Loredana Costa’s eighth-grade students at Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School had the chance to put their knowledge of the Italian language to the test during a recent creative project.

For the project, Ms. Costa transformed her classroom into a red carpet runway and challenged students to speak only in Italian during the mock fashion event. They were asked to design, model and critique their own stylized outfits, take turns walking the runway and describing in Italian their attire, and act as fashion journalists by writing about what they saw on the runway.

The event was a great opportunity for the eighth-graders to practice their linguistic skills in both conversational and written forms.