Asking About Family

Year Level

Years 5–6 (Western Australian Curriculum Languages: Italian)

Duration

60 minutes
Class Size: 30 students

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Curriculum Links

Western Australian Curriculum: Italian (Years 5 and 6)

• AC9LIT6U02: Use knowledge of modelled grammatical structures and formulaic expressions to compose and respond to texts using appropriate punctuation and textual conventions
• AC9LIT6C02: Participate in activities that involve planning and negotiating with others, using language that expresses information, preferences, and ideas
• AC9LIT6C05: Create and present a range of informative and imaginative spoken texts using a variety of modelled sentence structures to sequence information and ideas, and conventions appropriate to text type
• AC9LIT6C03: Locate and process information and ideas in a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts, and respond in different ways to suit purpose

This lesson specifically targets formulating questions about family members in Italian, linked with conversational skills and cultural understanding.

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Lesson Title

WALT: Formulate questions about family members in Italian

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Learning Objectives (WALT)

• We are learning to ask "Hai un...?" (Do you have a...?) about family members in Italian.
• We will learn relevant vocabulary for family members and practice asking and answering questions.
• We will understand pronunciation and polite conversational structures.

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Success Criteria

Students can:

• Ask "Hai un..." questions in Italian using correct sentence structure
• Respond appropriately to questions about family members
• Use sentence starters independently
• Engage in conversations with peers in pairs
• Create a short mini-dialogue involving family members

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Resources

• Whiteboard/markers
• Flashcards with family member vocabulary (e.g., madre, padre, fratello, sorella, nonno, nonna)
• Question prompt sheets (dyslexia-friendly with clear font, visual icons)
• Mini-dialogue sentence starter cards
• Audio clips of Italian native speakers asking and answering about family (optional)
• Worksheets for practice and extension tasks

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Lesson Outline

1. Warm-up & Engagement (10 minutes)

• Begin with a short discussion: "Who is in your family?" Invite a few volunteers to share in English.
• Introduce family vocabulary in Italian with flashcards and pictures, focusing on madre, padre, fratello, sorella, nonno, nonna, zio, zia.
• Use choral repetition for pronunciation practice.
• Introduce the question "Hai un..."? meaning "Do you have a...?" Write this on the board and underline key parts.

2. Guided Teaching – Formulating Questions (15 minutes)

• Model the sentence structure: "Hai un/una [family member]?" Use examples, e.g., "Hai un fratello?" / "Hai una sorella?"
• Teach differences between un (masculine) and una (feminine).
• Show how to answer simply: "Sì, ho un fratello." or "No, non ho una sorella."
• Play a short audio of someone asking and answering similar questions to reinforce listening.

3. Pair Practice – Scaffolded Dialogue (15 minutes)

• Pair students. Provide each pair with a question prompt sheet that contains sentence starters and vocabulary (supports dyslexic students and those needing extra help).
• Students take turns asking and answering "Hai un...?" questions about family members. Each student tries at least 3 questions.
• Encourage use of the correct articles and vocabulary. Teacher circulates providing help and feedback.

4. Differentiation and Extension (15 minutes)

• Support: For students needing more help, use sentence starter cards with fill-in-the-blanks: "Hai un ______?" / "No, non ho un ______."
• Extension: Challenge advanced students to create a mini-dialogue (3–4 exchanges) using the questions and answers they practiced, involving family members and additional adjectives where possible (e.g., "Sì, ho un fratello grande.").
• Allow pairs to rehearse and optionally present their dialogues to the class or a small group.

5. Plenary and Assessment (5 minutes)

• Quick whole-class oral round-robin: each student asks and answers one question aloud, reinforcing confidence.
• Teacher collects informal evidence of participation and correctness of sentence structures.
• End with a brief recap of key phrases and success criteria.

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Differentiation Strategies

Learner Group	Strategy	Resources
Students needing support	Use prompt/question sheets with visuals; sentence starters; peer support	Dyslexia-friendly prompt sheets, sentence starter cards
Advanced learners	Create extended dialogues with adjectives / short descriptions	Dialogue extension cards
All learners	Varied activities: listening, speaking, reading and writing	Audio clips, flashcards, worksheets

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Dyslexia-Friendly Strategies

• Use large, clear fonts (e.g., Arial or Comic Sans) on all printed materials.
• Colour-code family member words by gender (blue for masculine, pink for feminine) to assist visual memory.
• Provide lined or coloured paper for written tasks to reduce visual stress.
• Use audio resources so that students can hear correct pronunciation repeatedly.

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Assessment

• Formative: Observation of pair practice conversations, monitoring accuracy of question formation and answers.
• Summative: Mini-dialogue extension presentations (oral or written) for advanced learners.

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Teacher Reflection / Notes

• Note which students are confidently asking/answering and which require further support.
• Plan to revisit and extend with "Come si chiama tuo fratello?" (What is your brother’s name?) in later lessons.
• Encourage cultural discussion about Italian family importance briefly if time allows, connecting language to culture.

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This lesson plan engages students actively with speaking and listening skills in meaningful social interaction, aligned specifically with the Western Australian Curriculum expectations for Years 5–6 Italian language learning. The scaffolded support and explicit success criteria promote confidence for all learners, supported by dyslexia-friendly options and extension tasks for higher achievers, ensuring inclusivity and differentiation.