Amélie

So I showed my favorite French movie of all times to my French IV film class: Le Fabuleux Déstin d'Amélie Poulain.

I suppose I should have known better.  The group is mostly boys. 

At the end, when Nino and Amélie kiss, they all laughed.  Laughed!  Like "Haw haw haw" laughed!

I suppose I wasn't expecting that reaction, but it tells me that they are definitely uncomfortable with displays of affection.

That's ok.  I'm not bummed that they didn't get it, but it definitely changed the experience of the film. 

For our project we're going to start to do bits of film.  They've written, now they will create. They have to write their own introduction to the film Amélie, then film it, and narrate it themselves.  Should be interesting.  I'm a bit burned out on trying to find out their emotional involvement in the film.  Let them play. 

Advisory

Advisory is a section that I'm supposed to lead twice a week, for 30 minutes.  I have nine students, all varied ages, grades, social groups, backgrounds, everything.  The one thing that they have in common is that they are all quiet, and they are all shy.

Extremely shy.

No one wants to talk.

they are all willing to participate in advisory, for the most part.

But they are terrified to talk out loud.


And I'm stuck.


What do you do with nine shy kids?  Color the whole freaking time?  I am realizing that I have no clue what to do with them.  All of my tricks work with outgoing, social kids willing to participate and take risks.

I feel shut down by these kids because they don't want to talk.  It's 30 minutes devoted to conversation.  What am I supposed to do?


This frustrates me beyond belief.

I hate advisory.

Français IV Devinition: Power

Le pouvoir c'est l'abilité de contrôler, changer, ou faire un différence dans le monde.

Power is the ability to control, change, or make a difference in the world.

French IV Updated Schedule

Week 1: Review
Week 2: Cinéma
Week 3: Entre les Murs: theme: Power
Week 3: Entre les Murs, and Le Scaphandre et la Papillon.  theme: Power

Small Victories

Thanks to a set of grammar books I bought from Teacher's Discovery, I'm able to pull some balance into my classroom with regards to irregular verbs.  The passé composé, however, continues to be an absolute nightmare for my seniors.  Ugh.  Next week we will be undertaking the imperfect tense.  I think that will go much better.

I had my students do a photo project based off of a Lexique du Cinéma, which can be found here:
http://www.institutfrancais.de/cinefete/IMG/pdf/CINEFETE12_Petit-lexique.pdf

They did an excellent job using the different perspectives as part of the story.  Then I heard this on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/13/140403979/wonderstruck-a-novel-approach-to-picture-books
A story about an author who was inspired to illustrate his book in a cinematic way to develop the words the way that movies do.

The students all used pictures of themselves in their photos, so I can't really regenerate them here.  But i wish I could.  Some of them are quite brilliant.


Seems like I'm right with the times.

Links: Teaching Film Analysis

My French IV course is grounded in the study of films.  I'm in the process of developing the course further from my experience last year.  I'm posting some links here that I found useful, but also so that I don't lose them. 

This site lists all of the links below, as well as links to teaching various films in English:
http://teachfilmstudy.com/filmStudy.htm

An article about teaching film study to increase literacy: (Excellent!)
http://hhsdrama.com/documents/UsingFilmtoTeach.pdf

Companion to above article, step by step resource for teaching films:
http://hhsdrama.com/documents/OrganizingaFilmClass.pdf

A Paper by an English teacher, How to Read a Film:
http://sites.unc.edu/daniel/131spring99/papers/Mazer.html

The importance and benefits of using media correctly in class: Research Article
http://hhsdrama.com/documents/Nonoptimalusesofvideointheclassroom.pdf

PBS Resource: Analyzing Film in the classroom:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/learningresources/fic.html

The Director in the classroom: Useful site for film making, desktop movie making
http://www.thedirectorintheclassroom.com/resources.php

AFI Curriculum for Film Study (Filmmaking Course)
http://hhsdrama.com/documents/AFIScreenEducation.pdf

 Yale Film Studies Guide

http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/

French III (Second Semester)

While working with another French teacher, I stumbled across the Essential Questions that I'll be using for French III Honors in the winter semester.

• How are human beings valued by society?
• How do we measure this value?
• How do I value others?
• How do I value myself?
• How do I want to be valued by others?

Course Outline

The French Revolution

Films: Ridicule, Marie Antoinette, Instructional DVD: La Révolution Française (TF1)

World War II

French IV: Coming UP

So I'm planning my curriculum for the French IV film class.  Here's what I'm looking at, as far as chronology:

Week 1: Language review through (film critiques?)
Week 2: Cinematic vocabulary, concepts, film study introduction

Film 1: Entre les Murs concept-Education/Cultural Identity
Film 2: Persepolis concept-Home/Family/Cultural Identity
Film 3: A La Folie, Pas du Tout  -Perspective vs. Reality
Film 4: Amélie -Love and Stereotypes
Film 5: La Haine -Hate and Action/Reaction
Film 6: Student-produced film for final exam project demonstrating understanding one of the concepts studied in the course, as well as use of film techniques studied in the course.

