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Here am I

As I said in other occasions, I am a philosophy teacher at the High School “L. da Vinci” of Jesi. My teaching activity deals with the problems raised by the history of western thought and the development and the analysis of history in general, from the Middle Ages to the present days. I started teaching in English at the university, more or less ten years ago, and soon I realized that it was a nice way of teaching, even if sometimes it turns out quite difficult because concepts and logical relations are often hard to communicate. However, these restraints are also a good way to improve your own understanding and to clarify your mind. Thus, all the difficulties you find in using a foreign language to teach your own disciplines should be conceived as a challenge not as a negative hindrance. If I can, I like to work with some colleagues, but I want to select them. I usually prefer the maths teachers and some English teachers, but I feel very comfortable also with the mother-tongue French teacher who helps me with the EsaBac courses. My colleague Francesca Rachetta is one of the few philosophy teachers I like to work with and we tried to develop some CLIL modules together, last school year. I also like to collaborate with Vereno Brugiatelli, another philosophy teacher, who is very engaged in continental philosophical investigation and is always prepared to activate courses to enhance the students’ excellence (see, for instance, “Mente e cervello”, 2016).

My teaching context

My school is quite big, with four different curricula: the traditional scientific high school, the high school of applied sciences, the languages high school and the sports high school. In the current school year, I am involved in three of these courses: the traditional, the applied sciences and the languages high school. Statistics say that my school is a very good one and the students have a high level of knowledge and also good linguistic competence, especially in English (see the INVALSI sheet attached). I do not completely agree. The linguistic students do not really understand what they study: their strength is above all the ability to repeat but not to rework. Applied science students are more brilliant but also lazier: they overcome the superficiality of their studying with good intuitions. As for the students of the traditional curriculum, for me they are a novelty of the present school year, so I know almost nothing about them. My colleagues say, however, that they are both diligent and quite intuitive.

My teaching context and my way of teaching

With all my students, I first try to provide some basic notions, then I try to reflect together, maybe even drawing up charts and schemes on the blackboard or reading and commenting on some selected passages. For sure, I do not use the text book so much. In addition to the direct lesson and its extensions in the form of workshops, I very often make use of various web resources to present questions and arguments to be analyzed and discussed. I must say that, from this point of view, my school provides me with what is necessary, namely the internet connection and the video projector. Occasionally, something does not work, but in general I cannot complain. Sometimes I could also take the students to the computer lab, that I use both as a multimedia classroom and as a real laboratory. In the latter case, students can develop personal summaries with their own notes, web links and pictures, or they can realize small Excel files in order to verify the functioning of the logical connectives applied to some of the most relevant topics of the history of philosophy and logic.

Some problems of CLIL teaching

An unexpected difficulty that I had to face was the resistance of the students of the applied sciences to the use of www.kahoot.com, of www.mentimeter.com and of www.socrative.com (e-tools which I have learned and appreciated just through this CLIL course and which I have immediately experimented with enthusiasm). My students objected that e-tests are too impersonal and strict, even if I proposed a blended modality with cloze and open-ended questions. I also used to introduce the tests with some kind of review of the topics at issue (which is easier by means of www.mentimeter.com than with www.kahoot.com). The real problem is that e-tools and multimedia teaching sometimes risk instilling false security in the students, who believe that they have understood everything just because the lesson was fun and informal, but then they do not know how to rework the information transmitted to produce a fair school performance or a good written remark on some selected themes. Despite the centrality of “thauma” in philosophy, the students do not want to walk unknown paths and so they do not know what to do when they skip from amusement to didactical production and awareness. This problem appears again when the students move from my teaching to the textbook (among other things in Italian and not so up-to-date), or from my teaching to the summary made by other colleagues with a more traditional approach. It is not a matter of language, it is a matter of mind. The point is that the CLIL itself promotes motivation, but it does not help to reflect. Not automatically, at least. The HOTS tasks should be useful for this second aim, but the way the CLIL lessons lead out from the familiar framework of narratives can be dangerous: many students do not understand what is going on and they keep fastened to their repetitive and mnemonic attitude conceived as a life vest.

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Observation sheets.

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Students' feedback forms

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An example of interpretation of the video "Theory of knowledge"

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An example of interpretation of the video "Theory of knowledge"

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You can use it as conclusion of the module on the philosophy of the physis, or as intro to the module on philosophy of the polis (with special regard for the truth/opinion problem).

