Registration is required for all events. All activities are in English and are online unless otherwise specified. Please return to this page for updates during the academic year.
Italy Reads offers opportunities for high school students to acquire valuable experience in the context of Work-Related Activities/Formazione Scuola-Lavoro (FSL, ex-PCTO).
Each year, nearly 200 teachers and their students participate in Italy Reads or one of the other Programs for High Schools offered free of charge by John Cabot University.
See Programs for High Schools for more information or contact [email protected].
All Italy Reads participants are invited to consult the page Italy Reads Resources for Teachers. This collection of resources is compiled each year by the JCU librarians. It includes the presentations of Lesson Plans on the author and the work prepared by JCU professors and by Italy Reads high school teachers who attended the relevant Professional Development Course during the preceding Spring Session.
Teacher Training Workshop
The first workshop for this year's program was held at John Cabot University on April 10, 2026.
September 15 and 22, 2026, 5:00-7:00 PM, online. High school teachers of all subjects throughout Italy are invited to learn about the resources available to them and their students with JCU's Programs for High Schools. Proposed lessons for teaching The House on Mango Street will be presented by teachers who attended the Professional Development Course last spring.
The workshop is in English, free, and Certificates of Participation will be provided. High school teachers of all subjects are welcome.
Register to attend the Teacher Training Workshops on Zoom
Keynote Address
October 27, 2026, 5:00-6:30 PM (CET), online. This public event is the annual kick-off for the Italy Reads Program. Keynote Speaker: Sandra Cisneros, author of this year’s book.
Master Class for Teachers
November 3, 2026, 5:00-6:30 PM (CET), online. Master Class for Teachers with Sandra Cisneros.
Students Interview Keynote Speaker
November 17, 2026, 5:00-6:30 PM (CET), online. Students Interview Keynote speaker Sandra Cisneros. Write to [email protected] to participate in the interview.
Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer, and artist whose work explores the lives of the working-class. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, the Texas Medal of the Arts, a MacArthur Fellowship, several honorary doctorates and national and international book awards, including Chicago’s Fifth Star Award, the PEN Center USA Literary Award, the Fairfax Prize, the National Medal of Arts. Most recently, she received the Ford Foundation’s Art of Change Fellowship, was recognized among The Frederick Douglass 200, won the PEN/Nabokov Award for international literature, a Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from the Poetry Foundation, the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation, and the Harold Washington Literary Award.
Her classic, coming-of-age novel, The House on Mango Street, has sold over seven million copies, has been translated into over twenty-five languages, and is required reading in elementary, high school, and universities across the nation.
In addition to her writing, Cisneros has fostered the careers of many aspiring and emerging writers through two non-profits she founded: the Macondo Foundation, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2020, and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation, which ran for fifteen years. She is also the organizer of Los MacArturos, Latino MacArthur fellows who are community activists. Her literary papers are preserved in Texas at the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University.
Sandra Cisneros is a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico and earns her living by her pen. As a single woman, she chose to have books instead of children. She currently lives in San Miguel de Allende, México. A new collection of poetry, Woman Without Shame, her first in 28 years, was published in 2022 by Knopf and by Vintage Español in a Spanish language translation, Mujer sin vergüenza, by Liliana Valenzuela. In 2024, The House on Mango Street was published in the Everyman’s Library Contemporary Classics Series. Cisneros is at work on a new novel, Infinito, to be published by Knopf in 2027.
Social Media:
Instagram @officialsandracisneros
Facebook @sandracisnerosauthor
In collaboration with their teacher, students attend public lectures at JCU (primarly the Italy Reads Keynote Address), and interview speakers and work in teams to create a digital summary of their work. JCU student mentors are recruited to provide guidance. This activity is ongoing from October through March. Students will present their final work at an online meeting and respond to questions from their audience. For FSL, this project is included in the total number of hours recognized for the Italy Reads program.
February 19, 2027: deadline for students to submit their digital newsletters through their teacher.
February 26, 2027, 5:00-7:00 PM, online. Students present their newsletters and share their experience with the project.
October through April: JCU students meet with high school students, in-person or online, to discuss (in English) The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the life of the author and the themes presented in this book, the social/cultural context in which it was written, and its relevance to today.
Register to become an Italy Reads Volunteer Mentor and receive details about training sessions.
Register to participate in the Italy Reads and one of the other Programs for High Schools using the Unique Registration and Request Form for Teachers. You will receive more information about our programs.
You can request meetings between university Mentors and your students. These meetings are in English and can be scheduled to take place in-person and/or remotely from October through March. The times and frequency of these meetings are determined by your availability and by the academic schedules of our students.
Each year, from January to May, Italy Reads offers a Professional Development Course for High School Teachers who plan to include the selected work in their academic program the following year. This 30-hour course is delivered as weekly online seminars in English, and it is free of charge. Completion of this course is not required for participation in the program, but it is an excellent opportunity for teachers to study the author and the literary work in depth with colleagues and a JCU professor.
The aim is to prepare teachers to engage their students in the study of this work from literary and interdisciplinary perspectives. The course introduces background information on the author and the social and literary context in which they wrote. During the course, teachers exchange best practices in teaching and considerations specific to their teaching realities.
The outcome is the increased professional and collegial support among teachers. Informed by seminars led by academic experts, teachers share specific Sample Lesson Plans developed by them as recipients of this Italy Reads Scholarship for High School Teachers. This specific didactic material is added to the Resources for Teachers gathered by staff at JCU's Frohring Library, which are available for use by all Italy Reads participants.
Italy Reads 2027-2028 (The book of focus will be announced in October): Details and application form will be published on this page in late October.
The Italy Reads Student Video Contest is the culmination of a month of activities between high schools and JCU's Italy Reads Program centered around the work and life of the selected author.
January 31, 11:59 pm, Deadline to submit entries. Read about the Student Video Contest and submit your video. Students: submit your entries following the instructions and using the Video Contest Submission Form. N.B.: One submission per video, please.
A Video Production Tutorial is available online. Italy Reads registered teachers can request access to this material for their students. A Gmail account is necessary to access this material through a dedicated Google Classroom. Write to [email protected].
March 23, 2027, 5:00-7:00 PM, Italy Reads Student Video Contest Award Ceremony (online).
In collaboration with Gaby Ford and the English Theatre of Rome. Performances relative to The House on Mango Street (in English): early March. Ticket information will be posted here. Tickets will be purchased through The English Theatre of Rome. Discount tickets for Italy Reads participating students are available. Teachers accompanying their students are our guests.