Update: the Original Immersion Kids (OIK!)

So I just got my class lists for next year.  On the 17th Nov 2010 I posted about how the immersion program was working for 5 of my 8 students.  These same 5 students signed up for my French III honors class.

5 OUT OF 8!

Woohoo!!!!!

Now... grammatically they are way behind....

Vocabulary-wise, they have some catching up to do...

But, THEY ARE HOOKED!

And they want BOOK WORK!  They want to learn GRAMMAR!  They want WORKSHEETS!

Sooooooo, I will have these students in the second half of the year next year.  That means I have some time to prepare them before christmas.  Maybe we will do some after school tutoring in French to get them a bit caught up...

I'm soo looking forward to being able to plan thoughtfully, structure my courses, and do it right, starting with an essential question.  I'm so excited to give them a meaningful experience.  :)  yay Immersion!  thanks Liz.  You're the best.

My Reflections:

I asked my students to tell me what they found difficult about the class, how they overcame this difficulty, and what they want to change. 

I found planning very difficult.  I was overwhelmed by the amount of work necessary to plan an immersion course, and was often exasperated and tired, desperate to make it interesting.

I also struggled with keeping the class in French because the students resisted using the French.  Two out of three classes complied, but my class of juniors wore me down, and eventually I lost my energy to continue the fight for French.  I gave in during World War II.  Many students in this class mentioned that they liked the immersion and thought it was great, but these were the kids I fought with the most about using the French.  (!)  more exasperation.

I tried to overcome these difficulties by stretching myself too far, by trying to crack down on language and by modifying the participation rubrics in order to remove some of the subjectivity from the grading.  Some students accused me of playing favorites, and I understand their point of view because some students actively demanded my attention much more so than others.  Other students avoided me, and in trying to accomodate them all, I lost the group in the middle, I think.  I don't quite know how to go about fixing this, and that troubles me.  But I think it troubles me because I want to fix all of the things that were bad this year by flipping an instant switch.  I have a lot of work to do.

Next year I will be able to contribute more time to my planning.  I look forward to planning more creative and shorter lessons, based on concepts that I will spend time developing and researching.  I look forward to having an overview of the course before I teach it, with much more development and preparation.  This year I spent so much time today just planning tomorrow.  i was never ahead of the game, and many days I just wanted to let the kids do nothing because I was so exhausted, although I never gave in to this.  WWII and the Ma Vie en Rose movie took waaaaaaayy too long!  I have no idea of the length of time that would be necessary to go through these lessons. 

In short, this year I felt like a first year teacher in many ways.  I'm very angry about a lot of my shortcomings this year, and the way they negatively affected my students learning opportunities.  I can only blame so much of this on being in grad school and therefore having less time.  The rest is because of my over-ambition, my lack of perspective on the amount of work I created for myself, and the shallow depth that I barely managed to reach because of the breadth I expected of myself, and of my students.  While they spoke more French, and experienced their dream of "less textbook", there were so many lost opportunities, so many undeveloped lessons that I taught, so much blatant return to exactly that which I was trying to avoid: meaningless information.  In expanding too quickly I reduced myself.

In order to move beyond this depressed outlook, I remember the Woody Allen quote about failure.  I can be uplifted by my need to improve, and as one of my students tells me "Reflect your reflections".  I will continue to work forwards, but hopefully in the future, I will work smarter, smaller, and deeper. 

French III Survey: What would you change?

• The true immersion piece was maginificent.  After that, you gave up...
• I like that we studied the holocaust, it was very interesting.  I would change more projects and less quizzes or tests.
• More book work is good.  Even though I don't like the book work it's very helpful in studying the language because it helps me memorize the material.
• Because everyone didn't like the war, to have a shorter lesson of WWII would be good.  I like WWII but the other students don't like war.
• I think you play favorites with the students.  We saw that.  This put a bad attitude in the class, and made learning difficult. 
• I don't want to change the class because I learned a lot of new French. 
• I would change the projects, like video projects. 
• I would change the quantity of text to translate.  It was too much.  WWII was too difficult.
• I would teach a little bit about tthe war a year before French III.  A little in French II and then the rest in French III. 
• I would change the two objectives in the journal because it's very difficult to think of two objectives.  Also more time for learning new vocabulary.
• I would change the topic.  i want to learn food.  WWII is very difficult for French III.
• I would chyange the Second world war for the students next year.
• French III is good like it is.  the students after me like the class becuase it's very interesting.  STudying a language is very difficult, but you make the class interesting and fun.  Immersion is very weird at first, but after you overcome the difficulty it is is easy.
• I would make more tests.  More testsmake people work harder and pay attention.  But over all, the class was good.
• Let the students speak English and have less WWII.
• I wouldn't change the class, but if I changed the class I would restrict the people in the class.  I want to speak with people who are serious.
• I would change the quantity of spoken French.  In a French III class it's a bit too difficult, but in a French IV class, it's too easy.
• For the class next year, I would change the course to have mor projects, and also make the projects more "hands on".  A lot of people like projects and it's easy to make interesting things with your hands.

