During the morning session, Kelly Paciaroni, Italian Teacher and Ph.D. candidate in the Comparative Literature Department (Italian Specialization) at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and her students from Pearl River High School modeled some of their favorite classroom activities based on material studied by the instructor during her time as a CUNY MA student.

Pearl River students at all levels interacted with works of art in order to analyze and express opinions about the works, generate hypotheses, organically introduce new vocabulary, engage in conversations, and create original poetry based on their research. Along with their instructor, students interacted with Monica Calabritto (Associate Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY). Following the Paciaroni 10-Step Method of Art Criticism, Monica Calabritto led the students in a close examination of The Woman with a Lute by Johannes Vermeer (seen below).

Julie Van Peteghem (Assistant Professor of Italian at Hunter College, CUNY) discussed the accessibility of the Petrarchan sonnet in the world language classroom. The students then presented and analyzed original Petrarchan sonnets inspired by works of art currently on display in New York City, following the 10-Step Method of Poetry Criticism (Andriello, Paciaroni, Feldman).