activity should make one aspect of language visible and help pupils understand what happens when they play with words, alter a story, follow a rule, work with sound, or produce a text within specific constraints.

Readings/Bibliography

The bibliography will be provided during the laboratory activities.

Teaching methods

Work will be carried out in small groups using the materials provided. Activities will alternate between reading and text analysis, language game experiences, group discussion, teaching design, and comparison of the proposals developed by the groups.

Assessment methods

The final assessment will take into account:

• participation and cooperation during the meetings;
• the ability to present content clearly and coherently;
• the ability to analyse a text suitable for work on language games, identifying how it functions;
• the ability to design a learning unit consistent with the content and methods addressed in the workshop;
• the ability to connect language games, comprehension, text production and reflection on language.

The final assignment will consist of the design of a learning unit intended for a primary school class. The unit must be based on a text chosen by the student and consistent with the work carried out during the workshop.

The assignment must include: target class, reference text, objectives, materials, stages of the activity, instructions for pupils, the teacher’s role, the play activity, the moment of reflection on language, final production, and criteria for observation and assessment.

The final assessment will consist of one of the following four grades:

+1, excellent; 0, good; -1, satisfactory; failed, the workshop must be attended again.

Use of generative artificial intelligence tools

As regards the final assignment, the use of generative artificial intelligence is not authorised. The required learning unit must document the student’s personal work: the ability to choose a text suitable for work on language games, analyse how it functions, identify coherent teaching objectives, and design activities for reading, comprehension, text production and reflection on language.

Assignments produced, even only in part, using generative artificial intelligence tools will not be considered valid for assessment purposes.

Teaching tools

PowerPoint presentations to be projected and made available to students, literary texts and working materials, in either paper or digital format.

Office hours

See the website of Silvana Loiero