French IV Survey: What would you change?

I asked all of the students to review the course, and offer suggestions to make it better for the next students to come through.

-I didn't like having an objective for each day.  Often times I repeated the objective that I wrote the day before.  Also, I wanted more written homework for the vocabulary and grammar to practice outside of school.  I like the films and working with the films.  My favorite activity was the film review for Edith Piaf.

-For me the exercises in the workbook helped a lot for grammar.  Afterwards, I applied the grammar in the discussions in class for the films.  Also for French IV I think that homework is important for a rigorous course.

-I would change the pace of the course.  At the beginning we had lots of time with the films, but at the end  we had less time.  I would like equal time for each film.

-If I could change the course, I would change the amount of work in the book.   I think the book exercises helped me a lot.  It was very seldom that we did any book work for the class.

-I would change the balance between cinematography and grammar lessons.    I really like the cinematography part of the class because it forced me to think about the importance of the films and also the concepts for life, not just the plot.  But I want to see more grammar for the class because I needed more comprehension between my classmates and I during the discussion.  It's easier to understand the films and my classmates ideas when we have a better knowledge to explain our ideas. 

-For next year in French IV class I would change the order of the class.  I would start with a grammar revision because when the students enter the class, their French is bad, and it's difficult to work in the beginning.  After that I would like to watch the films.  I thought the films taught us a lot of French.

-In my opinion there were too many films.  I think that different art or music projects are a good idea for the students next year.  The discussions were good for comprehension.  Maybe for the journal just an objective for the day is sufficient.  A variety of activities is my ideas for a change.

Film Class: Français IV

The most successful class I had with immersion was the French IV film class.  During the course of the semester we watched, in this order:

Ma Vie en Rose
La Vie en Rose /La môme Piaf
Jean de Florette
Manon de Source
Les Tripelettes de Belleville
La Cité des Enfants Perdus
Le Fabuleux Déstin d'Amélie Poulain
La Haine

Their two favorite films were La Vie en Rose and La Haine.  I thought that the confusing nature of the story of Edith Piaf, mostly flashbacks and dark scenes that were often difficult to see in my well-lit room, would put them off.  They fell in love with her.  They went online, downloaded her music, memorized her lyrics, and when I pulled up her songs in class to study, they belted them out at the top of their lungs. 

They really enjoyed watching Jean de Florette and Manon de Source, especially after the dark style of La Vie en Rose.  The film didn't really stick with them, though, not the way that Edith did, and they said that this was because she was a real person, with real problems.

The other film they loved dearly was La Haine.  Prior to watching this film I had the kids read two articles from my college French books about the banlieues and the social implications of subsidized housing and poverty on the culture of these areas.  They struggled a lot through the reading, but when we discussed the reading comprehension in English, they did very well.  By the time we watched La Haine, they were well prepared for the violence and the difficult cycle of hatred between the banlieue and the police.  The next time I teach La Haine I will spend at least two weeks on this, and include work about the riots of 2005, and Sarkozy.  They fully grasped the cycle of hate and how it was perpetuated by both sides. 

They found the film La Cité des Enfants Perdus bizarre and disturbing, which it is.  We finished this film by reading a French philosophical review, and then the american review by Roger Ebert.  They did an excellent job of identifying the contrasts between the physical elements of the film and the ideas, for example, the adults are underdeveloped, while the children are wise, street-smart and resilient. 

They found Amélie very confusing and difficult to follow, even with English subtitles.  Next year when I teach that film, I will break it down into various scenes, and do a better job of scaffolding the story through cinematography.

Overall the film class went well.  Film as text is definitely something that will continue to use at the higher levels, although developing my understanding of cinematography and how to extract the language from the films in order to teach it is something I have to work on.

Fin de l'année

On Friday we will be watching La Rafle. which is a film about the jewish raid and the Vélodrôme d'Hiver.

The kids are very excited.  They find WWII interesting, but without the essential question to guide me, the unit has been rough.

They have been good sports, for the most part.  I'm looking forward to planning things better for next year, for being better prepared, for putting scramble mode in the poubelle where it belongs.

Their final exam is to identify and explain the role of resistance in their own lives.  We all resist something, whether it be ideas, activities, whatever.  It's a healthy part of the human condition.

They are going to identify and explain it with a visual.

Qu'est-ce que tu résistes dans ta vie?
Pourquoi est-ce que tu résistes ça? 
Pourquoi est-ce que c'est important à toi?
Comment est-ce que tu résistes ça?
Est-ce que cette résistance personnelle est facile ou difficile?  Pourquoi?
Quel est le résultat de cette résistance?/Comment est-ce que ta vie est changée par cette résistance?

Que veut dire "Résister"?

Travailler contre quoi tu pas d’accord.


Les rebelles travaillent et bagarrer contre l’ennemie parce qu’ils ne comprennent pas les croyances.

I asked the kids to write definition for the verb "To Resist".  Here is what the groups came up with.

