AP+French+Course+Overview

__**Introduction **__

Advanced Placement (AP) French is a challenging course option for advanced students of French at Malden High School who have successfully completed Honors French III or IV or for those whose prior experience with the French language was substantial enough to allow them to place a rigorous placement exam.

AP French is a college-level course in which French is used exclusively. Students are encouraged to format even clarifying questions in French, and all class activities and discussions take place in the target language.

Both the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the ACTFL standards of Connections, Communities, Cultures, Communication, and Comparisons are essential to the planning and execution of both in-class and out-of-class activities each day. Students are challenged to explore the diversity within their own country as well as throughout the world, particularly in places where French is spoken. The curriculum challenges and motivates students to improve their listening and reading comprehension, to express themselves through the written word, to interact with text, audio and video sources and share opinions with one another, and to share their thoughts and perspectives in oral exposés relating to the themes of the course throughout the year.

__**Teacher Preparation **__

I am a member of the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association and collaborate closely with the other French teacher at my school around curriculum development. I also communicate and collaborate with other language teachers in my school as well as teachers from neighboring communities.

I have attended two AP Institutes and am constantly searching for additional professional development opportunities to further enhance my instruction and practice.

I have studied French language and culture in Angers, France and hold a Bachelor’s Degree in French from Yale University, where I completed the intensive major. I also have a Master's degree in Secondary Education with a focus in French through the Lynch School of Education at Boston College.

__**Course Objectives **__

* The principal objective of the course is to expose students to the diversity of the French-speaking world and to encourage them to make comparisons and connections between local and global issues as well as cultural, historical and sociological questions, especially those concerning places where French is spoken. In a larger sense, the course deals with historical and contemporary affairs and challenges and questions from across the globe in a French language context.

* Students are encouraged to communicate in a wide variety of ways throughout the year so as to improve their language abilities, particularly around speaking and writing. They respond to one another in one-on-one discussions, small group activities and large group symposia and debates as well as via internet posting, commenting on one another’s writings either online or in person, interacting on Voicethread or Wikispaces or through myriad other tools and activities carried out both in class and at home.

* The course aims to provide a rigorous preparation for the Advanced Placement exam by exploring the six key themes of global challenges, science and technology, contemporary life, personal and public identities, families and communities, and beauty and aesthetics. Throughout in-class and out-of-class activities, students engage with and explore these themes and witness their overlapping nature so as to improve their abilities in the four linguistic skill sets emphasized in our school’s language program: reading, writing, listening and speaking.

* Interpersonal communication, both spoken and written as well as audio, visual, audiovisual, written and print interpretive communication are practiced daily in class and on out-of-class assignments; spoken and written presentational communication are practiced in small group discussions, oral exposés, independent essays and collaborative writing assignments.

* The course also allows for a revision of basic and complex grammatical structures using both printed review explanations and exercises and interactive online grammar tools with the aim of improve students’ presentational writing and speaking abilities.

__**Assessment **__

* Assessment is planned with the AP Examination in mind. All assessments are graded using an adapted AP rubric which allows scores to be converted to the 0-100 scale used at the school.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Each quarter, students post assignments in a virtual cahier électronique. They are also graded on in-class essays and interpersonal writing assignments. Peer review is also part of the evaluation process for writing assignments.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Oral participation grades are given throughout the year to document the students’ use of French in class. Students are also graded on their exposés oraux, and they also maintain an oral portfolio using software in the school’s language laboratory.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Students’ reading and listening abilities are evaluated on vocabulary and grammar review quizzes as well as on reading assignments discussed in class.

__**<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Course Materials **__

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">In addition to requiring students to maintain both a virtual and a written notebook, we take advantage of sources from a wide variety of genres and sources in class so that students are exposed to many different aspects of culture and style, reflecting the incredible diversity of the French-speaking world. Here is a breakdown of sources used in the course.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">__Primary Texts__:

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">1) AP French: Preparing for the Language and Culture Examination (Pearson 2012) with CD. Richard Ladd. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">2) Une fois pour toutes: Une révision des structures essentielles de la langue française (Pearson 2008). Hale Sturges II, Linda Cregg Nielsen, Henry Lynn Herbst.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">3) Contes et nouvelles, Guy de Maupassant

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">4) La noire de…, Sembène Ousmane <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">5) Cyrano de Bergerac, Rostand <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">6) Les gouverneurs de la rosée, Roumain

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">__Supplementary Texts and Resources__:

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">1) AP French Language and Culture: Workshop Handbook and Resources 2011-2012. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">2) Allons au-delà: La langue et les cultures du monde francophone (Pearson 2012). <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Richard Ladd. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">3) TV5 et TV5 Monde <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">4) France2.fr <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">5) Jeuneafrique.com <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">6) RadioFrance.fr <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">7) France24.com <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">8) ARTE - http://ddc.arte.tv/ <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">9) Africa24.tv <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">10) Radio Canada – Québec <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">11) BBC French: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/ <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">12) University of Texas – Tex’s French Grammar <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">13) Miscellaneous French-language websites for articles, audio clips, charts, maps, music, podcasts, songs, statistics, videos and other information.

__**<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Teaching Strategies **__

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">The following represents a breakdown of the strategies used to support student development and mastery of reading, writing, listening and speaking in French.


