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 selfefficacy
and empowerment. Moreover, it supported and favored an
atmosphere of ‘knowledge sharing’ in the classroom, 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.