I made a change to my basic syllabus (modeled on Jim Tripp’s). Feel free to use part or all. Changes in red below:
Course Syllabus – Foundational French
AES Middle School
Ben Slavic
2015-16
RATIONALE: In Foundational French students will be immersed in comprehensible language so that the brain has the opportunity to unconsciously acquire, or “pick up”, what it can when it is ready. Students will acquire frequently used words and structures of the language. Slowly, the brain will organize all the (listening and reading) input and in time emerge capable of (speaking and writing) output.
The process of getting to the output skills cannot be rushed, as those skills emerge in different students at vastly different times. Besides listening, reading is also a big part of what we do in Foundational French. (The stories that we create in class set up the reading classes.)
“Language is acoustical, not intellectual.” – Berty Segal
LISTENING: Perhaps the most important and rewarding aspect of using another language is being able to understand what the other person is saying to you. In order for that to happen, one must hear lots and lots of comprehensible and interesting spoken language. I ask that students do their part to make stories and discussion lively and interesting by actively participating. I call this “doing your 50%”. It is Rule #7 in our list of Classroom Rules.
“Reading is the most powerful tool we have in language education.” – Steven Krashen
READING: We will read often in class from several sources in order to provide students with a variety of comprehensible and interesting reading material. This will consist of song lyrics, texts of stories created in class, children’s books, simple chapter books, etc. We will read individually, as a class, and in pairs. All students will read the following novels:
A La Conquête de Qu?bec (Gaab)
Brandon Veut Un Chien (Gaab)
Pauvre Anne (Ray)
WRITING: Although not emphasized in Foundational French, students will be able and expected to write after a short time. We will do dictations, timed writings and rewrites of stories, as well as various other written activities completed individually and in groups.
SPEAKING: Students will be encouraged in this course to speak French when they feel comfortable and ready to do so. Speaking English is not allowed in class. If a student has a compelling question, they are advised to wait until the last five minutes of class to ask it.
CULTURE: We will explore some cultural habits, traditions, and experiences of French-speaking people in order to better understand their worldview and in turn communicate more effectively. Certain aspects of culture that come up in class include geography, pop culture, politics, migration, current events, history, and food/cuisine.
HOMEWORK – Reading: Students will read stories from class to their parents (the stories are posted here on the blog). Students will use their first language to do this translation work. Parents are asked to confirm at parent conferences that this was done at home a few times each week. Look for one or two story translations from your child per week.
HOMEWORK – Writing: Students do two ten minute free writes – pls. number and date each free write – per week and place in the class free write folder. Free write rules:
Write without stopping for 10 minutes.
When time is up, count the number of words you wrote.
No English words in the story except for names.
Keep the sentences and story line simple.
Get your story idea ahead of time.
Use lists if you have them.
Use words that you already know.
If you don’t know a word, don’t use it or reword the idea.
Use as many adjectives as possible.
Spell as accurately as you can and then move on.
Add another character when you get stuck.
Use posters from the room as help.
Illogical stories are o.k.
HOMEWORK AS CELEBRATION: When students understand a story, when they enjoy going over it with the artist’s work after creating it with their friends, when they do well on the quiz, when they start speaking without being forced to do so, and then when they go home and proudly read the story to their parents for homework, it’s a celebration of what they have learned. They don’t have to do it; they want to do it.
Also, if they want, they can add to the story as a free write, since the other focus of their weekly homework is to do two free writes.
In thus requiring our students to read stories from class to their parents or write possible endings to it or just write on anything they choose for two ten minute periods a week, they begin to see working on their language as something pleasant. Once this attitude is in place, we set the stage for life long learning of a language, instead of seeing it as burdensome, tedious, involving annoying memorization of forms, and something they can’t do.
They can write more than two free writes if they want. They can also celebrate their growing knowledge of the language by checking out an FRV book to take home and read.
Dr. Stephen Krashen says about self-selected reading:
“There is massive evidence that self-selected reading, or reading what you want to read, is responsible for most of our literacy development. Readers have better reading ability, know more vocabulary, write better, spell better, and have better control of complex grammatical construction. In fact, it is impossible to develop high levels of literacy without being a dedicated reader, and dedicated readers rarely have serious problems in reading and writing.”
