To meet the complex challenge set by the 2006 European Reference Framework of the Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, different didactic tools seem necessary: cooperative learning, problem solving, authentic assessment, understanding by design, differentiated instruction, habits of mind, critical thinking, and student portfolio. Since 1998, teaching both Italian and Latin Language and Literature in two Licei Scientifici Statali in the Province of Turin (Piemonte) to students aged 14 through 19, the author has gradually implemented all these didactic tools. The author’s working hypothesis is to construct the “three storey competence building” starting from the daily “ground floor” of attitudes or habits of minds, rising whenever possible to the “first floor” of authentic assessment, coming up to the “attic” of student portfolio with some willing students. The author’s main goal is to submit some critical reflection and evidence on what teachers can really achieve with their students if they accept the challenge of refocusing their instruction and their assessment practices.
Ciceronis Brutus - Ciceronis Brutus; edited with an Introduction and Notes by Martin Kellogg, Professor of the Latin Language and Literature in the University of California; pp. xxix + 196. Ginn and Co., Boston and London, 1889. 3s. 6d.