My French I courses this semester are very active learners (so far), who verbally participate on a regular basis without much coaxing, and are eager to use what they are learning immediately. French I is a required course for graduation.
French II course is not a required course. There are eight tenth grade students enrolled in this course, and all of them took my French I level 2 course last spring. These students have requested my class, and come every day for ninety minutes, the last class before they leave school.
I characterize this group of kids as a V-8 engine block, each student representing a piston within the cylinders of the engine. There are usually at least two students participating actively in this group, although it is rarely the same two. As I step on the gas, adding more energy to my teaching style and trying to coax movement and involvement from the rest of them, the engine floods and goes nowhere. I liken this experience to trying to drive with an engine full of oil-sludge.
This group of students is notoriously passive, unmotivated, and unresponsive to teacher-driven lessons. They frequently request games, which I use often to review information and skills. Introducing new information and new skills has been extremely difficult, and I've felt as though I was forcing the content down their throats. The end result of these classes was that I was exhausted, disheartened, and discouraged.
This past summer, during my graduate studies at Bennington College's Masters of Teaching a Second Language courses, I was introduced to the concept of teaching in immersion by my professor, Elizabeth. I say "introduced" although I have obviously known about immersion for a long time. Lise (as we affectionately call her) emphasized to us that immersion was not only the best way to teach, but in her opinion, the only way. I was intrigued by the benefits she raved about, intimidated by the work-load she promised would come with it, and inspired by her positive attitude that as teachers we were more than capable of succeeding.
The more Lise spoke about immersion, the more I thought of my up-coming class of French 2 level 2. I wanted to take a passive, and occasionally apathetic, group of teens, and turn them into a group of active learners who took responsibility for their own success. Lise encouraged us to do Immersion with all of our classes, for the entire year. In her mind, there was no halfway, only dedication.
After an exhausting summer, I returned home to my tiny New Hampshire town, and crashed. Grad school started the same day as work, and my immersion goals flew out the window. I was back to the old Mademoiselle. All was going well with my new French I classes, but I managed to last only four days with my French 2 class before things came to a grinding, crashing, halt.
I created stunning visuals, I spoke with energy and animation, we played games, I implored, I begged, I came up with creative projects, but nothing I did could cut through the sludge. That was it.
Time to go for broke.
With the support of my principal, my mentor teacher, and my local florist (whose encouragement and friendship is invaluable to me), I approached the class.
We discussed the beginning of their year, and their other classes. I asked them to explain the concept of level 2 courses to me.
Here are their statements regarding why they choose Level 2 over level 1:
- Level 2 courses are smaller, so they get more help from the teacher.
- The level 2 courses are not as academically competitive, where Level 1 students sometimes make them feel stupid if they ask questions, or need more help.
- Therefore, they feel more comfortable, and are more likely to get up in front of the class, or ask questions.
- The pacing is accessible to them, and they do not get lost or fall behind in content.
- The homework load is minimal, or non-existent, unlike the hours and hours of homework they think is assigned in level 1 courses.
We discussed our class, and the direction it was going. They noticed that since many students from their class last semester did not take this elective course, the energy level of the group is much lower than it was. They acknowledged that they are very passive, and quiet students, and agreed with my analogy of the engine block firing on only a few cylinders at a time. One student, in an attempt to reassure me that it wasn't just me, told me that they were like this with all teachers, and often did nothing at all to communicate in class. They listed off their dislikes, including learning in general, worksheets, independent work, homework, and writing.
I presented the idea of immersion to them as a solution, and independent writing and worksheets as another solution. The more I told them about immersion, and how it would change their class, and require them to be more active, the more they sounded interested. The prospect of doing nothing but writing and worksheets on their own for four months was clearly not the direction they wanted to go. I told them that they were smart enough to do this, because sixth grade canadians could do it, so they certainly could. I also told them that they had to support each other, and that it would only work if they agreed to it every day.
They gave me the go ahead. Great!
Now what?
Then I went to visit the florist and burst into tears, overwhelmed with the prospect of re-inventing curriculum for eight students while taking two graduate courses at the same time. Thank god for friends, and for flowers.
