Creating Worlds with Addizionario: an Integrated Teaching Approach

This paper presents an experience with 10-year-old children in the use of conceptual maps to build and comprehend descriptive texts. This was part of a multidisciplinary project aimed at increasing the pupils' knowledge of their own town. The aim of the project was twofold: to develop the general knowledge of the children and to promote the creation of linkages among different areas of knowledge by using Addizionario. The children built personal knowledge paths. This proved to be a motivating task, as each child enriched the given materials with self-made ones (pictures, drawings, photos, texts). This teaching method helped the children achieve significant learning goals, and promoted self-efficacy and empowerment. Moreover, it supported and favored an atmosphere of 'knowledge sharing' in the calssroom, which considerably improved individual productions. Throughout the school year, the topic of the research project - Pavia as a world - was developed in relation to four school subjects: history, geography, science, and visual arts.