 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">1) Reading **

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students read authentic materials daily as part of in-class assignments, homework and free reading time. They also peruse online articles in preparation for their weekly oral presentations. The purpose of this is to expose students to a wide variety of cultural and historical perspectives from around the globe, to broaden their understanding of world events, to foster a sense of the interconnectivity of current events and history, and to challenge them to compare, contrast and re-define their perceptions of cultures and identities from across the world.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">As part of class activities, students must read articles from internet, magazine and newspaper sources relevant to the theme being studied. They work individually, in pairs, in small groups or as a whole class. All assignments include interpretive questions. Students either post their responses to these in their virtual notebooks online or discuss their answers in small group or whole class discussions.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students are also exposed to passages with multiple choice questions and work individually or in pairs to discern the correct answers and eliminate “distractor” items. As a part of their analysis, students must also find textual justification for their answers. This is a test preparation strategy to help students ready themselves for the reading passages on the AP exam.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Finally, students read literary works from varying genres to broaden their vocabulary and improve their ability to read critically. These texts offer additional opportunities for discussion and for practice with interpretive analysis as well as interpersonal and presentational writing.


 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">2) Writing **

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students practice with brainstorming, organization and other pre-writing strategies as a way to prepare for the formal writing assessments used on the AP examination.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students write AP compositions every two to three weeks to practice the different styles (interpersonal, presentational) of writing used on the advanced placement exam. These compositions are analyzed for content, correct use of grammar, syntax and vocabulary. Peer review and one-on-one conferences with the instructor are important components of the revision process.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students also constantly practice their writing through constant updating and posting on their individual cahiers électroniques (virtual notebooks), which they maintain themselves. These websites serve as a space for students to share their thoughts and ideas about readings, audio and video clips and other postings and realia used in class. They are also asked to interact with one another in this virtual space, posting reactions and responses to each other’s writings as a part of their regular homework assignments. These assignments further students’ abilities in both interpersonal and presentational writing.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students also complete a capstone project, a portion of which takes the shape of a written mémoire in which students write an in-depth explanation and analysis of a cultural topic of their choice.


 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">3) Listening **

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students are immersed in a French-language environment from the moment they walk into the classroom. They will often hear French music when they enter the room, and all interactions in class take place in French.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students are exposed to both audio and video sources relating to culture, current events, music, politics and many other topics. Every day, class involves interaction with an audio or video selection and subsequent discussion. Please see a breakdown of the supplementary materials to gain a sense of the sources of these audio and video excerpts and presentations and the course calendar for a sense of the themes studied in class.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students also practice with recordings specifically geared toward improving upon listening comprehension. They analyze the passages they hear and work to improve their knowledge of vocabulary. They also analyze answer choices for “distractor” items to improve and sharpen their test-taking strategies.


 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">4) Speaking **

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">The course is conducted exclusively in French. All interaction with course materials, peers and the instructor takes place in the target language.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Each and every day, students are greeted at the door in French and find a posted focus question to get them thinking in French and to allow a point of entry to the lesson of the day.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">There are many opportunities for oral communication in class. These include casual and more spontaneous conversation around posted focus questions, homework and readings and student-led group discussions as well as more formal debates, exposés and symposia, allowing students to speak in different registers.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">All group work and in-class discussion requires interpersonal communication, one of the key components of the AP exam. Students work in pairs and in small groups every day, and there is also a general whole class discussion each day. To practice presentational speaking, students present in a variety of ways: oral exposés, debates and student-led discussions are all essential activities conducted in class geared toward improving students’ presentational speaking abilities.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Students also record audio files in the language laboratory at the school. They are graded first using an analytical rubric broken down to assess vocabulary, pronunciation, clarity and fluency. Eventually, they are graded using the AP rubric. The rationale is that students first must know what areas they should address before thinking of themselves as an AP “number”.

__**<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Course Calendar **__

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Each quarter, all readings (taken from a wide variety of genres and sources), videos, films, in-class activities, writing assignments and presentations revolve around the AP themes outlined in the course objectives above and repeated in the descriptions of readings and videos demonstrated in the breakdown below.


 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Quarter 1 **

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Weekly grammar review – Lessons 1-3 <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* La noire de…, Ousmane <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Lectures / videos – Immigration, Identité, Économie, Environnement mini-units <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Persuasive Essays 1, 2 <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Twice weekly: e-mails and postings based on newspaper and journal articles, news reels, instructional videos, audio clips, films, etc. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Student-led discussions and small group “Last Word” exercises


 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Quarter 2 **

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Weekly grammar review – Lessons 4-6 <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Les gouverneurs de la rosée, Roumain <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Lectures / videos – Science, technologie, innovations, la vie contemporaine <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Persuasive Essays 3, 4; E-mails 1, 2 <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Twice weekly: e-mails and postings based on newspaper and journal articles, news reels, instructional videos, audio clips, films, etc. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Student-led discussions and small group “Last Word” exercises <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Exposés oraux


 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Quarter 3 **

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Weekly grammar review – Lessons 7-10 <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Optional Saturday preparation sessions begin <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Contes et nouvelles, Guy de Maupassant <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Lectures / videos - personal and public identities, families and communities, diversity, perception vs. reality <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Persuasive Essays 5, 6; E-mails 3, 4 <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Twice weekly: e-mails and postings based on newspaper and journal articles, news reels, instructional videos, audio clips, films, etc. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Student-led discussions and small group “Last Word” exercises <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Exposés oraux


 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Quarter 4 **

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Intensive AP review and practice <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Cyrano de Bergerac, Rostand <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Lectures / videos – beauty and aesthetics <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Twice weekly: e-mails and postings based on newspaper and journal articles, news reels, instructional videos, audio clips, films, etc. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">* Final capstone projects / presentations / mémoires