Résister c’est quand tu luttes contre les croyances établit parce que tu as les autres croyances.

Ne conforme pas avec les idées.

Contre les idées.

Ne conforme pas parce que tu ne d’accord pas avec l’ordre établit. L’ordre contre les croyances.

Rebelles et n’obéir pas parce que ne d’accord pas avec les croyances et l’ennemie ou les idées si les personnes travailler contre la conformer.


Here are the class definitions that I synthesized.  I wanted the class to do the synthesis, but we ran out of time...

Résister :

• Travailler, lutter, ou rebeller contre les idées, les croyances, les établissements, les ennemies, ou l’ordre parce que tu n’es pas d’accord.

• Ne pas obéir, ne pas conformer avec les idées, les croyances, les établissements, les ennemies, ou l’ordre parce que tu n’es pas d’accord.

Failure

In the interest of my own sanity, Immersion has taken a back seat.  I am teaching an entire unit on WWII and there is no essential question.

It's AWFUL.

The kids are interested, but I can see that they're getting nothing.  Especially after the first half of the semester, there is a shallow "ramasse" of information.

they are disenchanted with my curriculum.  I am resentful for it, but I understand why they are disenchanted.  I am also disenchanted.  I want to smash things.  I feel like a failure, and I blame the fact that I am human, and I cannot accomplish everything I hope to.

I keep a bag in my room, full of quotes for students about hope, fear, failure, life, etc.  I pulled a quote in a fit of "I'm a big failure" tantrum.

"If you're not faililng every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative." -Woody Allen.

That just made everything all better.

Thanks Woody Allen.

Immersion: the inner war about the world war

I'm using English to scaffold my French III class.  We're breaking down lots of complex French into English to get at the main idea.  Their listening comprehension has skyrocketed.  Two days of vocabulary bingo for war vocabulary, and most of them are cognates.  They loved this bingo, and they are now confident with the vocab, picking it right out of the documents, hearing it spoken, and using it.  Success!

I have a DVD that teaches the war in French, it's designed for high school students in France.  There are no subtitles, so I'm having the kids break apart my own typed up version of the transcript, translate into English, and they will share this in class on Monday.

The reason I'm slipping into so much English:  external exhaustion.  I'm not able to properly plan and construct a 100% immersion setting, so I will settle for 75%.  Grad school and planning together are crushingly stressful, and paired with the rest of my life, I'm barely hanging on, so I sacrifice 25% English during my WWII class, but it turns out to be constructive.  I think back to Lauren's presentations, and the arguments that English is a helpful tool for learning L2.  I hear Liz in my head, "Il faut!" but il faut also have the energy and the time, which I'm lacking.

Two days ago I gave them an English page about the Treaty of Versailles, and two political cartoons, and made them read it for comprehension.  They didn't bother.  So I came unglued, snarled a bit, waved around a textbook (brimstone, essentially) and gave them another night.  This is what they were able to synthesize from four pages of English text, into French, as a class.  i helped with the grammar a bit, but all of the vocabulary and ideas are their own.

Quelle a été l’attitude de la France vers l’Allemagne avant le traité de Versailles?


La France n’aime pas Allemagne avant le traité de Versailles. La France a été très fâchée, elle haït Allemagne, pour l’invasion de la frontière de France, pour la destruction de la guerre, parce qu’Allemagne a détruit la France. (haït = la haine) La France veut Allemagne prendre toute la responsabilité pour la Guerre parce que la France n’aime pas l’Allemagne. La France a été très méchante vers Allemagne parce que l’Allemagne militaire est très petit après le traité, aussi Allemagne n’est pas les alliés. Après le traité la France a pris la terre d’Allemagne. La France a aimé le traité, mais la France n’a pas enforci le traité, parce qu’elle n’a pas pu (peut), « Société des Nations » pour l’enforcir.

Quelle a été la perspective Allemande du Traité de Versailles?

L’Allemagne trouve que le traité n’est pas juste, alors n’aime pas le traité. L’Allemagne ne pense pas qu’ils ont commencé la guerre, elle n’est pas responsable pour toute la guerre. L’Allemagne déteste la France et ne veut pas signer le traité. Ils sont forcés à signer le traité, et le traité fait l’Allemagne moins puissante qu’avant.

A est déçu(e) parce que le traité n’est pas juste. A n’est pas heureux parce qu’ils ont dû abandonner la terre, l’argent, et le pouvoir. L’Allemagne ne respect pas le traité parce que les alliés envahissent l’Allemagne s’ils ne signent pas le traité. Allemagne a pensé qu’ils ont été réprimés par les alliés.



Expliquez les images avec 1 ou 2 phrases.

Photo 1 : L’Allemagne est forcée à signer le traité ou mourir. La France est la guillotine, et la guillotine castre l’Allemagne, le traité = castration de l’Allemagne. La 1e photo montre la guillotine, symbole de la révolution française.

