What is Canvas
Overview
Canvas is a cloud-based Learning Management System (LMS) by Instructure that the Dante Alighieri Society of Washington uses to support the teaching and learning of the Italian language. Canvas allows instructors to upload syllabus and course content to a virtual classroom. Lessons are organized into modules with directions on how to use them in class and after class.
Canvas also allows instructors to facilitate instruction through a variety of tools that encourage student-to-student, student-to-instructor, and student-to-content interactions. Canvas will allow students to complete a large variety of activities from home and on their own time. Examples include:
- Listening comprehension,
- Watching videos and films and submiting after-viewing exercises,
- Engaging in discussions,
- Navigating maps and reporting findings,
- Conducting guided web searches,
- Completing grammar worksheets,
- Looking at and commenting on art and images,
- Listening to dramatic readings,
- Recording dramatic readings,
- Reading and reporting on articles and passages in Italian,
- Listening to songs,
- Practicing pronunciation, and
- Submitting individual or group writing.
Why Canvas?
The tools that Canvas offers, which are applicable to any discipline, work very well for language learners. For example, pages can be linked to selected pedagogical material and resources provided by leading Italian publishers specialized in Italian for foreigners, such as Alma, Bonacci, Loescher, Mondadori and Zanichelli in a secure environment to be used in class or self-paced. This allows us to create assignments designed to improve the four language skills: writing, listening, reading and speaking while building cultural competency. For example, within one single page students can view (motion or still picture), listen to, read and even record themselves! Canvas allows instructors to create pages for a variety of learning styles: visual, aural, verbal, solitary, social …
Canvas Courses
Canvas courses are created each quarter. Once you are enrolled in the class you will be able to log in into Canvas with your credentials during the quarter.
To access Canvas visit: https://danteseattle.instructure.com/
Gabriella Vagnoli was born in Pisa, Tuscany, home of the famous Leaning Tower. She grew up in a multicultural family thanks to her Brazilian mom and remembers teaching Italian for the first time as a child to her Brazilian cousins. She obtained a Laurea in English and Spanish Language and Literature at the Università degli Studi di Pisa and during her college years spent a year in the University of Reading, UK, studying mainly the works of Shakespeare. After obtaining a Certificate as a Teacher of Italian (DITALS II) at the Università per Stranieri di Siena, she has taught in a full immersion school in Florence, a children's full immersion program in Chicago and a Community College in Illinois.
Tiziana was born and raised in Sardinia, a beautiful Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea. She has always been passionate about foreign languages and cultures, and studied French and German at the Scuola Superiore Interpreti e Traduttori in Milan, where she obtained her first Foreign Languages and Interpreter BA degree. She then pursued her MA in English and German Language and Literature at IULM, one of the most prestigious universities in Milan, Italy for Language and Communication studies.
Nicla is a native of Napoli, Italy. She has a Laurea in Materie Letterarie (degree in humanities) and a Laurea in Pedagogia (degree in Education) from the Università degli Studi di Cassino. She earned her M.A in Italian and her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. She has published articles and book chapters on gender and theater as well as politics and religion in Counter-Reformation Italy and in the last years, has been teaching Italian literature, language, and culture in different institutions. In addition to teaching in our program, Nicla is authorized to cover the role of esaminatrice and intervistatrice in our PLIDA Examination Board.
Born in the fabulous 80’s, Isabella was raised in Rome where she got her Degree in Teaching and Translation in foreign languages at the University ‘La Sapienza’.
Eric was born and raised in Como by an American mother and an Italian father. He holds a degree in Business Administration and Management from Bocconi University in Milan and a Master’s in Corporate and International Finance from Durham University in the UK. His international background led him to pursue a business career in the United States, ultimately settling in Seattle, where his wife grew up.