AP French Language Syllabus

AP French Language Syllabus

Course Design:

The AP French Language course is the culmination of a program which is designed, from 6th grade through French V to prepare students for the AP exam. Our approach to reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, from the earliest level, is designed to provide students with numerous opportunities to acquire French naturally and to perform in situations which call for unrehearsed use of the language.

Overview of Program prior to AP French Language

French is taught (middle school through French 4) using TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). French is the language of instruction in the classroom. Our students focus on language acquisition through storytelling and reading and learn both vocabulary and grammar in context of the stories. Very little grammar is taught in isolation as a discrete element of language structure.

Listening

In the Upper School, we work on listening skills using materials not produced intentionally for students of French.. This allows students to hear a variety of accents and the language spoken at a normal speed in an extended contextualized situation. French III uses the Caillou, Benjamin, Berenstein Bears dvds which have no English subtitles. All levels (II, III, IV, V) use movies, some of which are not subtitled. Extensive use if made of French popular music and of the news programs from TV5. Listening and speaking skills are developed through the almost exclusive use of French in the classroom. Students are expected to speak only in French in class.

Reading

Reading skills start in the 6th grade when students begin to read the Blaine Ray series of readers which are almost 100% comprehensible and provide cultural topics for discussion. In French 2 and 3 students do free reading outside of class as their major homework assignments. Students choose among the almost 300 books on various topics/levels which are available in the classrooms. These books range from the usual student readers to books, published in Canada of France, for older children/young adolescents. Students who plan to continue to French IV (and later French V) have summer reading. Incoming French IV students read Le Petit Nicolas et les Copains over the summer. In French IV students read Harry Potter à l’école des Sorciers and Harry Potter et la Chambre de Secrets. Between French IV and French V, the first 250 pages of Harry Potter et le Prisoner d’Azkaban are assigned as summer reading. Students write either a reaction to each chapter or an explanation of the significance of the title of the chapter.

Writing

Beginning in the middle school, students do weekly timed writings on a given topic. The goal, in Upper School, is for French III students to write 150+ words on a topic within 10-15 minutes. This training is very helpful in getting the students to express themselves freely, to build their confidence and to improve their writing. . This activity makes the goal of a 300+ word essay on the AP test not such a daunting task.

In French III, IV and V, a correction key is used to indicate areas of difficulty and students are trained to recognize and correct their mistakes and to be aware of their particular “bête noire”. In French III, a very specific rubric is introduced to evaluate student writing in terms of the accuracy of basic structures as well as requiring the increased use of advanced structures ( present and past participles, conditional and subjunctive sentences, object and relative pronouns etc) as well as transition words or phrases. The goal in the writing program is to gradually focus on and improve those skills of organization, accuracy, varied vocabulary and sentence structure which mark a successful AP essay.

Speaking

With the almost exclusive use of French in classes, beginning in Middle School, students have many opportunities to speak. The TPRS method of teaching ensures almost constant student-teacher dialogue during the entire class period. The technique requires student-teacher collaboration on the creation, refinement and expansion of class stories. The focus on asking students personalized questions engages them in the stories and open-ended questions are used to encourage the students to think creatively in French.

At the end of each level of French (again from 6th grade), students take an oral exam based on the AP format. The students are given a picture to describe and a follow-up open-ended question. They are to speak for about a minute. The exam is given in our analog lab where students will eventually take the AP exam. Tapes are rated by the teacher and the scores/comments are kept on file along with the cassettes. In French III and IV, students take the STAMP test (Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency) offered by Language Learning Systems in conjunction with CASLS (Center for Applied Second Language Studies at the University of Oregon). This assessment has an oral component in which students are given three prompts and are asked to give a 60 second response. The advantage of using the STAMP is that the speaking section is rated by professional evaluators and the results are reported using the ACTFL scale. Students in French III and IV use the school’s email service, First Class, to respond to oral prompts from the teacher which they send back as voice mails. In AP French, students give oral presentations on cultural topics and record four practice exams using the AP format.

