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Re: 5th Year - High School French - What do you use?
Posted by Sarah on 9/01/08

Thank you for the wonderful responses!
Our school is much like Mark's. We have an AP/IB French 5, which I do
not teach, and French 5, which I am teaching. French 5 is more for the
students who love French, but may not be as strong as the AP students.
We focus on the practical side of the language, so more focus on
conversation and culture and less pressure to learn everything for the
AP test, which is nice. My students developed a list of topics that
they wanted to study, and I've also added to their lists, so we'll be
doing a lot of short stories and Le Petit Prince, and possible Harry
Potter (which isn't French at all, but the students are dying to read
it in French, so I say why not? at least they'll be reading French).
We're also going to watch several movies for listening comprehension -
Amelie, definitely. My colleague here suggested La Haine with a unit
on discrimination. Have you seen that? I've ordered it from Netflix
to see if it will work. Last year, we watched a great learning soap
opera called Extra - French (I think they have ones for Spanish and
German), which my kids LOVED. It taught them a lot of slang words,
like nana, which they constantly use. Do you know if there's something
similar to that? Again, thank you for the excellent advice!
~Sarah :)

On 8/31/08, mark wrote:
> Is it just a regular 5 or an honors.
>
> At my school we have 5AP, honors...we call it seminar...5 and a
> conversation 5 class which is a college prep course.
>
> the 5 AP uses various books. i teach the french 4 seminar classes
> and we use Bravo, which i really like. this year i am going to use
> reaading from selections...the french reader digest. i am not sure
> it available where you live, but another magazine will work. i am
> in new york city, so it is very easy to obtain. i also think their
> is a blog, where i will have my students post. the one i just
> bought has an article about how kids rate their parents.
>
> the seminar 5 class use mostly the same books as the AP class.
> there are different readers, une fois pour toutes, and a book on
> the history of france.
>
> the conversation 5 class uses various books, i want to say
> interaction, but i am not sure. they also continue from their 4th
> year class with their appartment building. the teacher who teaches
> these classes is great. she has the students in fourth year create
> an appartment building with different characters. each student is
> responsible for creating and developing their character during the
> year. they must write and present to the class diferent situations
> to the class. the kids LOVE it. they learn a ton of vocabulary and
> slang. i think last year, one student's character was a businessman
> and he survived a plane crash where the rudder fell off. what
> french student in high school uses the word rudder?
>
>
> i would like to add this, with many schools having numbers decline
> in french, we have been lucky to maintain a good number of kids.
> we have two great middle school teachers and the teachers in the
> french department are wonderful. i also teach spanish and i have
> taught spanish 5 college prep many times. we do not call it a
> conversation class. we do not create an appartmet building. my
> department chair does not want to do that. she is a native spanish
> speaker is more concered about other things.
>
> On 8/31/08, andrew crosby wrote:
>> I would encourage you to make full use of articles in the daily
>> newspapers. Sometimes this is in a positive way, and sometimes
>> you will have to point out the mistakes you will see there, and
>> the lack of awareness that journalists often show regarding
>> France, French, and the French people. For example, look at
>> what the New York Times said on 8/29/08 about Julie Coin in the
>> New York Open tennis match: they said her last name is French
>> for "corner" and is pronounced "kweh" and that she was from
>> Amiens, which is "outside of Paris." That's like saying
>> Scranton is outside of New York City. Amiens is half-way to
>> Calais, for crying out loud. And have you ever heard a French
>> person say "kweh" for "coin?" Also, the Washington Post, on
>> 8/31, repeated the "kweh" thing. Unless that's a weird
>> coincidence, it's an example of sloppy journalism, just to copy
>> the Times. And these papers are often referred to as "great"
>> and "papers of record." Are we in trouble.
>>
>> On 8/31/08, James in Belgium wrote:
>>>
>>> Chère Sarah:
>>>
>>> A blank slate is quite intimidating. A fifth year class,
>>> mostly seniors having started in grade 7, should have a class
>>> taught on the university level as for reading, writing and
>>> speaking.
>>>
>>> As you are very open to what to teach, one should not forget
>>> to teach the grammar that has not yet been taught. A mistake
>>> of many teachers is to spend too much time going over the
>>> same FR. II, and III grammar points in the Fr. IV and V
>>> classes.
>>>
>>> For part of you curriculum, I suggest that you aquire a set
>>> of grammar books, either: En bonne forme or French for Oral
>>> and Written Review. The advantage to these books is that
>>> they offer the "hard to translate" verbs and phrases in each
>>> lesson.
>>>
>>> Grammar is only a part of the curriculum and easier to
>>> sequence than the rest. Added vocabulary is a must. The
>>> advanced book from CLE International, Vocabulaire Prgressive
>>> du Français is highly recommended. Do get the test book and
>>> answer key that acommpanies it.
>>>
>>> A year 5 class is often an AP class, either Language or
>>> Litterature. You can get a good idea of what AP teachers are
>>> doing an APexchanges. There are many syllabi posted on the
>>> site.
>>>
>>> Bon Courage
>>>
>>> James
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 8/17/08, Sarah wrote:
>>>> Bonjour tout le monde!
>>>> I'm hoping that someone will be able to help! I will be
>>>> teaching French 5 (senior year French) for the first time,
>>>> and there really isn't a curriculum for it, as we haven't
>>>> had enough kids registered for it in a long time. I don't
>>>> have a textbook, so my options are both open and limited.
>>>> I'm planning on doing Le Petit Prince and probably a movie
>>>> or series like Cafe des Reves. I'm wondering what other
>>>> people use. Any suggestions would be helpful!
>>>> Merci mille fois!
>>>> ~Sarah


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Posts on this thread, including this one


• 5th Year - High School French - What do you use?, 8/17/08, by Sarah.
• Re: 5th Year - High School French - What do you use?, 8/17/08, by FL French Teacher.
• Re: 5th Year - High School French - What do you use?, 8/28/08, by French Teacher.
• Re: 5th Year - High School French - What do you use?, 8/31/08, by James in Belgium.
• Re: 5th Year - High School French - What do you use?, 8/31/08, by andrew crosby.
• Re: 5th Year - High School French - What do you use?, 8/31/08, by mark.
• Re: 5th Year - High School French - What do you use?, 9/01/08, by Sarah.