In Italy the interest for non-formal learning methods is increasing, together with a focus on strengthening competencies in literacy, while the number of pupils who are native speakers in other languages than Italian. We present here a small-scale study, conducted in collaboration with a teacher in Italian language and literature at a middle school in the North of Italy, involving pupils 11-12 years of age with a mixed language-cultural backgrounds. We experimented with leveraging the Pokemon Trading Card Games (TCG), which we found to be a beloved media, bridging across cultural background and gender, as a literacy platform. In our study, we explored two typical assignments for Italian Middle school pupils: learning about Greek and Roman mythology and writing summaries. Hence together with their teacher, we invited the pupils to create Pokemon-like TCGs of Greek gods. A template was provided, with room for the pupils to make a drawing and insert information on the gods’ powers, and personal anecdotes, as if they were Pokemon creatures. Findings showed that the workshop fostered humor and provided agency for the pupils to actively engage with the lectures and textbooks, analyzing the assigned texts, to identify the needed elements to fill the provided templates. Moreover, this study opened towards further questions on creative scaffolding for writing exercises.

In Italy the interest for non-formal learning methods is increasing, together with a focus on strengthening competencies in literacy, while the number of pupils who are native speakers in other languages than Italian. We present here a small-scale study, conducted in collaboration with a teacher in Italian language and literature at a middle school in the North of Italy, involving pupils 11-12 years of age with a mixed language-cultural backgrounds. We experimented with leveraging the Pokemon Trading Card Games (TCG), which we found to be a beloved media, bridging across cultural background and gender, as a literacy platform. In our study, we explored two typical assignments for Italian Middle school pupils: learning about Greek and Roman mythology and writingsummaries. Hence together with their teacher, we invited the pupils to create Pokemon-like TCGs of Greek gods. A template was provided, with room for the pupils to make a drawing and insert information on the gods’ powers, and personal anecdotes, as if they were Pokemon creatures.Findings showed that the workshop fostered humor and provided agency for the pupils to actively engage with the lectures and textbooks, analyzing the assigned texts, to identify the needed elements to fill the provided templates. Moreover, this study opened towards further questions on creative scaffolding for writing exercises.