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Again on WhatsApp and its possible use...

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Again on WhatsApp and its possible use...

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CLIL... Content but also language, they say.

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CLIL... Content but also language, they say.

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I recognize that I in my CLIL teaching I insisted especially on the content. Here is a possible linguistic integration for the 3rd class activity on the possibility or impossibility of lying (according to the sophists, Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle).

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I used WhatsApp to communicate with my students and to share many suggestions and materials. I think it could be very useful.

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To use every school year!

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PHILOSOPHY - Epistemology: Introduction to Theory of Knowledge [HD]

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A video you can use with the students of Applied Science...

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A video you can use with the students of Applied Science...

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Osteoblasts and Osteoclasts seem to be quite far from the philosophical topics of the 3rd class... but actually they can be useful to understand that ancient philosophy is much more that a heap of stories!

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A very nice video to introduce Kant's philosophy. Let's consider also what Rovelli said in 2014: "Kant forse aveva ragione quando diceva che il soggetto della conoscenza e il suo oggetto sono inseparabili..."

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This is the audio track of a 16 yo student (3CS)

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Kant's criticism - CLIL Microteaching activity

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Kant's criticism - CLIL Microteaching activity

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This is my last teaching activity in the 4th classes.

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This is just a dialogue you can use to explain the basic notions of Kant's criticicism (KRV) and the differcence between his TRANSCENDENTAL idealism and Hegel's ABSOLUTE idealism (no images).

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An activity for the students of the 5th class. You can introduce this interactive exercise with a Crash Course video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C72ISMF_D0)

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Let's consider this intro (it is the beginning of the "Ice Age 5").

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Post-kantian philosophy and Romantic Literature

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Post-kantian philosophy and Romantic Literature

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Something I prepared to interact with my colleague of English literature, who was also my tutor...
As usually, tyhis is the PDF version of a mentimeter.com interactive presentation.

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The Enlightenment - HISTORY & HISTORY OF IDEAS

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The Enlightenment - HISTORY & HISTORY OF IDEAS

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CLIL activity - Philology as a philosophical attitude

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CLIL activity - Philology as a philosophical attitude

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This is the www.menti.com activity I realized with the 4CL students in order to introduce the novelty of modern philosophy (15th-16th century).

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4CL-REPORT-The Renaissance & Modern Philosophy  copy (4CL)

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Of course I could say that the rule defined by the formula -(a&-a) is usually considered "natural" in ordinary reasoning. However quantum mechanics rejects this posutlate... Aristotle says you must consider it a valid principle even if you want to deny it! But words cannot explain the amusement... So forget the explanations and watch the video. We could talk later, if you like. Just enjoy it!

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Appearance and Reality: modern and and ancient sophistry

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Appearance and Reality: modern and and ancient sophistry

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This is a video on the possibility of being deceived by our own senses...

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From Philology To Physics (Scientific Revolution and Humanities)

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From Philology To Physics (Scientific Revolution and Humanities)

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From philology to physics (scientific revolution and humanities)

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Some examples of students' activity (4AL)

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Some examples of students' activity (4AL)

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An interactive test on the passage from Middle Ages to Modern Era philosophy.

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This is a video on the meaning and the articulations of "philosophy".

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3-What is Philosophy (Philosophical Definitions)

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Some examples of students' activity (4AL)

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Some examples of students' activity (4AL)

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An interactive test on the passage from Middle Ages to Modern Era philosophy.

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A short video I recorded in a winter night...
Good first take! Even if you can do far better...

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Some remarks on a passage from the Enneads (Plotinus)

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Some remarks on a passage from the Enneads (Plotinus)

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Happiness and bliss. The relevance of being human to be really happy.
I am afraid sometimes you have to download the audio file, because windows is not always able to find a proper player. However, it is just a portion of Enneads I, book 4.

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Some examples of students' activity (4AL)

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Some examples of students' activity (4AL)

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An interactive test on the passage from Middle Ages to Modern Era philosophy

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Here is an activity on modern epistemology.

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Some remarks on a passage from the Enneads (Plotinus)

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Some remarks on a passage from the Enneads (Plotinus)

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Happiness and bliss. The relevance of being human to be really happy.