Assessments:

In both 8th grade and at the end of level III, our students take the New York Proficiency (8th grade) or Regents exams (level III) as well as the STAMP test. These two assessments allos us to judge our students’ progress against specific ACTFL standards and to compare the results to the ACTFL levels which the French faculty has chosen as the desired performance for each class. These two assessments allow us to pinpoint weakness in the performance of individual students or of a class as a whole so that the weakness can be addressed the following year. In French IV, students again take the STAMP test and results are used diagnostically in planning specific remedial/ enrichment activities in the AP class. Year end exams administered in all levels of French are benchmarked to the ACTFL standards and are constructed using materials such as the National French Contest. The same “benchmark” exam is used for a period of several years in order to be able to the faculty to compare student achievement across levels. On the final exam, each student’s performance in speaking, writing, reading, listening and grammar sections is measured (meets, exceeds, fails to meet) department goals and this information goes into the student’s language file.

Course Objectives:

·  To provide students with a wide range of topics and a variety of settings in which to practice and become proficient in their oral, aural, written and reading skills in preparation for the AP French Language Exam

·  To provide students with opportunities to study and discuss various topics of French history and culture for purpose of enriching their appreciation of French/franocophone culture and making connections between these topics and their daily lives.

·  To provide students with opportunities to encounter contemporary French music, media and politics which allow them to practice their language skills in natural situations.

·  To encourage students to continue their study of French and to provide contact with students in France with whom they may develop life-long friendships.

Primary Resources:

·  Harry Potter et le prisonnier d’Azkaban ISBN 2-0-052818-9 Folio Junior

·  Le Petit Prince ISBN 2-07-051578-8 Folio Junior

·  Excerpts from “Un Sac de Billes (Joseph Joffo) ISBN

·  Excerpts from “Jean de Florette” ISBN

and “Manon des Sources (Pagnol) ISNB 287706512X Editions de Fallois

·  “Preparing for the French Language Exam “ (Ladd) ISBN 0-673-21847-3

·  “The Best Preparation for the AP Language Exam” (Knauer)

ISBN 0-7386-0102-1

·  Released AP exams

·  “L’Actu” –on line newspaper from PlayBac Presse (Paris)

·  “Presse Papiers” (extraits de la presse francaise) (ELI)

·  TV5

Facilities

·  Analog lab for practice taping/administrator of AP test

·  Digital MAC lab for Rosetta Stone/ ClassPak activities

·  Students all have laptops

·  SMART BOARD linked to video/audio receiver to project movies on large screen

Course Planner

Weeks 1-34 Journal/Essay writing

·  Weekly journals/essays are based on the reading being done in class (novels, newspapers, magazines ), reactions to TV news or movie themes .

·  In class essays (done bi-weekly) are timed (45 minutes) and use previous AP prompts

·  Rubric: 1st and 2nd trimester –diagnostic rubric identifying areas of concern. Students are assessed on their ability to use a variety of advanced structures, tenses and transition elements. Students correct/rewrite the essay and return for a second grade. See appendix

·  Rubric: 3rd trimester—holistic rubric using the AP guidelines. Students correct and return the essay but no second grade is given.

·  AP practice: 3rd trimester, the AP open-response section (fill-in and verbs) as well as the essay are given in a 60 minute class period in order to familiarize students with issues of time management/proofreading in preparation for the exam

Weeks 1-30 French Music

·  Students listen to, on a weekly basis, traditional french singers (Brel, Brassen, Moustaki, Duteil, Le Forestier, Piaf, Cabrel, Goldman) as well as more recent singers/groups such as Renaud, Axelle Red, Zebda, Benabar, Chanson Plus, Manau, Teri Moise, Alpha Blondy

·  Songs are introduced as cloze activities with an emphasis on a particular tense, grammatical structure. Discussion, in French, is held on the theme, images, choice of vocabulary and cultural setting/significance. Students are asked to identify the importance of the grammatical/syntactical choices that a composer makes when writing a song.