Photo 2 : Hitler est né (naître) du traité. Hitler est dans le traité de Versailles parce que l’Allemagne est très frustrée. À cause du Traité de Versailles, Hitler peut monter au pouvoir. Le Traité de Versailles est le commencement d’Hitler, le chef. Le parti d’Hitler est entré furtivement du traité de Versailles, et armé eux-mêmes.

What my kids want to know

I asked my kids to write down their questions about World War II, keeping in mind that they are learning about it in a French class.  Here are their questions, exactly as they wrote them.

Ou est France?
Qui ne gagne pas?
Comment France faire à la Guerre Mondiale?
Pourquoi autre personnes permettre Hitler faire cette?
Je veux sais pourquoi Hitler est très stupide.
Je veux sais pourquoi Italy et Japon aller avec Allemagne.
Quell est Hitlers motives?
Comment a fait avec la ristance Français?
Comment a fait le Viche Français?
Comment Hitler début ça tourture?
Comment France obtenir implique?
Comment France faire à la seconde guerre mondiale?
Comment Hitler début ça tourture pour les Jews?
Quand est-ce ils aime Hitler?
Quand le juifs?
Quel role de France dans WWII?
Est-ce France aidé Allemande?
Je vais serait que D-day?
Je vais serait que le France "activité" que le guerre?
Qu'est-ce que France ont participate pour WW2?
Pourquoi Hitler est mourir six milleux personnes?
Pourquoi est Hitler en rules un world domination?
Pourquoi est un Français en WWII?
Pourquoi est-ce que nous sommes penser de Français de WWII?  Qu'est-ce qu'ils faitons? 
Comment les Germans invadée France?
Qui est-ce que la chef de France dans la war?
Pourquoi est-ce que Hitler gagne le seat de power?
Comment Hitler être fou?
Quel arriver de Germany?
Pourquoi Hitler as leader?
Quel est le motives de Hitler pour gagne le war?
Pourquoi est (winning?) le bon reason de superiority?
Je vais apprender de Atomic bombe.
Je vais apprender est-ce que Hitler obtenir pouvoir.
Pourquoi est Hitler en power?
Est-ce que tu il main views?
Comment est-ce que fait après le holocauste?
Pourquoi Japon?

I'm tired.

Exhaustion is immersion.  Geez.  I meant to type that the other way around. But I'm leaving it the way it is. 

I find it very difficult to balance immersion with grammar.  I feel like it's always context, or grammar.  Integrating them is difficult.

the kids are doing so very well with the ideas, the thinking part.  

The grammar part sucks.

I'm tired.  We've spent three weeks on one movie.  The kids love it hate it love it hate it like their favorite soap opera.  In the end the love it, but hate the ending, and I agree with them.

Maybe for the final part I'll have them re-write the ending.  I dunno.  Mid-term is coming up.  

On deck: World War II.

I thought the theme for this semester was going to be caring, but it's turned out to be acceptance, which I think is better, because it involves compassion.

I'm tired. Guh.  

The Fist and the Olive Branch

I found myself stressing out last weekend about my junior class.  They are speaking such little French.  Research cites that in Immersion classes students typically speak L1 with friends in social situations but L2 with the teacher, or during tasks.  I have found this to be true. 

However, I'm teaching an immersion honors class.  Suck it up, guys. 

At least, that was my attitude this weekend.  Then I remembered that this group does not respond well to confrontation, if you make it me vs. you, they will fight you to the very bitter end.

I asked them for their advice today instead.  I asked them to let me in on how things were going.  They immediately said
"This is better than worksheets, better than the book."

Interesting, because this was my plan B.  If plan A immersion doesn't interest them enough, is too hard, too much, well, we can always go back to the good old musty text.

I told them that they weren't speaking enough French, that they weren't pushing as hard as I wanted them to, as they were capable of, and that I wasn't going to fight them.  I also told them that immersion was much much more work for me, but worth every minute of it because they are worth my time as people.  These kids know I'm crazy about them.  But I did ask them to let me know if I was wasting my time trying to win over something that just wasn't going to work, or if I needed to do something differently.

I gave them five minutes to discuss as a class.

When i came back they had the following to say:

We want to keep immersion.
We don't want to go back to the text book.
We like the way class is going now, the conversations that we're having.
We talk too much with our friends, and probably shouldn't sit with them.

When I asked them what I could do better, they said, "no no, no.  It's not you, it's us.  We got this."

I really do love these kids, their social involvement, and their willingness to dialogue with me about anything and everything.

One of the most beneficial lessons I've learned as a teacher is that if I'm starting to take a nasty tone, starting to push against the kids instead of with their help, I've got to change my attitude first.

It's easy to take the difficulty personal, especially when my job is the only thing that my life entails at the moment, outside of grad work.  I get injured too quickly by the mass of careless teens, who only need to be reminded what I'm trying to do with them, instead of in spite of them.

Tomorrow we start the film "Ma Vie en Rose".

I ended my day by planning for it, trying to scaffold the snot out of their learning.

I found out as soon as I started the work for tomorrow that the 36 page unit plan I've been building for them over the last month has disappeared from my computer. 