USE OF iPADS:
1. The “classroom artist” in each class will draw the stories in Notability for sharing with the group in class.
2. Students will use iPads to keep track of their writing progress by taking a picture of their free write – done first in their composition books – and create a book creator book entitled “Free Writes”. Their books will be shared with parents and classmates at the end of the year, as a celebration of what they have achieved.
CLASSROOM RULES: The rules by which we govern ourselves in French class directly impact not just our learning but also the four important “learning habits” that make up part of our Standards Based Grading approach at AES. They are responsibility, respect, perseverance and collaboration. Please find the all-important Classroom Rules on my AES blog at:
http://bslavic.msblogs.aes.ac.in/
Note: Students should expect very frequent assessments in class. Most of these will come in the form of short quizzes at the end of class. All quizzes will be unannounced. In addition, students will from time to time describe in English what they are experiencing in class as a learner. Via this metacognition and self-reflection work I hope in time to be able to make students aware that language acquisition should in fact be an effortless endeavor, much as this most natural process happened with their first language, and not one involving memorization, forced speech or forced writing.
Once the student realizes that the responsibility for whether they understand or not is completely on the shoulders of theinstructor, they will be able to move swiftly to engaging the part of the their brain that actually acquires languages (vs. memorization) – the relaxed part. They will understand that a relaxed focus with no English interruptions is all they need to do really well in this class. Why is this?
We acquire language by actively trying to decode messages in the foreign language, repeatedly and consistently, rather than memorizing rules about adverbs, etc. When we listen to stories and conversation, we are acquiring language. When we read, we are acquiring language. By engaging in those activities on a daily basis without interruption (i.e. when English is used), we will reach our goal of developing long-term acquisition of and a life long interest in French and in the people of the French speaking world.
A few notes about the French language: French is the second most commonly-taught second language in the world (after English) and is also the only language, with English, that is taught in every country of the world. French speaking countries account for 20% of all world trade in both exports and imports. 51 countries in the world speak French, and in 30 of those countries it is the official language. (source:www.francophonie.org.)
Please feel free to drop by anytime! That invitation also includes a sincere wish that you drop in to learn some French yourself! (If that is not the sincere wish of your child, please feel free to drop in on any other class. There are seats near the door where visitors can slip in and out of class largely unnoticed by the students.)
Email: bslavic@aes.ac.in
Room: M206
Classroom phone: 3351
Cell phone: 783-870-0427
AES Middle School
Ben Slavic
2015-16
RATIONALE: In Foundational French students will be immersed in comprehensible language so that the brain has the opportunity to unconsciously acquire, or “pick up”, what it can when it is ready. Students will acquire frequently used words and structures of the language. Slowly, the brain will organize all the (listening and reading) input and in time emerge capable of (speaking and writing) output.
The process of getting to the output skills cannot be rushed, as those skills emerge in different students at vastly different times. Besides listening, reading is also a big part of what we do in Foundational French. (The stories that we create in class set up the reading classes.)
“Language is acoustical, not intellectual.” – Berty Segal
LISTENING: Perhaps the most important and rewarding aspect of using another language is being able to understand what the other person is saying to you. In order for that to happen, one must hear lots and lots of comprehensible and interesting spoken language. I ask that students do their part to make stories and discussion lively and interesting by actively participating. I call this “doing your 50%”. It is Rule #7 in our list of Classroom Rules.
“Reading is the most powerful tool we have in language education.” – Steven Krashen
READING: We will read often in class from several sources in order to provide students with a variety of comprehensible and interesting reading material. This will consist of song lyrics, texts of stories created in class, children’s books, simple chapter books, etc. We will read individually, as a class, and in pairs. All students will read the following novels:
A La Conquête de Qu?bec (Gaab)
Brandon Veut Un Chien (Gaab)
Pauvre Anne (Ray)
WRITING: Although not emphasized in Foundational French, students will be able and expected to write after a short time. We will do dictations, timed writings and rewrites of stories, as well as various other written activities completed individually and in groups.
SPEAKING: Students will be encouraged in this course to speak French when they feel comfortable and ready to do so. Speaking English is not allowed in class. If a student has a compelling question, they are advised to wait until the last five minutes of class to ask it.
CULTURE: We will explore some cultural habits, traditions, and experiences of French-speaking people in order to better understand their worldview and in turn communicate more effectively. Certain aspects of culture that come up in class include geography, pop culture, politics, migration, current events, history, and food/cuisine.