·  Students are asked to choose a French song and present it to the class as an “analyse du texte”. If an accompanying video clip is available, it is viewed and the class discusses the manner in which the video meets their expectations given the theme/imagery of the song. Students often comment on how different French music videos are from their American counterparts.

·  Themes such as immigration, living in an urban area, use of language (verlan, foreign terms, slang), French history, modern conflicts (terrorism, war), are discussed in the context of the songs studied. Emphasis is given to those singers/songs which reflect the changes in French society (Zebda, Frere200, Benabar for example)

·  Students write an essay comparing the theme/songs of a French singer/composer with an American singer/composer of their choice.

Websites: http://musique.ado.fr

·  http://plateau.pntic.mes-es/_cvera/hotpot/chansons/index.htm

·  www.tv5.org

·  www.paroles.net

Weeks 1-5 Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d’Azkaban

·  Review of the first 12 chapters which are read over the summer. Discussion, in French, of plot developments from the first two books which continue in this book.

·  Presentations, in French, by the students on the development of the characters over the series of books. Discussions of the significance of the chapter titles and the differences between the story line as seen in the video and read in the book.

·  The remaining chapters 13-22 are read with accompanying questions/discussions.

·  The corresponding video sections are seen once with subtitles are a preview of the reading and then without subtitles on the day of the discussion.

·  Grammar is reviewed in the context of excerpts from the text. Vocabulary is chosen from the text and quizzed.

·  A final essay is assigned on the popularity of this genre of writing and a discussion is subsequently held in class.

·  Edition used: Folio Junior ISBN 2-07-0528-28-9

Weeks 6-10; Le Petit Prince

·  The objective of this unit of study is to understand the significance of St-Exupery as a French writer and to recognize the importance of this work in the body of 20th century French literature.

·  Students do a preliminary study of St-Exupery and make an oral report to the class. Topics are: his early life, his career as a pilot, his stay in the US, his other works,,commentaries on the meaning of Le Petit Prince, his disappearance and the recent finding of his plane….

·  Students have plot and open-ended questions for each chapter and have to name the chapters. In class discussion centers around plot questions, the names chosen by students for each chapters, and finally the open-ended question for each chapter.

·  There is a final essay and the students all create a clay creation that symbolizes the book for them and these are presented in class as well as a follow-up discussion of the students’ various answers to the essay questions. All discussion takes place in French.

·  Students listen to various sections of the book as read on the CD “Le Petit Prince by Gaillmard Jeunesse. They also listen/look at the assorted biographic/commentaries contained on the CD.

·  Edition used: Folio Junior ISBN 2-07-051578-8

·  Websites: www.richmond.edu/~jpaulsen/petitprince/petitprince.html#activite

www.lepetitprince.com (Official site, activities, multimedia presentations)

·  Activities/questions to accompany the book –see Appendix.

Weeks 11-19 Le Sac de Billes/ German Occupation of France

·  The objective of this unit is for the students to be able to, in French,

1. explain the attitude and preparation of the French military prior to the invasion of France with an emphasis on the role of Petain and DeGaulle.
2. identify the major figures in French history from 1940-45
3. identify the area of France which was officially occupied as well as the site of the Vichy government
4. explain the role fo the French resistance during the war, its major leaders and its impact on French society and the outcome of the war.
5. explain the series of Jewish laws passed by the Vichy government from1940-44 and the resulting impact on the daily lives of French Jewish citizens.
6. explain the significance of camps of Drancy and Struthof.
7. understand and explain the terms “milice” and “collabos’ in terns of the conflicts which French citizens faced during the Occupation as well as identifying the actions of those who protected Jewish citizens.

·  The students are asked to do a preliminary study of the war and to present their papers to the class as an introduction to the novel/films which will be used. The presentations are in French as are the papers. Each student had to prepare a powerpoint for the class.