Quality Information in the Classroom

Every day, the "Quality Information in the Classroom" initiative brings some of the most authoritative national news publications (both print and digital) into Italian high school classrooms, utilizing them as valuable educational tools capable of imparting a modern form of civic education. The initiative seeks to show students how the same story can be reported inmultiple different ways, thus helping to develop their critical reading skills and make them more engaged, savvy consumers of journalism.

With the current participation of over one million students, half of Italian students between the ages of 14 and 18 are now receiving specialized instruction on how to engage with quality information and gain greater insight from the news. But our aim is not simply quantitative, we also have a qualitative goal: to revolutionize the world of schooling by applying our message to three distinct areas: classroom lessons, training, and research.

The classroom: All participating teachers are given a textbook that has been compiled from advice given by university professors and industry professionals. With this and other teaching materials provided by the Osservatorio, they devote an hour of lessons each week to reading newspapers in print and digital formats, giving students the opportunity to enjoy a real civics lesson.

Training: The Osservatorio has designed specific training activities for all teachers involved in the project. This training is based on veritable academic contributions and allows teachers to both efficiently present the journalistic material and improve the general caliber of the lesson. This training is done through a series of meetings and a publication by "La Nuova Editrice Italia" that is sent to each teacher at the beginning of the academic year.

Research: Each year the Osservatorio organizes , in collaboration with the research institute GfK Italia, a survey of the "Quality Information in the Classroom" project and all related initiatives. The research is aimed at both teachers and students is intended to analyze how the students evaluate current media and what changes they would want to see. The results of this survey are then presented during the "Growing Between the Lines" conference, which is held every two years.

With the "Quality Information in the Classroom" program , students and teachers receive digital and printed copies of newspapers once a week for free, thanks to the generosity of local newsagents. These newspapers become key focal points for the classes, which strive to develop students’ critical thinking abilities.

Since the 2014/15 academic year, classes have access to the digital format of the newspapers as well as print.

As part of its work with the “Quality Information in the Classroom” initiative, the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori provides long-term training for teachers with the purpose of motivating them and assisting them in the delivery of the optimal teaching experience for the weekly classes.

Various meetings throughout the scholastic year represent an opportunity for both teachers and students to engage in dialogue and discourse with important figures of Italian journalism. This allows participants to gain knowledge and new tools, giving them a better mindset for the future. Over the past few years, the original training days have been replaced with a series of meetings. The “Five Lessons in Search of an Author” series (for the 2010/11 and 2011/12 academic years) aimed to help teachers, while the “Inspire a Generation: Still Revolutionary” series (for the 2012/13 and 2013/14 academic years) served to help students.

The 2014/15 academic year saw a new cycle of “Inspire a Generation.” This series of instructive meetings aimed at both teachers and students to complement both the “ Quality Information in the Classroom” initiative and the“ Young Factor” project.

The 2018-19 scholastic year also witnessed a new round of "Inspire a Generation" meetings. This cycle incorporates both the “Quality Information in the Classroom” initiative and the “Young Factor” initiative , the first initiative being a way of gaining mastery over one’s mind, and the second over one’s means.

The 2014/15 academic year saw a new cycle of “Inspire a Generation.” This series of instructive meetings aimed at both teachers and students to complement both the “ Quality Information in the Classroom” initiative and the“ YoungFactor” project. The 2018-19 scholastic year also witnessed a new round of "Inspire a Generation" meetings. This cycle incorporates both the “Quality Information in the Classroom” initiative and the “Young Factor” initiative , the first initiative being a way of gaining mastery over one’s mind, and the second over one’s means.As part of its work with the “ Quality Information in the Classroom ” initiative, the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori provides long-term training for teachers with the purpose of motivating them and assisting them in the delivery of the optimal teaching experience for the weekly classes.

Various meetings throughout the scholastic year represent an opportunity for both teachers and students to engage in dialogue and discourse with important figures of Italian journalism. This allows participants to gain knowledge and new tools, giving them a better mindset for the future. Over the past few years, the original training days have been replaced with a series of meetings.

Starting in the 2010/11 academic year, the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori promoted five new training events of great prestige, originality , and quality. “Five Lessons in Search of an Author” was the title given to the meetings, during which some of the most prestigious names in Italian journalism (Beppe Severgnini, Massimo Gramellini, Aldo Cazzullo, Gian Antonio Stella and Vittorino Andreoli) and 250 teachers took turns speaking to and instructing classes for an hour, delivering an impromptu lesson of the “ Quality Information in the Classroom” initiative.

During the 2011/12 academic year, the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori ran these meetings for the second time . Aldo Cazzullo and Gian Antonio Stella ― two important names of Italian journalism ― were the key guests of this new series of lessons, where they acted as teachers for an hour.

Only a small number of teachers registered in “The Quality Information in the Classroom” project could participate in the five lessons―teacher attendees were limited to those who had reserved online or called the dedicated call center.

The "Quality Information in the Classroom" initiative keeps an archive of all the resources it creates in the course of its activities. This archive is being constantly enriched by new volumes of publications that are issued every year on teaching methodology and training. Each additional volume represents a new teaching manual that is rewritten every year for each edition of the project. The new manual is subdivided into a series of lesson plans, concrete working ideas to be used with the daily newspapers, and creative suggestions and reflections that can be used in a variety of manners depending on the makeup of the upper secondary classroom.

The teaching proposals of the Osservatorio are sent free of charge to any teacher who has enrolled in our project.

These publications contain suggestions and reflections on how to posit the issues in a manner that makes newspaper reading in the classroom more enjoyable and fruitful. They are updated every year, based on the advice and feedback of the thousands of teachers who make the program a worthwhile experience for all students.

In order to constantly monitor the progress of these initiatives, the Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori has enlisted the collaboration with the most authoritative research institutions to monitor the results of the Osservatorio's work in absolute autonomy to gauge the effects of its actions.

In order to ensure that all Italian newspapers are able to take further creative steps toward nurturing the readership of young people, the Osservatorio asks every student to participate in an evaluation of the newspapers presently published in Italy. This is achieved through in-depth investigations that allow us to monitor the evolution and growth of our initiative.