HOMEWORK – Reading: Students will read stories from class to their parents (the stories are posted here on the blog). Students will use their first language to do this translation work. Parents are asked to confirm at parent conferences that this was done at home a few times each week. Look for one or two story translations from your child per week.
HOMEWORK – Writing: Students do two ten minute free writes – pls. number and date each free write – per week and place in the class free write folder. Free write rules:
Write without stopping for 10 minutes.
When time is up, count the number of words you wrote.
No English words in the story except for names.
Keep the sentences and story line simple.
Get your story idea ahead of time.
Use lists if you have them.
Use words that you already know.
If you don’t know a word, don’t use it or reword the idea.
Use as many adjectives as possible.
Spell as accurately as you can and then move on.
Add another character when you get stuck.
Use posters from the room as help.
Illogical stories are o.k.
HOMEWORK AS CELEBRATION: When students understand a story, when they enjoy going over it with the artist’s work after creating it with their friends, when they do well on the quiz, when they start speaking without being forced to do so, and then when they go home and proudly read the story to their parents for homework, it’s a celebration of what they have learned. They don’t have to do it; they want to do it.
Also, if they want, they can add to the story as a free write, since the other focus of their weekly homework is to do two free writes.
In thus requiring our students to read stories from class to their parents or write possible endings to it or just write on anything they choose for two ten minute periods a week, they begin to see working on their language as something pleasant. Once this attitude is in place, we set the stage for life long learning of a language, instead of seeing it as burdensome, tedious, involving annoying memorization of forms, and something they can’t do.
They can write more than two free writes if they want. They can also celebrate their growing knowledge of the language by checking out an FRV book to take home and read.
Dr. Stephen Krashen says about self-selected reading:
“There is massive evidence that self-selected reading, or reading what you want to read, is responsible for most of our literacy development. Readers have better reading ability, know more vocabulary, write better, spell better, and have better control of complex grammatical construction. In fact, it is impossible to develop high levels of literacy without being a dedicated reader, and dedicated readers rarely have serious problems in reading and writing.”
USE OF iPADS:
1. The “classroom artist” in each class will draw the stories in Notability for sharing with the group in class.
2. Students will use iPads to keep track of their writing progress by taking a picture of their free write – done first in their composition books – and create a book creator book entitled “Free Writes”. Their books will be shared with parents and classmates at the end of the year, as a celebration of what they have achieved.
CLASSROOM RULES: The rules by which we govern ourselves in French class directly impact not just our learning but also the four important “learning habits” that make up part of our Standards Based Grading approach at AES. They are responsibility, respect, perseverance and collaboration. Please find the all-important Classroom Rules on my AES blog at:
http://bslavic.msblogs.aes.ac.in/
Note: Students should expect very frequent assessments in class. Most of these will come in the form of short quizzes at the end of class. All quizzes will be unannounced. In addition, students will from time to time describe in English what they are experiencing in class as a learner. Via this metacognition and self-reflection work I hope in time to be able to make students aware that language acquisition should in fact be an effortless endeavor, much as this most natural process happened with their first language, and not one involving memorization, forced speech or forced writing.
Once the student realizes that the responsibility for whether they understand or not is completely on the shoulders of theinstructor, they will be able to move swiftly to engaging the part of the their brain that actually acquires languages (vs. memorization) – the relaxed part. They will understand that a relaxed focus with no English interruptions is all they need to do really well in this class. Why is this?
We acquire language by actively trying to decode messages in the foreign language, repeatedly and consistently, rather than memorizing rules about adverbs, etc. When we listen to stories and conversation, we are acquiring language. When we read, we are acquiring language. By engaging in those activities on a daily basis without interruption (i.e. when English is used), we will reach our goal of developing long-term acquisition of and a life long interest in French and in the people of the French speaking world.
A few notes about the French language: French is the second most commonly-taught second language in the world (after English) and is also the only language, with English, that is taught in every country of the world. French speaking countries account for 20% of all world trade in both exports and imports. 51 countries in the world speak French, and in 30 of those countries it is the official language. (source:www.francophonie.org.)
Please feel free to drop by anytime! That invitation also includes a sincere wish that you drop in to learn some French yourself! (If that is not the sincere wish of your child, please feel free to drop in on any other class. There are seats near the door where visitors can slip in and out of class largely unnoticed by the students.)
Email: bslavic@aes.ac.in
Room: M206
Classroom phone: 3351
Cell phone: 783-870-0427