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Some remarks on a passage from the Enneads (Plotinus)

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Some remarks on a passage from the Enneads (Plotinus)

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Happiness and bliss. The relevance of being human to be really happy.
Someone says that animals have no worries and so they are happier than human beings. Plotinus disagrees: it is only through reason (LOGOS) that we can get back to the supreme Origin in order to be happy!

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This is the track the students had to explain. Just the passage on the meaning and the extension of "happiness".

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04 - I.4 Whether Animals May Be Termed Happy (Vol.4 Pg.1019)

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04 - I.4 Whether Animals May Be Termed Happy (Vol.4 Pg.1019)

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4CL-Modern philosophy_ the scientific turn 4CL

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A selection of chapters from this famous philosophical novel.

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CLIL activity - The end of the Middle Ages and the development of modern philosophy, the 15th century philology as a form of philosophy, Bruno and the 16th century cosmology, the 17th century rationalism and empiricism, Galileo: the champion of scientific philosophy.

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CLIL activity - The end of the Middle Ages and the development of modern philosophy, the 15th century philology as a form of philosophy, Bruno and the 16th century cosmology, the 17th century rationalism and empiricism, Galileo: the champion of scientific philosophy.

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CLIL activity - The problem of justice and the philosophy of the polis

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CLIL activity - The problem of justice and the philosophy of the polis

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An activity for the 3rd class: beyond the philosophy of the physis, the problem of human conduct and the definition of "virtue" and "good".

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Modern Philosophy: Galileo and Empiricism

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Modern Philosophy: Galileo and Empiricism

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Teaching modern philosophy, and in particular the scientific revolution of the 17th century, implies to make inroads into physics, maths and other subjects. It was a great break, but it was also the tail of some cutural trends of the late English scholasticism... Here is a simple proposal.

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This is the scheme I realized to sum up the basic notions of Kant's philosophy of knowledge.

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This is the document I prepared for my microteaching activity on the comparison between Medieval and Modern empiricism.

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4C's Lesson Plan: from Middle Ages to Modern Era, the development of reason and nature from the school of Oxford to Galileo Galilei

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4C's Lesson Plan: from Middle Ages to Modern Era, the development of reason and nature from the school of Oxford to Galileo Galilei

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This proposal is the result a collaboration with my colleague Francesca Rachetta who actually did most of the work, even if we shared ideas and suggestions... Hope it could help.

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What a fair answer is... in my own opinion

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What a fair answer is... in my own opinion

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You will see that content and good synthesis DO matter, language is important but it comes later...

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"Scaffolding": how to do a philosophy test on Aristotle and the Epicureans.

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"Scaffolding": how to do a philosophy test on Aristotle and the Epicureans.

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This is just a proposal I used in order to help my students to study for the last philosophy test of the 3rd class...

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This is a very controversial point!
What to evaluate? How to evaluate? My answer is: CLIL implies a fundamental stress on the Content of our teaching... Also Communication is very important. Communication means: "to share, to put in common" some knowledge. Cognition is the highest aim of my teaching activity. Therefore, I gonna underline all the linguistic mistakes I find in my student's papers, but what really matters is: understanding, clarity, interpretation (against mere repetition) and critical development.

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An example of blended CLIL (Italian and English) module

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An example of blended CLIL (Italian and English) module

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Hi guys, I just want to show how to organize a teaching activity on the Christian thought (patristicism-scholasticism). My proposal is very simple, I think, and it is based on the concept of "Blended CLIL", namely the possibility of switching from Italian (my own mother tongue) to English as Lingua Franca... Indeed, I believe that the 4C's framwork allows me to perform a CLIL activity in many different ways (CLIL is just an umbrella concept)... One of the possibilities at stake is this bilingual implementation aiming at the trasmission of the basic notions of Patisticism, Scholasticism and the problem of the Universals. Enjoy it.

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Here we are! This is the summary I realized to teach Hellenistic philosophy at the beginning of the 4th class... I know: this shoud be one of the last topics of the 3rd class, but usually it is a great success to end with a complete outlook on Aristotle...
Hope you like it

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This is my CLIL learning diary. First of all it is a resource for my teaching activity, but I hope someone else could join in and post suggestions or remarks...
Feedback is always important!