Sigh.

thankfully I printed a copy.

Sigh.  Wednesday, here I come.

Tolerance according to 23 high school juniors.

Student responses:

Tolerance is a good thing when...

• it's nicer than rejection.
• The other person is good, real.
• you don't hurt others.
• you're not using others, or being used by them.
• you like the person, but you don't like their ideas.
• thge problem isn't bad, or it's something stupid.

Tolernace is a bad thing when...

• The other person doesn't dignify confidence.
• you hurt others
• you use others or you are being used.
• you don't like the person, but you like their ideas.
• the intentions are bad.
• The person is a criminal.

Mon Identité

The juniors are doing an identity project where they describe four aspects of their identity that are very important to them.

Identify an aspect of your identity.  Why are you this way?  Why is this important to who you are?

Here are some quotes that I just love.

• Les films d'Indiana Jones ont été très intéressant, et ces films obtenir moi un interest en archeologie. (The Indiana Jones movies were very interesting, and these films got me interested in archaeology)
• Je suis un artiste parce que j'aime faire d'art.  C'est important parce que c'est exprimer de moi, et exploration de moi.  (I am an artist because I like to make art.  It's important because it's my self expression and my self exploration.)
• Je suis une timide parce que les personnes sont féroces.  (I am shy because people are ferocious.)
• Ma génétique est la raison pour mon intelligence.  C'est important parce que j'aime savoir.  (Genetics are the reason for my intelligence.  It's important because I like to know.)
• J'ai peur de rater mon rêve.  (I am afraid of failing my dreams.)

I have the best job in all the land.  I really do.

Round 2

I've started out my French IV class with the film Ma Vie en Rose a week ahead of the other class so that i can prepare what the French III students will do.  The parts that the IV students succeed with I will break down into smaller pieces for French III.  The parts that the IV students struggle with I will re-work completely for the III kids.

Today the III kids wrote their identity definition:
Identity is the things and the description that make you unique.  For example, the traits, the adjectives, the actitvities, name, family, tendancies, interests, the sum of the characteristics of one person.

It took the whole class working together.  I think they really liked their mindmaps.  The 60 minutes flew by, the other 30 taken up with the photo du jour, and making sure that they had two objectives for the day.

I have two students who are essentially refusing to speak French, and they are very negative about it.  I have a parent meeting with one, and the other I will have to meet with again.  Fortunately at this level, the honors class is an elective.  The kids choose to be here.  Although I'm surprised that no one dropped once we got started, I'm aware that this translates to me working harder to prevent the semester from crashing into a ball of flames.

Scaffold, scaffold, scaffold. 

Scaffolding!

I copied this down from a fellow teacher's wall one day.

1.  I do, you watch. -Teacher models a strategy or trait.
2.  I do, you help. -Collaborative practice with the trait and strategy.
3.  You do, I help. -Guided practice to learn the trait and strategy.
4.  You do, I watch. -Additional Application to reinforce the trait and strategy.

Today I did a mindmap in front of the kids for myself.  Then they did one and I walked around and monitored.  Their homework is to revise it.  That's 1 and 4.  I skipped a lot of steps here.  Hopefully the mindmap is simple enough to skip the two in between.  I will find out tomorrow.  In the meantime...

Scaffold scaffold scaffold.

L'identité

today the French IV students came up with a class definiton of Identity:

Identity is the explanation of who we are, the aspects that make a person different and unique, for example, favorite things, way of life, the contrasts between people and also the similarities.

Student Submission: Photo du Jour

Changes and Establishing Routines

I changed the participation rubric today.  The kids thanked me for the simpler format.

I've started with an activity that I call "photo du jour".  I started it for my juniors as a way to get their brains going in French at stupid o'clock am, without getting in their face about it.  Here's the photo I used today:

 buddhist-monk-pray-tattoo_12070_600x450.jpg


I ask the kids to identify their objective for the day, then freewrite about a photo.  Some students are working on perfecting a single sentence.  Others are listing word after word.  Everyone is buried in a dictionary.  No one is talking.  I can hear pens and pencils, pages flipping.  

After about five or ten minutes, I ask students to go up to the board and write key words.  I say "volontaires?" and hold out a marker with the top off.  I can see the visible relief in my students' eyes when they are able to understand my simple, one-word directions.  I'm also willing to make a complete arse of myself in front of them via dance moves, pantomime, sound effects, anything to help then comprehend.

Today we came up with:
culture, custom, ceremony, head, tattoo, kneeling, painful, needle, buddhism, chinese, sweatsuit, orange, jewels, ouch, wounded, and were-wolf.  The were-wolf is from my abstract-random thinker, and I'm satisfied that he now has added to his list of favorite words, which also includes "banana".

the kids wrote the words, then ended up drawing little pictures to explain their vocabulary.  Some of it I acted out, such as painful, and others we had to use cultural references to explain, such as "Le film de Michael J. Fox où il change en Loup-Garou."

