Italian Day is one of the world language events that takes place every year at Newtown High School, along with Spanish Day and French week. Italian Day took place on October 14th, and each year the Lecture Hall is filled with Italian flags, food, and music. Students that take the language celebrated this specific day by decorating t-shirts with Italian logos in the NHS Lecture Hall to eat Italian cuisine.
“I like Italian Day because it brings the class together and we get to eat a lot of food and have fun,” NHS junior Sam Crespo said.
NHS Foreign Language teacher Laura Battisti is in charge of Italian Day. The reason Battisti has the students decorate their own Italian t-shirts is because it further immersed students more deeply into the language. It also counts as a quiz grade, causing students to become more involved by creating a t-shirt with Italian words or drawings on it.
All the students line up and parade around the lecture hall a couple times. Each student is judged by their t-shirt and selected by Battisti and other teachers in attendance. When a couple students are selected, they line up in front of the room and are judged by everyone else by their t-shirt. At the end, a winner and a few runner-ups were given Italian pins to be attached to their shirt. The winners were NHS juniors Adam Manes and Christina James.
“What I like about Italian day is the food, it’s always better than school lunch, and it's fun to be the around people and our Italian class,” NHS junior Adam Manes said.
However, events at school like Italian day do not seem significant enough to some students, but Laura Battisti explains why she feels Italian Day should be celebrated.
“My students are learning a language, and it’s also important that they understand the culture associated with the language and the country,” Battisti said.
To add, she also talks about what each grade level has to do in order to participate and learn in Italian Day.
“The projects are by grade level, so level one; the freshman do research on the food, of course including the recipe, the traditions of the country, and the family origins, so there’s also some history and music as well. Then level two did research project on sports teams and athletes, and again they had to do research on the history of the sport, how it came to Italy, how important it is in the country, and learn about the culture as well. And then level three students, they do a project on Italian scientists, and there a lot of Italian scientists yet not a lot of people know about them. And level four students- AP students, do a project on literature,” Battisti said.
Most NHS students expressed a passion for the food.
“I think Miss Battisti has us celebrate Italian Day to first of all try all the different foods from all the different regions and also to celebrate it with our class,” NHS junior Sophia Albano said.
Besides the students, Battisti adds her own personal reason to why she enjoys Italian Day.
“I love it because the kids have a lot of fun, it’s good to see the curriculum in action, instead of working on papers, they really do something like create t-shirts and they enjoy the fun beyond the classroom. It’s a connection beyond the classroom,” she said.
Italian Day is a way to have students interact with the culture, and to feel more connected to the learning experience of the country and its amazing aspects.