I think I'm going to start asking students to email me the photos to use for Photo du Jour.  This will save me endless time surfing for a "cool photo that will resonate with teens" and solve that problem altogether.

They really seemed to like this kind of warmup, and it will be an excellent vocabulary builder.  I think I just might keep it for all classes... regardless of what time they actually become conscious.

Je suis frustrée!

I'm trying to set things up.  Going through them once to prepare helps me, but the problem is that I go through them first with 23 juniors (antsy frustrated juniors) and have it perfected for the laid-back, industrious seniors.  After careful reflection I've decided to push my seniors ahead one day of my juniors with the Identity unit.  That way I'll work out bugs in advance with 11 kids, and not be springing them at 7am onto 23.

So far the juniors are being patient, and rolling with me, but I will lose them fast if I don't start scaffolding better.

Here are my worries for the juniors

• I have six students who are from a lower-level class in with the rest of the 23.
• We are doing an intensive review activity that's individual, which they hate, and is dragging out.
• They really need a detailed review.  For some reason I'm reluctant to provide this. 

This last reflection is interesting.  I don't want to have to provide it.  I don't want to *waste time*.  How could it be wasting time if the kids need it?

So I need to use my resources, dig up review, build some games that are played only in French, and get their confidence back up with the language before I throw them into the Identity unit.  Otherwise I will be dragging them by their hair through the course, and they will never forgive me for letting them actually be excited about returning to my room.

I started writing this blog today because I was overwhelmed and needed a strategy. 
So I will begin with the categories of review that we need to work on, taking chunks of vocabulary from one place, and actually teaching them to use the vocabulary dictionary that I gave them.  (novel idea, Mademoiselle)
I think that about sums it up.  Now if only there were 48 hours in the day.


Well it is now 9pm and I've since managed to get some things done and planned for tomorrow: 

1. I broke down each day this week with a major verb to review, and the section of the book that it is from.  We will focus on verb conjugations, and major vocabulary.  All other grammar at this point is overwhelming for me to think about, so I won't even make the kids go there.
2. I have decided that the participation rubric I made for the juniors and seniors is rendered inappropriate by the fact that I am asking them to pick a daily objective to focus on.  Such as "speak five times in class" or "ask for Mlle to repeat at least three times  when I don't understand."  Filling in an overall participation rubric is something that doesn't seem plausible if we're focusing on such a minute piece at the beginning.  maybe we will graduate to the big bag wolf rubric.  For now, we'll go with the simple basic one I made along the lines of "I speak French, not English."  and they choose, yes, sometimes, or no.  Way easier.  I am anticipating a sigh of relief.
3. I am forcing myself to recycle powerpoints and games that I've already invented, but never used in an immersion setting.  I will be inventing soon enough.  No need to reinvent what I already have.
4. Once I realized that I was prejudice against reviewing, I realized that I was really prejudiced against the old games I used that involve English.  Now I'm looking forward to review.
5. My personal objective this week: Enable the students to use what they know in order to reduce fear.  Fear of failure, fear of judgement, fear of rejection.  

Assessment

Working on the assessment piece for the Identity and Acceptance unit.  There are four main concepts involved, Identity, Acceptance, Tolerance, and Rejection. 

Thanks to the help of a colleague, I was able to hatch an idea for final assessment that isn't campy or inappropriate.  The last thing I want to start out my semester with is dragging a bunch of junior boys through an emotional ditch with something like "describe a time when you were rejected" or "merely tolerated".

I've invented a new style of theater for this: Théâtre du Remonter.  Rewind Theater.

The kids will be asked to write a skit that branches off into three different directions at the same point.  They will act out the given scenario (A new neighbor moving in and introducing him or herself) and the freezepoint comes when they explain a bit more about who they are. 

Hello my name is John Smith, and I'm a ____________.

the kids will have to fill in the blank with three different identities that provoke each reaction: acceptance, tolerance, and rejection.  They will play each reaction all the way through, then "rewind", then re-enact again with a different identity. 

For example:

Hello my name is John Smith and I'm a gardener.
I'm a muslim.
I'm recently released from prison.
I'm actually a woman.
I'm pagan.
I'm a trumpet player who plays only between the hours of two am and five am.


Whatever they decide... and where-ever they take it, they will have to demonstrate their understanding of the role identity plays in society, what happens when people are "tolerated", "rejected", and why these things happen. 

Part of their score will be based upon the class figuring out who is which reaction.

I have a lot more work to do, I have to go back over all the validity of the assessment, especialyl in light of my essential questions. 

The moral of my story today: teamwork helps.  Brainstorming with that other teacher really led me away from emotional wreckage towards an application of their understanding in a safe and appropriate way.

Wish me luck.

Metacognition

I have asked the junior and senior French classes to bring a journal to class that stays in the room.  During the day they will use this journal to

beginning of class:
*propose daily and weekly objectives
*free-write in French about a proposed topic.  juniors: a picture, seniors: a writing prompt.

end of class:
*reflect on their objectives
*evaluate their class participation for the day

This will happen every day. 

I've designed a chart to help them identify objectives.  I am trying to focus my ... focus... as small as possible.  Beaucoup de zoom. 

I'm trying to use the SMART method for goal setting. 

Specific: speaking
Measurable: three times in class
Attainable: challenging, quality over quantity
Relevant: part of immersion
Time Bound: one week or one day

For example, the objective "Talk more in class" becomes

I will speak French at least three times during the class conversation.

"Listen better"' becomes
I will listen when the teacher speaks and write down three words that she uses that I didn't know, but can figure out.

I hope they feel that this is within their grasp.  by the third week of class we'll add daily objectives.  For the moment, their objectives will only be weekly. 

Everyone essentially will have the same objective: Getting over FEAR of speaking French.

I remind myself to slow down, pull back the pace, and break things way way way down into little tiny pieces.  I don't want to lose anyone.  Not during the first week.

Good luck, Mademoiselle.  Good luck.
 

Understanding

I spent my entire evening yesterday combing back through Understanding by Design.  My principal gave me his copy of the workbook that goes with it, and today I made a "Unit Planning" kit out of the templates that I liked and found useful.

It's so amazing how different the unit already is after one template.

I found out that my unit on "Identity" isn't actually about Identity at all, but self and social acceptance.  The film that inspired me to attack this unit is "Ma Vie en Rose", about a seven-year-old boy who is transgender.  I picked it because it's rather benign compared to most French films (no nudity!  no sex!  no cussing!) except that it is rated R.  We can't have little boys wearing dresses, now can we?  Let's examine that!  I also picked it because it reviews simple vocabulary.  Locations in the community, house, family, clothing, adjectives, but with a twist. 

As I write this, I think... are there French men who choose to use feminine forms of adjectives, and vice-versa?  I've heard about japanese girls using "boku" which is the masculine casual form of "I", while girls are are supposed to stick with the long "watashi".  I'll have to ask Didier what the implications of adjective switching are.

Four templates later, and the bell rings for my final exams.  My students finish, turn them in, give me solid fives (outstanding!) for the teaching and course review, and then reluctantly leave.  They promise to return and visit as often as they can.  In a school of 150 kids, it's not like I won't see them every minute of every day regardless of which classes they have, but it's good to be loved.

One area where they scored me low (4 for above average) was "Encouraged students to express their views and opinions."  I completely agree, because this almost always related to off-topic tangent voyages.  But as I plan my lessons for Semester 2, I find myself trying to cram as many opportunities for this as possible.

The lower-level immersion course was great preparation.  I have so many rubrics that I love, that make sense, and that will hopefully encourage the students to take a more active role from day one.

My biggest concern: I have big classes, 23, 23, and 14.  Because of these class sizes, the way I assess them will have to be different, although I'm not sure how I will do this.

I've added a daily journal for the 3 and 4 class, where they identify objectives each week that they want to work on, such as "actively participating in class discussion" or "writing better quality"  or "listening comprehension" and they pick and build from a list of verbs and nouns to build thigs like "I will listen to my classmates carefully" or "I will take notes during discussions".  This journal will be pretty central.  They will start each morning with a brief free-write on a picture that I display (first block juniors will be certainly groggy), they can take notes during class, and at the end of class they will write a daily reflection on the day's conversation based on a prompt, and then assess their participation.  In 90 minutes, I think that's doable.  I just have to structure the class right.

Structure, structure, structure.

Small pieces, start smaller than small. That's what I tell myself.  Build from pairs to three, threes to fours, fours to sixes, and then back to the whole class. 

I wish I didn't have such stupid individual desks.  Where are the tables and chairs of social interaction?  Bah.

It's almost 6 pm and I'm in my classroom writing this, listening to music, avoiding going home to work on my research project.  I want to bury my arms elbow-deep in UBD, but I have nothing to do all day tomorrow until 12:15 for my semester 1 classes... so I should leave it here at school.

oh look.... somehow the books all got into my bag. 

Oh look... the computer is logging off and the lights are turning out. 

Looks like UBD and I will be sharing dinner.

Note to self: After grad school, get a social life.

Ending Beginning

This semester is ending, and I will be changing classes.

Teaching Immersion is hard.  Because it requires so much thought.  Because I have to plan.  It takes time, time, time, and creativity.

I was not perfect.  There were times I used English, especially once my students began to assert themselves as active learners.

I give myself a seven out of eight.  Seven students committed.  The eighth cannot be saved because he's not ready yet to save himself.  It goes deeper than the immersion.  For him it's personal.  I have to be aware of that, and separate it out from my own self-critique.
 
I could have continued to try harder, but my patience gave out.  I am rejuvenated this week.  Three new classes, all full speed ahead French.

I'm more stressed out about the physical structure of the class than I am about using the French.  How much credit to assign?  Which documents to use?

That is the source of the stress.  There is no fear now, only stress.

Thankfully stress can be identified, hacked up into little pieces, and then annihilated step by step.

as my exiting students tell my entering students, the first two weeks are tough, but it's not hard.  You got this.

:)